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| Artwork by Renae De Liz |
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| Artwork by Renae De Liz |
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| Ray Bradbury, in 1966, with a picture that was part of a school project to illustrate characters in one of his dramas. |
“It was the face of spring, it was the face of summer, it was the warmness of clover breath. Pomegranate glowed in her lips, and the noon sky in her eyes. To touch her face was that always new experience of opening your window one December morning, early, and putting out your hand to the first white cool powdering of snow that had come, silently, with no announcement, in the night. And all of this, this breath-warmness and plum-tenderness was held forever in one miracle of photographic is chemistry which no clock winds could blow upon to change one hour or one second; this fine first cool white snow would never melt, but live a thousand summers.” --Dandelion Wine
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| All information below is summarized from the information provided on the workshop's website. All rights reserved by the original author. Click the link above for more detailed information on the Odyssey Writing Workshop |
Short fiction is the workshop's focus, with emphasis on science fiction, fantasy, and horror. You should come prepared to write several new stories during the course of the workshop, to experiment and take artistic risks, and to give and receive constructive criticism.The names of the instructors for the 2013 Workshop will be posted on July 26th, 2012, and the workshop will begin accepting applications for the 2013 season starting in December 2012.
Each week the workshop is taught by a different instructor, each a highly regarded author or editor offering their unique perspective on the field. Class size is limited to 18 students. Instructors work closely with students, critiquing stories, leading class discussions on technique and other professional concerns, and holding individual or small group conferences. Drawing on Seattle's vibrant SF community, the workshop also presents informal sessions with acclaimed area authors.
You will come away from the workshop with essential tools for improving your writing: good writing habits, the ability to analyze and critique others' stories and to evaluate critiques of your own work, and a set of friendships and professional contacts that can last a lifetime.
The morning had dawned clear and cold, with a crispness that hinted at the end of summer. They set forth at daybreak to see a man beheaded, twenty in all, and Bran rode among them, nervous with excitement. This was the first time he had been deemed old enough to go with his lord father and his brothers to see the king's justice done. It was the ninth year of summer, and the seventh of Bran's life.
The man had been taken outside a small holdfast in the hills. Robb thought he was a wildling, his sword sworn to Mance Rayder, the King-beyond-the-Wall. It made Bran's skin prickle to think of it. He remembered the hearth tales Old Nan told them. The wildlings were cruel men, she said, slavers and slayers and thieves. They consorted with giants and ghouls, stole girl children in the dead of night, and drank blood from polished horns. And their women lay with the Others in the Long Night to sire terrible half-human children.
But the man they found bound hand and foot to the holdfast wall awaiting the king's justice was old and scrawny, not much taller than Robb. He had lost both ears and a finger to frostbite, and he dressed all in black, the same as a brother of the Night's Watch, except that his furs were ragged and greasy.
The breath of man and horse mingled, steaming, in the cold morning air as his lord father had the man cut down from the wall and dragged before them. Robb and Jon sat tall and still on their horses, with Bran between them on his pony, trying to seem older than seven, trying to pretend that he'd seen all this before. A faint wind blew through the holdfast gate. Over their heads flapped the banner of the Starks of Winterfell: a grey direwolf racing across an ice-white field.
Bran's father sat solemnly on his horse, long brown hair stirring in the wind. His closely trimmed beard was shot with white, making him look older than his thirty-five years. He had a grim cast to his grey eyes this day, and he seemed not at all the man who would sit before the fire in the evening and talk softly of the age of heroes and the children of the forest. He had taken off Father's face, Bran thought, and donned the face of Lord Stark of Winterfell.
There were questions asked and answers given there in the chill of morning, but afterward Bran could not recall much of what had been said. Finally his lord father gave a command, and two of his guardsmen dragged the ragged man to the ironwood stump in the center of the square. They forced his head down onto the hard black wood. Lord Eddard Stark dismounted and his ward Theon Greyjoy brought forth the sword. "Ice," that sword was called. It was as wide across as a man's hand, and taller even than Robb. The blade was Valyrian steel, spell-forged and dark as smoke. Nothing held an edge like Valyrian steel.
