{"id":15801,"date":"2020-12-15T14:48:41","date_gmt":"2020-12-15T14:48:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/odysseyworkshop.org\/newsite\/wordpress\/?page_id=15801"},"modified":"2026-05-29T00:41:01","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T00:41:01","slug":"class-of-2006","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.odysseyworkshop.org\/class-pages\/class-of-2006\/","title":{"rendered":"CLASS OF 2006"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_row_inner css=”.vc_custom_1551238839456{background-color: #ffffff !important;}”][vc_column_inner][vc_single_image image=”16223″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_single_image image=”16224″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

Back Row<\/strong>: Dave Hendrickson, Victoria Witt, Lancer Kind, Clayton Kroh, Eric Newman
\nSecond Row<\/strong>: Calie Voorhis, Russell Scarola, Terry Edge, Jeff Pert
\nThird Row<\/strong>: Larry Hodges, Deborah Sacks, Robert J. Sawyer, Jeanne Cavelos, Susan Sielinski
\nFront Row<\/strong>: Rhiannon Held, Adria Laycraft, Elizabeth Hirst, Nu Yang, Ellen Denham<\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row gap=”5″ equal_height=”yes” css=”.vc_custom_1599510526550{padding-top: 5px !important;padding-right: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;padding-left: 0px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1551289727346{background-color: #ffffff !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”16232″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_custom_heading text=”Ellen Denham” font_container=”tag:h4|text_align:center” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]I feel my potential as a writer has increased exponentially.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1551290044842{background-color: #ffffff !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”16241″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_custom_heading text=”Terry Edge” font_container=”tag:h4|text_align:center” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

The consistently high level of Jeanne’s instruction, along with regular, honest feedback on your work, will massively improve your writing. The course is very hard work, in a supportive atmosphere, which develops new writing habits and mind-sets that are truly effective. You emerge at the end knowing what to do—which is no small thing for a writer.<\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row gap=”5″ equal_height=”yes” css=”.vc_custom_1599510541683{padding-top: 5px !important;padding-right: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;padding-left: 0px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1551289727346{background-color: #ffffff !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”16239″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_custom_heading text=”Rhiannon Held” font_container=”tag:h4|text_align:center” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

I can’t say if Odyssey has revolutionized my writing—that will come years down the road, as we see how much I am (or am not) published. But I know it’s revolutionized how I think about my writing, and that’s the important part—after this workshop, I have faith I have the skills to make the rest come.<\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1551290044842{background-color: #ffffff !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”16230″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_custom_heading text=”Dave Hendrickson” font_container=”tag:h4|text_align:center” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

I wish I’d done this years ago. Every writer should get the opportunity to work with Jeanne Cavelos. I now feel that the only person who can stop me from being successful is me.<\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row gap=”5″ equal_height=”yes” css=”.vc_custom_1599510541683{padding-top: 5px !important;padding-right: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;padding-left: 0px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1551289727346{background-color: #ffffff !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”16233″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_custom_heading text=”Elizabeth Hirst” font_container=”tag:h4|text_align:center” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

Jeanne is a master of critique, a compassionate and learned teacher, and just plain fun to be around. I would recommend this workshop to anyone who is ready to take a good, long look at their writing skills and do what it takes to improve.<\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1551290044842{background-color: #ffffff !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”16236″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_custom_heading text=”Larry Hodges” font_container=”tag:h4|text_align:center” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]Oh, Odyssey, My Odyssey!<\/p>\n

I went there a wannabe writer,
\nI needed to make my words righter,
\nI was Odysseyed well,
\nIn those six weeks of Hell,
\nNow my career is much brighter!<\/p>\n

Of Jeanne, we all can attest,
\nHer teaching is really the best,
\nAll the edits she’s done,
\nAnd that point of view fun,
\nWe’re grateful for all of her zest![\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row gap=”5″ equal_height=”yes” css=”.vc_custom_1599510541683{padding-top: 5px !important;padding-right: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;padding-left: 0px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1551289727346{background-color: #ffffff !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”16237″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_custom_heading text=”Lancer Kind” font_container=”tag:h4|text_align:center” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

You could spend six years struggling to learn what Odyssey gives you in six weeks.<\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1551290044842{background-color: #ffffff !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”16228″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_custom_heading text=”Clayton Kroh” font_container=”tag:h4|text_align:center” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

Odyssey is a fantastic program that can take an amateur writer and turn him or her into a writer with skills and discipline to become a professional.<\/p>\n

