The Bow of Hart

Stirring from Hibernation

Greetings to Archer’s Aim readers! I haven’t been working on the blog for a while much to my own frustration. A combination of factors have kept me tied up so the blog has not been active too much in recent months. If you’ve noticed more activity recently it’s because I’m putting a little more time into the site. My focus slipped on a number of activities last year with a thyroid issue that has been addressed over the last few months.

I had hoped to have one or two books released long before now but the issues I had over last summer and fall really affected completing projects. When my doctor told me the problem, I reacted with, “That explains a lot.” I probably should have noticed from some symptoms that are familiar but they were not pronounced enough to make me think it was anything other than just being worn out from work, writing and other responsibilities. But it was enough to noticeably hold up my writing schedule. Lesson learned.

With the little health problem, I was often physically and mentally tired so the blog suffered as well as my writing productivity. I’m happy to say that it’s all taken care of and I’m back in the saddle of late and doing much better with my energy for life in general. It’s much like waking up from hibernation and I hope things stay a little more even for a while.

Of late, I’ve re-doubled my writing efforts and made a lot of progress with several projects. I have one book, All Things Forgotten, back from my editor and plan to begin a serious overhaul of the manuscript sometime next week if all goes well. After that, it will be more editing and some feedback from readers, working toward publication during the summer.

Otherwise, my longer novels code-named “Mage” and “Glove” were recently pitched to a few publishers while on a working vacation cruise/conference. Both of these manuscripts have been requested to be reviewed by publishers present at the conference and my agent is also submitting them elsewhere. I should know more about the fate of these WIPs in terms of how they will be published within a few months.

I‘m also hiking forward with another book starting the Broken Shield Chronicles. This manuscript is soon to be finished and will go to my editor. My hope is to publish this book later in the year.

Otherwise, I’m also beginning plans for some sequels to The Bow of Hart Saga. I’m not yet certain the extent of the work but I’ll share more as the planning moves along. The current plan is to publish a novella series that bridges the events of the first series with those of the second series. This shorter series will use new characters with a few existing ones in a parallel story-line into which the next events involving Athson, Limbreth and others will flow. Some of the work for the novella series was started a few years back and were scratched to keep The Bow of Hart Saga as a more concise plot. But with the sequel, there are details that need revealing through this short series to help create context for the main sequel.

I keep pushing onward because I simply love reading and writing books. It’s hard to explain how much better I feel but it is noticeable in how much I accomplish so things are moving along much faster than just a few months ago. There is also the intention on my part to update this site when I can afford it so look for news about that change along with others as the year progresses. Follow me here, my newsletter, my Amazon Author page, my BookBub page or request access to my private Goodreads group for more specific news and opportunities for pre-release copies of new books and some possible freebies. Following on BookBub and Amazon are great ways to receive notifications about my latest books. If you’ve already read The Bow of Hart Saga, please share the books on your social media accounts.

3 Things I Learned from Spark

Spark is a character in The Bow of Hart Saga who is based on my two German Shepherds – mainly the male, Sam. This dog has an oddity that I’ve previously shared in that he talks with his tail (click the link for an explanation). He will answer some basic questions by wagging his tail for yes and not wagging for no. Now Sam isn’t always too keen on having a conversation and, after all, he’s a dog and gets easily distracted with, say, things like food and treats. So, I don’t always get a good conversation with the dog but they sometimes turn out humorous and informative.

Sam understands quite a lot of conversation. In fact, I think I read in some recent studies that dogs can (not always) understand a lot more of what we’re saying than we think – they even process language the same way (again, feel free to check that if you like). Sam is a little older so he has some aching joints – a few questions and you can find out what ails Sam.

In fact, a few years back we were talking and asked Sam if he remembered our old cat, Becky, who died when he was just a few years old. Of course he did (tail wagged furiously). So we asked him if he wanted another cat – and he did! Sam likes cats and babies (really goes crazy about babies) almost as much as swimming!

Anyway, yesterday I was cooking in the kitchen and normally that’s not a good time to talk to Sam because he is interested in food. But, he was lying down and rather attentive so I started a conversation with him by asking a few questions. In hindsight, I really should have gotten this on video but my phone was handy and leaving probably would have meant missing the moment. Anyway, the dog was answering questions as expected, yes and no for the obvious things. Well, I some good questions popped into my head and I interviewed my real-life character. Here are three things Spark (Sam) told me yesterday:

After I asked him if he and the other dog are guard-dogs, he answered yes to both of these. Then I asked Sam if Chloe was a better guard-dog than him.

Answer: Yes!

Wow, that was an unusual answer but Sam really doesn’t have much guile so he was just answering truthfully.

After I asked the dog if he liked our new cat, Minou, and got the affirmative, I asked if he wanted the cat to go outside.

Answer: No!

Sam doesn’t want the cat to go outside? That was odd but then I suppose he would really worry about the cat.

Then I asked Sam if the cat was his pet.

Answer: Yes!

So, Sam doesn’t want his pet cat to go outside.

And there you have it, an impromptu interview with Spark about what he thinks about a few things that matter to him. These were really funny and surprising facts to learn – just like when we found out he even wanted a pet cat. Now we know our dog has a cat!

That’s all for today. Thanks for stopping by and reading about the humorous and informative little interview with the dog. Please leave your responses in the comments section and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. Click here to read a fictional interview with Spark. And here’s a bit more about the character:

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:

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).