His father peeled off his gloves and handed them to Jory Cassel, the captain of his household guard. He took hold of Ice with both hands and said, "In the name of Robert of the House Baratheon, the First of his Name, King of the Andals and the Rhoynar and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm, by the word of Eddard of the House Stark, Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North, I do sentence you to die." He lifted the great sword high above his head.
Bran's bastard brother Jon Snow moved closer. "Keep the pony well in hand," he whispered. "And don't look away. Father will know if you do."
Bran kept his pony well in hand, and did not look away.
His father took off the man's head with a single sure stroke. Blood sprayed out across the snow, as red as summerwine. One of the horses reared and had to be restrained to keep from bolting. Bran could not take his eyes off the blood. The snows around the stump drank it eagerly, reddening as he watched.
The head bounced off a thick root and rolled. It came up near Greyjoy's feet. Theon was a lean, dark youth of nineteen who found everything amusing. He laughed, put his boot on the head,and kicked it away.
"Ass," Jon muttered, low enough so Greyjoy did not hear. He put a hand on Bran's shoulder, and Bran looked over at his bastard brother.
"You did well," Jon told him solemnly. Jon was fourteen, an old hand at justice.
It seemed colder on the long ride back to Winterfell, though the wind had died by then and the sun was higher in the sky. Bran rode with his brothers, well ahead of the main party, his pony struggling hard to keep up with their horses.
"The deserter died bravely," Robb said. He was big and broad and growing every day, with his mother's coloring, the fair skin, red-brown hair, and blue eyes of the Tullys of Riverrun. "He had courage, at the least."
"No," Jon Snow said quietly. "It was not courage. This one was dead of fear. You could see it in his eyes, Stark." Jon's eyes were a grey so dark they seemed almost black, but there was little they did not see. He was of an age with Robb, but they did not look alike. Jon was slender where Robb was muscular, dark where Robb was fair, graceful and quick where his half brother was strong and fast.
Robb was not impressed. "The Others take his eyes," he swore. "He died well. Race you to the bridge?"
"Done," Jon said, kicking his horse forward. Robb cursed and followed, and they galloped off down the trail, Robb laughing and hooting, Jon silent and intent. The hooves of their horses kicked up showers of snow as they went.
Bran did not try to follow. His pony could not keep up. He had seen the ragged man's eyes, and he was thinking of them now. After a while, the sound of Robb's laughter receded, and the woods grew silent again.
That was when Jon reappeared on the crest of the hill before them. He waved and shouted down at them.
Then he was gone again.
Jory rode up beside them. "Trouble, my lord?"
"Beyond a doubt," his lord father said. "Come, let us see what mischief my sons have rooted out now." He sent his horse into a trot. Jory and Bran and the rest came after.
They found Robb on the riverbank north of the bridge, with Jon still mounted beside him. The late summer snows had been heavy this moonturn. Robb stood knee-deep in white, his hood pulled back so the sun shone in his hair. He was cradling something in his arm, while the boys talked in hushed, excited voices.
The riders picked their way carefully through the drifts, groping for solid footing on the hidden, uneven ground. Jory Cassel and Theon Greyjoy were the first to reach the boys. Greyjoy was laughing and joking as he rode. Bran heard the breath go out of him.
"Gods!" he exclaimed, struggling to keep control of his horse as he reached for his sword.
Jory's sword was already out. "Robb, get away from it!" he called as his horse reared under him.
>Robb grinned and looked up from the bundle in his arms. "She can't hurt you," he said. "She's dead, Jory."
Bran was afire with curiosity by then. He would have spurred the pony faster, but his father made them dismount beside the bridge and approach on foot. Bran jumped off and ran.
By then Jon, Jory, and Theon Greyjoy had all dismounted as well. "What in the seven hells is it?" Greyjoy was saying.
"A wolf," Robb told him.
