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Fantasy Author’s Datebook
July 2020 M T W T F S S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Are you following me?
- Honestly I think it's fine that… No, actually, I don’t. It’s not fine. It's never fine. Nothing is fine. Ever. (… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 54 minutes ago
- Is there some reason that no matter what I do I always hover around 3900 Twitter followers? Do I smell funny? 1 hour ago
- One-on-one coaching from Athans & Associates Creative Consulting we can help your #writing career get started or ge… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 1 hour ago
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
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.
- 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!
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
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!
- How to Create a Magic System: M.S. Farzan and Storyteller’s Handbook features The Guide to Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction
Past Posts
Category Archives: technology
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
A BREAK FOR SOME SCIENCE NEWS
Despite the doom and gloom that seems to have settled over the poor beleaguered U.S. of A. lately, there’s some fascinating things happening, news of which is buried somewhere under the presidential campaign that’s ripping the country apart at the … Continue reading
Posted in Books, characters, horror movies, horror novels, how to write fantasy, how to write fiction, how to write horror, how to write science fiction, intellectual property development, NASA, Publishing Business, 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, Books, creative process, Fiction, genre fiction, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, Science Fiction, Star Trek, worldbuilding, Writing, writing advice
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MY 3.85-HOUR WORK DAY
I’ve used this space to suffer over my personal work ethic, writing process, and relative lack or excess of projects, and I don’t really want to belabor the point, but . . . here I go, once more belaboring the point in hopes … Continue reading
Posted in Books, creative team, freelance editing, freelance writing, freelancing, Game of Thrones, horror novels, how to write fantasy, how to write fiction, how to write horror, how to write science fiction, indie publishing, intellectual property development, NaNoWriMo, Publishing Business, 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, creative process, editor, Fantasy, Fiction, freelance editing, freelance writing, freelancing, genre fiction, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, Science Fiction, Wizards of the Coast, Writing, writing advice, writing process
7 Comments
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
11 Comments
RANDOM BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION PROMPTS FOR WRITERS
The year-end mental inventory continues, so bear with me a little. This one is going to be fun. I’ve talked a bit about my struggles with depression over the last half of 2015 and before that, and scheduling schemes and … Continue reading
Posted in creative team, how to write fiction, intellectual property development, NaNoWriMo, Publishing Business, Pulp Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, SF and Fantasy Authors, technology, 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, read more, resolutions, Science Fiction, watch less TV, Writing, writing advice, writing exercises, writing process
8 Comments
CRASH!
I hate excuses. I’ve railed about excuses here, and in particular, the “my dog ate it” of the 21st century: My hard drive crashed. But about a week and a half ago, my hard drive crashed–and panic set in then … Continue reading
Posted in Books, how to write fiction, intellectual property development, NaNoWriMo, Publishing Business, Pulp Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, SF and Fantasy Authors, technology, Writing, writing advice, writing horror, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged author, authors, Books, creative process, editor, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, Philip Athans, Publishing, Science Fiction, Writing, writing advice, writing exercises, writing process
4 Comments
STARTING WITH CHARACTERS
Continuing to put together my outline for Bella Lucky and the Monsters of Methone for next month’s—no, next week’s (yikes!)—start to NaNoWriMo, it’s time to focus in on the characters. I also want to continue along the short, bad book … Continue reading
Posted in Books, characters, creative team, horror novels, how to write fiction, intellectual property development, monsters, NaNoWriMo, Publishing Business, Pulp Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, Science Fiction Story, science fiction technology, SF and Fantasy Authors, technology, transmedia, Writing, writing advice, writing horror, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged author, authors, Books, character motivation, creating characters, creative process, defining characters, editor, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, Science Fiction, worldbuilding, Writing, writing advice, writing exercises, writing process
3 Comments
IN THE FUTURE, EVERYTHING WILL ALWAYS WORK
. . . or at least that’s what some science fiction authors would have you believe. The other day, I happened upon the movie Forbidden Planet on TCM. It was just about to start. I wanted to avoid working. A match made in … Continue reading
Posted in how to write fiction, intellectual property development, Publishing Business, Pulp Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, science fiction technology, SF and Fantasy Authors, technology, transmedia, Writing, writing advice, writing horror, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged author, authors, Books, creative process, editor, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, Science Fiction, Star Wars novels, worldbuilding, Writing, writing exercises, writing process
2 Comments
AN EVIL EMPIRE, BENT ON WORLD DOMINATION (BUT WHY?)
In August of 2012 I asked you why your villain is bent on world domination. Just as villains need motivation—we need to understand why that character is doing what he, she, or it is doing—governments don’t operate in a moral, … Continue reading
Posted in Books, creative team, how to write fiction, intellectual property development, Publishing Business, RPG, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, science fiction technology, SF and Fantasy Authors, technology, transmedia, Writing, writing advice, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged author, authors, Books, creative process, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, Philip Athans, Publishing, Science Fiction, worldbuilding, Writing, writing advice, writing process
8 Comments
WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM A RANDOM SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL (PART 1)
A few weeks ago I described the step-by-step process of creating a random SF/fantasy paperback grab-bag. At the end of that process, I chose the first random book and came out with The City and the Stars by Arthur C. Clarke. … Continue reading
Posted in Books, how to write fiction, intellectual property development, monsters, Publishing Business, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, science fiction technology, SF and Fantasy Authors, technology, transmedia, Writing, writing advice, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged Arthur C. Clarke, author, authors, Books, creative process, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, read more, Science Fiction, worldbuilding, Writing, writing advice, writing process
5 Comments
