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- Updated Rate Card: Athans & Associates Creative Consulting
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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!
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
- Find me on Kindlepreneur: Master Guide to Selecting the Best Book Editor
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.
- Monsters in D&D, Books, Movies… Dicegeeks Podcast interview with Phil!
- Longwinded One Podcast: Episode 158: Philip Athans: The Years of Phil
- Classic Monsters, Modern Love: How a New Generation of Fans is Keeping the Universal Monsters Alive
- Publisher's Weekly “Is the Universe Expanding or Contracting?”
- Hunting for MANHUNT: The behind the scenes tale of my lost MegaTraveller adventure!
- Inside Storytelling: Writing Monsters, Creatures & Villains
- Porter Anderson vs. Movie Examples: With some nice things to say about my Living Dialogue seminar at the Writer’s Digest conference.
- 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.
- Ask the (Book) Editors: Panel video from 2013 Emerald City Comicon!
- Writer's Digest Guest Blog: How to Make a Vampire Not Suck
- 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 Interview: On Writing F&SF.
- How To Write Monsters With Philip Athans The Creative Penn Podcasts me!
- Roleplaying Tips: Interviews me!
- The Fanitarium Podcast: Interviews Philip Athans
- 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 Horror: Reading, Breathing and the Long Sentence (at Writer’s Digest)
- Worldcasting: I join the guys from Worldbuilding Magazine for a chat about… everything!
Past Posts
Tag Archives: children’s book
WHAT MAKES A MONSTER SCARY?
The clock is ticking on the imminent release of Writing Monsters, so how about a full chapter to whet your appetite? I’d like to meet the first person who ever ate a lobster. Imagine being the first to pick up … Continue reading
Posted in Books, creative team, Dungeons & Dragons, fantasy movies, horror movies, horror novels, how to write fiction, monsters, Publishing Business, RPG, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, science fiction movies, Science Fiction Story, SF and Fantasy Authors, transmedia, Video Games, Writing, writing advice, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged author, authors, best fantasy novels, Books, children's book, comic books, creating monsters, creative process, Dungeons & Dragons, editor, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, monster movies, monsters, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, scary monster, Science Fiction, worldbuilding, Writing, writing advice, writing exercises, writing process
13 Comments
WRITING MONSTERS
At last it can be revealed in all its glory: my upcoming book from Writer’s Digest: Writing Monsters. Picking up where The Guide to Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction left off, at least in the case of monsters, this book … Continue reading
Posted in Anime, Arron of the Black Forest, Books, comic books, creative team, Dungeons & Dragons, fantasy movies, horror movies, horror novels, how to write fiction, monsters, Publishing Business, RPG, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, science fiction movies, Science Fiction Story, SF and Fantasy Authors, transmedia, Video Games, Writing, writing advice, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged author, authors, best fantasy novels, Books, children's book, comic books, Conan, creating monsters, creative process, Dungeons & Dragons, e-books, editor, Fantasy, Fiction, Forgotten Realms, genre fiction, monster, monster movies, monsters, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, Science Fiction, Star Trek, Star Wars novels, teen books, Wizards of the Coast, worldbuilding, Writers Digest, Writing, writing advice, writing exercises, writing monsters, writing process
6 Comments
ABSTRACT THOUGHT AND WHY YOU’RE SO SMART
Let me start this post by saying flat out that if you aren’t watching at least a handful of TED Talk videos every week you’re a low-grade moron. There. I said it. Angry with me? You need to spend a … Continue reading
Posted in Books, creative team, horror novels, Publishing Business, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, SF and Fantasy Authors, transmedia, Writing, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged author, authors, Books, children's book, creative process, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, Science Fiction, TED Talks, worldbuilding, Writing, writing advice, writing process
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“SOME BASIC DIALOG TIPS,” PHIL SUGGESTED
I have taught my one-day seminar Living Dialog a few times already and have had the best time with that session. It’s coming up again in the spring and I’ve been thinking about it, and thinking lately about some basic … 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, 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, Romance Novels, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, Science Fiction Story, SF and Fantasy Authors, transmedia, websites for authors, websites for writers, writers to authors, Writing, writing advice, Writing Community, writing fantasy, writing horror, writing science fiction, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged author, authors, Books, children's book, creative process, e-books, editor, Fantasy, fantasy-romance, Fiction, genre fiction, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, punctuation in dialog, Science Fiction, teen books, Writing, writing advice, writing dialog, writing exercises, writing process
4 Comments
WRITE-AROUNDS
Quite some time ago, in a post entitled To Swear Or Not To Swear, I brought up the idea of the work-around, or what I’ll now call the write-around. In that case the idea was to avoid using either real-world … 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, 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, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, SF and Fantasy Authors, transmedia, websites for authors, websites for writers, writers to authors, Writing, writing advice, Writing Community, writing fantasy, writing horror, writing science fiction, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged author, authors, Books, children's book, creative process, editor, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, Philip Athans, Publishing, Science Fiction, Writing, writing advice, writing process
5 Comments
BOUGHT!