"A freak," Greyjoy said. "Look at the size of it."
Bran's heart was thumping in his chest as he pushed through a waist-high drift to his brothers' side.
Half-buried in blood stained snow, a huge dark shape slumped in death. Ice had formed in its shaggy grey fur, and the faint smell of corruption clung to it like a woman's perfume. Bran glimpsed blind eyes crawling with maggots, a wide mouth full of yellowed teeth. But it was the size of it that made him gasp. It was bigger than his pony, twice the size of the largest hound in his father's kennel.
"It's no freak," Jon said calmly. "That's a direwolf. They grow larger than the other kind."
Theon Greyjoy said, "There's not been a direwolf sighted south of the Wall in two hundred years."
"I see one now," Jon replied.
Bran tore his eyes away from the monster. That was when he noticed the bundle in Robb's arms. He gave a cry of delight and moved closer. The pup was a tiny ball of grey-black fur, its eyes still closed. It nuzzled blindly against Robb's chest as he cradled it, searching for milk among his leathers, making a sad little whimpery sound. Bran reached out hesitantly. "Go on,"Robb told him. "You can touch him."
Bran gave the pup a quick nervous stroke, then turned as Jon said, "Here you go." His half brother put a second pup into his arms. "There are five of them." Bran sat down in the snow and hugged the wolf pup to his face. Its fur was soft and warm against his cheek.
"Direwolves loose in the realm, after so many years," muttered Hullen, the master of horse. "I like it not."
"It is a sign," Jory said.
Father frowned. "This is only a dead animal, Jory," he said. Yet he seemed troubled. Snow crunched under his boots as he moved around the body. "Do we know what killed her?"
"There's something in the throat," Robb told him, proud to have found the answer before his father even asked. "There, just under the jaw."
His father knelt and groped under the beast's head with his hand. He gave a yank and held it up for all to see. A foot of shattered antler, tines snapped off, all wet with blood.
A sudden silence descended over the party. The men looked at the antler uneasily, and no one dared to speak. Even Bran could sense their fear, though he did not understand.
His father tossed the antler to the side and cleansed his hands in the snow. "I'm surprised she lived long enough to whelp," he said. His voice broke the spell.
"Maybe she didn't," Jory said. "I've heard tales . . . maybe the bitch was already dead when the pups came."
"Born with the dead," another man put in. "Worse luck."
"No matter," said Hullen. "They be dead soon enough too."
Bran gave a wordless cry of dismay.
"The sooner the better," Theon Greyjoy agreed. He drew his sword.
"Give the beast here, Bran."
The little thing squirmed against him, as if it heard and understood.
"No!" Bran cried out fiercely. "It's mine."
"It be a mercy to kill them," Hullen said.
Bran looked to his lord father for rescue, but got only a frown, a furrowed brow. "Hullen speaks truly, son. Better a swift death than a hard one from cold and starvation."
"No!" He could feel tears welling in his eyes, and he looked away. He did not want to cry in front of his father.
"Lord Stark," Jon said. It was strange to hear him call Father that, so formal. Bran looked at him with desperate hope. "There are five pups," he told Father. "Three male, two female."
"What of it, Jon?"
"You have five true born children," Jon said. "Three sons, two daughters. The direwolf is the sigil of your House. Your children were meant to have these pups, my lord."
Bran saw his father's face change, saw the other men exchange glances. He loved Jon with all his heart at that moment. Even at seven, Bran understood what his brother had done. The count had come right only because Jon had omitted himself. He had included the girls, included even Rickon, the baby, but not the bastard who bore the surname Snow, the name that custom decreed be given to all those in the north unlucky enough to be born with no name of their own.
Their father understood as well. "You want no pup for yourself, Jon?" he asked softly.
"The direwolf graces the banners of House Stark," Jon pointed out. "I am no Stark, Father."
Their lord father regarded Jon thoughtfully. Robb rushed into the silence he left. "I will nurse him myself, Father," he promised. "I will soak a towel with warm milk, and give him suck from that."
