CLASS OF 2011

Back Row: Katie Lavers, Richard Baldwin, Writer-in-Residence Gary A. Braunbeck
Third Row: Andrew Corbett, Tanith Korravai, Ann Decker, Christopher Owen
Second Row: Karen Lacey, Odyssey Director Jeanne Cavelos, Natalie Sage, Alex Hughes, Donna Glee Williams
Front Row: Martin Larsson, Paul DesCombaz, Loriane Parker, Olivia Do, Hannah Johnson, Kathryn Yelinek

Katie Lavers

The Odyssey course is amazing! What a privilege to be able to experience this level of teaching! The incredible amount of progress that each participant made during this course speaks for itself. Fantastic, inspiring teaching in a supportive and encouraging environment!

Alex Hughes

Odyssey has a quality and depth of teaching I haven’t been able to find anywhere else. It’s very intensive, but it’s worth it. Just the first two weeks dramatically changed the way I approached writing. Worth every penny—but only if you’re serious about making your writing better.

Natalie Sage

Odyssey is hard. It’s hard not sleeping, making deadlines, and getting stories hacked to pieces. But it was harder to write not knowing my weaknesses. Odyssey not only showed me what I was doing wrong, it provided the foundation to improve all areas of my writing.

Andrew Corbett

Odyssey provides an acceleration to your learning and craft of almost staggering proportions, as well as access to the single best thing the course has going for it—Jeanne!

Hannah Johnson

Odyssey has armed me with tools to tackle my writing weaknesses, and to continue learning and improving as the writing journey goes on. These are tools I’ve not found anywhere else. Jeanne provides a wealth of information, insight, and an environment that is both challenging and inspiring. The learning experience was awesome.

Tanith Korravai

I’ve had a lot of school, and Odyssey was the most effective and efficient educational experience I’ve ever had. I am amazed at how much I learned and how much of it is already showing up in my writing.

Katie Yelinek

Odyssey made me realize for the first time that I might, in fact, be able to achieve my dream of becoming a professional writer. I learned the value of pushing myself and of experimenting with my writing. These have been the best, most exhilarating, and most trying six weeks of my life. I wish I could do them again!

Karen Lacey

The Odyssey experience, and Jeanne’s leadership in particular, was life changing for me. I prepared for a year and a half to get accepted; I saved pennies, worked overtime, and farmed out my cat to unsuspecting friends. Every struggle to get here was worth it many times over for what I learned. I am a better writer and have a handle on what my strengths and weaknesses are. I know I can make it if I just keep writing and apply what I learned. I cannot recommend this workshop highly enough. I had high expectations, and it exceeded every one of them.

Richard Baldwin

Odyssey provided just the sort of rigorous attention to the basic components of writing that I needed to drive my writing to the next level. Jeanne has an eagle eye for manuscript problems, and having her voice in my head whenever I edit a piece—while sort of creepy—will be invaluable.

Ann Decker

Exhaustion for the sake of your art—it’s worth it.

Christopher Owen

I feel that my basic understanding of the mechanics of storytelling has been vastly improved. I am now able to detect and correct flaws in my writing that I didn’t even know were there. Odyssey has been a powerful experience for me. It brought about a sea of change in my outlook and approach to writing. I was very set in my ways before Odyssey, having written since childhood. Odyssey opened me up to new possibilities, teaching me things that I feel will bring my writing to the next level. I would recommend Odyssey to anyone who wants to get serious about their writing and take it to a professional level.

Martin Larsson

Odyssey looked so good on paper. A great opportunity to evolve as a writer. I had no idea what I was getting into. These six weeks have been a roller-coaster ride of inspiration, inadequacy issues, laughter, tears, learning and despair. With Jeanne Cavelos as our guide, we navigated through all of this and came out the other side, forever changed. Odyssey has made me a better writer and a better person, and I come away from here with knowledge I didn’t know existed, inspiration I’ve never felt before, and friends for life. Given the opportunity, anyone aspiring to be a writer should come here. I would gladly go through these six weeks again.

