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Odyssey 2009 Press Release

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 17:39:00 +0000

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From The Desk of Liz Ensley:

****************************

Publicity Release

January 2009

ODYSSEY WRITING WORKSHOP

ANNOUNCES SUMMER 2009 SESSION

About Odyssey

Since its inception in 1996, Odyssey has earned a place as one of the most respected workshops in the science fiction, fantasy, and horror writing community. Odyssey is for developing writers whose work is approaching publication quality and for published writers who want to improve their work. The six-week workshop combines an intensive learning and writing experience with in-depth feedback on student manuscripts. Top authors, editors, and agents have served as guest lecturers, including George R. R. Martin, Harlan Ellison, Jane Yolen, Terry Brooks, Robert J. Sawyer, Ben Bova, Nancy Kress, Elizabeth Hand, Jeff VanderMeer, Donald Maass, Sheila Williams, Shawna McCarthy, and Dan Simmons. Fifty-three percent of Odyssey graduates go on to professional publication.

The program is held every summer on Saint Anselm College's beautiful campus in Manchester , NH . Saint Anselm is one of the finest liberal arts colleges in the country, dedicated to excellence in education, and its campus provides a unique, lovely setting and state-of-the art facilities for Odyssey students. College credit is available upon request.

Jeanne Cavelos, Odyssey's director, founder, and primary instructor, is a best-selling author and a former senior editor at Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing, where she won the World Fantasy Award for her work. Being a writer/editor makes Cavelos uniquely suited to provide students with constructive and professional critiques of their work. "I give the same unflinchingly honest, concrete, detailed feedback that I provided as a senior editor," Cavelos said. Her typewritten critiques average around 1,000 words, and her handwritten line edits on manuscripts are extensive. In addition, she guides students through the six weeks, gaining in-depth knowledge of their work, providing detailed assessments of their strengths and weaknesses in private meetings, and helping them target their weaknesses one by one.

Odyssey class time is split between workshopping sessions and lectures. An advanced, comprehensive curriculum covers the elements of fiction writing in depth. Students learn the tools and techniques necessary to strengthen their writing.

The workshop runs from June 8^th to July 17^th, 2009 . Class meets for four hours in the morning, five days a week. Students spend about eight hours more per day writing and critiquing each

other's work. Prospective students, aged eighteen and up, apply from all over the world. The early admission application deadline is JANUARY 31^st, and the regular admission deadline is APRIL 8^th. Tuition is $1900, and housing is $700 for a double room and $1400 for a single.

Meet Our 2009 Writer-in-Residence

Odyssey's 2009 writer-in-residence is Carrie Vaughn, New York Times bestselling author and Odyssey 1998 graduate. Carrie is the author of the phenomenally popular "Kitty" novels, about a werewolf who hosts a talk radio show. The first novel, Kitty and the Midnight Hour has over a hundred thousand copies in print. Books five and six of the series, Dead Man's Hand and Kitty Raises Hell, will appear in 2009. Carrie's short stories have appeared in Realms of Fantasy, Weird Tales, George R. R. Martin's Wild Cards series, and other anthologies. She has a Master's degree in English Literature from the University of Colorado at Boulder and has been a lifelong science fiction fan and reader.

Other Guest Lecturers

Odyssey is pleased to welcome its 2009 guest lecturers: bestselling author Jeffrey A. Carver; award-winning authors Melissa Scott, Patricia Bray, and Jack Ketchum, and Editor-in-Chief of the Ace and Roc science fiction/fantasy imprints, Ginjer Buchanan.

Odyssey Graduates

If you're reading science fiction, fantasy, and horror, you're reading the work of Odyssey graduates. If you've read recent issues of some of the top fiction magazines in the field--Realms of Fantasy, Asimov's, Analog, Weird Tales, Fantasy Magazine, Intergalactic Medicine Show--you've read stories by Odyssey graduates Theodora Goss, David Barr Kirtley, Eric James Stone, Clayton Kroh, Larry Hodges, Matthew S. Rotundo, James Maxey, Carrie Vaughn, Carl Frederick, and Andrea Kail.

