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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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Fun Friday Vol. 2: The Broken Shield Chronicles

Follow-up on The Broken Shield Chronicles and other ideas

I don’t know how soon I’ll get to the project I mentioned last Friday. However, the consensus from the poll seems to be using some sort of variation in the series title including “Broken Shield.” I like The Broken Shield Chronicles well enough so that will be the working series title at this point.

With the name of the series settled, I’ll begin to put some serious thought into the world-building and other details for the fantasy world as well as the initial plot, character names and such. It should be very interesting as I develop this series since I’ve never gotten to develop one quite this way.

One of the fun parts of working on The Broken Shield Chronicles is going to be interacting with readers in a private Goodreads group. If you would like to join the group please let me know. I’m going to contact several readers with whom I already have some contact and invite them into the group. There will be some rules like: never talk about Broken Shield Chronicles Club outside the group on social media – like that Fight Club rule. I’ll outline more about the purpose and goals of the group over on Goodreads but I intend it to be a fun group where I can share development and get feedback as I work through the book, maybe posting once a week. There won’t be some commitment to doing anything, just the offer to take part in this fun project of mine and tag along for the development ride.

Otherwise, I’ll share some development details here and other projects on which I’m working. For instance, I do have a parallel series to The Bow of Hart Saga – actually a sub-plot of some complexity – that I’d like to publish as a companion novella series at some point. There are some rough draft excerpts that I’d like to share over on Goodreads or for download just for further feedback.

I’ve got several ideas in the beginning stages as you can see. However, I’m currently working on two new novels for my agent who requested some updated information from me this week as she prepares the pitches to publishers. I’ve been a little slower on these projects lately because it’s just been busy with a doctor’s visit, a few job interviews and other distractions, all of which prevented me from posting my general feature on Tuesday. But I do hope to dig down and really start accomplishing more on the current novels so I can move onto other projects.

That’s all for today! If you want to join the private Goodreads group, just click here to my Author Page to friend or follow me, then send me a message letting me know you’re in and I’ll send the invite. Otherwise, please leave your thoughts and questions in the comments section and I’ll get back to you as quickly as I can.

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Self-Scouting: How My Release Day Went

Introduction

Self-publishing means that most, if not all, responsibilities for publishing a book lie squarely on the author. Here’s my take on how I did with the release of my recent book The White Arrow.

The Plan

I had a simple plan to share the release blog which you can view. Additionally, I planned to share tidbits on the blog post all day long and direct visitors to the ongoing (it’s still going) blog tour to register for the gift card giveaway (you still can today: Indie Wish List & Spunky N Sassy). Also, were links to a Facebook post and a Goodreads discussion where I also planned to post updates on various announcements and news. I even planned a few promos and had The Bow of Destiny on special for 99 cents. My email subscriber list received news about the release and I announced the event to friends on Goodreads. Finally, I scheduled a Thunderclap to announce the release of The White Arrow. I added a twist where visitors could go take a short quiz about the series to find out what character they were most like.

What Happened

Most everything went off without a hitch. I made updates all day long and shared news about going to print with the series (hopefully beginning later this month with The Bow of Destiny). I’m low on funds so I shied away from spending on much of anything and just stuck with what was in my wheelhouse for my limited budget these days.

The quiz was well received so I plan to do more of these in the future.

What I’d Do Differently

I’d run the Thunderclap much earlier so that the announcement would go out in the morning. Because I was rushed, I hesitated to schedule the campaign until late in the game meaning I had much less time to get the necessary 100 supporters. Since the campaign neared the minimum for a free campaign, I was forced to set the time for the message back several hours until 4PM instead of noon. The campaign did get 106 supporters but the message was very late in the day. I’d prefer to have that sent out much sooner to get attention. At least it was sent and that’s a plus.

Also, I’d do more to invite individual people I know to the blog, Facebook or Goodreads venues. Many of my Thunderclap supporters ended up being friends so I should have invited them to the event as well and gotten them the chance to register for the giveaway. Silly me, I thought they would just come to the event but I should have been more direct with the invitation. Again, next time, I’ll send out more notices sooner than I did to friends.

What I’d Really Like To Do

I’d like to run a series of live event sessions via Hangouts which feeds into YouTube and can be embedded into social media like Facebook and Twitter. However, this requires some big planning and a fair number of visitors in order to get interaction. Next time, I’ll work on planning something this ambitious further in advance and make sure that I get visitors to the scheduled sessions so I can interact with people. This also gives me a chance to add videos to my YouTube channel.

Also, I might try using more PR, contacting appropriate media outlets and possibly hire a service to handle the plans. But for now, I remain low budget.

Conclusion

Overall, the release went well. The White Arrow has now sold several hundred copies and continues to sell well. With the series completed, I’ll continue work on other projects as well as adding print to the mix within the month – more news on this last item in the coming weeks. Maybe I’ll have time to put my big ideas to action on the print release!

You can find more information about The Bow of Destiny, An Arrow Against the Wind and The White Arrow at their pages. It’s a great time to dig into the series if you haven’t already!

Share your thoughts and ask your questions in the comments section and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can!