CLASS OF 2012
Back Row: Kevin McNeil, Mark Bilsborough, James Khan, Brent Smith, Jen Hansum, Kenneth Kao
Third Row: Kayla Saldana, Odyssey Director Jeanne Cavelos, Samantha Kymmell-Harvey, Vern James
Second Row: Taylor Colegrove, Dy Loveday, Christine Row, Writer-in-Residence Lane Robins
Front Row: Francis Snowder, Jessica May Lin, Holly Stoj, Jessie Robie
Mark Bilsborough
Odyssey, wow. The most intense writing experience I’ll ever get. Packed more in than an MFA and twice as useful. Gave me all the skills I need—now it’s up to me.
Taylor Colegrove
Jen Hansum
I worked my butt off and loved every minute of it. In the world of SFF writing and publishing, Jeanne’s wisdom and generosity as an instructor are unmatched. Surrounded by uninterrupted time for writing and by classmates just as dedicated to their craft, I learned more than I ever thought possible.
Vern James
Come prepared for a marathon. Bring your great work ethic and your open mind. Avail yourself to the learning experience. Do all of this, work hard, and make every day count. On the other side, you will be a better writer.
Kenneth Kao
For me, Odyssey was a little piece of Heaven on Earth. Living and dying on writing is what I want in life, and I wish it could last forever. The stress, panic, stories, friends—putting the world in the trunk, for once, made this an adventure I’ll never forget. Oh, and Jeanne rocks, she wins Odyssey. I think I might cry when I leave. One of the best experiences of my life. My writing, and thus my future, is completely changed.
James Khan
Jeanne is the most thorough and hard-working instructor I’ve ever met. Odyssey has changed me as a writer. I can’t imagine a finer education or experience.
Samantha Kymmell-Harvey
Thanks to Odyssey, I can now approach a story with a clear vision of what I want to convey as well as revise with a critical eye to craft that story into something special.
Jessica May Lin
It’s hard to believe what you will learn before you get here. Before Odyssey, I wrote without a sense of direction. I was afraid Odyssey would change my writing and take away what made it mine and unique, but I was so wrong. At Odyssey, I developed a sense of control over those gut feelings I used to have—when I sensed something was off but just could not figure out what it was. When I think of Odyssey, I think of writing furiously with friends in our self-designed “writing cave” and a growing mound of three-day-old ice cream dishes, talking about writing, dreaming about writing, and making lifelong friends I would not mind riding dragons through every cloud with. Odyssey is like a writer paradise. You might not want to change when you get here, but you will. Later, you won’t want to leave, but when you do, you leave with a purpose.
Dy Loveday
Causal chain, causal chain.
Oh my Lord, you are a pain.
If only I could get you right,
then my future could be so bright.
Instead I’ve got missing links,
no goal, no turn, the story stinks.
At least I know what you can do.
And so I’ll persevere until
one day the “why” will make good sense
and selling stories might pay the rent.
Kevin McNeil
Attending Odyssey was an amazing experience. The best thing I’ve done for my writing.
Jessie Robie
I learned more in six weeks at Odyssey than I did in three years in an MFA program. I believe a key moment in my writing career will be when Jeanne told me to keep being weird and quirky, because up until that moment everyone else had been discouraging me from being this kind of writer.
Christine Row
The chance to sit down with Jeanne for three private meetings during the course of Odyssey was invaluable. I learned what my strengths and weaknesses were, developed strategies to hone those skills that were lacking, and realized that I’d made significant progress in only six weeks. Plus I walked away with a plan for my future and a sense that I could make a valuable contribution to the fantasy genre.
Kayla Saldana
Brent Smith
Odyssey will not only change your writing, it will change your life. I’m not the same person going home that I was when I arrived. I’m hopefully not only a better writer, but a better person.
Frances Snowder
I leave the Odyssey Workshop with the confidence to pursue my writing goals and the humility to fuel lifelong learning.
Holly Stoj
Odyssey helped me fall in love with writing all over again and realize that it’s not simply a hobby, or a pastime, but something that is integral to my soul.
Chip Munk (honorary classmate)
There were lots of good treats!