"Me too!" Bran echoed.
The lord weighed his sons long and carefully with his eyes. "Easy to say, and harder to do. I will not have you wasting the servants' time with this. If you want these pups, you will feed them yourselves. Is that understood?"
Bran nodded eagerly. The pup squirmed in his grasp, licked at his face with a warm tongue.
It was not until they were mounted and on their way that Bran allowed himself to taste the sweet air of victory. By then, his pup was snuggled inside his leathers, warm against him, safe for the long ride home. Bran was wondering what to name him.
Halfway across the bridge, Jon pulled up suddenly.
"What is it, Jon?" their lord father asked.
"Can't you hear it?"
Bran could hear the wind in the trees, the clatter of their hooves on the ironwood planks, the whimpering of his hungry pup, but Jon was listening to something else.
"There," Jon said. He swung his horse around and galloped back across the bridge. They watched him dismount where the direwolf lay dead in the snow, watched him kneel. A moment later he was riding back to them, smiling.
"He must have crawled away from the others," Jon said.
"Or been driven away," their father said, looking at the sixth pup. His fur was white, where the rest of the litter was grey. His eyes were as red as the blood of the ragged man who had died that morning. Bran thought it curious that this pup alone would have opened his eyes while the others were still blind.
"An albino," Theon Greyjoy said with wry amusement. "This one will die even faster than the others."
Jon Snow gave his father's ward a long, chilling look. "I think not, Greyjoy," he said. "This one belongs to me."
 |
| The Winchester House - Santa Clara Valley, California |
{Untitled} George Lucas
Animated CGI musical featuring director Kevin Munroe (TMNT).
|
A Guy Named Rick
If Rick Cozwell doesn't fall in love in 60 days, the world will
end.
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A modern ghost story which turns a love/hate relationship between
mother and daughter into a tale of horror. Some rentals are too good to be
true.
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Created by Joe Madureira and published by DC Comics, "
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Bleach
The story of a boy who, after being attacked by an evil spirit,
receives all the powers of the soul reaper who comes to his aid.
|
Butterflies & Lightning
A dark, magical-realistic fairytale about a children's storybook
that mirrors the real lives of two blood brothers who are forever cursed to
fall in love with the same women.
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Two young women arrive in a nameless British town and claim to be
200-year-old vampires. Local teachers
and parents try to counsel the girls to get to the bottom of their
delusions. However, when people start
disappearing, people in the town must
confront the possibility that the two women are, in fact, what they say they
are. Stars Saoirse Ronan, Gemma
Arterton, and Caleb Landry Jones.
|
Chakan the Forever Man
A warrior, cursed
to live forever, pursues his latest nemesis into our time. He finds a world
he must fit into, long enough to save.
|
Cradlewood
Beck may have found the perfect man in Josh. Handsome, artistic,
young, rich and taking her to meet his mother, Irene, at the family home of
Cradlewood. But Josh is more than rich; Josh is heir to a fortune. A fortune
steeped in history and around which swirls a fog of family tales and legends.
And which one day soon will be all Josh's. But something goes wrong and Beck
has to watch as her loved one descends into a dark madness of paranoia and
fear. Will Beck be able to help Josh escape from his destiny or will she be
dragged down into his torment with him?
|
Delirium
Decades before
|
Elena’s Serenade
Serenade centers on a girl who crosses the Mexican desert to
become a glass blower. Infused with
music, magical realism, and dreams, the story unfolds as a hero’s journey of
innocence blooming into experience.
|
Enchanted 2
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Excalibur
Directed by Guy Ritchie.
The project is a re-imagining of the legend of Arthur, believed to
have been a 6th century king who defended
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Fallen
A lonely young woman finds herself courted by two competitive men
–fully unaware at first that they are angels who have vied for her love for
centuries.
|
Gravel
Revolves around the character William Gravel, a soldier in the
British S.A.S. who uses his skills in dark magic to moonlight and battle
supernatural beings for clients in order to make some extra cash.
|
Here There Be Monsters
The movie will follow along the same lines as the popular
alternate history monster movie sub–sub–genre where real times, places, and
historical figures have monsters and all kinds of beasties thrown into the
mix.
