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- Writing for Different Age Groups indiesunlimited.com/2020/01/14/wri… via @IndiesUnlimited 2 hours ago
- Starting February 6: All stories are about people. A story can be defined as: characters in conflict. No matter wh… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 4 hours ago
- I have no idea if someone is impersonating me on GoodReads nor could I imagine why they might, but in any case, thi… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 6 hours ago
!NEW!
- Morbid Dread of the Dawn Read my story in The Pulp Horror Book of Phobias!
- Worldcasting: I join the guys from Worldbuilding Magazine for a chat about… everything!
- Harbinger Asylum: Published one of my poems!
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.
- Google eBookstore Buy ebooks for various readers.
- UK Readers Buy Here! For our friends in the United Kingdom, via WHSmith
- 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
- 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!
- The Dogs Are In the Alley Again: A new horror story in Jitter #7
Communicate With Me
- Twitter @PhilAthans Admit it, you need to keep up with me at least a couple times a day.
- LinkedIn Here’s my public profile on LinkedIn, for what it’s worth
- Athans & Associates Creative Consulting Creative consulting services from an IP development pro.
- GoodReads Join me at Facebook-for-readers
Grasping for the Wind
- Content is King: My Grasping for the Wind swan song. Be a CONTENT PROVIDER!
- ROBOT IS THE NEW VAMPIRE Read my first column on Grasping for the Wind!
- THE WORLDS THAT OUTGREW THEIR STORIES September Column: Two Roads to Intellectual Property Success
- THROW YOUR BOOK A PARTY Advice for Authors on Signings and In-store Events
- Five Things Every Aspiring Author Should Know Don’t say I never warned you!
- Is Science Fiction Bad for Us? My December 2010 column on the desensitizing effect of SF.
- Convention Etiquette for Professionals and Panelists Tips for conventioneers with help from Jack Emmert, Richard Garfield, James Minz, Matthew Stover, and Kristine Katheryn Rusch
- Pile on the Huge: In which I discuss scale in SF books and movies.
- The Knee-jerk Reductionism of our Ill-considered Bloggers I jump in on the debate: Is fantasy morally bankrupt?
- Why I Read Five Books at Once The method to my (reading) madness.
- Been There, Survived That: Notes from the “bookpocalypse” as seen from the “recordmaggedon.”
- SFFWRCHT: The transcript of a wild-and-wooly Twitter chat session.
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!
- The Creative Penn added me to their list of editors!
- Kindlepreneur added me to their list of editors!
- Roleplaying Tips: Interviews me!
- How to Create a Magic System: M.S. Farzan and Storyteller’s Handbook features The Guide to Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction
Writer's Digest Online Tutorials
- ACT OF VILLAINY: Breathing Life Into Your Antagonist…up now at Writer’s Digest University!
- Five Things Every Horror Author Needs to Know: A Writer’s Digest Tutorial
- The First 10 Pages: How to make the best first impression with your writing.
- Engaging Your Readers Through Emotion and Description: Show, don’t tell!
- Writing Scary: The full 69-minute online tutorial on scaring the crap out of your readers, via Writer’s Digest University.
- Keeping Pace, Part 1: The Big Picture, via Writer’s Digest
- Keeping Pace, Part 2: Pacing an Action Scene, via Writer’s Digest
- Worldbuilding Basics for Fantasy & Science Fiction Looking for a good place to start? This is it!
- Six Strategies for Breaking Through Writer's Block Get back to writing!
- Navigating the Author-Editor Relationship Insight into publishing’s most crucial give-and-take.
- LIVING DIALOG: Bring Your Characters’ Words to Life
- Rarefied Atmosphere: Crafting a Unique Sense of Place
- Point of View: Whose Story is This, Anyway?
Writer's Digest University Courses
- Horror Writing Intensive: Analyzing the Work of Genre Master Stephen King
- Worldbuilding: Revised 4-week course for SF & fantasy worldbuilders.
- Pulp Fiction Workshop Starting again soon–register now!
- Advanced Horror Workshop: NEW 4-week course for the serious horror author.
Past Posts
Category Archives: characters
ANOTHER POST ON THE SUBJECT OF DIALOG?