If you've been to the bookstore lately, you've seen books by Odyssey graduates, including Superpowers by David J. Schwartz, published by Random House; Dragonforge by James Maxey, published by Solaris Books; Maledicte by Lane Robins, published by Del Rey; Bloodstone by Barbara Campbell, published by DAW; Red Dragon Codex by R. D. Henham, published by Mirrorstone Books; The Mirror by Natalia Lincoln, published by Space & Time Books; The Eunuch's Heir by Elaine Isaak, published by HarperCollins; and Kitty and the Silver Bullet by Carrie Vaughn, published by Warner.

Comments from the Class of 2008

"I sold three novels before I came to Odyssey. I just wish I had gone to Odyssey before I wrote them--they would have been better books. Odyssey freakin' rocks!"

--J. Justin Gustainis, author of Evil Ways

"You will never be more eager to work yourself to the bone. Nor will you have as much reward for doing it. The six weeks at Odyssey have done more for my writing career than my bachelor's degree in creative writing. I only wish I'd known about it sooner."

--Breanna Wojcik

Other Odyssey Resources and Services

The Odyssey website www.odysseyworkshop.org offers free podcasts, writing and publishing tips, a class syllabus, and more information about how to apply. An overview of the Odyssey Critique Service is also available on the website at http://www.sff.net/odyssey/crit.html. This service provides authors with professional-level feedback on their writing, done with the thoroughness and depth for which Odyssey is known.

Those interested in applying to the workshop should visit the website, phone/fax (603) 673-6234, or e-mail jcavelos@sff.net.

Alas And Alack!

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:40:00 +0000

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From The Desk of Liz Ensley:

I have no idea if anyone purveys this blog: but OpenOffice froze my system, so I finally ended up deleting it. With National Novel Writing Month around the proverbial corner, well, I want to take no chances.

That is, if I can tear myself away from World of Warcraft long enough.

Yes, I'm still studying their world-building. Whether or not you accept it as such, MMORPGs are also a form of literary entertainment.

What? I hear you say. Heresy! It's gaming, so how can it be literary?

Well, for one thing, it's clearly inspired, not merely by te influences of television, but alos from sources of literary merit. The essential plot(s) (multiple, non-interactive story lines) are also clearly thus inspired. Not to mention some fans have not only been inspired to write about their characters, perhaps on blogs, but also to draw comics. Yes, I love comics. ^_^ And hopefully, I wil have no argument as to the literary merit of the graphic form fo storytelling.

And this, friend, is the crux: WoW is essentially a form of graphic storytelling,even with the corny jokes pre-programmed into the characters.

Anyway, even with the expansion coming out this month, there is a lot of story involved. How much of this was pre-conceived and planned for, and how much improvised with each update? The world may never know.

Revisions, Decisions

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 21:19:00 +0000

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From The Desk of Liz Ensley:

I've been stuck enough tat I'm downloading OpenOffice ot try that for a change of venue. I have tried YWriter, which worked in the past, but seems hopeless now.

I need more coffee. Be right back.

#

Got my coffee. Okay. Now, I spent a lot of today thinking about the revisions, taking breaks here and thre to write a bit and to check my email and blogs. I really have not felt well, these past few months, and my daughter has not really been helping. I should buy a month's supply of stuff like hamburger, make a huge meat loaf, vut it apart and freeze it, and keep lots of canned veggies. Then all I need to worry about are perishables, and not food. Well, that, and breakfast cereal. Maybe tuna and Underwood(TM) Deviled Ham. I used to love that stuff. Get liver too, and have that once per week.

OpenOffice is stil ldownloading. I'll probably need to reboot, since some things are balking at me, baying like hounds at the moon. I already did a defrag. Maybe I'll do an analysis first, once the program;s done installing, to make sure I don't need to drfrag again.

Am I getting a bit paranoid? Probably.

Chuck was going to drive from Ohio and visit, but I talked him out of it. His friend wants his help setting up for the Bar Mitzvah, and his family wants to see him. He mgiht be making a trip to Boston in the Spring. That's a lot closer. Hades, I used to take the New London/Orient Point Ferry because it was a bit quicker then the train (shaved 2 hours off the trip). We have a bit of time to meet in person, no rushing into things headlong. Better to take the time to do things right, right? It also gives him time to check MapQuest for directions, now that we hae a bit ore time to put some thought into this. It's all the little stuff you don't think about at the time, that's the real killer.

