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.

Merry Christmas ya filthy animals!

Oh yeah, Conquering Prehistoric Audible is out too!

Got plans with in laws? Got long drives? Or worse, got Flu A like me and my family and stuck at home for the holidays?

Buy an audible! (Preferably one of mine.)

And this fifth one? It’s got Dinosaurs and Cowboys of course… But also Vikings and ROMANS. Woop!

That’s right. It’s out and it’s awesome!

***CONQUERING PREHISTORIC***

His adopted name is Cato Landry.

But everyone calls him The Black Plague.

From the tamed East to the prehistoric frontier of the New West, his guns have protected railroad tycoon Reydan White for decades.

But with his employer now dead at the hands of his brother, he’s set loose in a world that needs men of his particular skill set.

Because as civilization clashes against civilization in bloody battle, winners rise and fall.

And in this strange world, sometimes men are the greatest danger of all.

One civilization will conquer.

One will fall.

And it looks to be The Black Plague’s guns that will decide the outcome.

https://www.audible.com/pd/Conquering-Prehistoric-Audiobook/B0DR3Q3QQ4?ref_pageloadid=not_applicable&pf_rd_p=f3abc0ee-320d-4c19-8388-fcd3a8e6c3a4&pf_rd_r=RB1YAR4965DAZZEZ0195&plink=8dvgqUkTjZZrEhXU&pageLoadId=Z1d3nTHwlsbdybdm&creativeId=73c32a9a-e504-4597-bb87-c30c58fc0204&ref=a_author_Er_c19_lProduct_1_1

In other writing news, I managed to make some pretty good progress on TRAMPLE THE WEAK lately. Nailed 2,166 words in one day… right before I caught this plague of misery.

I’d love, and I mean love, to be able to get TRAMPLE THE WEAK and LEAP THE DEAD released back to back late Summer 2025.

That’s the goal.

Let’s see what I can do.

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas from my family to yours. May your Ginger Ale be cold, your fireplace warm, and your enemies suffering for all eternity.

Huzzah!

Not bad for 42. (An update of random sorts.)

My birthday was on Nov tenth, the same day that my glorious Marine Corps turned 249. (Next year’s Birthday Ball is gonna be awesome!)

I got a super comfy hoodie, a nice flannel shirt, a Sig Romeo 7S red dot sight, and a folding Keltec Sub2000 Gen 3 rifle in 9mm. (Uses the same Glock magazines as the G19 I carry. ALSO uses the 33 round magazines as well, mwhahahha….. I need full-auto.)

https://www.keltecweapons.com/firearm/rifles/sub2000/

And a pack of ‘Peachy Keen’ Monster Energy Drinks, because I haven’t fully converted to coffee yet.

Pretty good loot for an old fart.

Oh, and Trump took the Presidency while the GOP took the Senate and House.

No big deal.

***Que Mortal Kombat music***

Just a FLAWLESS ELECTION VICTORY.

(FINISH THEM!)

What else have I been up to? Some various things…

We got Rabbits. Not sure how – I went on a Father/Daughter date to Rural King and next thing we knew… we were driving home with a rabbit hutch in the bed of the truck and a bunny named Charlotte in the cab.

Since we didn’t plan any of this out, the rabbit hutch went in my wife’s upstairs office.

THEN. Because we didn’t have enough insanity, I ended up looking for local rabbits to get another one. As I figured one bunny alone would be lonely.

And somehow I fumbled my way onto a small farm that raised Creme D’argent rabbits. Which is some super-rare, nearly extinct heritage rabbit breed that has silver colored fur with an orange undertone. And we brought one home, named Buttercup, with a no-kidding actual breeding pedigree.

Over my birthday weekend, with the help from my daughter and her friend, we built a nice big seven foot long hutch on the back porch for them to live in because my wife understandably doesn’t want her office space to smell like rabbit poop and pee. The bunnies went in this morning. And they be loving it.

I also swapped out my Applegate Fairbairn Combat Folder Knife that I’ve carried off and on for 16 years. (With the exception being the three or four times I managed to lose it, only to find it again..)

This knife has been through a lot with me. I was both baptized and married with it in my pocket. (Not at the same time.)

I went with a TOOR Serpent fixed blade. (Blade on top in image)

Not sure how I feel about it yet. TOOR has some very good mounting options for different ways to carry, but I haven’t really figured out any good way TO carry it that suits me happily…

I just really wanted to give a fixed blade a try. So, I need to mess around with it some more.

I also installed some (new to me) hybrid aluminum/steel Savvy Offroad sliders onto my worn out 2001 Jeep TJ. They’ve only been sitting in the garage for about 4 years waiting on me to get around to it.

Wasn’t that bad. Nutserts usually hate me, but this time it went well except for one. And that one got hammered in and then GLUED into place so it LOOKS like it’s properly installed. 🙂

And finally, writing.

It continues.

I’m still toying with the idea of trying to release the WWII books back to back (within a month or so of each other.) But that means I’ve got to greatly increase my writing output, or wait for-ev-er.

It’s now 6pm. And I’m going to get writing. Trample The Weak is turning out really good so far. (See previous post for the rough draft of the opening Chapter.)

Cheers.

Erik.