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5 Additions to The Bow of Hart Saga Over the Years

It goes without saying that a fiction project morphs in many ways as it is written. However, The Bow of Hart Saga was a project that lasted several decades so the changes in it have been ongoing throughout that time. Here are 5 additions to the series:

1. Spark – this character was added very late in the writing process of The Bow of Destiny and then into the following two books, An Arrow Against the Wind and The White Arrow. Spark began as a suggestion from my daughter so the character would not have been in the series at all without her input. Interesting since I didn’t even know my wife when I started the series just out of high school, let alone have a daughter!

  1. A larger cadre of villainous characters – one of the characters added was Paugren, Corgren’s brother. He arrived before The Bow of Destiny was completed, but mainly in Trading Knives which is a prequel story that reveals Corgren’s past along with his brother who is an integral part. Paugren takes on a larger role as the series moves forward.

  1. A different writing style – in 2014, at the suggestion of several other people, I changed the essence of the writing style for The Bow of Destiny (and the series) to that of deep point-of-view. It’s a different technique that I had to learn but I think it helped the series tremendously because of the nature of Athson’s story.
  2. More back-story about Withlings – as I prepared The Bow of Destiny, I knew there would be lots of questions about Withlings and the mystery surrounding them. Sometimes wonder-workers, sometimes mystics, these characters are quite different in nature so their story needed to be developed. For that, I turned to a short story entitled, What Is Needed, which refers to the common saying among Withlings.

  1. Ralda’s deeper characterization – this giant of a character had a makeover – again at my daughter’s suggestion. Before her suggestions, I had added that Ralda used a supplemental sign-language common among his people. Also, Ralda’s back-story about his brother took on a deeper meaning as something which motivates him. But at my daughter’s suggestion some appearance changes were added. Ralda (and giants) use a set of tattoos on their hands and fingers to augment their signing was one of the main details that came from the make-over.

There are many other details that I added along with some that were removed. Check back next week to find out what I removed.

Thanks for reading today, please leave your thoughts in the comments section and I’ll reply as soon as I can. If you want to know more about The Bow of Hart Saga, please see the series page.

The Bow of Destiny Character Interview: Spark

Spark

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!

As I mentioned on on release day (couple of years go), I added an animal character to The Bow of Destiny at the suggestion of a beta reader. What I settled on was a dog based on my German Shepherds and named him Spark. If you haven’t read the part of the scavenger hunt from Monday please take a look since it shares a funny way of communicating that my male dog has – his tail. That’s correct, when you ask him simple questions he wags his tail for yes and doesn’t for no. So Spark does the same thing. However, Athson is the only one who can see him besides, you, the reader. But, Athson doesn’t quite understand that Spark is communicating with him. Now that you know, you can read the book and understand something additional happening in the book.

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With that in mind, I decided to interview Spark for a bit of unique fun:

Q: How are you today, Spark? Er, I mean, are you well today Spark? (Gotta stick to the question rules!)

Spark: wag, wag, wag.

Q: So you’ve been with Athson since he was orphaned?

Spark: wag, wag, wag.

Q: Do other people see you?

Spark: no tail wag.

Q: Are you real?

Spark: wag, wag, wag.

Q: Is there a reason you follow Athson?

Spark twists his head sideways and lets loose a low growl.

Uh, right, we’re not getting int that now (and that question didn’t follow the rules).

Q: Let’s find out your favorite place. Do you like Auguron Forest?

Spark: wag, wag, wag.

Q: Do you like the Troll Heaths?

Spark: no tail wag

Q: Do you like Chokkra?

Spark: one, slight tail wag.

Hmm, guess he’s got an opinion that we can’t quite understand at the moment.

Q: Do you like Athson?

Spark: pants , wag, wag, wag.

Q: Do you have a deeper propose in the series?

Spark: cocks his head and growls again.

Uh, well I guess he doesn’t want to talk about that.

So that’s Spark and now you are in on the secret that not even Athson has figured out. I hope the interview was unique and fun and you’re a little intrigued with the book.

Spark appears throughout The Bow of Hart Saga. To find out more about the character, click the links for The Bow of Destiny, An Arrow Against the Wind or The White Arrow. The entire series is not available on Audible from Podium Publishing:

Amazon

 

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. His first novel, The Bow of Destiny was named 2016 Book of the Year by Fantasia Reviews and is the first book of The Bow of Hart Saga. The sequel novel, An Arrow Against the Wind, was released in April of 2017. The third book of the series, The White Arrow, is due to be released during the Fall of 2017. P. H. Solomon also authored the award winning short story, The Black Bag, which won best published short story at SCWC 2012. P. H. is also a member of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).

Prequel short stories to The Bow of Hart Saga:

Trading Knives Amazon

What Is Needed Amazon

Download and listen to the prequels for free at AudFans

   Trading Knives 1   What Is Needed 4

 

 

 

So Close It’s Almost Within Reach

Good evening everyone. I’m a little late getting the post out today since my weekend was busy. I wasn’t entirely sure how far I would get with my manuscript last week so I held off working on a post until I had a good idea how far along I was. There was also the matter of attending a writers conference online last Friday and Saturday which took up a large fraction of my time this week.

The good news is that I have made a lot of progress, but the bad news is the revision of Reformed Mage is still not finished. The writing conference put me further behind than I expected, however the progress is still significant. I have begun stitching together the various pieces of the manuscript. The structure of the book is organized so these parts fit together nicely once complete. As I finish each section it is added to the revised manuscript. My hope is to very quickly complete the main portion of the revision and send it to my editor within a few days. Of course, this also means I’m closer to releasing the prequel for this first novel, The Changeling Incident.

Being stuck on the revision means that my other projects remain on hold. However, I only expect them to be on hold for a few more days, after which I hope to quickly wrap those up. The pre-launch should be underway for Curses Dark and Foul within a matter of days. It will be a relief to be able to move on to my various other projects while my novel is being edited. I expect to work through quite a lot a the various books I have on tap, but also want to take time to relax more than I have and not expect so much from myself. Likewise, it’s also a chance to review aspects of my writing platform will like updating the website.

Overall, it should be a good time to make steady progress many different aspects of my writing. Just completing the revision helps clarify the way forward for the next two books in the Reformed Mage series. Completing this stage of the novel also provides time for planning the way forward three other series so I can begin dictating more books. This revision will be a big step forward and it’s my hope that I can get some feedback about the book from a few beta readers in addition to my editor’s observations. Knowing what I’m going to do with the next several books in the Reformed Mage series should make revision and editing a much faster prospect.

As soon as I have Curses Dark and Foul ready to upload and a link available, I’ll post the pre-release announcement. This is a chance to hone my release plans leading up to a robust release for the novel. The hope is to improve on what I’ve done in the past with The Bow of Hart Saga releases. I hope to update the next three release time-lines – Curses Dark and Foul, The Changeling Incident and The Feral Name (the working title for the first Reformed Mage book) in the near future as well as the more long-term releases.

Thanks for dropping by this evening and reading the updates. The more I have ready ahead of time, the more specific my release dates become. Please leave your comments and thoughts below and I’ll get back with you as I can.