Anyway, hopefully, OpenOffice will give me the altered perespective that I need, in order to get the revision of book one going in earnest (Poor Earnest).

AAUGH! Editing!

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 17:39:00 +0000

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From The Desk of Liz Ensley:

Yes, random link inserted.

I really, really wish I could print this out. Unfortunately, I cannot. I did a cut-and-paste for a later paragraph and moved it towards the beginning because it makes more sense, sice I added the elemet of the nightmare, and what Dragan fears.

Sometimes, editing seems to take a lot out of you, at least until you hit your stride. You think, Aaugh! What does this button do? Would that action fit better with this button? That's taking emotion as motivation and using it as a trigger, or button. I cannot help but think of Deedee in Dexter's Laboratory, singing "What does this button do?" Sometimes, these actions have catastrophic consequences, or at least Deedee's button-pushing does *she is OC, ie, obsessive-compulsive, about pushing buttins, you see). Now, at least we can hope that pushing this particular emotive/motivative button for Dragan has the consequence only for him, and not for the novel. :)

The edit has not yet hit its stride. Hopefully, I'll hit my right button soon...

Huzzah! Revisions Beginning!

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 17:20:00 +0000

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From The Desk of Liz Ensley:

Yes, I finally got around to beginning revisions on book one. I added a whole bunch of links on outlining to the library, and I've been slowly thinking about an outline for book one to get a better grip on the action and the like so that I can get started on at least an outline for book two. NaNoWriMo is around the proverbial corner. by a narrow margin.

The Muse Online 2008 Writers Conference

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 14:14:00 +0000

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From The Desk of Liz Ensley:

JulNoWriMo

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 16:59:00 +0000

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From The Desk of Liz Ensley:

Growl. What I started writing somehow got lost. I know I saved the file. I have no idea what happened...

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 17:30:00 +0000

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From The Desk of Liz Ensley:

The day might be a bit yolky
Alka-Seltzer ^(TM) might be spent
But it's no time for sulky
Since it's the end of Lent
Eggs are neatly gathered
There's chocolate everywhere
The food is in abundance
Lots of jellybeans to spare
The lamb is on the table
Roast beast, if you've half a mind
Or ham cooked to a texture sable
And veggies of various kind
The rabbit died of exhaustion
At least until next year
The day is a sensation
For all of merry cheer
For each and sundry relation
Passover also counts here. ^_^

Holly Daze

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 16:22:00 +0000

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From The Desk of Liz Ensley:

Happy Christmas, everyone!

Aargh!

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 17:16:00 +0000

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From The Desk of Liz Ensley:

I am not going to waste my time ,waiting for the site to load. It's too frustrating! If they're lucky, they'll get a weekly update from me.

As of this writing, noe sentence, so far, today. That;'s okay, plenty of time. Speaking of which, I have a timer, and I'm not afraid to use it!

And They're Off!

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 18:36:00 +0000

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From The Desk of Liz Ensley:

No, I have not started yet. I have a few things to take care of, first. ^_^ But I'm set, and raring to go, otherwise.

National Novel Writing Month 2007

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 14:03:00 +0000

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From The Desk of Liz Ensley:

All this stuff about story diagrams, and the like... Still, I think I'm ready. Maybe the first draft was my diagram, and where they talk about sketching in events and stuff... Heh. The main site's been loading so slow, it's horrible. Their site "upgrade" is horrible.

Just A Minor Test

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 19:57:00 +0000

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From The Desk of Liz Ensley:

It seems that I lcank the header when I use the BLOG THIS! option on FireFox. Ah, well. At least, I know that it does work, now.

New Dell Computer System Online

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 19:55:00 +0000

Yes, it's a Dell, and in plenty of time for both NaNoWriMo, and for working. I just hope that I can find the right palce to plug in the blasted speakers...

National Novel Writing Month 2007

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 02:50:00 +0000

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From The Desk of Liz Ensley:

What, you may ask, is National Novel Writing Month?

You there, in the back row, stop laughing, there are actually people who have never heard of NaNoWriMo. Be nice...

