Author: Erik 'Tracer' Testerman

Erik Testerman is a Marine Corps grunt, a competitive shooter, and an admirer of fine arms and armaments. He lives in the mountains of North Carolina with his lovely wife, two rambunctious children, and a slobbery English Mastiff. To learn more about Erik Testerman and read samples of his work, visit http://GunPowderAndInk.blog

A copy of Trample The Weak is at Camp Ravenknob! (Boy Scout Camp.)

A parent told me she’d sent a copy to her son at Camp Ravenknob.

As a Camp Ravenknob alumni, that’s an honor.

And not to brag, but I earned my Mile Swim badge in the lake there. (I’m pretty proud of that one.)

Also – I just hit my 8 Year Anniversary on WordPress. I actually created my blog while writing the rough draft of West of Prehistoric to start gaining some traction and finding some readers. It worked.

8 years later? Meh. I’m not sure of the value of blogging anymore. Like the webforums of the early 2000’s, blogging seems to have died off. But having a website with my books, general information, and some updates? Still seems like a good idea so I will keep on keeping on.

Speaking of updates – Leap the Dead is going well. I’ve got all kinds of coolness going into that book. I’m hoping to get a good bit of writing done over the next few weeks. Still wanting to get ‘er out by end of the year. (Two books in one year? Woo!)

Oh, and the rats.

Yes, oh my gosh. We have a pair of rats now.

They are pretty fun. And tiny. Tiny dwarf rats. My daughter loves them. And they don’t bite or scratch, very docile and handled from birth by humans. As well as breed for pets (and not feeders like you see at PetSmart/PetCo/etc that are vicious little things…). But these ladies will poop and pee on you. When you wake them up – you gotta give ’em a minute to get sorted. 🙂

And that’s pretty much it.

The writing continues and the dream of a film persists.

About 3 weeks into Trample the Weak release.

One of the neat things about self-publishing is the vast amount of information I’m now privy to that I never saw before.

Before I received a quarterly statement showing Kindle Unlimited pages read, E-Books sold, Paperbacks sold, and Audiobooks sold.

Now I’ve got daily information that changes by the hour.

Pretty neat stuff.

I’ve managed to work my way down from clicking the refresh button hourly to only a few times a day now to watch my sales and pages read. 🙂

And how are sales going? Pretty good. About what I expected for the start of a new series. And the reviews are rolling in nicely, I was at a satisfying 4.8/5 with 10 reviews until a 3 star kicked me in the review-groin down to a 4.5. But that will balance out as more come in.

So – certainly good enough to continue with the sequel. 🙂

Which, according to my fancy Atticus writing/formatting/etc program, (highly recommend!) I’m around 14% on completion.

I also got a few author copies of Trample the Weak in and decided to do a quick photo shoot as I cleaned some guns.

One of the cool things a bout being a gun guy, is writing about what you own. And then taking pictures with your Garand and the books it’s included in. 🙂

Because success should always be chronicled and bragged about.

In other news, you may recall that we got rabbits last year. That was… interesting.

Now, my daughter has moved into the realm of ‘RATS’… yes. The big rodents with big tails.

Apparently there is an entire not-so-underground society of people who breed and keep rats. And there are all kinds of the hairy creatures at all sorts of varying prices for fur and size variations.

And business seems to be booming. Probably because rats only live ~2 years. So you’re constantly getting new pets, but still… I digress…

Tomorrow we are picking up a giant cage and play set from someone who is getting out of the rat business. And this weekend, we are picking up a pair of rats.

Which… I have to share photos of.

I -think- the current name choices are Spot and Sunny… will likely change in the near future before being settled on.

So. Yay. Rats!

Enh, they are kinda cute. And these are supposed to be very docile and hand-able.

But yes, out with the rabbits in with the rats.

And now for some not so subtle advertising.

https://www.amazon.com/author/eriktesterman

Above is my Author Page on Amazon. Please click it, and follow me. It helps let you know when I have books come out. And because us writers are a savage bunch of nerds, we like to brag about how many followers we have on Amazon to each other. 🙂

Thank you and enjoy your early summer!

RELEASE DAY! Or, BUY A DOZEN DAY!

Amazon released Trample the Weak a day early.

Weird.

But okay.

Link is below.

https://amzn.to/43iN1As

As always, please, please leave a review. I read every single one, because they are usually nice and they fuel my writing ego.

And thank you!

For both visiting this site, reading this email, or hopefully… buying the book for everyone in your extended family and gun club!

May 30th – A Day Of Reckoning Approaches. (Trample the Weak RELEASE DAY!)

This is the most effort I’ve ever put into a book… after writing it. Usually I just hand the manuscript over to the Publisher, they work their magic, and I look at it, then press Approve – and that’s it.

Now I’m actually trying to learn advertising, primary search words, researching which Amazon categories I need to use, heck – even book formatting. (Thank you ATTICUS program!) Oh, and pre-orders.

It’s a lot to take in a short amount of time. Hopefully it will all equate to a higher measure of success and more book sales.

And frankly, the more books I sell – the more I get to write.

So bring on the success!

Anyways, Pre-Orders are still on. Link below:

https://amzn.to/3SOsNbB

May 30th is release day.

That’s when the EBooks go out and the Paperbacks can be bought. Audible is on the way. Christopher Alan Lyell just signed the contract this morning.

He’s pretty excited and he’s got a great voice and future.

I gotta use him while he’s cheap and before he gets into big demand….

So, please head over to Amazon, buy an Ebook for yourself, another one for a Marine buddy, and maybe a few more for Father’s Day gifts and Christmas and such. And then when the paperback comes out, buy some more. Leave a copy in every bathroom you visit!

Future Generations will thank you. 🙂

Erik!

TRAMPLE THE WEAK – PRE-ORDER TIME!

Ebook and Paperbacks release on May 30th.

And the sequel is already 5% finished, according to the fancy counter on the new Atticus writing program I’m trying out. (Which so far seems nice and worth the $149 buckeroos…)

https://amzn.to/435jeev

Cover art by the magnificently talented and fellow Author, Matt James.

https://www.mattjamesauthor.com/

This is my attempt at ‘going at it on my own’. I’m extremely grateful to my publisher for giving me the opportunities they have, and I’ve nothing but good things to say about them. But I wanted to try self-publishing. And geez, has the learning curve kinda sucked. I actually ordered a test print of the paperback, and good thing too – because it was set on size 10 font. A quick message to Matt James, and he helped me get the cover fixed after I changed it to size 12 and it went from 263 pages to 301!

So, if you’ve got a few bucks laying around. Try this new book out and let me know what you think with a review.

I read EVERY. SINGLE. REVIEW.

It keeps me going because they usually don’t suck.

🙂

Anyways, super excited. I loved being in the Marine Corps, it was a dream come true and it benefited me greatly in the personal realm of growing up to not be a shit bag. Getting the opportunity to write about them… it’s something I’ve wanted to do since I first started the West of Prehistoric series. The outline has been sitting on my thumb drive for YEARS. And I’m really pleased at what it’s turned into and the chance to put the story in your hands.

Here’s to coming success.

Thank you.

Erik.