Here There Be Monsters revolves around real–life Revolutionary War naval hero, John
Paul Jones, only in this telling of his story, some big, scary sea monsters
will be involved. Why make boring historically accurate Oscar bait movies
when you can add freakin’ sea monsters? A question worth pondering, indeed.
|
Imaginaerum
Imaginaerum tells the story of
an elderly composer, Tom, who suffers from severe dementia. As he has had the
disease for years and has regressed into childhood, he remembers practically
nothing from his adult life. His music, friends, all his past including the
memory of his daughter are a blur in his fragile mind. All he has left is the
imagination of a ten year old boy. As he drifts away into coma, it seems
impossible to get back what he has lost. Or is it?
The film is a journey between two different dimensions. Tom travels through his imaginary world seeking answers and finding memories, while his daughter, Gem, tries to recover the bond she had once shared with her father in the real world. As they have become more and more distant from each other over the years, and as theres even greater obstacles separating them now Toms coma and his imminent death Gems project feels doomed to failure. However, through Toms darkest secrets, Gem discovers the path she must follow in order to find her father again. There are some questions we must ask ourselves before entering the world of Imaginaerum. What is most important in life? Can the power of memories protect us during our last moments? Will our imagination help us find the spark of life in the deepest darkness? Can we still find love after bitter forgiveness? Imaginaerum is an emotional fantasy-adventure powered by the music of Nightwish. The story reminds us of our childhood where the smallest but most precious thing meant everything and losing it would have left an everlasting scar. Now its time to reopen the wound and see what became of it, but above all, where it came from. |
John Dies at the End
The movie is about a drug, colloquially known as Soy Sauce, that
allows users to drift across time and dimensions... but some who come back
are no longer human. An otherworldly
invasion is suddenly underway, and mankind needs a hero. Instead, mankind gets a pair of college
dropouts—John and David—who can barely hold down jobs.
|
Legends
The story is set in motion when the remains of Pinocchio are
discovered. Red Hood, now a noted wolf
hunter, and Jack, the Giant Killer, partner to discover who is murdering the
creatures of folklore. Along the way,
they are assisted by characters, such as Goldilocks, re-imagined as a
mercenary, and Hansel & Gretel, now psychic exterminators.
|
Lizzie’s World: The Secret of
the Magic Trunk
A young girl and her family move into a mysterious old house,
where she discovers a secret world of animated characters.
|
Marco Polo
The project, directed by Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend), will be a
fantasy-adventure rather than a biopic .
|
Medieval
Described as “The Dirty Dozen” set in the Middle Ages, and centers
on seven imprisoned men – a gypsy, a thief, a samurai, a knight, a monk, an
Arab, and a Viking.
|
Mugworth
|
Oz: Return to the
It is a modern day tale that follows lawyer Dorothy Neil,
granddaughter of former Oz visitor Dorothy Gale. As the story goes, Neil and
a young child -- the daughter of her boss -- end up in the magical land,
where they team up with the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion to
bring down a new evil witch.
|
Pan
A spin on JM Barrie’s tale of Peter Pan, where Pan is a villain
being hunted by a police captain named Hook.
