Archer’s Aim Digest

Fantasy Friday! The Bow of Destiny’s Main Character

Note: Fantasy Friday is a new feature for Archer’s Aim. This is a re-post, but for those interested, it’s useful. I’ll work on some new, fantasy-related posts to mix in with some of my older ones like this as well as some posts about new books in the coming months. Please feel free to share on social media or re-blog these posts. Have a great Friday and a wonderful weekend!

Today is a continuation last week’s series about The Bow of Destiny. Today, it’s all about the main character and what makes the book go. But first, here’s the book trailer:

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Athson is the main character of The Bow of Hart and a rather complex one at that. He suffers from fits over the violent memories surrounding the sack of his home Depenburgh that left him an orphan. These events were precipitated by an attack of trolls who are commanded by Corgren, a wizard in service to Magdronu, a dragon seeking for prime control of the world of Denaria.

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After elves discovered Athson wandering in the Auguron Forest they took him in only to realize later that he suffered the aforementioned fits as well as hallucinations about a Mountain Hound he called Spark. But over the years, these affects have been muted with the help of an elven medicine named Soul-ease.

But Athson also holds a few other secrets that he won’t reveal so easily and this leads him into trouble. As a grown man, he’s become a ranger among the elves and is sent with his mentor, Gweld, into the largely unpopulated western Auguron region. It’s here that events conspire to drag Athson unwillingly into a quest.

Along the way, Athson gains several new friends and companions – some he likes and some he doesn’t. Often, Athson also struggles with what’s real and not since he losses – or forgets – his medicine several times. Other events leave Athson confused and grieving while he struggles to find the Bow of Hart. But along the way, Athson finds his secrets are hard to keep hidden. Additionally, he’ll find himself facing hidden information and danger from Corgren, Magdronu and trolls all of which will test his resolve and grasp on reality.

Book blurb:

Haunted by his past. Hunted in the present. Uncertain what is real.

Athson has seen things that aren’t there and suffered fits since being tragically orphaned as a child at the hands of trolls and Corgren the wizard. When a strange will mentioning a mysterious bow comes into his possession, he’s not sure it’s real. But the trolls that soon pursue him are all too real and dangerous. And what’s worse, these raiders serve Corgren and his master, the hidden dragon, Magdronu, who are responsible for the destruction of his childhood home. Athson is drawn into a quest for the concealed Bow of Hart by the mystic Withling, Hastra, but Athson isn’t always sure what’s real and who his enemies are. With Corgren and Magdronu involved, Athson must face not only frequent danger but his grasp on reality and the reasons behind his tragic past.

Cover

The Bow of Destiny has been selected as a semi-finalist in the Authorsdb 2015 Cover Contest (finalist selections are still pending). As such, I’ve left the book at it’s sales price of $2.99 to celebrate!

Reviews

Read samples from Amazon or Goodreads and find out why other people are saying things like this about the book:

“Overall, this has become one of my favorite fantasy books and I’m looking forward to the rest of the series.”

– C. P. Bialois

“an excellent read…wittingly told…I love the style”

– E. J. Nate via email response

“I thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated the opportunity to step into the magical and special world that you have created. It is a solid and well-crafted work that you should be so thrilled with.”

Katie King via email response

To find out more about The Bow of Destiny, click over to one of these online retailers:

About the Author

P. H. Solomon lives in the greater Birmingham, AL area where he strongly dislikes yard work and sanding the deck rail. However, he performs these duties to maintain a nice home for his loved ones as well as the family’s German Shepherds. In his spare time, P. H. rides herd as a Computer Whisperer on large computers called servers (harmonica not required). Additionally, he enjoys reading, running, most sports and fantasy football. Having a degree in Anthropology, he also has a wide array of more “serious” interests in addition to working regularly to hone his writing. The Bow of Destiny is his first novel-length title with more soon to come.

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Getting Creative: Secondary Uses for Scrivener

Scrivener is fast becoming a mainstay of my writing. I’ve written about this software several times now but for those who are not familiar with it, Scrivener is for developing writing projects. It’s a powerful tool that allows for a great deal of flexibility for any kind of writing project. I’m even using it for this post but especially a series of blogs.

