Philip Athans is the New York Times best-selling author of Annihilation and more than a dozen other fantasy and horror books including The Guide to Writing Fantasy & Science Fiction, Completely Broken, Arron of the Black Forest, Book I: The Haunting of Dragon's Cliff (with Mel Odom), Devils of the Endless Deep, and How to Start Your Own Religion.Born in Rochester, New York he grew up in suburban Chicago, where he published the literary magazine Alternative Fiction & ©etry. His blog, Fantasy Author’s Handbook (http://fantasyhandbook.wordpress.com/), is updated every Tuesday, and you can follow him on Twitter @PhilAthans.He now resides in the foothills of the Washington Cascades, east of Seattle.