P.H. Solomon on Writing Roots #StoryEmpireRoadshow

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Happy Monday and welcome to the first day of the Story Empire Roadshow Blog Tour!

vintage photo of a bookmobile with crowd gathered around it

The authors of Story Empire have banned together on a week-long tour spanning all of our blogs to bring you entertaining posts, fabulous deals on books, giveaways and other prizes. To kick things off, please welcome P.H. Solomon!

Book cover for the Bow of Destiny, a fantasy novel by P.H. Solomon

Hello to everyone and thanks to Mae 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 take a 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.

close up of fountain pen with tip on paperI like to write and have for several decades, even though I’ve taken several long breaks from it. During each hiatus, writing always nagged at me and I often thought of ideas and toyed with them from a writing perspective. But one of the main reasons I like to write is that I’m a reader. While I like to read mainly speculative fiction, I do dabble with mysteries, action-thrillers and non-fiction so I have a variety of interests.

But reading influenced me to write long before I ever made my first attempts and it always called me back to writing over the years, simply for the love of a good story. I suppose one of my first memories of reading a good book on my own as a child was when I read The Hobbit by Tolkien, probably about my fifth-grade year. I read all about Bilbo’s adventures while sitting on a grate of our old furnace because it was warm in a drafty old house. The reading warmed my mind as much as the furnace warmed me bodily. That was a nightly ritual for some weeks as I plodded through a much bigger book than I was used to reading on my own. But it led to reading all of The Lord of the Rings over the next year which greatly increased both my reading comprehension and vocabulary. It also led me to other books.

One summer after that, I dealt with a case swimmer’s ear infection for a week or so during June. During that time, I read all of The Chronicles of Narnia. The series kept me company but I was soon finished with it since I was free to devote most of each day to reading. Of course, when I finished and was well, I was more than ready to get out and be active the rest of the summer but the characters stayed with me all that time as I remembered their adventures.

Later, I read other fantasy books and really enjoyed Patricia McKillip during my teen years. I once picked up her newest book, Heir of Sea and Fire, the sequel to The Riddlemaster of Hed, and read it on Christmas break by the fire. It was another story of wonder and adventure and the cozy fire each night was a good setting for reading about characters often visiting new locales with their own campfires to which the characters gravitated for warmth on their journey.

Book cover for An Arrow Against the Wind, a fantasy novel by author P.H. SolomonThese reading memories are much of what gave me a love of story and eventually led me in to writing. Books have been life-long friends to me and they’ve often lent comfort in difficulty which is the case of stories since people started telling them around their nightly fires thousands of years ago. What books influenced you when you were young? What are your fondest reading memories? 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. Please follow me all week as I share more about my writing each day.

Here are some of the places where you can catch up with me on social media:
Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Website | Pinterest | Google+ | Wattpad | Amazon Author

bio box for author P. H. Solomon

Continue to follow the Story Empire Roadshow at these
blogs for more giveaways, prizes and fun!

Staci Troilo | C. S. Boyack | Harmony Kent | Joan Hall | P. H. Solomon

 

56 thoughts on “P.H. Solomon on Writing Roots #StoryEmpireRoadshow”

  2. “The Hobbit” is what drew me into fantasy, reading and then writing. Great place to begin! “The Bow of Destiny” has been waiting for me to read sitting on my kindle. I look forward to it. Thanks for hosting, Mae!

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  4. Hi there! I just came across this post of yours and your blog in general and I couldn’t help but comment and tell you how much I adore your blog and love this post! Keep up the great work, I am going to follow you so I can keep up with all your new posts!

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  5. So many authors influenced me, PH. … Stephen King, Anne McCaffrey, and many many more! Thanks for a great post, PH, and good luck with everything 🙂

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  6. It’s so interesting to learn which authors influenced writers. And sitting in a nice warm spot to read sounds like a wonderful idea, especially in the winter time. I remember Anne McCaffery being my first intro to fantasy, followed by Piers Anthony’s Xanth series, then Terry Brooks’ Shannara and Stephen R Donaldson’s Thomas Covenant. So many great stories, so little time!

