The Books of William Speir

Award-winning author William Speir was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1962, attended the University of Alabama, and graduated from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1984. He spent over 25 years in corporate America, serving as a management consultant, consulting practice leader, IT executive, and HR/Payroll executive for top tier consulting firms and Fortune 100 companies. His specialty was helping people and organizations change (new systems, new processes, new regulatory compliance, new products and services, new markets). He has worked for companies and with clients across the United States, Canada, Bermuda, and the United Kingdom. He has lived in Alabama, Michigan, Texas, Connecticut, and Florida.

William has also helped start and manage a number of non-profit corporations, having held officer and director positions in several cultural and historic organizations. He is a Civil War Artillery expert and is involved with battlefield and historic site preservation.

Publishing Experience

During William’s corporate career, he published several articles on leadership and the human impact to change.

His first experience with book publishing was with a series of ten textbooks he authored about the types, nomenclature, capabilities and deployment of field artillery in the 19th century. These textbooks became the source material for his Muzzle-Loading Artillery for Reenactors (PRPP 2015).

In 2009, after William retired from the corporate world, he began writing fiction. His first works, The Order of the Saltire Trilogy, were published in 2010 and 2011. A second trilogy soon followed (The Sentinels of the Saltire Trilogy).

William was approached by his first publishing company to use his business experience to improve the company’s internal processes and help develop new business opportunities that could benefit authors and organizations that needed publishing services. During his tenure, William took over the sharing of author success stories on Social Media, he created a pilot program to help professional organizations with large archives of information to create an online marketplace for selling and distributing the contents of their archives while also handling the publishing of new information (newsletters, journals, bound volumes of past articles), and he developed a new service to help authors market their books and develop their personal brand by writing and publishing articles.

William took every opportunity to learn about the publishing industry from the inside, including book production, cover design, text layout, marketing, branding, and the financial side of the business. It was also during this time that William met the founders of Progressive Rising Phoenix Press (PRPP).

William left his first publisher to concentrate on writing and to look for a new publisher that would approach authors as business partners, rather than commodities. Over the next few years, he heavily revised his first two trilogies into a 7-book series, he wrote his first two historical novels (both of which won Royal Palm Literary Awards for unpublished historical fiction), he wrote his first fantasy novel, and he began writing his first science fiction novel. He also consolidated his ten artillery textbooks into a single manual.

In April 2015, William signed with Progressive Rising Phoenix Press (PRPP) to be his new publishing partner. His artillery manual, his two historical novels (King’s Ransom and The Saga of Asbjorn Thorleikson), his fantasy novel (The Kingstone of Airmid), and his action-adventure series (The Knights of the Saltire Series), were the first works published. William has since published seven additional novels. His science fiction novel (The Olympium of Bacchus 12) was published in late 2016 and won a Royal Palm Litarary Award for Published Science Fiction. His next two historical novels (Nicaea - The Rise of the Imperial Church and Arthur, King) were published in 2017 and both won Royal Palm Litarary Awards for Published Historical Fiction. In 2018, he added an eighth book to his Knights of the Saltire Series, and in 2019, he published his fifth historical novel, The Besieged Pharaoh, and the nineth and final book to his Knights of the Saltire Series. In 2020, he published his first Geo-Political Thriller titled The Trinity Gambit, and an action novel titled Shiko Unleashed. In 2022, he published his 19th and 20th novels: an action novel titled The Day of the Dead, which won the Royal Palm Literary Award in 2023 for Published Thriller or Suspense, and an espionage epic titled Codename: Mountbatten. In 2023, he published three Adult Romance novels, Love's Second Chance, Stealing Love, and Love Lost, Love Found.

In December 2016, William accepted the position of Production Manager with PRPP. In this role, William manages the process of preparing new books for publication and updating existing books for new pricing, new bindings, and new editions.

In July 2019, William accepted the position of General Manager with PRPP, and in 2020, William accepted the position of Chief Operating Officer for PRPP.

Click on the links to the left to learn more about the novels of William Speir.