|
Ryann Watters and the King’s
Sword
From the highly acclaimed Christian series of Children's Books,
it's up to Ryann Watters and his friends to unravel the mystery of the King's
Sword and defeat evil in a spiritual battle between two worlds. This is the
exciting story of Ryann Watters' quest into the mythical animated
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Second Time Around
A prominent criminal attorney is killed during a trial, by his own
client, leaving behind his wife and 13 year old son. His law firm business
partner and childhood best friend gets charged and convicted with plotting
the killing with the client. Two years later, the wife remarries,
unfortunately to an abusive, powerful politician. As her child turns 17, he
witnesses another drunken beating of his mother by his step father, he tries
to help her, making the stepfather turn on him and proceed to beat him
mercilessly as the mother watches in horror. The mother runs to the closet,
retrieves a gun and comes back to see the stepfather sitting on top of the
kid, hitting his head on the bare floor. She shoots the husband multiple
times, killing him. Her son is taken to a trauma center, where he remains in
a coma. She gets arrested and charged with murder, by the same prosecutor who
witnessed her husband's murder in the courtroom and convicted the law firm
partner. Unable to make bail, she's remanded to the city jail, to be given a
public defender. The law firm partner, now out on probation and unable to
practice law, visits the woman's son. The son awakens at the hospital and
realizes his father is sharing his body. The boy convinces his mother of who
he is and instructs her to ask the presiding judge at the preliminary
hearing, to allow the boy to represent her, with the husband's friend as a
consultant. The petition is granted with prejudice. It is understood that if
the kid fails to provide proper representation, a public defender will be
taking over. A web starts to untangle as the kid shows to court to represent
his mother. Not only is he doing a great job at defending her but also at
unraveling the mystery of his father's murder. As they approach the closing
arguments, the father has been having a hard time remaining for extended
periods of time in the boy's body. The boy is forced to complete his own
closing arguments, not only to save his mother but to clear his father's
friend from killing him and, to bring the real murderer to justice.
|
Serpent Girl
A young carnival worker who hits the road with a flipper-armed
"serpent girl" in order to track down a band of thieving circus
freaks.
|
Soulstice: Luna’s Dream
Soulstice is a teen romance
written in the voice of its 15-year-old narrator, Luna Tremaine, a vampire
who breaks the cultural code of her species by falling in love with a human
boy, Paul James.
|
The Brass Teapot
Based on the comic book series "The Brass Teapot" about
mid-twenty year old couple who, in these difficult economic times, finds a
mysterious, magical brass teapot which makes them money but at a surprising
price. After realizing the teapots powers, John and Alice must decide how far
they will go to fulfill their dream.
|
The Giver
An adaptation of Lois Lowry’s Newberry Award-winning book by the
same title.
|
The Hauntrepeneur
The story centers on a family that has trouble adjusting to a new
town and hires a peculiar man, the Hauntrepreneur, to help it. The man
attempts to bring them together by creating a haunted house populated by an
odd cast of characters. Starring
Russell Brand.
|
The Last Dragon
A remake of the 1985 cult classic, with Samuel Jackson set to star
as the film’s bad guy.
|
The Mortal Instruments
An adaptation of Cassandra Clare’s bestselling young-adult fantasy
trilogy, about a young girl who inherited the ability to see and interact
with a clan of supernatural spirits.
|
The Mystic Tales of Nikolas
Winter
A great magician must do battle with an immortal alchemist.
|
The
Based off of Bunyan's classic 1678 novel "the Pilgrim's
Progress.” A soldier, in mortal fear
of destruction at the hands of tyrannical religious ruling forces, flees his
home in search of freedom and the means to save himself and his family from a
fate worse than death.
|
The
Scotland, 1691: The solemn Reverend Robert Kirk stands before the
graveside of his dead wife and child, clutching a slim leather bound book.
This is no bible but 'The
|
The Wind in the Willows
A live-action/CGI blend adaptation of Kenneth Grahame’s children’s
classic, brought to you by the creative team behind Lord of the Rings and
King Kong. Accounts the friendship of
four friends (Rat, Mole, Badger, and Toad) whose adventures test the very
fiber of their loyalty. Film is set to
star Ricky Gervais.
|
Thieves of
The world of Sinbad, Ali Baba, and magic genies collide in a
family adventure.
|
Upside Down
About a boy [Adam] who is searching an alternate universe for a
long-lost love from his youth [Eve].
Stars Kirsten Dunst and Jim Sturgess.
|
Wicked Lovely
A teenage girl named Aislinn is pursued by a fairy king looking to
save his planet. Based on the book by
Melissa Marr.
|
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