P.H. Solomon’s Writing Journey

Well, we’re off on another stop on the Story Empire Roadshow tour. Today, I’ll be visiting Harmony Kent. But here, I’m pleased to introduce a new author to my site, a great guy and talented author who also happens to be the newest member of Story Empire—P. H. Solomon. Today we’re going to learn all about his journey as a writer. Let’s give him a warm welcome.

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Hello to everyone and thanks to Staci for hosting me today. I’m P. H. Solomon, and I’m a fantasy author living in greater Birmingham, AL. It’s great to be a part of Story Empire and be on the Roadshow this week. I hope you’ll enjoy all the stops and authors this week and look at our books. To see our schedule and information about our prizes, please click to our Roadshow page and see where we are making appearances each day. This week I’m giving away a $10 Amazon Gift Card to the most active commenter.

Writing began in earnest for me shortly after I graduated high school. With all my fantasy reading, I was drawn to write my own fantasy and that progressed over a few years while I was in college and began working. The original book was finished in the mid-nineties and without any real self-publishing avenues like now, I shopped it around to publishers and was even offered a contract from a small press. However, I was uncomfortable with the contract, so I backed away and felt for several years that I may have made a mistake.

Over that time and based on my reading, I became dissatisfied with my work and tried to re-boot the series a few times but never got far with all of life’s demands which centered around the birth of my daughter and a growing career in IT. During that time, I dabbled with short fiction at times but never went far with that.

Finally, I resurrected what is now The Bow of Hart Saga about 7-8 years ago. About that time, I sent out one of my short stories, “The Black Bag,” which was published by a small webzine and then by another small magazine which culminated in winning an award for best published short fiction at a convention I attended. That event really buoyed my enthusiasm, so I put more effort into re-writing my old project with the thought that I had been offered a contract previously, so I should cut my self-publishing teeth on that series.

I really had no idea what I was doing with writing and self-publishing at the time but I started reading and learning more about it all. Along the way, I learned more about writing techniques and started applying these. The Bow of Destiny went through several more revisions around a couple of visits with my editor until I published it in late 2015.

After that first publication, I had to come to grips with the next book, which was a combination of about three different versions. It was a true mess and difficult to untangle. My hopes of publishing An Arrow Against the Wind in 2016 faded with the passing of each month. However, along the way, I had to learn about book marketing which was a steep learning curve that ended with very good results, so the year was well spent. But with all that editing, working with my daughter to get into college, and a tight work schedule with a lot of projects, I was seriously delayed.

But now, I’m happy to be approaching the release of An Arrow Against the Wind and still targeting late April for that event. My hope is to release the last book, The White Arrow, during either early summer or early fall. There are a lot of reasons to do that sooner rather than later, one of the main ones being the need to move on to other writing projects. With all honesty, what became The Bow of Hart Saga has been with me for the better part of thirty years. New material is calling, and has been for several years, so I’m anxious to complete this series and jump into some others. I’ve learned more than I could write in several books in coming to this point, so the series has been a good experience.

One thing I did learn is that sometimes an idea is worth holding onto even if it takes many years to produce. After all, The Bow of Destiny has sold in the thousands already which says something for holding onto a good concept even if it doesn’t seem like it will ever bear fruit. Sometimes projects need to be scrapped, but I’m a firm believer in shelving them until the idea germinates into something usable. That’s true now with some of the projects that I’m developing. One is about six years old, and the idea is just now really coming together. Another one is newer, but it arrived as a more developed concept so it gets some priority. At this point, I’ve also worked with a professional editor who has taught me a few things about developing a series, so that part is moving faster. Many of my changes since I started writing are due to my development as a writer.

So, that covers where I’ve been as a writer and where I’m going as an author. My writing has changed over the years; how have your reading tastes changed? What keeps you reading these days as opposed to when you were younger?

Thanks for reading this post today and be sure to check out our schedule. While you’re here, feel free to have a look at my current book, The Bow of Destiny and the upcoming release of An Arrow Against the Wind. You can click on my bio banner below to pay me a visit at my website and learn more about me and the rest of The Bow of Hart Saga, and follow me all week as I share more about my writing each day.

Also, don’t forget to check out the rest of the Story Empire Roadshow tour today. I’ll be with Harmony, but here are the links for all the posts:

Craig | Harmony | Joan | Mae | P. H.

Free novellas that relate to The Bow of Hart Saga:

• Trading Knives – Kobo, iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, and Amazon
• What Is Needed – Kobo, iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, and Amazon

P.H. Solomon’s social media links:
Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Website | Pinterest | Google + | Wattpad | Amazon