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Books on Writing
- The Guide to Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction The book at the heart of all this!
- Writing Monsters Advice for SF, fantasy, and horror authors
- The Best of Fantasy Author's Handbook Volume I, 2009-2013
Buy My Books
- Six Guns & Spaceships Featuring my space opera western story “Rendezes”
- Devils of the Endless Deep My trip into the Fathomless Abyss
- Write to the Cover Featuring my story “Bella Lucky and the Titan of Tarvos”
- Australians, Buy Here! Order from Boomerang Books in Australia.
- The Best of Fantasy Authors Handbook …is now available–58 revised and expanded essays from the first five years of FAH!
- Tales from the Fathomless Abyss The anthology that started it all!
- The Haunting of Dragon's Cliff with Mel Odom, a new sword & sorcery barbarian is born!
- Completely Broken A novel of contemporary horror
- Annihilation My entry in the Forgotten Realms series R.A. Salvatore’s War of the Spider Queen
- A Reader's Guide to R.A. Salvatore's the Legend of Drizzt An essential companion to the greatest hero of the Forgotten Realms world
- I Made a Friend An alternate history/dieselpunk story for your Kindle!
- Morbid Dread of the Dawn Read my story in The Pulp Horror Book of Phobias!
- The Dogs Are In the Alley Again: A new horror story in Jitter #7
- Harbinger Asylum: Published one of my poems!
- The Lighthouse Keeper That Left A new poem in Harbinger’s Asylum!
- MegaTraveller: MANHUNT: Thirty-two years late, but better than never!
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Interviews & Guest Posts
- CLARKESWORLD INTERVIEW 1: I took part in a roundtable interview with other speculative fiction editors.
- MAKE-BELIEVE MONDAYS INTERVIEW: Debra Parmley’s Make-Believe Mondays is a must-read blog for SF/Fantasy fans, and she’s interviewed lil’ ol’ me!
- Celebrity Game Table: A detailed look at my Tegel Manor Campaign from 2003.
- Publisher's Weekly “Is the Universe Expanding or Contracting?”
- 10 Questions with…ME! I get grilled by Ryan Schneider.
- How to Write Horror: Reading, Breathing and the Long Sentence (at Writer’s Digest)
- SF Signal Mind Meld: Aliens I join other SF/F authors and editors on the subject of what makes a good alien.
- Writer's Digest Interview: On Writing F&SF.
- Porter Anderson vs. Movie Examples: With some nice things to say about my Living Dialogue seminar at the Writer’s Digest conference.
- Horror Authors: How to Scare the Heck Out of Your Readers A guest post at The Write Life with practical tips for scaring the crap out of your readers.
- The Fanitarium Podcast: Interviews Philip Athans
- Writer's Digest Guest Blog: How to Make a Vampire Not Suck
- Ask the (Book) Editors: Panel video from 2013 Emerald City Comicon!
- Worldcasting: I join the guys from Worldbuilding Magazine for a chat about… everything!
- Roleplaying Tips: Interviews me!
- Monsters in D&D, Books, Movies… Dicegeeks Podcast interview with Phil!
- How to Create a Magic System: M.S. Farzan and Storyteller’s Handbook features The Guide to Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction
- How To Write Monsters With Philip Athans The Creative Penn Podcasts me!
- Classic Monsters, Modern Love: How a New Generation of Fans is Keeping the Universal Monsters Alive
- Longwinded One Podcast: Episode 158: Philip Athans: The Years of Phil
- Inside Storytelling: Writing Monsters, Creatures & Villains
- Hunting for MANHUNT: The behind the scenes tale of my lost MegaTraveller adventure!
- G.W. Tirpa Lives! (or lived, anyway) Jordan Sorcery on Dark*Matter…gone but not forgotten.
Past Posts
Monthly Archives: September 2009
BOOKS FOR FANTASY AUTHORS II: PAYBACK
From time to time I’ll recommend—not review, mind you, but recommend, and yes, there is a difference—books that I think fantasy authors should have on their shelves. Some may be new and still in print, some may be difficult to … Continue reading
Posted in Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged Books, Fantasy, Fiction, Publishing, Science Fiction, Writing
2 Comments
VIGNETTE: PART TWO
Dex studied the terrain around him a little more closely as he continued to run, but still couldn’t find any possible hope of escape. The moon was small, the gravity and abrupt horizon told him that. He could run in … Continue reading
Posted in Science Fiction Story, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged Books, Fantasy, Fiction, Publishing, Science Fiction, Writing
Leave a comment
VIGNETTE: An unpublished space opera story in two parts. . . .
PART ONE The lonetrader Zexan burned into the uninhabited gravity well around Vignette 2323A sixteen minutes in front of the three Triss Lancers that had been chasing it through half the Neworld Frontier. Dexter Willis didn’t throw up, like he … Continue reading
Posted in Science Fiction Story, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged Books, Fantasy, Fiction, Publishing, Science Fiction, Writing
2 Comments
BORN AT THE RIGHT TIME
This blog is all about writing fantasy, and so far I’ve done stuff like suggest a book you should have in your library, and I’ve given you permission to start sentences with the words and and but. I’ve told you … Continue reading
Posted in Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged Books, Fantasy, Fiction, Publishing, Science Fiction, Star Trek, Writing
2 Comments
BOOKS FOR FANTASY AUTHORS I: MEDIEVAL WORDBOOK
From time to time I’ll recommend—not review, mind you, but recommend, and yes, there is a difference—books that I think fantasy authors should have on their shelves. Some may be new and still in print, some may be difficult to … Continue reading
Posted in Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged Books, Fantasy, Fiction, medieval, Publishing, Writing
4 Comments
Fantasy Author's Handbook 