Philip Athans

Last updated
Philip Athans
Born1964 (age 5960)
Rochester, New York, U.S.
Occupation
  • Editor
  • author
NationalityAmerican

Philip Athans (born 1964 in Rochester, New York) is an American editor and author.

Contents

Biography

Philip Athans was born in 1964 in Rochester, New York, but was raised in Chicago. [1] Athans grew up reading Marvel comics and Starlog magazines, and watching Star Trek . [1] He graduated from film school in 1985 and started small circulation literary magazine called Alternative Fiction & Poetry. [1]

Athans was taken on in the book publishing department of TSR in 1995 when J. Robert King resigned from his full-time position as editor, and Athans stayed on through the 1997 transition to Wizards of the Coast. [1] Athans became Senior Managing Editor for Wizards of the Coast Book Publishing, where he spent most of his time as the Forgotten Realms novel line editor. [1] There he edited dozens of anthologies (such as Realms of War in 2008) and novels, [2] and continued to write his own, and helped launch the Greyhawk, Dark Matter , Star*Drive , and Dungeons & Dragons novel lines. [1] He wrote a number of Forgotten Realms books such as Annihilation in 2004.

After leaving Wizards of the Coast in 2010, he formed Athans & Associates Creative Consulting, working with dozens of author and publisher clients including Pixar Animation Studios and Amazon/57 North.

Athans is also known as a writing teacher, having written three books on the art and craft of genre writing, as well as numerous online tutorials via Writer's Digest. His own weekly blog, Fantasy Author's Handbook, has been running continuously since June 2009 and now includes a YouTube channel and GoodReads group.

Partial bibliography

The Best of Fantasy Author's Handbook, Volume I, 2009-2013 [3] (2021)

Writing Monsters [4] (Writer's Digest Books, 2014)

The Guide to Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction [5] (Adams Media, 2010)

Completely Broken [6] (2011)

Forgotten Realms: The Legend of Drizzt

Forgotten Realms: The Watercourse Trilogy

Forgotten Realms: War of the Spider Queen series

Forgotten Realms: Baldur's Gate series

Dungeons & Dragons novels

Dark Matter novels

Related Research Articles

Forgotten Realms is a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy role-playing game. Commonly referred to by players and game designers as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as a setting for his childhood stories. Several years later, it was published for the D&D game as a series of magazine articles, and the first Realms game products were released in 1987. Role-playing game products have been produced for the setting ever since, in addition to novels, role-playing video game adaptations, comic books, and the film Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ed Greenwood</span> Canadian fantasy writer and game designer

Ed Greenwood is a Canadian fantasy writer and the original creator of the Forgotten Realms game world. He began writing articles about the Forgotten Realms for Dragon magazine beginning in 1979, and subsequently sold the rights to the setting to TSR, the creators of the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, in 1986. He has written many Forgotten Realms novels, as well as numerous articles and D&D game supplement books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drizzt Do'Urden</span> Fictional character from Dungeons & Dragons

Drizzt Do'Urden is a fictional character appearing in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. Drizzt was created by author R. A. Salvatore as a supporting character in the Icewind Dale Trilogy. Salvatore created him on a whim when his publisher needed him to replace one of the characters in an early version of the first book, The Crystal Shard. Drizzt has since become a popular heroic character of the Forgotten Realms setting, and has been featured as the main character of a long series of books, starting chronologically with The Dark Elf Trilogy. As an atypical drow, Drizzt has forsaken both the evil ways of his people and their home in the Underdark, in the drow city of Menzoberranzan.

Faerûn is a fictional continent and the primary setting of the Dungeons & Dragons world of Forgotten Realms. It is described in detail in several editions of the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting with the most recent being the 5th edition from Wizards of the Coast, and various locales and aspects are described in more depth in separate campaign setting books. Around a hundred novels, several computer and video games and a film use Faerûn as the setting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">R. A. Salvatore</span> American writer

Robert Anthony Salvatore is an American author best known for The Legend of Drizzt, a series of fantasy novels set in the Forgotten Realms and starring the character Drizzt Do'Urden. He has also written The DemonWars Saga, a series of high fantasy novels; several other Forgotten Realms novels; and Vector Prime, the first novel in the Star Wars: The New Jedi Order series. He has sold more than 15 million copies of his books in the United States alone, and 22 of his titles have been New York Times best-sellers.

Jeff Grubb is an author of novels, short stories, and comics, as well as a computer and role-playing game designer in the fantasy genre. Grubb worked on the Dragonlance campaign setting under Tracy Hickman, and the Forgotten Realms setting with Ed Greenwood. His written works include The Finder's Stone Trilogy, the Spelljammer and Jakandor campaign settings, and contributions to Dragonlance and the computer game Guild Wars Nightfall (2006).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Volothamp Geddarm</span> Forgotten Realms fictional character

Volothamp "Volo" Geddarm, created by Jeff Grubb, is a fictional character of the Forgotten Realms campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.

