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How Do You Like Your Fantasy Genre?

Purple Flying Dragon Fantasy Clipart

I started reading fantasy back as a kid – drawn into it with The Hobbit. The wonder of the book drove me to read LOTR and then jump into other books written by Patricia McKillip, Anne MacCaffrey, Terry Brooks and many others over the years. Fantasy has changed over that time so that it has many sub-genres under its umbrella. So here’s several questions for you to consider with an answer in the comment section below:

What drew you to read fantasy?

What fantasy books did you read first?

How old were you when you first started reading fantasy?

What authors influenced you the most from the fantasy genre?

How much fantasy do you read these days?

Of course, you don’t have to answer just the questions to leave a comment. If you have anything else regarding fantasy on your mind, feel free to share your thoughts.

About the Author

I’m P. H. Solomon and I live in the greater Birmingham, AL area. I strongly dislike yard work and sanding the deck rail. However, I perform such duties to maintain a nice home for my loved ones as well as the family’s German Shepherds. In my spare time, I ride herd as a Computer Whisperer on large computers called servers (harmonica not required). Additionally, I enjoy reading, running, most sports and fantasy football. Having a degree in Anthropology, I also have a wide array of more “serious” interests in addition to working regularly to hone my writing. My third book of The Bow of Hart Saga fantasy series, The White Arrow, will be released October 2017. I’m also a contriubtor to Story Empire and a member of Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).

This blog is about my writing, other authors, writing-related topics and my chosen genre – speculative fiction (science fiction and fantasy to be specific). Join me regularly as I highlight other writers and share my journey as an author. See my Contact page for more information.

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The Weekly Writing Round-up

Last week was rather busy for a number of reasons so I didn’t get a chance to share all that’s happening. I finished the rough draft of The White Arrow, as noted by the announcement last week, is now in pre-order and off to my editor. That pre-order process was more involved than I intended but I finally completed all the work around it.

I had intended to get more done on a new project last week but work on The White Arrow seemed to swallow all the time for it. This week is feels much better for gearing up with the new project with a nice start. I’m working on a new novel in a new series for the first time in a very long time while The White Arrow is off getting tuned up. I’ll work on this new project as far as I can until it’s time to finish the final details on The White Arrow.

I’ve held off on this post because I’ve been working on another bit of news that’s baring fruit as I write. Not to give anything away just yet, but, I’ve been contacted for an opportunity to expand The Bow of Hart Saga into another format which I’m now taking into consideration. I’ll pass along the specifics when there’s more to report but this looks very promising.

In more mundane news, we finally finished with the daily rain pattern so it’s now hot and muggy most days. I have to go running either in the morning or very late in the evening to avoid the extreme heat index which has been over 100 several days.

We recently took the dogs out to a local park which had a lake and our male went for a swim. He got into a splash battle with my wife and daughter – yes, he actually did! It’s unbelievable how much that dog loves swimming. He’s a little older so it helped him with his arthritis.

For those who have become fans of our cat, Minou, he’s quickly headed toward full-grown status, though he’s still just as playful as ever. He’s even gotten our male dog into playing between the stair rails. It’s almost time to put him to work catching chipmunks around the house since he keeps practicing for that job with his antics. He knows when someone comes home because the dogs bark, sending him to the window to check. He’s also on the same dining schedule at the dogs and quite vocal about making sure he’s included in the food service!That’s all for this week for this writing update. Thanks for reading, I’ll be back with more updates next week or post anything big in an announcement.

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Rain, Ideas & More

Hello from rainy central Alabama. It’s been busy since I last wrote an update but that’s good!

The mower deck repairs were completed just in time to mow the yard before the current weather arrived. The grass was really high and thick but the mower performed very well. We’ve had rain most every day so getting the yard done was timely. In case you’ve missed the weather reports, Tropical Storm Cindy is landing in the gulf which brings rain to central Alabama both before and after landfall. Rain will continue throughout the rest of the week. Thankfully, we were able to purchase a new cover for the mower to protect the old mower deck. Otherwise, I’ve completed all the small maintenance tasks on the mower. This thing has really taken a lot of my time!

Our new edition to the family, the kitten named Minou, had a new round of standard shots last Friday. By Monday, he had developed a reaction to the shots with a fever. He slept all day but did eat and drink though which was good. He’s slowly bouncing back to his energetic ways after his fever broke Tuesday night.

One of the dogs likes to get on my daughter’s bed when it thunders which she did while Minou was feeling ill. The cat got up and laid down right next to the dog and she didn’t know what to do about that. The Dog let it ride and got comfortable until her dinner-time arrived. It was quite humorous to see the dog’s confused reaction to the cat sleeping so closely with her.

At any rate, I continue working on The White Arrow though I’m progressing a little slower than I’ve planned. However, I do intend to finish the rough draft very soon and begin all the marketing and editing phases during July and August.

I did come up with what I think is a good cover idea for The White Arrow. I emailed my artist and he likes it too. I’m working with him now to complete the cover so maybe it will be here next week at which time I’ll schedule a cover reveal. However, it may have a few versions with differing color-schemes so I may have time for a quick survey for response on which version is best.

I’m also working on scheduling an online event for An Arrow Against the Wind right at the end of the month. I haven’t decided where I’ll host it yet but I do plan on a few giveaways, fielding questions and even offering some digital autographs (using Authorgraph) for anyone attending the event. If it goes well, I’ll schedule a few more over the next several months.

I’m working on a few other online appearances as I have time so check my News page for more about those as well as the online events I’m scheduling. Additionally, a few opportunities may come my way that I’ll announce on that page too. I may land an interview with a local radio station which sounds like a lot of fun. I don’t know if it will work out just yet but the thought of it is exciting. Also, I might land an interview on a local, independent bookstore website. Again, nothing final on it but the opportunity would be nice.