Loriane Parker

Odyssey has changed my life for the better. I feel very fortunate to have had Jeanne for a teacher. She’s taught me more about writing in six weeks than I’ve learned in my entire life before I came here. During Odyssey, my writing improved dramatically. I am not only a better writer, but also a better person for having been here. Jeanne made me realize—and truly believe—that I do have something important to say in my writing, stories that only I can tell. I now have a whole group of talented classmates who support me. Thank you, Jeanne, for this opportunity, and for showing me that I can have a successful career as a writer. The guest lecturers, the feedback from you and my classmates, and the experience of critiquing other people’s writing has changed my perspective of my own work. Though Odyssey is an incredible amount of work, it’s been worth it.

Paul DesCombaz

Without a doubt, Jeanne is the greatest teacher I have ever had. Odyssey was an amazing experience.

Donna Glee Williams

I have a bachelor’s in Spanish literature, an M.F.A. in writing, and a Ph.D. in linguistics, but nobody has ever taught me about writing the way I’ve been taught at Odyssey. I vote we make Jeanne C. the emperor of all MFA writing programs and just watch what happens.

Olivia Do

Odyssey has been an amazing and rewarding journey. It is one of the best things I have done to improve my writing. I feel as though I have achieved years of growth in a mere six weeks. Jeanne is amazing as an instructor, a mentor, and an Evil Overlord. She guides the class through firm professionalism, delightful humor and a deep love for what she does. I am extremely humbled and grateful to have had this chance to work with Jeanne and all of my very talented, kind and insightful classmates. I would recommend this workshop to any writer who is serious about improving their writing and is willing to immerse themselves in the challenge of Odyssey.

Memorable Quotes from the Class of 2011

Jeanne Cavelos, Director (at opening night dinner): “There will be laughter and there will be tears.”
Erica Hildebrand, Resident Supervisor: “Our laughter and your tears.”

“Hemingway that sucker!”
—Donna Glee Williams

“We’ve been in the Odyssey compound for so long we’ve forgotten how to behave in public.”
—Natalie Sage

“You have to prod your subconscious with a stick. Come on, subconscious!”
—Jeanne Cavelos

“There’s no such thing as one alien. They’re like roaches.”
—Tanith Korravai

“He joined the wimp side of the force.”
—Richard Baldwin

Richard Baldwin: “If a room full of monkeys can write Shakespeare, what would a room full of chipmunks write?”
Christopher Owen: “Twilight.”

“It was 7:15 on a Wednesday morning, 1975, and Joe the knight had to go slay the dragon in the cave three blocks over.”
—Paul DesCombaz (still missing the location)

“Maybe he’s an escapee from the wizard nursing home.”
—Kathryn Yelinek

Richard Baldwin: “There aren’t enough vampire eggs.”
Paul DesCombaz: “That’s a story that hasn’t been done, right there.”
Donna Glee Williams: “And there’s a reason for that.”

Jeanne Cavelos: “Oh, the death of the guy is more brutal. I like that!”
Olivia Do: “Of course you do.”

“She’s a cardboard character that I want to throw sharp things at.”
—Martin Larsson

Christopher Owen: “I should have put an epic poem in the middle, like Tolkien. The trees were green and all the elves rejoiced.”
Richard Baldwin: “You’ve gotta work on your epic poetry, man.”

“He’s so fast he can reject your story before you even put it in the mailbox.”
—Jeanne Cavelos

“I was upset that Dead Horse didn’t come back.”
—Loriane Parker

“It all starts out with someone wanting minions. Then it just goes Matrix from there.”
—Natalie Sage

“Suicide by cannibalism, is that what we’re talking about?”
—Olivia Do

“If they’re in a confined area, they will buck. But that’s just me going horsey.”
—Hannah Johnson

“If Tom Cruise is picked up by a UFO, I want his house.”
—Martin Larsson

“Pain is good! Pain sells!”
—Barry B. Longyear, Visiting Author

“That’s gross. That’s kinda nice. ”
—Karen Lacey

“We used to have the fear of God. Now we have the fear of Jeanne.”
—Kathryn Yelinek

“Tearing apart a stuffed animal is really hard. I’ve had to cut some of the little bastards apart.”
—Ann Decker

“Woman. Boob. Knife. Blood. End.”
—Gary Braunbeck, Writer-in-Residence (describing a typical bad horror story)

“It makes morality vague, and suddenly you’re thinking: is it wrong to kill people for food?”
—Andrew Corbett

“Moral flexibility is knowing your principles before you break them.”
—Martin Larsson

“I can see that Jeanne’s evil has rubbed off on you.”
—Kathryn Yelinek

“Reality is confusing.”
—Katie Lavers

“I love this story and I want to marry it.”
—Tanith Korravai

Natalie Sage: “You’re sentimental.”
Gary Braunbeck: “Remember those words, all of you, because they’re gonna be her last.”