Sure, why not? Fanny Ellsworth, editor of Ranch Romances was quoted in “Magazine Editor Warns Against Loss of Originality”: Do you put thought on your dialogue—to make it sound natural without making it full of queerly spelled words that will … Continue reading
Posted in authors helping authors, authors to writers, best fantasy blogs, best genre fiction blogs, best horror blogs, best science fiction blogs, best websites for authors, best websites for writers, Books, characters, fiction writing blog, fiction writing websites, help for writers, helping writers become authors, how to write fantasy, how to write fiction, how to write horror, how to write science fiction, Publishing Business, Pulp Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, SF and Fantasy Authors, websites for authors, websites for writers, writers to authors, Writing, writing advice, writing fantasy, writing horror, writing science fiction, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged author, authors, best fantasy novels, Books, editor, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, Science Fiction, Writing, writing advice, writing dialog, writing exercises
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PHANTOMS: EXPLORING WEIRD TALES Vol. 5, No. 1—PART 28
Well, we’ve done it. We’ve made it to the end of our months-long exploration of the January 1925 issue of Weird Tales with the short story “Phantoms” by Laurence R. D’Orsay. Let’s take this story as a chance not just … Continue reading
Posted in authors helping authors, authors to writers, best genre fiction blogs, best horror blogs, best science fiction blogs, best websites for authors, best websites for writers, characters, fiction writing blog, fiction writing websites, help for writers, helping writers become authors, how to write fantasy, how to write fiction, how to write horror, how to write science fiction, Publishing Business, Pulp Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, SF and Fantasy Authors, Story Structure, websites for authors, websites for writers, writers to authors, Writing, writing advice, writing fantasy, writing horror, writing science fiction, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged author, authors, best fantasy novels, Books, genre fiction, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, Science Fiction, Weird Tales, Writing, writing advice
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FANTASY NAMES ARE HARD
Adam Bassett began his Worldbuilding Magazine article “Naming people: Creating New Naming Customs” with: “Names have value. Aside from an identity, an individual’s name offers something greater: a glimpse of the person’s culture, history, and ancestry.” I could not agree … Continue reading
Posted in authors helping authors, authors to writers, best fantasy blogs, best genre fiction blogs, best horror blogs, best science fiction blogs, best websites for authors, best websites for writers, Books, characters, Dungeons & Dragons, fiction writing blog, fiction writing websites, Game of Thrones, help for writers, helping writers become authors, how to write fantasy, how to write fiction, how to write horror, how to write science fiction, intellectual property development, Publishing Business, Pulp Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, SF and Fantasy Authors, websites for authors, websites for writers, writers to authors, Writing, writing advice, writing fantasy, writing horror, writing science fiction, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged author, authors, best fantasy novels, best sellers, Books, creative process, Dungeons & Dragons, editor, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, Science Fiction, Wizards of the Coast, worldbuilding, Writing, writing advice
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THE FESTIVAL: EXPLORING WEIRD TALES Vol. 5, No. 1—PART 27
And finally our exploration of the January 1925 issue of Weird Tales has brought us to the magazine’s most famous (some will say infamous) alum: H.P. Lovecraft and his short story “The Festival,” which, though written in 1923, was published … Continue reading
Posted in authors helping authors, authors to writers, best fantasy blogs, best genre fiction blogs, best horror blogs, best science fiction blogs, best websites for authors, best websites for writers, Books, characters, fiction writing blog, fiction writing websites, help for writers, helping writers become authors, how to write fantasy, how to write fiction, how to write horror, how to write science fiction, monsters, Publishing Business, Pulp Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, SF and Fantasy Authors, websites for authors, websites for writers, writers to authors, Writing, writing advice, writing fantasy, writing horror, writing science fiction, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged author, authors, best fantasy novels, Books, creative process, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, Science Fiction, Weird Tales, worldbuilding, Writing, writing advice
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TOO WEIRD TO DESCRIBE
Let’s start with an often used (because it’s so great) example from the best known practitioner of “too weird to describe,” H.P. Lovecraft. Here’s his first person description of the shoggoths from his classic At the Mountains of Madness: “South … Continue reading
Posted in authors helping authors, authors to writers, best fantasy blogs, best genre fiction blogs, best horror blogs, best science fiction blogs, best websites for authors, best websites for writers, Books, characters, fiction writing blog, fiction writing websites, help for writers, helping writers become authors, horror novels, how to write fantasy, how to write fiction, how to write horror, how to write science fiction, monsters, Pulp Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, SF and Fantasy Authors, websites for authors, websites for writers, writers to authors, Writing, writing advice, writing fantasy, writing horror, writing science fiction, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged author, authors, best fantasy novels, Books, creative process, editor, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, Science Fiction, Weird Tales, worldbuilding, Writing, writing advice, writing exercises
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ARHL-A OF THE CAVES: EXPLORING WEIRD TALES Vol. 5, No. 1—PART 26
Continuing what has come to seem like an endless exploration of the January 1925 issue of Weird Tales we arrive at “Arhl-a of the Caves” by C.M. Eddy, Jr, author of “the Ghost-Eater,” “With Weapons of Stone,” etc., or so … Continue reading
Posted in authors helping authors, authors to writers, best fantasy blogs, best genre fiction blogs, best horror blogs, best science fiction blogs, best websites for authors, best websites for writers, Books, characters, fiction writing blog, fiction writing websites, help for writers, how to write fantasy, how to write fiction, how to write horror, how to write science fiction, Publishing Business, Pulp Fiction, SF and Fantasy Authors, Story Structure, websites for authors, websites for writers, writers to authors, Writing, writing advice, writing fantasy, writing horror, writing science fiction, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged author, authors, best fantasy novels, Books, creative process, editor, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, Philip Athans, Publishing, Science Fiction, Weird Tales, Writing, writing advice, writing dialog, writing exercises, writing process
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THE REMORSE OF PROFESSOR PANEBIANCO: EXPLORING WEIRD TALES Vol. 5, No. 1—PART 25
Feeling a bit off-kilter this morning so I need a little fun pulp fiction. Let’s dive back into our read-through of the January 1925 issue of Weird Tales with “The Remorse of Professor Panebianco” by Greye La Spina. I have … Continue reading
Posted in authors helping authors, authors to writers, best fantasy blogs, best genre fiction blogs, best horror blogs, best science fiction blogs, best websites for authors, best websites for writers, Books, characters, fiction writing blog, fiction writing websites, help for writers, helping writers become authors, horror novels, how to write fantasy, how to write fiction, how to write horror, how to write science fiction, Publishing Business, Pulp Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, SF and Fantasy Authors, websites for authors, websites for writers, writers to authors, Writing, writing advice, writing fantasy, writing horror, writing science fiction, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged author, authors, Books, creative process, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, Science Fiction, Weird Tales, Writing, writing advice, writing process
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