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- WWJCD? (What Would Jackie Chan Do?) amazon.com/gp/product/144… The Guide to #writing #fantasy and #sciencefiction https://t.co/xjxiBvSIDm 28 minutes ago
- Please help support Book Aid International: bookaid.org 2 hours ago
- Rarefied Atmosphere: Crafting a Unique Sense of Place…Newest online tutorial via @WritersDigest tutorials.writersdigest.com/courses/rarefi… #writing ALL GENRES 5 hours ago
Buy My Books
- KINDLE SUBSCRIPTION Subscribe to Fantasy Author’s Handbook for your Kindle!
- The City is Theirs My contribution to the Warhammer world!
- 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!
- How to Start Your Own Religion You won’t be the first science fiction author to try!
- 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
- Whisper of Waves First in the Forgotten Realms Watercourse Trilogy
- I Made a Friend An alternate history/dieselpunk story for your Kindle!
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.
- Facebook Eventually, it happens to us all.
- Story Coaching One-on-one time on your project, via Writer’s Digest
- GoodReads Join me at Facebook-for-readers
- NaNoWriMo Reviews I’m still accepting manuscript reviews for NaNoWriMo (and other) authors
Gamasutra
- The Case for In-house Publishing My featured post at Gamasutra, which includes a TSR history lesson.
- A Little Respect: Writers deserve respect. There, I said it.
- The Gaming Revolution Will Be…Read? My case for more video game tie-in novels.
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?”
- FANTASY BOOK CRITIC reviews The Guide to Writing Fantasy & Science Fiction
- Another Top 100 List Thank you Feedspot!
- 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.
- SF Signal Mind Meld: Aliens I join other SF/F authors and editors on the subject of what makes a good alien.
- Pro Se Podcast: I talk new pulp with Tommy Hancock!
- Writer's Digest Popular Fiction Awards: Some notes on being a short story judge.
- The Shelf-Life of Sci-Fi Storytelling A love letter to the pulps.
- Author Learning Center An interview covering writing SF/F.
- Quintessential Editor on Writing Monsters Another positive review!
- 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!
- Flames Rising on Writing Monsters: A favorable review from Steven Dawes.
- The 100 Best Websites for Writers in 2015: And Fantasy Author’s Handbook made the list!
- Words Are My Medicine reviews Writing Monsters
- A Great New Review of Writing Monsters: From Kids’ Animal Station
- The Creative Penn added me to their list of editors!
- Kindlepreneur added me to their list of editors!
NEW!
- TOP TEN BOOKS TO IMPROVE YOUR WRITING Including The Guide to Writing Fantasy & Science Fiction!
- Roleplaying Tips: Interviews me!
- LIVING DIALOG: Bring Your Characters’ Words to Life
- Unplag Interview: A few thoughts from me on writing fantasy.
- Thieves Guild Reviews: The Guide to Writing Fantasy & Science Fiction
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.
- Worldbuilding New course starting soon–register now!
- Pulp Fiction Workshop Starting again soon–register now!
- Horror Writing Intensive: Analyzing the Work of Genre Master Stephen King
Resources
- 100 Monologues A new favorite online destination
- SF SIGNAL: A great source of news, opinions, and links for all things SF.
- New York Times Books: Reviews, news, and so on from the Old School.
- GAMASUTRA: News and opinions from the video game universe.
- LOCUS Online: SF’s magazine of record.
- McSWEENEY'S INTERNET TENDENCY: Because it’s frickin’ awesome.
- Hazlitt Smart writing to be found here
- TED Talks Watch one a day and be smarter
Past Posts
Tag Archives: writing horror
WHAT I’VE LEARNED IN THE LAST TWENTY-THREE YEARS, PART 3
To finish up this little series of posts that began here, I’ll let the 2017 revision of my 1994 horror short story “Piece Music” speak for itself . . . Piece Music It was a hectic music from a dark and cramped … Continue reading
Posted in Books, characters, freelance editing, freelance writing, horror movies, 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, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, SF and Fantasy Authors, Story Structure, transmedia, Writing, writing advice, writing fantasy, writing horror, writing science fiction, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged author, authors, best advice for writing horror, Books, creative process, editor, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, horror, horror short story, horror-fantasy, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, pulp horror, Science Fiction, Writing, writing advice, writing horror, writing process
4 Comments
BODY PARTS DON’T DO STUFF, PEOPLE DO
Lately I’ve been seeing more sentences like this: Bronwyn’s fist punched Galen in the eye. I might call this “passive,” but I’m not sure that’s technically correct, so can we just call it “bad writing”? This goes back again to … Continue reading
Posted in Books, characters, 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, SF and Fantasy Authors, transmedia, Writing, writing advice, writing fantasy, writing horror, writing science fiction, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged author, authors, Books, creative process, editor, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, horror, Philip Athans, Publishing, Science Fiction, Writing, writing advice, writing exercises, writing fantasy, writing horror, writing process, writing science fiction
2 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 Books, creative team, intellectual property development, Publishing Business, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, SF and Fantasy Authors, transmedia, Writing, 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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“NOW GO HOME AND WRITE!”
I spent last weekend in Hollywood, California, attending the Writers Digest Conference West as a speaker, and as always when I go to this sort of event, an enthusiastic participant as well. Anyone who knows me knows I hate to … Continue reading
Posted in Books, conventions, creative team, E-Books, horror novels, intellectual property development, National Buy a Book Day, Publishing Business, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, Science Fiction Story, SF and Fantasy Authors, transmedia, Writing, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged author, authors, best book on writing fantasy, best book on writing science fiction, best sellers, Books, creative process, e-books, editor, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, horror, how to write fantasy, how to write horror, how to write science fiction, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, read more, Science Fiction, writers conferences, Writing, writing advice, writing exercises, writing fantasy, writing horror, writing process, writing science fiction
3 Comments
FLASHES OF INSPIRATION: STEALING FROM YOUR OWN EXPERIENCE
In The Guide to Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction, I discussed a few of the many places from which you can draw inspiration for your stories: from your own life, from history, from current events, and so on. Let’s take … Continue reading
Posted in Books, E-Books, horror novels, Publishing Business, Science Fiction & Fantasy Novels, SF and Fantasy Authors, Writing, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy
Tagged author, authors, Books, Completely Broken, creative process, e-books, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, Philip Athans, Publishing, Writing, writing advice, writing horror, writing process
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