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- The Myth Of The Sunken City | Dirge Magazine snip.ly/ksnr1 27 minutes ago
- Rarefied Atmosphere: Crafting a Unique Sense of Place…Latest online tutorial via @WritersDigest tutorials.writersdigest.com/courses/rarefi… #writing ANY GENRE! 2 hours ago
- Worldbuilding in #fantasy & #ScienceFiction #writing via @WritersDigest writersonlineworkshops.com/courses/worldb… Starts Thursday!... fb.me/OklCvuQU 3 hours ago
Buy My Books
- KINDLE SUBSCRIPTION Subscribe to Fantasy Author’s Handbook for your Kindle!
- The City is Theirs My contribution to the Warhammer world!
- 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!
- How to Start Your Own Religion You won’t be the first science fiction author to try!
- 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
- Whisper of Waves First in the Forgotten Realms Watercourse Trilogy
- I Made a Friend An alternate history/dieselpunk story for your Kindle!
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.
- Facebook Eventually, it happens to us all.
- Story Coaching One-on-one time on your project, via Writer’s Digest
- GoodReads Join me at Facebook-for-readers
- NaNoWriMo Reviews I’m still accepting manuscript reviews for NaNoWriMo (and other) authors
Gamasutra
- The Case for In-house Publishing My featured post at Gamasutra, which includes a TSR history lesson.
- A Little Respect: Writers deserve respect. There, I said it.
- The Gaming Revolution Will Be…Read? My case for more video game tie-in novels.
Grasping for the Wind
- SEPTEMBER 7: NATIONAL BUY A BOOK DAY Go to Grasping for the Wind, read my column, then buy a book on September 7!
- 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?”
- FANTASY BOOK CRITIC reviews The Guide to Writing Fantasy & Science Fiction
- Another Top 100 List Thank you Feedspot!
- Bolthole Interview: I talk Warhammer, writing, and more with a great Games Workshop fan site.
- 10 Questions with…ME! I get grilled by Ryan Schneider.
- SF Signal Mind Meld: Aliens I join other SF/F authors and editors on the subject of what makes a good alien.
- Pro Se Podcast: I talk new pulp with Tommy Hancock!
- Writer's Digest Popular Fiction Awards: Some notes on being a short story judge.
- The Shelf-Life of Sci-Fi Storytelling A love letter to the pulps.
- Author Learning Center An interview covering writing SF/F.
- Quintessential Editor on Writing Monsters Another positive review!
- 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.
- Writer's Digest Guest Blog: How to Make a Vampire Not Suck
- Ask the (Book) Editors: Panel video from 2013 Emerald City Comicon!
- Flames Rising on Writing Monsters: A favorable review from Steven Dawes.
- The 100 Best Websites for Writers in 2015: And Fantasy Author’s Handbook made the list!
- Words Are My Medicine reviews Writing Monsters
- A Great New Review of Writing Monsters: From Kids’ Animal Station
- The Creative Penn added me to their list of editors!
- Kindlepreneur added me to their list of editors!
NEW!
- TOP TEN BOOKS TO IMPROVE YOUR WRITING Including The Guide to Writing Fantasy & Science Fiction!
- Roleplaying Tips: Interviews me!
- LIVING DIALOG: Bring Your Characters’ Words to Life
- Unplag Interview: A few thoughts from me on writing fantasy.
- Thieves Guild Reviews: The Guide to Writing Fantasy & Science Fiction
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.
- Worldbuilding New course starting soon–register now!
- Pulp Fiction Workshop Starting again soon–register now!
- Horror Writing Intensive: Analyzing the Work of Genre Master Stephen King
Resources
- 100 Monologues A new favorite online destination
- SF SIGNAL: A great source of news, opinions, and links for all things SF.
- New York Times Books: Reviews, news, and so on from the Old School.
- GAMASUTRA: News and opinions from the video game universe.
- LOCUS Online: SF’s magazine of record.
- McSWEENEY'S INTERNET TENDENCY: Because it’s frickin’ awesome.
