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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
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.
- 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!
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- Twitter @PhilAthans Admit it, you need to keep up with me at least a couple times a day.
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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.
- Publisher's Weekly “Is the Universe Expanding or Contracting?”
- 10 Questions with…ME! I get grilled by Ryan Schneider.
- How to Write Horror: Reading, Breathing and the Long Sentence (at Writer’s Digest)
- SF Signal Mind Meld: Aliens I join other SF/F authors and editors on the subject of what makes a good alien.
- 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.
- The Fanitarium Podcast: Interviews Philip Athans
- Writer's Digest Guest Blog: How to Make a Vampire Not Suck
- Ask the (Book) Editors: Panel video from 2013 Emerald City Comicon!
- Worldcasting: I join the guys from Worldbuilding Magazine for a chat about… everything!
- Roleplaying Tips: Interviews me!
- How to Create a Magic System: M.S. Farzan and Storyteller’s Handbook features The Guide to Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction
Past Posts
Tag Archives: writing horror
A LOOK AT THE HORROR WRITING INTENSIVE
It’s no accident that Stephen King is one of the world’s best-selling authors. He knows what scares us—and it isn’t just kids and clowns—and he knows how to use words to invoke that fear in the same way a horror … 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, 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, Story Structure, 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 author, authors, best fantasy novels, best sellers, Books, creative process, editor, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, horror, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, read more, Science Fiction, Writing, writing advice, writing exercises, writing horror, writing process
1 Comment
SELECTIONS FROM THE HORROR WRITING INTENSIVE
This coming Thursday (January 25, 2018), my online course Horror Writing Intensive: Analyzing the Work of Genre Master Stephen King, via Writers Digest, starts up again and so I thought I’d give y’all a little sample of what that looks … 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, 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 fantasy novels, best sellers, Books, creative process, editor, Fantasy, Fiction, genre fiction, horror, Philip Athans, Publishing, Publishing Business, Science Fiction, Stephen King, worldbuilding, Writing, writing advice, writing exercises, writing horror, writing process
2 Comments
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
3 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
1 Comment
“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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