Jeanne Cavelos is utterly amazing. Her critiques are in-depth and her insights are sharp and helpful on every single story submitted. She can help you turn a train wreck of a story into a publishable work you can be proud of.<\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row gap=”5″ equal_height=”yes” css=”.vc_custom_1599510541683{padding-top: 5px !important;padding-right: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;padding-left: 0px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1551289727346{background-color: #ffffff !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”16227″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_custom_heading text=”Adria Laycraft” font_container=”tag:h4|text_align:center” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

If a writer is truly someone for whom writing is more difficult than others, Jeanne can help ease your pain.<\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1551290044842{background-color: #ffffff !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”16234″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_custom_heading text=”Eric Newman” font_container=”tag:h4|text_align:center” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

Count me among those who consider Odyssey a life-changing experience. I finished a better writer, a better critiquer, exhausted but energized. Endless thanks to Jeanne, Susan, and the class of ’06.<\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row gap=”5″ equal_height=”yes” css=”.vc_custom_1599510526550{padding-top: 5px !important;padding-right: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;padding-left: 0px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1551289727346{background-color: #ffffff !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”16235″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_custom_heading text=”Jeff Pert” font_container=”tag:h4|text_align:center” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]I came to Odyssey to find out whether I had what it takes to write commercial fantastic fiction. I found out that I do, if I’m willing to work at it. Odyssey showed me I wasn’t as good a writer as I thought I was, and that I have lots of work to do, and then gave me the tools I need to do that work.<\/p>\n

It’s been an invaluable experience. I only wish I had enough money to pay Jeanne to sit beside me every time I write. She’s that<\/em> insightful and that<\/em> encouraging.<\/p>\n

At the end of the six weeks, I find myself exhausted, excited, and happy. It’s a great place to be.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1551290044842{background-color: #ffffff !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”16231″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_custom_heading text=”Deborah Sacks” font_container=”tag:h4|text_align:center” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

Every aspect of writing and story craft, Odyssey helped me improve in my own work. Now if I could only remember how to hold a pen. . . .<\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row gap=”5″ equal_height=”yes” css=”.vc_custom_1599510541683{padding-top: 5px !important;padding-right: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;padding-left: 0px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1551289727346{background-color: #ffffff !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”16240″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_custom_heading text=”Russell Scarola” font_container=”tag:h4|text_align:center” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

After attending Odyssey, I now feel prepared to write the stories that I have to tell, with the strength and clarity that they deserve.<\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1551290044842{background-color: #ffffff !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”16229″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_custom_heading text=”Calie Voorhis” font_container=”tag:h4|text_align:center” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

Odyssey is just more. More work, more stress, more friendship, more joy, more learning than you thought possible. More than you can ever expect, and the change is profound. The only thing I can ensure you’ll get less of is sleep and every second of it is worth it. If you don’t go, you’ll regret it.<\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row gap=”5″ equal_height=”yes” css=”.vc_custom_1599510541683{padding-top: 5px !important;padding-right: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;padding-left: 0px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1551289727346{background-color: #ffffff !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”16242″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_custom_heading text=”Victoria Witt” font_container=”tag:h4|text_align:center” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1551290044842{background-color: #ffffff !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”16238″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_custom_heading text=”Nu Yang” font_container=”tag:h4|text_align:center” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

Odyssey has helped me learn how to take a 400-page novel in its first draft and cut it into tiny pieces in order to make it all fit in one organized piece. Without Odyssey, the novel wouldn’t have had the balance it needed to stand on its own. Rewriting and starting over is NOT scary!<\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1551290670831{margin-top: 20px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”16225″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row gap=”10″ equal_height=”yes” css=”.vc_custom_1551239496334{padding-top: 10px !important;padding-right: 10px !important;padding-bottom: 10px !important;padding-left: 10px !important;background-color: #71cff7 !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1551239407282{background-color: #ffffff !important;}”][vc_column_text]”If you ever read anything of mine in the future, you might find some of these stolen.”
\n—Jeffrey Pert<\/p>\n

“I was about as successful as Homer was.”
\n—Russell Scarola<\/p>\n

“You gotta sell me on the premise.”
\n—Robert J. Sawyer<\/p>\n

“That’s a mighty big ‘if,’ Fred.”
\n—Robert J. Sawyer<\/p>\n

“Some of them are just put on toilet duty, which doesn’t seem particularly life threatening.”
\n—Terry Edge<\/p>\n

“You bought a whole acre on my strangeness farm, and I was ready to let my cows run free on it.”
\n—Clayton Kroh<\/p>\n

“You have sweat trickling down his back and into his eyes.”
\n—Russell Scarola<\/p>\n

“‘Sickening crunch.’ I hear that’s a new flavor of Ben & Jerry’s.”
\n—Jeffrey Pert<\/p>\n