Anyway, it's one month, out of twelve, where you try to write 1,667 words per day for the entire month, to have a total of 50,000 words by month's end. At the conclusion of this month, assuming you reach the 50k, you get

1. A downloadable certificate exclaiming that you won by writing 50k for the month. Even if the novel's not finished, and you may want to write past that to reach the end, the 50,000 words makes you a winner. Why? Because look at how many words you wrote, and on the same book!

2. An icon you can use most anywhere, declaring you a NaNoWriMo winner.

3. You may be able to get a free copy of your book, at least in e-format, from Lulu.com. It was past my time (I won in 2004), but they started offering something like that. I don't know if they will do it again this year, but you can check on it at the site.

4. The camaraderie of other writers, plus meeting a lto of people on-site that you already know, only you didn't know they were crazy enough to NaNo.

Hey, you never know, after the revision/rewrite, if you go back over your novel at month's end, you might just have a best-seller on your hands. If not, well, hey, it was fun!

he 1st Annual Endurance Writers' Half-Marathon!

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 14:05:00 +0000

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From The Desk of Liz Ensley:

          Good Morning Sprinters!
          Breaking news! An experimental event that has been on the back burner (the back burner of my mind, that is) since the start of this group is about to take place. The 1st Annual Endurance Writers' Half-Marathon!
          Yes. Due to a strange cosmic alignment of work schedules, the Half-Marathon event will be taking place this Tuesday, 9/11/2007. Apologies for the late notice, but as this event is still in the experimental stages, and I only have one "definite" all-day participant so far, I had to jump on the scheduling availability when I could. No worries, though. If this experiment proves successful, more events will be on the horizon for all.
          About the event: As the title implies, it is a long-term, all-day event lasting approximately 13.1 hours! *whew* A true endurance activity of proportions not attempted by THIS writer before. :-)
          The exact schedule of events for this day is posted under the FILES link on the left column of the group page (let me know if anything looks wonky, as I wrote this up at 2:30am and my eyes and brain were a little tired). If anyone wants to join the Half-Marathon sprints or to come and cheer us on during this time, please take note of the schedule, as we will be sticking to it pretty closely, and should be showing up on Yahoo Messenger during this entire period. (If you IM me on this day, I promise that I WILL reply eventually, but please don't despair if I don't respond right away.) Also, if you do happen to be available and willing to participate in the all-day event, or know someone who is, feel free to let me know! It is by no means closed to outside participation. In fact, I wholeheartedly welcome it!
          For a little more about the concept behind the Half-Marathon event, see the group's external website at: EnduranceWriting.com.
          Again, even if you can't participate in the whole thing, feel free to jump in on portions of Tuesday's big event! The more the merrier. And we'll probably need the moral support, after about 7 hours or so... LOL.
          Looking forward to seeing you then, as I go forth with this crazy new
adventure and see where it leads me... :-)

~Trish/alt.energy

          Liz's Note: The event starts at 3:00 AM HST, 12 noon EST. That must mak eit 9 AM for the Left Coast. For a little help figuring it out for you rime zone, I just Googled the Time Zone Converter. Also, a useful link during this, or at any other time, is the Online-Stopwatch, which has a countdown feature.

Update

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 03:13:00 +0000

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From The Desk of Liz Ensley:

Yesterday's Total: 1465
Today's total: 2104 words

Between yesterday's and today's, that's 3569 words.

Gauntlet (10k) and SeptNo (10k) makes 20k, so I'm almsot a quarter thhre already. Will wonders never cease?

Sprinting

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 15:02:00 +0000

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From The Desk of Liz Ensley:

GAH! I need to make my coffee. I'm gonig to stat sprinting at 12 and do a couple before taking

A) a shower

B) the trash out

and (maybe)

C) up the laundry.

Gotta try to get this first book finished by the end of this month, so I can start on the next one.

I may be getting a new computer soon. Rose talked with David, who may be putting together a P4 system for me (I say "may", since it's hard to know if wires didn't get crossed, or anything). Regardless, though the cobbled-together system I'm using now works half-way, there's a lot I cannot access with it that I need to, when looknig things up (or even visiting bloody YouTube).
I mean, if you can't watch sometihng, and people don't get why you can't watch it, well, that's awkward.