“I have a one-word story. It’s just an exclamation point. Try and critique that.”
—Christopher Owen

“You can’t use pasta salad. You need another word. A manly word. A hitman word.”
—Alex Hughes

“The use of the black squiggles will put you into an existential crisis, which is where you will end up after Odyssey anyway.”
—Theodora Goss, Visiting Author

“Monsters that get Raptured go to Monsterland and get to kill and maim and destroy, while those left behind have to deal with candy and sparkles and cuteness forever.”
—Richard Baldwin

“I have never before empathized with a big-headed giant.”
—Karen Lacey

“Naturally, if you’re evil you have a beard.”
—Alex Hughes

“I had this impulse to go around screaming ‘Beware the yellow chariot.'”
—Donna Glee Williams

“There’s enough adverbs in the world for you to start creating new ones.”
—Christopher Owen

“Sleep is for babies and dead people.”
—Olivia Do

“This is where I’m picturing floating eyeballs.”
—Alex Hughes

“Back eyeballs, back.”
—Jeanne Cavelos

“You may buy my affections.”
—Martin Larsson

“I’m sorry, but I was in the middle of killing a demon.”
—Loriane Parker

“I enjoyed the apocalypse.”
—Katie Lavers

“I really like this but I’m going to put on my mean hat.”
—Richard Baldwin

“I have a new plan! We use the mice to nibble away at the beard, have them bring it to us and we’ll knit beards that we can wear while we write.”
—Jeanne Cavelos

“I laughed so hard I had coffee shooting out of my nose. A dry cleaning bill will be coming your way.”
—Gary Braunbeck

“So he’s getting insulin for the Antichrist? I’m liking this story more already.”
—Richard Baldwin

Natalie Sage: “Sounds like it’s coming from the graveyard.”
Martin Larsson: “It’s zombies pissing.”

“If you throw a dead chicken it may go ‘bock.'”
—Hannah Johnson

“I see it as Liquid-Plumr. Two big jugs, you pour it on the demon and it goes ‘blaaugh.'”
—Ann Decker

“It tastes like regret.”
—Andrew Corbett

“Just once I’d like to see an ogre with more than one syllable in its name.”
—Paul DesCombaz

“That way, she can be disappointed that he’s a manscaping, deathless metrosexual.”
—Jeanne Cavelos

“Everything tastes good when it’s marinated in garlic butter. Even cardboard.”
—Tanith Korravai

“I am the Narcomancer.”
—Loriane Parker

“You did not exceed my strangeness quotient; I don’t think I have one.”
—Richard Baldwin

“It wasn’t until page 17 that you brought up the giant donkey-elephant creatures.”
—Paul DesCombaz

Elizabeth Bear: “So we have Peter, a plumber who eats pumpkins. What’s his problem?”
Andrew Corbett: “Alliteration.”

“Novellas seem like neither fish nor fowl nor good red meat.”
—Donna Glee Williams

Tanith Korravai: “I listen to opera.”
Martin Larsson: “So you’re a serial killer.”

Erica Hildebrand: “The whales are born of delusion.”
Katie Lavers: “Whereas the yak is real.”

“I didn’t mean to offend the yak in any way.”
—Martin Larsson

“I’m taking applications for the position of Evil Underlord.”
—Jeanne Cavelos

“Peeko was born last night.”
—Martin Larsson

“Yea for the corsets!”
—Alex Hughes

Paul DesCombaz: “They don’t celebrate birthdays in Sweden.”
Olivia Do: “That’s because they all come out of rocks.”

“You’ve all become pod people and I didn’t notice.”
—Jeanne Cavelos

“Genocide as a power source. Humans breed pretty quickly.”
—Alex Hughes

“Evil doesn’t have to be fast. Evil is the tortoise. It’s inevitable.”
—Andrew Corbett

“I’m turning into an Odyssey hobbit.”
—Natalie Sage

Christopher Owen: “Everybody needs goals.”
Martin Larsson: “Everybody needs trolls?”
Christopher Owen: “Yeah. That too.”

“A real ghost comes along and is angry because he’s a poser.”
—Donna Glee Williams

“Maybe downsize the subtlety a little bit.”
—Hannah Johnson