“Ditto on whatever it was someone said earlier.”
\n—Deborah Sacks<\/p>\n

“If you’re going to write this, give us the dirt.”
\n—Ellen Denham<\/p>\n

“It has a beginning, a middle, and an end! It’s fabulous!”
\n—Ellen Denham<\/p>\n

“You need to think out the whole sperm thing.”
\n—Laurie J. Marks<\/p>\n

“It seemed like she was shooting up with Ambien. . . . It didn’t seem like a really good drug.”
\n—Clayton Kroh<\/p>\n

“Is Riley an aquatic pedophile?”
\n—David Hendrickson<\/p>\n

“I like the fact that I had to adjust my brain to this story.”
\n—Jeff VanderMeer<\/p>\n

“My inner feminist had some problems.”
\n—Russell Scarola<\/p>\n

“The robot was the only one I freaking liked!”
\n—Russell Scarola<\/p>\n

“I’m just writing in the margin, ‘Divorce! Divorce!'”
\n—Ellen Denham<\/p>\n

“This is a pacifist talking here. I would have pulled out my gun and shot him.”
\n—Robert J. Sawyer<\/p>\n

“The climactic section—literally and figuratively . . .”
\n—Eric M. Newman<\/p>\n

“A very nice hamburger with a couple of stale pieces of bread on it.”
\n—Larry Hodges<\/p>\n

“The sex scene was a little Tab A, Slot B.”
\n—Rhiannon Held[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1551239417694{background-color: #ffffff !important;}”][vc_column_text]”Take pity on your reader. Tell us things.”
\n—Rhiannon Held<\/p>\n

“I had to take a smoke after that scene.”
\n—Lancer Kind<\/p>\n

“He’s stupid, and he’s distant, but he’s not manipulative.”
\n—Elizabeth Hirst<\/p>\n

“That makes him seem kind of weird and obsessive as if he sucked the soul of an engineer.”
\n—Rhiannon Held<\/p>\n

“The first paragraph was all in her point of view. That definitely messed me up now that I’m an Odyssey Nazi.”
\n—Russell Scarola<\/p>\n

“I would try to act out what you are writing.”
\n—Elizabeth Hirst<\/p>\n

“If you give your wife cosmic organisms you better have some cosmic penicillin.”
\n—David Hendrickson<\/p>\n

“Acknowledging that a question isn’t answered isn’t the same as answering the question.”
\n—Robert J. Sawyer<\/p>\n

“You’ve derailed my train of thought. Damn you to hell. I’ll give you a Get-Out-of-Hell-Free card later.”
\n—Robert J. Sawyer<\/p>\n

“A HAITE story: Here’s An Idea, The End.”
\n—Robert J. Sawyer<\/p>\n

“In a universal sense, size does matter.”
\n—David Hendrickson<\/p>\n

“It kept threatening to start.”
\n—Eric M. Newman<\/p>\n

“Still, I need my pencil. It’s amazing I can talk to you without holding my pencil.”
\n—Laurie J. Marks<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Hirst: “Sonic the Hedgehog.”
\nLarry Hodges: “Son of a hedgehog?”<\/p>\n

“An ‘I’ jumped out at me. I was like, whoa!”
\n—Rhiannon Held<\/p>\n

“Ranting reader syndrome.”
\n—Lancer Kind<\/p>\n

“What the hell is wrong with me?”
\n—David Hendrickson<\/p>\n

“Usually nobody sees my stuff until it’s ready to be rejected.”
\n—David Hendrickson<\/p>\n

“We will remember every nasty word you say until the day you die.”
\n—Robert J. Sawyer<\/p>\n

“Let that be a lesson to you in whatever way it’s applicable.”
\n—Robert J. Sawyer<\/p>\n

“If they were saving my mum’s life, I wouldn’t dress up and do this.”
\n—Robert J. Sawyer<\/p>\n

“He seemed really comfortable in that poodle skirt.”
\n—Elizabeth Hirst[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_media_grid grid_id=”vc_gid:1608315523250-5a87df7a-df29-9″ include=”16243,16244,16245,16246,16247,16248,16249,16263,16250,16251,16252,16253,16254,16255,16256,16257,16258,16259,16260,16261,16262″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_row_inner css=”.vc_custom_1551238839456{background-color: #ffffff !important;}”][vc_column_inner][vc_single_image image=”16223″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_single_image image=”16224″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text] Back Row: Dave Hendrickson, Victoria Witt, Lancer Kind, Clayton Kroh, Eric Newman Second Row: Calie Voorhis, Russell Scarola, Terry Edge, Jeff Pert Third Row: Larry Hodges, Deborah Sacks, Robert J. Sawyer, Jeanne Cavelos, Susan Sielinski Front Row: Rhiannon Held, Adria […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":12661,"menu_order":11,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-15801","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t