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Characters from The Bow of Destiny: Limbreth

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!

This is the third of several posts revealing more about characters from The Bow of Destiny. The first in this series was about Athson and the second featured Spark

Limbreth is a young woman who appears in the book as a traveling companion to Hastra. At first glance, she’s just a young, brash woman with a horse and a couple of swords. She got a lot of bravado and seems to be looking to make a name for herself. But there’s more to her than meets the eye. Her horse is rather well-trained and Limbreth seems to have some cavalry skill as well as some rather good training at least as a duelist.

But just who is Limbreth? She’s not willing to reveal her identity. Is she the typical beauty so often found in fantasy books? Well, she’s not a model nor is she someone like Brienne in Game of Thrones. Limbreth certainly falls somewhere between in the looks department. Is she like an Amazon, or even Brienne? I’d call her neither. She’s skilled with swords but she’s no knight like Brienne.

I wrote Limbreth into the book many years ago as a young woman with heroic aspirations. She wears white, light-weight leather armor made for dueling and her horse is white – she seems to like the color. Last year, I happened to read about Joan of Arc. I’d always heard about her and even seen a few shrines to her in some churches in France (my wife’s a French teacher so I’ve been a few times). However, I’d never really studied her closely. When I did, I found Limbreth to be eerily similar to her in appearance except for the hair style (Joan bobbed her hair). I never intended Limbreth to appear like her in any way. It just turned out that way through no intention of my own.

Along the way in the book (and what’s coming in the next two books), Limbreth’s role grows. In fact, she gets some very good scenes all through the series. But Athson is the true main character since everything revolves around him and the Bow of Hart. But Limbreth’s a character who’s grown in many ways from when I first added her to the book many years ago when I wrote the first draft. She now has far more complexity to her in addition to her larger role. For more on Limbreth, check out her character interview on C. S. Boyack’s Lisa Burton Radio. If you’re interested more about about female warriors, check out

To find out more about The Bow of Destiny, click over to one of these online retailers: Real Characters: She Can’t Be That!

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.

Prequel short stories to The Bow of Hart Saga:

Trading Knives – Kobo, iBooks & Barnes & Noble, Smashwords & Amazon

What Is Needed – Barnes & Noble, Kobo, iBooks, Smashwords & Amazon

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Fantasy Friday! The Bow of Destiny Commentary Pt. 2: The “Fit”

Introduction

I thought it would be interesting to share some commentary about the beginning of The Bow of Destiny now that the book has been out for a while, sold well and the next book should be released in just a few months. The Bow of Destiny has a curious beginning for many people that’s at once perplexing, confusing and intriguing. This effect is done on purpose and I’ll share a bit about it now.

The Bow of Destiny is written using the technique of deep point-of-view where readers hopefully become deeply engaged with the perceptions of the point-of-view character. There are a few other aspects mixed into this, one being that there are little, to no, dialogue tags in the book – all the dialogue is contextual. Secondly, with the deep point-of-view, internalization is signaled – or tagged – with physical actions by the character. As such, the internal thoughts, mood and emotions of the character are not italicized since these are deep enough into the chracter-reader engagement to not be set apart in such a way. Lastly, when italics are used it is for a specific, ongoing experience for the POV character. In such cases, hallucinations, dreams, memories, visions and other such experiences of the character are italicized as a special indicator that something different is happening for the character. I also used a present tense instead of past tense to cue the reader that this is a present experience for the character. It’s important to note that the tense only has changed and not the character POV.

The Fit

Athson has been afflicted with what he terms “fits” since he was orphaned. Something in his surrounding environment can set off these episodes where he re-lives his past – sometimes overlaid with his present. It’s actually a PTSD-like reaction to the violence of his past and can leave him rather confused

On top of this, Athson also sees other things like Spark, an imaginary mountain hound that’s been at his side since the incidents described in the first chapter. Athson takes an elven concoction called Soul’s Ease to prevent him from having “fits” or seeing Spark.

The opening scene gets confusing for Athson because he’s forgotten his Soul’s Ease. The instances of italics in this case are when Athson sees his traumatic past – in present tense. It emphasizes that something different is ongoing within Athson’s awareness. If you – as the reader – are confused, then it’s all good because Athson is confused and you are really deeply into his experiences. However, it’s important to remember that the character point-of-view does not change – only the tense has changed to emphasize Athson’s (in this case) experience has changed.

Athson knows that these “fits” give him a hard time differentiating what he sees for days so he assumes things like Spark are not real. However, these seem very real to him and he often gets caught up in them anyway – such as interacting with Spark.

Conclusion

So this is another layer to Athson’s point-of-view in the opening scene. As you can see, there are a lot of different aspects to this scene that might get overlooked. However, if you read it again you’ll see the clues along the way. By the way, there are a number of other subtleties throughout the book that you might find interesting on re-reading.

Next week, I’ll dig a little deeper into this opening scene and attempt to offer a bit more about Athson’s state of mind. I found this scene difficult, tricky and daring all at once so there are a lot of layers to what’s going in with Athson that set the stage for the whole story. Thanks for reading today. Please leave comments below and check back next week for another post about this topic.

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Fantasy Friday! Characters From The Bow of Destiny: Athson

This is the first of several posts revealing more about characters from The Bow of Destiny.

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.

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. Check out my internet radio interview on Speculative Cantina.

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

About the Author