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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!
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Interviews & Guest Posts
- CLARKESWORLD INTERVIEW 1: I took part in a roundtable interview with other speculative fiction editors.
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- 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: comic books
I WILL WRITE THAT NOVEL
I’ve written here before that we should remind ourselves that writing fiction—especially genre fiction—should be fun, that we should get in touch with a sense of play—and in recent weeks this has come back to me for a few different reasons. … 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, comic books, fiction writing blog, fiction writing websites, freelance editing, freelance writing, 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, Publishing Business, Pulp Fiction, SF and Fantasy Authors, 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, best fantasy novels, Books, comic books, creative process, editor, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, Science Fiction, Writing, writing advice, writing exercises, writing fantasy, writing horror, writing process, writing science fiction
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DEFINING MY TERMS
It’s rather funny how a word sometimes sneaks into a family and gets itself adopted. Where does it come from, I wonder? I’d very much like to know. —Jean Cocteau, Intimate Relations (Les parents terribles) In pretty much all of my writing … 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, comic books, fantasy movies, fiction writing blog, fiction writing websites, Game of Thrones, 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, Publishing Business, Pulp Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, science fiction movies, SF and Fantasy Authors, Story Structure, 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, best fantasy novels, best sellers, Books, comic books, creative process, editor, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, horror, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, Science Fiction, Star Wars novels, Writing, writing advice, writing fantasy, writing horror, writing science fiction
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JUST THROWING THIS STUFF OUT THERE…
“Work as joy, inaccessible to the psychologists.” —Kafka Okay, I have to admit it, I haven’t put a lot of thought into this week’s post, but damn it, I’m going to post something of value! I’ve just been super swamped with multiple … 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, SF and Fantasy Authors, 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, Author Interview, authors, Books, comic books, creative process, editor, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, horror, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, read more, Science Fiction, Writing, writing advice, writing fantasy, writing horror, writing process, writing science fiction
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A BRIEF HISTORY OF PULP FICTION
You know I’m a pulp fiction fan, and have led an online Pulp Fiction Workshop (and will again, I promise!). The following was written for that workshop, as part of additional material that I filtered out over the course of … 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, comic 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, Pulp Fiction, SF and Fantasy Authors, 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, best fantasy novels, best sellers, Books, comic books, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, Science Fiction, Weird Tales, Writing, writing advice, writing fantasy, writing horror, writing science fiction
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CONTENT IS KING
I had an opportunity to chat with Joanna Penn on her Creative Penn Podcast and the concept of writers as “content providers” came up. This is something I’ve been preaching for at least nine years now, as this former Grasping … 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, comic books, Dungeons & Dragons, E-Books, fantasy movies, fiction writing blog, fiction writing websites, freelance writing, Game of Thrones, help for writers, helping writers become authors, horror movies, horror novels, how to write fantasy, how to write fiction, how to write horror, how to write science fiction, indie publishing, Publishing Business, RPG, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, science fiction movies, SF and Fantasy Authors, transmedia, Video Games, 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, best fantasy novels, best sellers, Books, comic books, creative process, Dungeons & Dragons, e-books, editor, Fantasy, Fiction, Forgotten Realms, genre fiction, literary agents, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, Science Fiction, Star Trek, Star Wars novels, Wizards of the Coast, Writing, writing advice, writing exercises, writing process
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THE VIRTUE OF SHELFIENESS
Hey, Objectivists, see what I did there? I’ve been seeing so-called “shelfies” all over social media for a while now, and have even shared a few glimpses of my own shelves from time to time, but this week, I want … 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, comic books, Dungeons & Dragons, 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, RPG, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, SF and Fantasy Authors, Traveller, 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, comic books, creative process, Dungeons & Dragons, editor, Fantasy, Fiction, Forgotten Realms, genre fiction, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, read more, Science Fiction, Star Trek, Wizards of the Coast, Writing, writing advice
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WHAT I’M THANKFUL FOR, 2019: BOOKS
I skipped last Thanksgiving but thought this year I’d address the holiday again and think about what there was, for me, to be thankful for in 2019. This was another year of ups and downs, like literally every year of … 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, E-Books, fiction writing blog, fiction writing websites, freelance editing, help for writers, helping writers become authors, how to write fantasy, how to write fiction, how to write horror, how to write science fiction, indie publishing, Publishing Business, Pulp Fiction, Romance Novels, 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, children's book, comic books, creative process, e-books, editor, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, Philip Athans, Powell's Bookstore, Publishing, Publishing Business, read more, Science Fiction, Writing, writing advice, writing process
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WHAT I’M READING RIGHT NOW AND WHY
If you’ve friended me on GoodReads, or follow me on Twitter, you know I’m working my way through another fifty-two book challenge: to read fifty-two books, an average of one a week, in the calendar year 2019. Right now, I’m … 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, comic books, fiction writing blog, fiction writing websites, freelance editing, help for writers, helping writers become authors, horror movies, horror novels, 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, comic books, creative process, editor, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, read more, Science Fiction, worldbuilding, Writing, writing advice, writing exercises, writing process
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I SEE YOUR POST-APOCALYPSE AND RAISE YOU ONE DYSTOPIA
I have to admit I’ve never been a huge fan of post-apocalyptic fiction. I liked the movies Road Warrior and Mad Max: Fury Road. I liked the first few seasons of The Walking Dead. But beyond that? I was forced … 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, freelance editing, 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, science fiction technology, SF and Fantasy Authors, transmedia, websites for authors, websites for writers, writers to authors, Writing, writing advice, writing fantasy, writing horror, writing science fiction, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged apocalypse, author, authors, best fantasy novels, Books, comic books, creative process, dystopian, editor, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, Philip Athans, post-apocalypse, Publishing, Publishing Business, Science Fiction, worldbuilding, Writing, writing advice
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SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY AS WISH FULFILLMENT
Ryu Spaeth opened his discussion of the works of Ursula K. Le Guin, “An Education Through Earthsea,” with: The most beguiling promise of fantasy fiction is that of self-knowledge. At some point the protagonist discovers, with the force of a … 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, comic books, fantasy movies, fiction writing blog, fiction writing websites, Game of Thrones, help for writers, helping writers become authors, horror movies, horror novels, 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, science fiction movies, 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, children's book, comic books, creative process, editor, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, Science Fiction, Star Trek, teen books, Writing, writing advice
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Fantasy Author's Handbook 