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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.
- 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: dialog
DE-BULLET POINT YOUR DIALOG
Dialog is a challenge for a lot of authors and sometimes the common, easy advice like “read it aloud” isn’t enough. It could be that there are writers who read their dialog aloud and think, That’s good—that sounds right for … Continue reading
Posted in Books, E-Books, horror novels, how to write fiction, indie publishing, monsters, POD, Publishing Business, Pulp Fiction, RPG, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, SF and Fantasy Authors, transmedia, Writing, writing advice, writing horror, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged author, authors, best fantasy novels, Books, creative process, dialog, dialogue, editor, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, Science Fiction, teen books, worldbuilding, Writing, writing advice, writing dialog, writing dialogue, writing exercises, writing process
4 Comments
DIALOG EXERCISE: TIME, PLACE, AND GENRE
In my one-day seminar Living Dialog, I give each student this little excerpt from Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey and ask them to rewrite it so it’s set in a time, place, and/or genre of their choice. … Continue reading
Posted in Books, creative team, how to write fiction, Publishing Business, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, SF and Fantasy Authors, transmedia, Writing, writing advice, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged author, authors, Books, creative process, dialog, editor, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, Philip Athans, Publishing, Science Fiction, Writing, writing advice, writing dialog, writing exercises, writing process
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I MEAN, ENOUGH ALREADY
I mean, when did this start? I mean, am I the only one who’s noticed this bizarre new trend in which every sentence must begin with the words “I mean”? I mean, it seems as though everyone is doing it, … 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, creative process, dialog, editor, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, Science Fiction, watch less TV, Writing, writing advice, writing dialog, writing exercises, writing process
12 Comments
WHAT NOT TO SAY
Last weekend I did a one-day seminar on Living Dialog, based on a previous blog post of the same name. For three hours we talked about writing dialog that meets some challenging criteria. For me, “Living Dialog” has to be … 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, creative team, 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, Boogie Nights, Books, creative process, dialog, Fantasy, Fiction, fiction writing, genre fiction, how to write, how to write dialog, how to write fantasy, how to write fiction, how to write novel, how to write science fiction, how to write short story, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, Science Fiction, Writing, writing advice, writing dialog, writing exercises, writing horror, writing process
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LIVING DIALOG
Week before last, in my continuing education class Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction, I showed the class this quote from the movie O Brother Where Art Thou?: “The preacher said all my sins is washed away, including that Piggly Wiggly … 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, creative team, 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, 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, creative process, dialog, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, Philip Athans, Publishing, Science Fiction, worldbuilding, Writing, writing advice, writing exercises, writing process
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Fantasy Author's Handbook 