<i>War of the Spider Queen</i> Series of Forgotten Realms novels

War of the Spider Queen is a fantasy series of novels set in the Forgotten Realms universe published by Wizards of the Coast. The series contains six books focused on the drow and their principal deity Lolth. Each of the six novels in the series is written by a different author with veteran Forgotten Realms author R. A. Salvatore overseeing the project. Cover art for each book in the series was designed by Gerald Brom who has done other Forgotten Realms work including reprints of The Avatar Series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bruce Cordell</span> American novelist and game designer

Bruce Robert Cordell is an American author of roleplaying games and fantasy novels. He has worked on Dungeons & Dragons games for Wizards of the Coast. He won the Origins Award for Return to the Tomb of Horrors and has also won several ENnies. He lives in Seattle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rob Heinsoo</span> American game designer (born 1964)

Rob Heinsoo is an American tabletop game designer. He has been designing and contributing to professional role-playing games, card games, and board games since 1994. Heinsoo was the lead designer on the 4th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons (2008), and is co-designer of the 13th Age roleplaying game along with Jonathan Tweet. He has also designed and contributed to role playing, miniatures and card games, and a computer game.

Tim Pratt is an American science fiction and fantasy writer and poet. He won a Hugo Award in 2007 for his short story "Impossible Dreams". He has written over 20 books, including the Marla Mason series and several Pathfinder Tales novels. His writing has earned him nominations for Nebula, Mythopoeic, World Fantasy, and Bram Stoker awards and has been published in numerous markets, including Asimov's Science Fiction, Realms of Fantasy, Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show, and Strange Horizons.

T. H. Lain was a collective pseudonym used by nine separate authors writing under Wizards of the Coast's Dungeons & Dragons novels imprint.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drew Karpyshyn</span> Canadian novelist and video game designer

Drew Karpyshyn is a Canadian video game scenario writer, scriptwriter and novelist. He served as a senior writer for BioWare's Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and lead writer for the first two Mass Effect video games. He left BioWare in 2012 to focus on his Chaos Born novels, and returned to it three years later in 2015. On March 9, 2018, he announced he was leaving BioWare once again to pursue his independent work.

The Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy role-playing game has been adapted into many related products, including magazines, films and video games.

Lich (<i>Dungeons & Dragons</i>) Undead creature in "Dungeons & Dragons"

The lich is an undead creature found in the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy role-playing game. Liches are spellcasters who seek to defy death by magical means.

Lisa Smedman is a science fiction and fantasy author and journalist. Her novel Extinction, set in the Forgotten Realms universe, was a New York Times bestseller. Smedman first became known for gaming adventure novels, and later published her own independent fantasy novels.

David Noonan is an author of several products and articles for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game from Wizards of the Coast.

J. Robert King is an American fantasy novelist and former editor and game designer. He also writes non-fantasy fiction as John R. King.

Steven E. Schend is an American game designer and editor who has worked on a number of products for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game from TSR throughout the 1990s.

<i>Whisper of Waves</i>

Whisper of Waves is a fantasy novel by Philip Athans, set in the world of the Forgotten Realms, and based on the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. It is the first novel in "The Watercouse Trilogy". It was published in paperback in November 2005.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Philip Athans". Archived from the original on February 24, 2009.
  2. "Summary Bibliography: Philip Athans". www.isfdb.org. Retrieved 2023-09-28.
  3. Athans, Philip (2021-06-11). The Best of Fantasy Authors Handbook: Volume I, 2009-2013. Fantasy Authors Handbook. ISBN   978-1-954960-00-8.
  4. Athans, Philip (2014-09-18). Writing Monsters: How to Craft Believably Terrifying Creatures to Enhance Your Horror, Fantasy, and Science Fiction. The H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society. Writer's Digest Books. ISBN   978-1-59963-808-9.
  5. Athans, Philip (2010-07-18). The Guide to Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction: 6 Steps to Writing and Publishing Your Bestseller! (0 ed.). Adams Media. ISBN   978-1-4405-0145-6.
  6. "BIBLIOGRAPHY". Fantasy Author's Handbook. 2020-06-16. Retrieved 2023-09-28.
  7. 1 2 3 "Pen & Paper listing for Philip Athans". Pen-paper.net. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved 4 January 2018.
  8. D'Ammassa, Don (September 2006). "Whisper of Waves/Midnight's Mask/The Emerald Scepter/Guardian: Saviors of Kamizawa", Chronicle 28 (3): 66.
  9. My Favourite Ever Roleplaying Game | RPG History , retrieved 2023-09-28