Saturday was National Buy a Book Day and once again, we went out as a family and . . . you guessed it . . . bought books! I’ve asked people to do three things in honor of National Buy a Book Day: 1. … Continue reading
Posted in Books, comic books, E-Books, indie publishing, National Buy a Book Day, Publishing Business, Romance Novels, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, SF and Fantasy Authors, Video Games, Writing, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged author, authors, best sellers, Books, children's book, comic books, e-books, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, Philip Athans, Powell's Bookstore, Publishing, Publishing Business, read more, Science Fiction, teen books, Writing, writing advice
1 Comment
SEPTEMBER 7: NATIONAL BUY A BOOK DAY (AGAIN!)
This article first appeared on August 19, 2010 on John Ottinger’s Grasping for the Wind. With National Buy a Book Day coming up again this Saturday, I thought I’d go ahead and re-run that original post here. Though some of … Continue reading
Posted in Books, E-Books, indie publishing, National Buy a Book Day, Publishing Business, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, SF and Fantasy Authors, Writing, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged author, authors, best fantasy novels, Books, children's book, comic books, e-books, Fantasy, fantasy-romance, Fiction, genre fiction, Philip Athans, Powell's Bookstore, Publishing, Publishing Business, read more, Science Fiction, teen books, Writing
1 Comment
IF I WERE (A BIT MORE OF) A GRAMMAR GEEK
Right here at Fantasy Author’s Handbook I have recommended some basic style guides that every author should have on his or her shelf, and I don’t want anyone to think that this post in any way reverses my opinion on … Continue reading
Posted in Books, creative team, horror novels, Publishing Business, Romance Novels, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, Science Fiction Story, SF and Fantasy Authors, transmedia, Writing, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged author, authors, Books, children's book, creative process, editor, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, Science Fiction, teen books, Writing, writing advice, writing process
1 Comment
ANOTHER BUY A BOOK DAY IN THE BOOKS
Yeah, I know, that was pretty lame, but I’m busy, and tired, and, aw what the hell. This past Friday was September 7th, known for three monumental occurrences: 1. The birth of seminal rock star Buddy Holly (1936-1959) 2. The … Continue reading
Posted in Books, conventions, E-Books, National Buy a Book Day, Publishing Business, Romance Novels, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, SF and Fantasy Authors
Tagged authors, Books, children's book, comic books, e-books, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, read more, Science Fiction, teen books
6 Comments
BUY A BOOK ON FRIDAY
So much to write about. PAX Prime was last weekend. The fall term of my class, Writing Fantasy & Science Fiction, starts on the 20th. New projects abound—a few of which I can even talk about publically! Nirvana Gates by J.M. … Continue reading
Posted in creative team, E-Books, National Buy a Book Day, Publishing Business, Romance Novels, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, SF and Fantasy Authors, The Fathomless Abyss, Writing, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged author, authors, best sellers, Books, children's book, e-books, editor, Fantasy, fantasy-romance, Fiction, genre fiction, National Buy a Book Day Foundation, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, read more, Science Fiction, September 7, teen books, watch less TV, Writing
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Fantasy Author's Handbook 