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- Back to work today! Morning admin tasks done, so now I #amediting for the next maybe 6 hours or so. See ya! 2 hours ago
- Episode 1: Novels & Ideas publicbooks.org/episode-1-nove… via @publicbooks 3 hours ago
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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.
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- 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: Mike Resnick
YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT
Let’s start with two simple, indisputable facts: You have the right to your own opinion, and You have the right to remain silent. I awoke this morning at 3:45 am feeling out of sorts. It wasn’t just the mysterious pain … Continue reading
Posted in Books, creative team, how to write fiction, indie publishing, Publishing Business, RPG, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, SF and Fantasy Authors, The Fathomless Abyss, transmedia, Writing, writing advice, writing horror, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged author, authors, Books, comic books, creative process, editor, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, Mike Resnick, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, Science Fiction, Writing, writing advice
14 Comments
ONE OF THOSE WEEKS
Another late blog post this week, though I’ve really been thinking about it all day. I could write about this, I could write about that, I could write about the other thing . . . and though I always like to keep it … Continue reading
Posted in Books, conventions, creative team, Dungeons & Dragons, E-Books, how to write fiction, indie publishing, Publishing Business, RPG, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels
Tagged author, authors, best fantasy novels, Books, creative process, Dungeons & Dragons, e-books, editor, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, jay Lake, Mel Odom, Mike Resnick, Philip Athans, Publishing, Science Fiction, Wizards of the Coast, Writing, writing process
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SIT YOUR ASS DOWN AND DO IT!
A couple weeks ago, my fellow Fathomless Abyss explorer Mike Resnick posted on Facebook about all the books and stories he finished in 2012 and I was simply blown away by his output. It put my meager word counts to … Continue reading
Posted in Books, creative team, National Buy a Book Day, Publishing Business, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, SF and Fantasy Authors, The Fathomless Abyss, transmedia, Writing, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged author, authors, Books, creative process, e-books, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, Mike Resnick, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, resolutions, Science Fiction, watch less TV, Writing, writing advice, writing exercises, writing process
3 Comments
BUY MY E-BOOKS, PLEASE
Tuesday again, so soon? What to write for this week’s Fantasy Author’s Handbook post? Ideas abound, but this morning I thought, hey, maybe it’s time for a little shameless self-promotion. And it might just kill two birds with one stone. … Continue reading
Posted in Arron of the Black Forest, Books, creative team, E-Books, Publishing Business, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, SF and Fantasy Authors, The Fathomless Abyss, transmedia, Writing, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged author, author self-promotion, authors, best fantasy for Kindle, best fantasy for Nook, best fantasy novels, Books, creative process, e-books, e-readers, Fantasy, fantasy author on Twitter, Fiction, genre fiction, J.M. McDermott, jay Lake, Kindle fantasy, Mel Odom, Mike Resnick, Nook fantasy, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, Science Fiction, Writing, writing advice, writing process
6 Comments
NIRVANA GATES AND MY TENDENCY TO AVOID GROUPS
What could these two things possibly have in common? A couple weeks ago, in my class at Bellevue College, we were discussing how characters interact with the world they live in, and we went through an exercise inspired by the … Continue reading
Posted in Arron of the Black Forest, Books, creative team, Dungeons & Dragons, E-Books, Publishing Business, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, SF and Fantasy Authors, The Fathomless Abyss, Writing, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged author, authors, Books, Brad R. Torgersen, Cat Rambo, creative process, Dungeons & Dragons, e-books, editor, Fantasy, Fiction, Forgotten Realms, genre fiction, J.M. McDermott, jay Lake, Magic: The Gathering, Mats Minnhagen, Mel Odom, Mike Resnick, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, Science Fiction, Wizards of the Coast, worldbuilding, Writing, writing advice, writing exercises
2 Comments
FALL INTO THE FATHOMLESS ABYSS
It’s up! There’s nothing more satisfying than having a book out there for sale. It’s done. It’s out there. And I’m happy with it. That last bit? That’s the hard part. I’ve written here about some of the trouble this … Continue reading
Posted in Books, creative team, E-Books, Publishing Business, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, SF and Fantasy Authors, The Fathomless Abyss, Writing, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged author, authors, Books, Brad R. Torgersen, Cat Rambo, creative process, e-books, e-readers, editor, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, J.M. McDermott, jay Lake, Kindle, Mats Minnhagen, Mel Odom, Mike Resnick, Nook, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, shared world, worldbuilding, Writing, writing advice, writing process
1 Comment
EXCERPTS FROM THE FATHOMLESS ABYSS
THIS JUST IN: Tales From The Fathomless Abyss is on sale NOW for the Nook! THIS JUST IN: Tales From The Fathomless Abyss is on sale NOW for the Kindle! Just this morning I posted Tales From The Fathomless Abyss … Continue reading
Posted in Books, creative team, E-Books, Publishing Business, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, SF and Fantasy Authors, The Fathomless Abyss, Writing, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged author, authors, Books, bottomless pit, Brad R. Torgersen, Cat Rambo, creative process, e-books, editor, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, J.M. McDermott, jay Lake, Mats Minnhagen, Mel Odom, Mike Resnick, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, Science Fiction, shared world, worldbuilding, Writing, writing process
1 Comment
THE FATHOMLESS ABYSS
Finally, one of my notorious “secret projects” revealed. First, the amazing cover art by Mats Minnhagen Whose idea was it? The idea for a shared world collective was a combination of Mel Odom, Joe McDermott, and me, I suppose. The … Continue reading
Posted in Arron of the Black Forest, Books, creative team, E-Books, Publishing Business, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, SF and Fantasy Authors, The Fathomless Abyss, Writing, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged author, authors, Books, bottomless pit, Brad R. Torgersen, Cat Rambo, creative process, e-books, editor, Fantasy, fantasy settings, Fiction, genre fiction, J.M. McDermott, jay Lake, Mats Minnhagen, Mel Odom, Mike Resnick, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, Science Fiction, shared world, worldbuilding, Writing, writing process
7 Comments
THE FANTASY AUTHOR’S HANDBOOK INTERVIEWS I: MIKE RESNICK
As part of the process of writing The Guide to Writing Fantasy & Science Fiction, I interviewed a few key players in the SF/fantasy community. Their wisdom and generosity is liberally sprinkled throughout the book, but I couldn’t use every … Continue reading
Posted in Publishing Business, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, SF and Fantasy Authors, Writing, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged author, Author Interview, authors, Books, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, Laura Resnick, Mike Resnick, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, Science Fiction, Writing, writing advice, writing process
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Fantasy Author's Handbook 