A Whole New Use

I recently started a newsletter for my blog which I send out to email followers. As part of this process I use Mailchimp to send the messages. I’ll be working on the upcoming edition for next week over several days but it hit me as I started thinking about it – write the newsletter in Scrivener.

My Newsletter Plan

I’m sure other people are doing this already but I haven’t seen anyone actually write about it. Here’s how I plan to use Scrivener.

1. Create a project for the year (since I just started the newsletter the one for 2014 will be short).

2. Use the Binder to create each newsletter volume in separate sub-folders so the project will grow throughout the year.

3. Use the Research folder to create separate sub-folders for each volume where I can put ideas, links, pictures, etc. that I want to use for that volume. When I start writing the volume I’ll have all my information ready to go.

4. Transfer the text to the template in Mailchimp when ready.

Other Related Ideas

Since I plan to use Scrivener for developing my newsletter I also realized there are other similar uses too:

I can use it to write my book-related email campaigns.
Other email templates such as those used for greetings, thank-you’s and giveaways
Goodreads templates for those who friend me
It can even be used to compose social media communications that may be used repetitively. Since you can copy all kinds of files into Scrivener, I imagine I can even use it for adding pictures to post on Pinterest such as upcoming cover reveals or additional artwork to be released at a particular time.

As you can see, the uses for Scrivener are many and varied. Have you tried Scrivener yet? If you have, what are other ways you use it? Please share your thoughts and ideas in the comments section.

About the Author

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Clip art licensed from Microsoft Office.

The Bow of Destiny cover art licensed by commission from Christopher Rawlins

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Scrivener Collections Pt. 3: Getting at the Facets of Your Writing

Scrivener is a powerful writing tool. I write about it weekly with tips and usage ideas. To read more of my posts click the Scrivener tag or category at the end of the page.

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Diamond photo courtesy Morguefile.com free section.

Just as a gemstone must be cut, so it is with a writing project. There are a variety of ways to approach editing any book. Fortunately, Scrivener’s Collections allow you to organize the various stages of your editing and help you get to the final version of your writing project that is your diamond.

If you’ve been reading my Scrivener posts the last few weeks you’ll know I’ve been discussing the use of collections. For those who may have missed the other posts they are here & here. Today, I continue with collection usage and approaching my current edits for my second novel in The Bow of Hart Saga, An Arrow Against the Wind.

My first round of editing covers structure whereby I’m adding necessary chapters and scenes to the book. To that end, last week’s post covered creating a collection and schedule for this editing. While I’m certainly not finished with that round of editing, I’m going to discuss the next type of structural editing that I can schedule now using collections.

For those who are wondering, yes, multiple collections can be created for any number of reasons. So my next collection will cover style. The chapters and scenes will address different ones to those added last week as well as some saved searches I expect to use during this editing phase.

If you need instructions on creating collections, please refer to the last 2 Scrivener posts linked above in this post. From this point, I’ll assume if you’re reading you understand what I’m doing. In the following screen-shot, you’ll note that I’ve create a second collection named Structural Edit – Style as it appears in the list of collections.

As I mentioned earlier, the chapters and scenes for this collection are different since I switched to deep POV during the time I wrote this draft. So I’ve identified the chapters that need to be edited to deep POV style. Note the chapters are different between the two collections.

Similar to the first collection, I’ve edited the meta-data for Status and Labels and I’ve applied them in similar fashion to the first one. I’ve learned to edit for these changes previously, so I’ve created some searches based on these so I can use them in the chapters to I can quickly make basic changes before making more specific ones. This makes editing the chapter or scene in question much quicker.

Now when I’m ready to proceed to this phase of my structural editing, I’m ready with a schedule and expected searches. If I need anything new, I’ll be able to add the necessary elements to the collection.

Please share your thoughts and ideas in the comments section. Interested in more of my writing? Just click one of the retailer banners on the sidebar to see more.

About the Author

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Just as a note: I am not affiliated with Scrivener in any official capacity. For support questions, pricing and other concerns please contact the vendor. However, I am working on becoming an affiliate for Scrivener ads since I like the product so much. I’m not required to write about Scrivener to be an affiliate; I just like it that much. For more about my FTC statement see my sidebar.

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