An easy request for you…

Trample the Weak is finished.

It goes to some readers for feedback this weekend.

And then….well….

If you haven’t followed the story – the publisher who contracted these WWII/Kaiju/Pacific Island/Marine books went under. Thus I’ve decided to try my hand at self publishing. With Amazon, KDP, Print on Demand, etc… the publishing world has changed greatly to where there is no longer a stigma to self-publishing. Instead it’s turned into a very viable way to get your books to your readers without the middle man (publishing house). This will be an experiment with a learning curve for me. And I’ve been spending a good amount of time reading how to do most of the craziness that is super intimidating to a first timer.

And this is where I need your help. To make this experiment work, I need you to follow me on social media(I’m on FB,Instagram, and now X) and/or ideally – send me your email address for the rare 1-2x a year “Up for Pre-order!” and “It’s Out Ohmygosh Buy it Now!”Email List.

The purpose for this is that a lot of social media has clamped down on free advertising. Even if you are a verified account. Because social media, looking at you Facebook, wants their money for advertising.

But nothing can clamp down on a Email List except for the individual hitting the unsubscribe button at their discretion.

Following this blog works if you want a lot of information. If you want a little, or don’t care about my writing updates or process, please send me your email for the Email List so you can find out about new releases. There’s a Contact option at the top of the blog.

In the near future, I should have a fancy pop-up on this website. But WordPress likes it’s money too and wants me to upgrade to Business to add a simple Email List plugin. -eyeroll- And unfortunately, I’ve a hard time justifying a $250/year expense for a single plug in. (I’ll be looking at other site hosts soon.)

So… a lot of information.

FB = https://www.facebook.com/AuthorErikTesterman/

Instagram = https://www.instagram.com/authoreriktesterman/

X = @ErikTesterman

Thanks friends.

Looking forward to putting this book in your hands!

Erik.

Trample the Weak – Back Book Blurb.

These are always fun to write. I typically do it as I’m rounding the final corner of the manuscript so it’s a cool milestone to hit. I’ve still another 12-15,000 words to write and then polishing, but I’ve been hitting about 1.5k words a day. Which is the best writing I’ve ever done in terms of sheer volume, and from what I’ve been churning out, I don’t think much editing will be needed.

I learned today that there are ‘over writers’ and ‘under writers’. Over Writers tend to be extremely verbose and write too much, while Under Writers will lean towards not being wordy enough in terms of description, dialogue, etc.

I’m definitely an Under Writer. If I had to choose, I’d prefer this anyways as it means when I go back to edit instead of cutting big chunks out, I’m adding to the story.

But anyways, I wrote the Back Book Blurb today.

Here it is. (Subject to change.)

***

Corporal Henry didn’t sign up for adventure.

He signed up to kill the enemy.

And as the Marines of the 2nd Division push back the Empire of Japan from their heavily fortified islands in the Pacific Ocean, he is given the chance when they are tasked with taking Yeuhan Island. A small island with an airfield vital for the coming invasion of mainland Japan.

It is there, underneath the sand and bodies, that a secret of the Imperial Japanese Army will be discovered hidden inside the island.

The Emperor’s Unit Thirty-Five.

A sadistic combination of fanatical scientists and soldiers, who search for the mysterious, the wonderous, and the unknown. Anything that will aid their empire in crushing the Americans.

On Yeuhan Island, they found kaiju.

And it is up to Corporal Henry and his small band of degenerate Marines to kill them all.

Or the tide will turn, and the war will be lost.

***

Coming soon.

Mid April 2025 Update

Trample the Weak – 75% finished.

Writing has been going extremely well the past few weeks. And I’m at the fun part in the book where the main characters are riding around in a Willys Jeep shooting kaiju with the pedestal mounted Browning Machine Gun.

So that’s exciting.

It’s like writing something out of a video game.

The book will probably be wrapped up in the next month or so and then the writing of Leap the Dead will start.