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    • Julie, those are some wonderful fantasy books. I loved Anne McCaffrey and Terry Brooks. I should have read more of Xanth but for some reason I never did. Same for Donaldson. For some reason, my reading took me in different directions at the time. But I should go back and read some of those soon!

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    • Ahh, Julie you’re bringing back memories. The first Shanara book still ranks as one of my favorite of all time, and I remember Thomas Covenant “the white gold wielder” well. Anne McCaffery was another favorite, and I devoured Piers Anthony in the day, If you loved all them, I know you will love The Bow of Hart Saga. I’m eagerly awaiting book two!

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  8. It has been many years since I read the Chronicles of Narnia, but such fascinating characters and adventures. When I was a kid, I read every fairy tale book I could get my hands on. I checked out the Grimm’s Fairy Tales book from the library so many times they had to make a new card for it. 🙂 Great post, P.H. Thanks for sharing this with us, Mae!

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  9. I absolutely love fantasy and your covers are great, just the kind that would attract my attention in a bookstore.
    One of my favourite authors in this genre is an Italian writer, Licia Troisi. Her first saga, which includes three different trilogies, kept me company many times.
    Reading was and still is one of my favourite things to do. I was a lone child so I had to learn to entertain myself and book characters kept me a lot of company.
    You have my respect for reading LotR at such a young age. I liked it, but found it hard to pass certain points.

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    • Irene, LotR took me a long time to read at that age and I was looking up words all the time. However, my vocabulary rocketed forward. I’ll have to take a look at Troisi’s books. My daughter is an only child and she’s a complete book-worm! But she came by it naturally. Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment today!

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    • Irene, I absolutely agree with you about P.H.’s book covers. I think they’re some of the best I’ve seen in the fantasy genre.
      I’ve read The Bow of Destiny and am eagerly awaiting the release of An Arrow Against the Wind. I’m not familiar with Licia Troisi but will have to look her up. Many thanks for visiting and commenting!

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  10. P.H., it’s great to have you on my blog today. I just had to chime in and say I remember not only LOTR fondly, but also The Riddlemaster of Hed and Heir of Sea and Fire. Another fantasy series I loved was Michael Moorcock’s Elric Saga.

    Can’t wait to catch up with Athson and the gang in the next Bow release!

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  12. I so much agree with you regarding the fact that we, as authors, are first and foremost READERS. I must admit I heard about The Hobbit and lord of the rings only after my country went out of the Iron Curtain, in the 1989. I love fantasy,speculative fiction, but above all paranormal with a dash of horror and thrillers.
    I love your covers and they bring to my mind RPG games that I so much enjoy!
    Best of luck with your writing and have a pleasant, successful journey!
    Carmen from Dracula’s country.

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    • Carmen, I still have troubles reminding myself of . the conditions you lived under for so long. I’m glad you and your countrymen and women have finally gotten to experience some of the things citizens in the U.S. and elsewhere have taken for granted for so long. I love all those genres you mentioned and am glad you had a chance to visit with P.H. today. I positively love his book covers and this series!

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    • Carmen, I seemed to have missed this comment last Monday. Thank you for leaving such a nice comment and I’m pleased you like the covers. It’s great that you discovered all the books when you did. I do like RPG games at times myself.

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  14. “Go Ask Alice” had a profound affect on me, especially because I read it so young, in secret without my parent’s permission. The story was so twisted. Perhaps that’s what helped shape my stories as an adult. Well, “Silence of the Lambs” didn’t hurt, either. LOL

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  16. P. H. I believe that good writers must have a love of reading. Before I learned to read, I always enjoyed hearing a good story. Reading opened up a whole new world – it enabled me to travel to places I’d never been. I, too am a fan of Tolkien. The Hobbit was fun, LOTR was, as you know, a much harder read, but I enjoyed it immensely. I applaud you at having read it at such a young age. I didn’t attempt it until I was an adult!

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