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- Wings of Rescue is a 501(c)3 charity founded in 2012, that flies endangered pets from high intake and/or high-kill… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 5 hours ago
- A Forest of Names by Ian Boyden 菲 Fragrant Radish It grew with such delight, red heart of soil, its roots tangle… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 10 hours ago
- Border crossing: How translated fiction can open up the world The new Elena Ferrante is just one of the exciting n… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 15 hours ago
!NEW!
- Morbid Dread of the Dawn Read my story in The Pulp Horror Book of Phobias!
- The Yellow Ants of Kanduru: Tai of the Ebony Jungle #1
- The Fanitarium Podcast: Interviews Philip Athans
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.
- Story Coaching One-on-one time on your project, via Writer’s Digest
- GoodReads Join me at Facebook-for-readers
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?”
- 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.
- 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.
- 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: technology
OUR FLIGHT TIME TODAY WILL BE…?
This post does contain spoilers through the episode of HBO’s Game of Thrones that aired Sunday, August 20, 2017 (Season 7, episode 6: “Beyond the Wall”), so read accordingly. GAME OF THRONES SPOILERS FOLLOW: YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! … Continue reading
Posted in Books, characters, creative team, Dungeons & Dragons, fantasy movies, freelance editing, 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, science fiction technology, SF and Fantasy Authors, Story Structure, technology, 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, Fiction, genre fiction, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, Science Fiction, worldbuilding, Writing, writing advice
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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
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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
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