Memorable Quotes from the Class of 2012
“I’m still trying to recover from Santa Claus not being real.”
—Samantha Kymmell-Harvey
“If I had one of those dark, nasty days, I could just show up and kill people.”
—Elaine Isaak, Visiting Author
“You can’t use the word ‘squish’ in a sex scene.”
—Kayla Saldana
“I love self-obsessed arrogance, so it worked for me.”
—James Khan
“If I’m wrong, I don’t want to hear about it. I want you to use it.”
—Elaine Isaak, Visiting Author
“The interruptus of the cheeseburger really bothered me.”
—Jen Hansum
“If you call a character ‘Uncle Ben’ I’m going to start thinking about rice.”
—James Khan
“If I had that power I’d just want to win Odyssey with it.”
—Kevin McNeil
“This was like His Dark Materials meets Toy Story.”
—Kayla Saldana
“He’s either desperate for cash or too stupid to live.”
—Dy Loveday
“Let’s see you work up as much snot as a pit bull.”
—James Khan
“Why Jabba the Hutt lusts after women in bikinis we don’t know, but we don’t want to go there.”
—Jeanne Cavelos
“It was the classic ‘No, don’t get the beer out of the dark garage’ thing.”
—Vern James
“You could geek out on the symbolism if you wanted to.”
—Holly Stoj
“When you’re dipping from Tolkien’s soup, you need to be careful how big your ladle is.”
—Brent Smith
“She seems to like him better unconscious than conscious.”
—Jen Hansum
“Thank you for the dragons and the elves. I appreciate that.”
—Kenneth Kao
“I like experiencing the disorientation for so long.”
—Frances Snowder
“This was more like a writing workshop in-joke, but who am I to talk?”
—Vern James
“Since I watched you write this in an afternoon, I kind of hate you a little bit.”
—Kevin McNeil
“I wanted him to at least punch his father in the face.”
—Jessica May Lin
“This was a self-aware poking of how ridiculous writers can be.”
—Kayla Saldana
“Apparently I start my critiques with ‘I agree with something Sam said.'”
—Mark Bilsborough
“I wanted the zombies to get him in the end.”
—Christine Row
“This is kind of like Gregor if Kafka had a better sense of humor.”
—Holly Stoj
“I don’t know if I’ve just got a really dirty mind.”
—Dy Loveday
“I liked this [story]; I just wanted to hug this like a stuffed animal.”
—Samantha Kymmell-Harvey
“It’s kind of like coming to class with your underwear on outside of your pants.”
—Jen Hansum
“Bloody hell! Comma Nazis!”
—Mark Bilsborough
“Even though I thought that scene was unnecessary it made me really hungry.”
—Jessica May Lin
“I read it the first time and got a headache, and I read it again and got a bigger headache.”
—Mark Bilsborough
“You made me open the dictionary several times.”
—Brent Smith
“I just couldn’t work out if he was psychotic or stupid.”
—Dy Loveday
“Holy crap. That was all planned. I hate you.”
—Kenneth Kao
“It was quiet but full of shadows.”
—Taylor Colegrove
“Either it wasn’t clear enough or I’m insane.”
—James Khan
“I’d like this story better if they’d been successful [in chopping the protagonist’s head off].”
—Frances Snowder
“I had more questions than there were words in the story.”
—James Khan
“The fantasy speakeasy instead of the fantasy tavern.”
—Jessie Robie
“Enough about zombies.”
—Dy Loveday
“Maybe fantasy camp’s all up in my head.”
—James Khan
“The only good character description I got was of the guy who got struck by lightning, and that was after he got struck by lightning, so he was more setting than character at that point.”
—Brent Smith
“I really find her attractive but she’s got fifteen limbs.”
—Mark Bilsborough
“Remember to keep track of how many limbs your characters have.”
—Jessica May Lin
“Gruesome and beautiful.”
—Vern James
“He broke the bro code there.”
—Kevin McNeil
“This is the first chapter of a novel.”
—Brent Smith
“There’s entirely too much sleeping. No one should sleep in this story.”