- Hazlitt Smart writing to be found here
- TED Talks Watch one a day and be smarter
Past Posts
Category Archives: RPG
LOVECRAFT’S FIVE DEFINITE ELEMENTS, PART 5: THE DAMAGE IT CAUSES
We’ve come to the end of a five-part series inspired by H.P. Lovecraft’s essay “Notes on Writing Weird Fiction” in which one paragraph stood out for me as the beginnings of a horror/weird fantasy manifesto: Each weird story—to speak more … Continue reading
Posted in Books, characters, Dungeons & Dragons, fantasy movies, horror movies, horror novels, how to write fantasy, how to write fiction, how to write horror, how to write science fiction, intellectual property development, monsters, Publishing Business, Pulp Fiction, RPG, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, SF and Fantasy Authors, Story Structure, transmedia, Writing, writing advice, writing fantasy, writing horror, writing science fiction, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged author, authors, best fantasy novels, Books, creative process, Dungeons & Dragons, editor, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, H.P. Lovecraft, Wizards of the Coast, worldbuilding, Writing, writing advice, writing process
1 Comment
RANDOM PLOTS & WRITING PROMPTS
This morning I ran across the article “Plot Devices: Help for Writing Your Yarn” by Edward J. Wood, which looks at, primarily, three sources for plot ideas: George Polti’s 36 Dramatic Situations, Plotto by William Wallace Cook, and Wycliffe A. … Continue reading
Posted in Books, characters, freelance writing, horror movies, horror novels, how to write fantasy, how to write fiction, how to write horror, how to write science fiction, indie publishing, intellectual property development, monsters, NaNoWriMo, Publishing Business, Pulp Fiction, Romance Novels, RPG, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, science fiction movies, SF and Fantasy Authors, Story Structure, transmedia, 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, fantasy-romance, Fiction, genre fiction, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, Science Fiction, Writing, writing advice, writing exercises, writing process
5 Comments
WORLDBUILDING: GOVERNMENTS
With another round of my online course Worldbuilding in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing starting this Thursday, I’ve been going through the daily additional material that’s part of the course, and I’d like to share a couple of those items, … Continue reading
Posted in Books, characters, Dungeons & Dragons, freelance editing, freelance writing, Game of Thrones, horror novels, how to write fantasy, how to write fiction, how to write horror, how to write science fiction, intellectual property development, monsters, Publishing Business, Pulp Fiction, RPG, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, SF and Fantasy Authors, technology, transmedia, Writing, writing advice, writing fantasy, writing horror, writing science fiction, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged author, authors, best fantasy novels, Books, Conan, creative process, Dungeons & Dragons, editor, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, Science Fiction, worldbuilding, Writing, writing advice, writing process
3 Comments
FAREWELL, SF SIGNAL, AND YOU’RE WELCOME FOR ALL THE FISH
On May 5, 2016, barely more than two weeks ago, John DeNardo announced that the venerable SF Signal mega-blog would be shutting down for good. I was blown away—crushed, even. At the top of my browser are a bunch of … Continue reading
Posted in Books, comic books, conventions, Dungeons & Dragons, E-Books, fantasy movies, horror movies, horror novels, how to write fantasy, how to write fiction, how to write horror, how to write science fiction, indie publishing, intellectual property development, monsters, POD, Publishing Business, Pulp Fiction, RPG, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, science fiction movies, science fiction technology, SF and Fantasy Authors, transmedia, Video Games, Writing, writing advice, writing fantasy, writing horror, writing science fiction, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged author, Author Interview, authors, best fantasy novels, Books, comic books, creative process, Dungeons & Dragons, editor, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, Science Fiction, Star Trek, Star Wars novels, Wizards of the Coast, worldbuilding, Writing
1 Comment
JOHNNY SOKKO AND HIS FLYING ROBOT IS AN ETERNAL WELLSPRING OF PURE JOY
I’m not even sure there’s much left to say after that. Well, okay. I’ll try. Unbeknownst to me at the time, sometime in, I think, October of last year one of our local secondary cable channels started running the Comet … Continue reading
Posted in Anime, Books, characters, creative team, fantasy movies, how to write fantasy, how to write fiction, how to write horror, how to write science fiction, intellectual property development, monsters, Publishing Business, Pulp Fiction, RPG, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, science fiction technology, SF and Fantasy Authors, technology, transmedia, Writing, writing advice, writing fantasy, writing horror, writing science fiction, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged author, authors, best fantasy novels, Books, comic books, creative process, editor, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, Science Fiction, worldbuilding, Writing
7 Comments
OUTLINING WITH NOTE CARDS 4: THE OUTLINE ITSELF
If you haven’t been following along with this exercise in using note cards to plot/outline a novel, go back at least to here and catch up. This next step is what Holly Lisle recommended doing after I’ve got my note … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Dungeons & Dragons, horror novels, how to write fiction, intellectual property development, monsters, NaNoWriMo, Publishing Business, Pulp Fiction, RPG, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, Science Fiction Story, SF and Fantasy Authors, transmedia, Writing, writing advice, writing horror, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged author, authors, Books, creative process, Dungeons & Dragons, editor, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, Science Fiction, worldbuilding, Writing, writing advice, writing exercises, writing process
2 Comments
OUTLINING WITH NOTE CARDS 3: THE “PLOTTING UNDER PRESSURE” METHOD
On August 18th I challenged myself to actually do some of the writing exercises I’ve recommended to others. That led to one success and one failure. The last of them we’ll cover this week, as part of a series of … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Dungeons & Dragons, horror novels, how to write fiction, intellectual property development, monsters, NaNoWriMo, Publishing Business, Pulp Fiction, RPG, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, Science Fiction Story, SF and Fantasy Authors, transmedia, Writing, writing advice, writing horror, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged author, authors, Books, creative process, Dungeons & Dragons, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, Science Fiction, worldbuilding, Writing, writing advice, writing exercises, writing process
9 Comments
