Hasta La Vista, 2025. Bring on 2026!

Leap The Dead will be finished by the end of next week. That’s book… -counts fingers- seven.

Not bad.

I started it May of 2025. So, 9 months. That’s the shortest time it’s taken me to write a book yet.

My favorite cover artist, fellow author Matt James, is working on that part. Also, my favorite narrator, Christopher Lyell, is going to be dragged back in to do the audio on this one as well. (After three weeks so far of dealing with Amazon ACX/Audible trying to get the cover art uploaded – we finally wrapped that up Trample the Weak last week. Now it’s around ten days of waiting for approval…) And as for myself, I’ve an idea for a third book to continue the Beau Henry series. Which will likely be titled, ‘Eat the Survivors‘.

I also have ‘Settling Prehistoric‘ on the brain. I miss Jedidiah Huckleberry Smith, his horse Carbine, his love Skyla, and all that chaos of fun western characters in the lost world of Prehistoria…

Conquering Prehistoric, the 5th book in the series, was a blast to write from a new perspective. Cato ‘The Black Plague’ Landry was a cool character who needed his story to be told. And bringing a lost Roman Legion into the story was fun as well. I mean, c’mon… Roman’s vs Cowboys. Heck yeah.

But ultimately, while the reviews are at an awesome average of 4.7/5 stars, it wasn’t as popular as the Jedidiah books. And Settling Prehistoric would be going back to Jed as the main character, with his ‘family’ intact, and a dangerous new threat that was hinted at in the end of Conquering Prehistoric. (So I reckon you ought to read that one even if you wanted more Jed… just for the reveal at the end.)

After almost two years away from Prehistoria, I feel like I need to re-read the books first while I work on an outline. I’ve been so glued into WWII and the Pacific Theater, that it’s going to take some work to recall all the details of the West of Prehistoric series.

That may give me time to figure out the next series I’d like to work on. And also give another book to the fans of WoP before 2026 is over…

But expect a cover reveal post and pre-order option soon for Leap the Dead. Which will hopefully coincide with a ‘Audible Release!’ announcement for Trample the Weak.

Things are a moving.

Cheers to 2026.

May we make all things better than they were before.

Erik.

December 2025 – Update

The writing continues. I’m over 60% through writing the Leap The Dead. It’s going well, we get to explore Yeuhan Island in depth, and the Japanese Emperor’s sadistic Unit Thirty-Five. I’m having fun with that. And Trample The Weak is still doing REALLY well in sales. So I need to wrap that up…

My next project is up in the air though… I was going to write this series about two competing billionaires using mercenaries to retrieve artifacts of Christ.

But then I saw this $0 deal on Amazon for The Blood King by Matt James who is a fantastic writer and cover artists. (He does my cover art)

And danged if he didn’t write my book.

It’s so good, folks. I’m about 3/4’s of the way through, reading it in bits and pieces on my bathroom breaks at work. (heh) And I’m very, very impressed. I highly recommend it. He gets the ‘nerd lore’ down pat. I won’t say anything more than that, but it’s clever and historical and such.

Go buy it. The sequel, The False Prophet, is already out.

So, since Matt James wrote my series and all… it’s back to the drawing board.

Settling Prehistoric is still waiting. I’d love to go back to the world of Prehistoria and write about my favorite character of all time. But I’m going to have to re-read the books so I don’t goof it up after taking a year and a half off from the series.

And… that’s kinda it. I’ve a few small ideas that I’ve got to do some thinking on and see if I can expand them properly for a nice little series.

But we will see.

Hope you all had a glorious Thanksgiving with much giving of thanks to our Lord and Savior, and enjoyed your bountiful feasts on this conquered land.

Hasta la vista.

Writer’s Update – October 2025

Still working on ‘Leap the Dead‘. It’s coming out spectacular.

I think the word tracker was at 40% written. Not where I was hoping to be, but still progressing. Will I make it by the end of the year? Dang, I dunno… I really hope to pull it off somehow…

But there’s an awful lot going on in the real world for me. Pretty much all of it is just… exhausting and difficult and in some cases, kind of needless. But alas, the world continues to turn and my books continue to be written in my free time with style, elegance, and grace. 🙂

I did manage to take a couple days off from work and go shooting. It was good for the soul. The first time out, the rifle range was packed so I spent some time on the pistol range zeroing in my daughter’s Ruger Mark IV pistol and plinking with mine. As tempting as it was, I didn’t go guns akimbo(dual wield!)… The second time, I got there early Monday morning and beat all the old retired guys to the rifle range. Got some really good shooting in and spanked the old steel coyote at 300 yards with regularity.

I’ve gotten back into reading my bible. I’ve backslid for a few years now. So trying to get back into that. Also we are actively looking for a new church.

I’m planning on watching Primal War this weekend with my son. Pretty excited for that. I attempted to read the book… and it was terrible but I’ve heard the movie is pretty good.

Speaking of books, Larry Correia’s “Academy of Outcasts” came out a week or so ago. I just finished it… and wow. Highly recommend. I’m a snob when it comes to ‘reading time’ these days as my time is so limited and I can afford to be picky. Whereas when I was younger, I’d just devour everything inprint.. But Correia has yet to let me down on anything he’s written. May his Moose Yard Mountain grow ever higher.

Kind of a boring update. I’ll try to be more interesting next time.

But there’s only so many ways I can write, “The writing continues…”

The writing and gloating persists, and so do I.

I checked Amazon yesterday. I was -very- close to beating The Princess Bride in Best Action/Adventure rankings. (The Greatest Love Story ever told… except for the Bible.)

I screenshot it as proof.

Today, when I checked, I beat it when I hit 51st position in the top 100 rankings.

Woop.

I also beat Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (#60) and 36 Righteous Men by Stephen Pressfield (62). <- He wrote the Gates of Fire… which is one of the greatest books ever written. At #66, Around The World in Eighty Days, and Three Musketeers at #72.

Anyways.

I beat a bunch of idols.

Yeah, it’s temporary…. I doubt I’ve anywhere near the staying power to be relevant so long after my distant future passing….

But glory is fleeting while obscurity is eternal, and all that.

We writer’s are an envious bunch, so I don’t really get into how royalties are going. But currently, Trample the Weak is my best selling book. And the masses must be fed… which leads me to….

Leap the Dead – Going well. I was hoping to be further along by now, but I’m around 25% finished. Would LOVE to get a December 2025 release. So far, it’s pretty cool. I get to bring some old characters back, add some new characters(cause the first book was a massacre), and write about some fun new weaponry and equipment that was developed near the end of WWII.

May even throw a Nazi into the mix.

Can’t wait for you all to read it.

Cheers!

Erik.