—Frances Snowder
“It’s not a good idea to put a Beretta in your back pocket. I was like ‘Oh no please don’t blow up your butt!'”
—Kayla Saldana
“This was like Barack Obama’s girls on the loose if their mother was Hillary Clinton.”
—Paul Park, Visiting Author
“I don’t think a woman would turn into a seal in a house—how is she going to work the doorknobs?”
—Kevin McNeil
“I wondered how she got down the hall since seals don’t have legs. She would be flopping down the hall.”
—Jessica May Lin
“This was very well done. I had so few line edits I felt guilty.”
—Kenneth Kao
“The journey to the landfill was kind of tedious for me.”
—Taylor Colegrove
“They got back to the ship so quick I got whiplash.”
—Dy Loveday
“I don’t want to get all Harlan Ellison about it.”
—Mark Bilsborough
“My father saved the world, my uncle is a tree—what the hell am I going to do?”
—Barbara Campbell, Visiting Author, on her character’s motivation
“My little folktale radar was going.”
—Samantha Kymmell-Harvey
“I don’t think I have any funny in my leaf mould.”
—Jen Hansum
“This was really cool but I had no idea what was going on ever.”
—Kayla Saldana
“I wanted to know what the passive-aggressive note on the cheese doodles said.”
—Frances Snowder
“I was secretly hoping that Ed would turn cannibal.”
—Holly Stoj
“I wracked my brain trying to figure out what your point was, and I think I pulled a muscle.”
—Kevin McNeil
“If you’re going for the crazy thing, go all the way for it.”
—Taylor Colegrove
“There’s the surprise unicycle that just came out of the blue and made me go ‘Wow! Unicycle!”
—Lane Robins, Writer-in-Residence
“The sadness made the humor real and the humor made the sadness real.”
—Taylor Colegrove
“There was a logic loop in my brain and it broke.”
—James Khan
“It’s hard to make a smug hero likeable.”
—Vern James
“You know what? I’m just redundant.”
—Kenneth Kao
“I went through and killed a lot of your ‘was-es.'”
—Holly Stoj
“I call this piece ‘Ken is never allowed to make fun of my formatting again.'”
—Kayla Saldana
“I want to leave something in the world besides a corpse.”
—Brent Smith
“You did it so well that I forgive you for grossing me out.”
—Dy Loveday
“I’m intrigued by the fact that Marjorie thought an undead husband wasn’t that unusual.”
—Jessie Robie
“The moral would be ‘Don’t cheat on your wife with mythical creatures.'”
—Jessica May Lin
“I’m a huge wimp when it come to zombies.”
—Kayla Saldana
“I kind of wanted her to break her hip at the end.”
—Taylor Colegrove
“I recommend paprika for beef stew. Particularly sharp paprika, if you can get it.”
—Jennifer Jackson, Visiting Agent
“Obfuscating the novum.”
—Jen Hansum
“I missed it because I’m dumb.”
—Kayla Saldana
“Wouldn’t it be cool if they took half a person?”
—Taylor Colegrove
“I saw this as a ‘befriend the geek’ story.”
—Frances Snowder
“I wanted her to die.”
—Dy Loveday
“That was a story about—I don’t really know what it was about, actually.”
—Mark Bilsborough
“Kevin, you are really undermining my goal of winning Odyssey.”
—Brent Smith
“It seemed the ultimate in unsafe sex.”
—Barbara Campbell, Visiting Author
“Horror, like mystery, not only needs to be built forward but also backward.”
—Lane Robins, Writer-in-Residence
“A lot of superheroes don’t have a superpower but they have a theme.”
—Kayla Saldana
“Watch for floating body parts.”
—Jessica May Lin
“I thought he needed a good smack.”
—Dy Loveday
“Creeping to the story.”
—Frances Snowder
“I did like all of the dead people.”
—Holly Stoj
“I had a weirdo alert on p. 12.”
—Dy Loveday
“I like my plot better.”
—Frances Snowder
“He slid into two-dimensionalness.”
—Brent Smith
“Maybe he can break the Chia Pet and use a shard.”
—Jessica May Lin
“I can’t decide how creepy he is.”
—James Khan