Also, the way the hard drive is going on this system (used to be Terror's, but it's taken much abuse over the years), I'm not really sure how much longer it's going to last...

progress and current word count

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 05:33:00 +0000

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From The Desk of Liz Ensley:

I have posted my progress and current word count to my DeviantArt account. I have also uplaoded a couple of really crappy comics to my scraps. Sorry. I just finished a couple of writing sprints, then a spell check, and then the one update, so I'm a bit tired, lol.

Fast Draft

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 12:52:00 +0000

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From The Desk of Liz Ensley:

I am up to ten pages so far today, and aiming for twenty. This is going on my AugNo total, when I do the word count bit.
BTW, if you like, blog about a UFO flyby on August 30. ;-) I just want to do this for the fun of it ~~and take as many people with me as I can get, when I go~~. Granted, August 30 is my birthday, but... ;-)

Random Last Name Generator

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 02:01:00 +0000

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From The Desk of Liz Ensley:

Ha. I have to write the first draft of a horror story for the next anthology. I already have it in mind. I went to a name generator for proper names, but I need a surname (and possibly more than one). I decided to look for a generator to use in a pinch, so I ended up Googling the above link. Even if the surname changes later, at least I can generate one in a pinch. ;-) Thank you, Simthing Different 2! And yes, that is the name of the site.

JulNoWriMo Update, 23 July 2007 Monday

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 17:39:00 +0000

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From The Desk of Liz Ensley:

                I don't know if I'll manage to catch up with the word count, but it's still a good run, and I've so far written twice as much as I had, wither of the previous two months. A little over that, so the total's superior to the combined two.
                I'm still not fully awake. I would much rather go back to bed. Still, I'm going to try to get something written. I am still going to try catching up with the word count total.
                My current JulNoWriMo running tally is here on DeviantART, along with the total word count, and the separate writer's bible count. Where I'm starting today, with the previous word count, the scenes are going to overlap.
                Now, all I need to do, is to wake up... lol. I was in bed till almost 12:30. Didn't intend to stay in bed, asleep, for that long, but after the last week... bah. Except for being a bit tired, I'm so far faring a bit better.
                15,190 words to go, if I want to catch up with the 37,097 words that I am supposed to be at today. Let's see if it can be done. Total average of combined (minus one word for the eight remaining days, I think), is 3554 words per day.
                Wish me luck!

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 15:52:00 +0000

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From The Desk of Liz Ensley:

More later, but:

2298 / 2000 Glossary / Bible
21,144 / 50,000 JulNoWriMo Running (Story) Tally
41,181/ 70,017 Story Proper

Cheers!

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 04:25:00 +0000

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From The Desk of Liz Ensley:

Inspiration can come from anywhere. Hades, it can strike when you're mowing the lawn, and musing about irrelevant things. Hades, I was even looking at my daughter's textbook for history in the second grade and (though I never followed through on it) using it for an outline for an SF story, complete with the territorial expansion and stuff. It could still be done, but I'd rather work on my fantasy series.

Ideas for horror stories can rise from almost anything too, a random incident or person for inspiration.

Fro mthe fellow who crams his family in a closer because he thinks it's the end of the world, that turns into a murder-suidide, and Jim Jones (also murder-suicide, though on a much larger scale), to Charles Manson, to whatever news story inspired THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE.

Some of the stories from the Bible are pretty scary too, when you think about the incidents depicted in either the Old or New Testament.

Actually, from romance, to horror, to SF or fantasy, you can glean inspiration and idea fodder from just about any source. Social trends (1984, Make Room! Make Room!, The Time Machine, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn) and mroe abstract plots (Flatland, which isactually a combination) and cyberpunk. Axioms (the more things change, the more they stay the same) is one idea behind a time machine story that I have had outlined for years. I think I'm almost ready to start writing it, finally, but the plot had to sit in my brain and drive me insane for over a decade.

If you look around you, at the way you have always done things, and then look at one of your friends or neighbors and notice that they do things differently, sometimes by a major instead of a minor degree. These differences can also lead you to a story.

O' course, y' have t' train y'self up that way. ;-)

Word Count Update

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 23:57:00 +0000

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From The Desk of Liz Ensley:

Because I have been so lax. :)

7/12
2206 / 2000 Glossary / Bible
19,523 / 50,000 JulNoWriMo Running (Story) Tally
39,560 / 70,017 Story Proper