Wormholes

We are excited to present The Wayward Wormhole Barbados ⁜ February 2026 ⁜ The Art of the Novella

Novellas are growing in popularity, and we want to help yours stand out.

Structurally, they can get tricky—they’re not mini-novels anymore than children are mini-adults—while still demanding full, fleshy, character arcs and immersive descriptions.

What if you could learn from professionals, while editing YOUR novella with real-time feedback during a workshop?

Applications for this Science-fiction/Fantasy/Horror Novella Workshop

OPEN: March 21, 2025 CLOSE: MAY 15, 2025, AT 11:59:59 EST  

SUBMIT: One page, single spaced, novella synopsis and the first ten pages by May 15, 2025.

(The full novella is due October 15, 2025)

 E-mail your name and the file to: applywaywardwormhole@gmail.com

1. Pay the application fee of $25.00 USD through PayPal to catrambo@gmail.com

or Venmo to cat-rambo-1

If you can’t use these options or need help with the application/payment process, please contact us using the “apply” address above.

Work closely with:

Premee Mohamed  https://premeemohamed.com/

Karen Lord  https://karenlord.wordpress.com/

Tobias Buckell  https://tobiasbuckell.com/

Cat Rambo  https://www.catrambo.com/

Hone YOUR novella during the workshop, and leave knowing you’ve effectively incorporated new tools into your work. Selected students will be randomly sorted into cohorts of six. Each cohort will spend three days with each instructor.

• Day One will include a morning and afternoon workshop that includes specific exercises that focus on the day’s topic.
• Day Two is your chance to apply one or both exercises to any scene from YOUR novella. You’ll send both the original scene and the edited version to the people in your cohort and the professional for critique and discussion.
• Day Three is for critique circles. Your scene will be critiqued by each member of your cohort and the professional.

PLUS: A full novella, One on One discussion with a professional

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WHEN: February 7 to 21, 2026

WHERE: Oistins area, Christ Church, Barbados

FEE:  $2,500.00 US

(travel, accommodations, and food NOT included)

The Wayward Wormhole is working to secure group rates at selected hotels.

TESTIMONIALS:

SARAH DAY

the solitary desolation wilderness outside our door and the ready access to a group of other writers was the perfect combination. I love the desert--between the time I spend in Black Rock City every year and the trips I took to eastern LA country through so much of 2024, I've seen many of its different faces and moods. But much of my cohort had never been to the desert before, and came into the house from long walks talking like they were freshly returned from the surface of an alien planet. I was happy to meet a new desert, and happy to see my new friends find as much to appreciate about it as I have.

As for myself, I took walks by myself, picking over goat bones and shotgun shells, finding the perimeter of the property and thinking about the arbitrary lines we use to carve up the earth, thinking about the arbitrary lines we use to subdivide our lives into chapters and eras and relationship statuses, and listened to what drifted through the bubble of silence.

The desert only ever says one word, and that word is listen.

ROBERT CHANG

“…it took years of persuasion…to finally start applying to prestigious writing workshops. The reasons I had resisted were: 1) I’ve been self-taught in everything I have done professionally–art, music, photography, directing, writing–and I believed I could achieve my goal of becoming a novelist much the same way… The counterargument…: 1) The friends… and the network…are some of the best things about these in-person writing workshops…. 2) Critiquing and getting critiqued by other writers of a similar level as yourself is extremely helpful… 3) There will be lively discussions.

What I discovered for myself is that those are indeed true, but there’s an additional element, and that is the real-time interactivity generating unexpected conversations and events you otherwise wouldn’t have…. There’s something about being face-to-face with someone that will prompt reactions and lines of thought that might not have happened in less immediate situations. This factor doesn’t just apply to the chats at the dinner table…, but also to the classes taught by the instructors (in this case, Donald Maass, C.C. Finlay, and Cat Rambo). And this is an important point.

There’s no way reading books on craft, or listening to writing podcasts, or watching videos from writers on YouTube, real-time chatting in Discord servers, or Zoom meetings can rival that kind of immediacy, personalization, and sense of presence. Not even close.

And then there are the one-on-one sessions with each of the instructors. I mean, come on. What aspiring writer or those in their early writing career phase don’t crave this opportunity.

Speaking for myself, I got extremely valuable feedback from all three instructors and I enjoyed their different approaches. I soaked all of it up like a sponge.

I can’t talk about the workshop experience without mentioning the firelight readings outside in the courtyard one night, when Cat, Don, and Charlie each read a short story or an excerpt from a novel of theirs as we listened in spellbound silence in front of the flickering orange flame of the firepit. The only sounds were the clear voices of the storytellers and the crackling of the fire.

You really had to be there.