In other news, the publisher who had contracted for these books went out of business it appears. Their website has disappeared and they haven’t posted on FB in about a year and a half. Thus, I’m toying with the idea of self-publishing these two. I have this very rational fear of having all my eggs in one basket. (Or all my books with one publisher.) So I might as well learn a new skill set and make some bigger royalty percentages.

As for the West of Prehistoric series, I’ve got a rough idea for the next book. It’d be titled Settling Prehistoric and be all kinds of fun. I’ve set up some cool things in the previous books that I always wanted to go back and revisit.

In personal news, our Bear has turned ten! For an English Mastiff this is quite the milestone. As the Vet said during his checkup, he’s a ‘Super Senior’.

We had a small party for him and sang Happy Birthday. Then he promptly ate the cupcake WITH a candle in it.

Also, a shout out to Henry Rifles for one of their recent instagram posts. As you all know, Jedidiah Huckleberry Smith and his iconic 1886 rifle in .45-70 are a pivotal pair in my books.

So when this popped up, I was promptly tagged by a buddy.

If you aren’t following me on Instagram, I’m on there. Feel free. My handle is ‘authoreriktesterman’.

I’m also on FB.

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorErikTesterman/

Give me a follow.

A quick update – March 2025.

Not much to mention.

February wasn’t too great for writing. Now I have to do twice as well in March. 🙂 But so far, off to a good start.

I took today off and in addition to a little napping, managed to get a good bit of editing done. Pretty pleased with that.

I tend to write until I reach a difficult spot and then go back to the beginning and go through the manuscript again, editing along the way, polishing and smoothing and molding the story. By the time I get to where I stopped, I’m ready to go again and there was no time wasted. I think this method really helps when it comes to the final draft by the editors. Usually there isn’t much that I need to fix by then. (Because I’ve already gone over it more than a dozen times.) And the story tends to flow well.

Maybe that’s the secret to writing good books. I dunno. I’m still winging it.

As for the WWII Kaiju books…

Book 1 – Trample the Weak – Over 50% finished.

Book 2 – Leap the Dead – 1% finished. (Outlined in my noggin’ only.)

Book 3 – Eat the Survivors – Spoken of only in jest.

Anyways… Bear says hello. (The hairier of the two below)

Until next time…

Erik and Bear.

2025 – And here we go.

Well let’s see.

In writing news:

Neil Gaiman is a creepoid serial rapist. Not unsurprising. Hopefully they’ll burn him at the stake on a pile of his own books.

Larry Correia finished his epic fantasy series. All 6 books. Then dedicated the final book to George R. R. Martin with the comment, “See? It’s not that hard.” Which is hilarious. And the literary corner of the internet exploded in 99.9% glee. The other .1% being the sore losers who named their kids Khaleesi before she melted an entire medieval city.

In personal news:

Working on dropping some weight and getting back into shape for 2025 cause I can’t breath after walking up the stairs… It’s going to be a long road. One that I’ve attempted many a time before. So far, so good though. Daughter wants to start Ju-Jitsu or some such when she turns 9 this year. I’d like to be in good enough shape to join with her… and be able to throw around a bunch of little kids in my class…

Writing is/was going well… sorta. I was crushing it, then some things happened and the last week has been a 0 word week. Which is just ridiculous. Everything has realigned to get me back in the saddle tonight. Trample the Weak is about 40%-45% finished. Current plan is to wrap it up, send it to some readers for feedback while I work on Leap the Dead. I want to release both late Summer of this year, back to back. (Which is gonna be so badass if I pull it off. Not to mention the publisher should be happy as well.)

I shipped out a set of my books today. Realized it was the first time I’d ever actually held them all together. I snapped a picture of the 6.5 years worth of slaving away at night on a keyboard for fame and fortune. Pretty cool.

In world news:

This is going on. Which is pretty epic to watch.

Also LA and Hollywood is burning. They are also being given piles of money, while those of us in Western NC were given a paltry $750 and the middle finger by FEMA if we had a Trump sign in our yard.

So, same old.

Anyways.

I wish you all a most amazing and blessed year.

Let’s goooo write!

Erik.