publishing – Gunpowder and Ink!

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.

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.

Happy Mother’s Day

Personally, my wife is my favorite mother figure.

Followed closely by my mother and mother-in-law, with my mother winning with the slight thickness of an umbilical cord.

Then there’s a bunch of fantastic women in my life who are also fantastic mothers, and a bunch of others who will make awesome mothers when they stop dating trolls and find a Prince Charming like me. (Good luck, they broke the mold after me.)

Towering above all of these… are the mothers who never had the opportunity to hold their babies and anxiously await their reunion in heaven. Ya’ll the real MVP’s. The pain, the suffering, the misery, torment, and questioning of God’s plan for your life… you have a strength that few of us will ever know. But one day, you’ll meet for the very first time in the most glorious of places, and what a magnificent day that will be. And your baby will never know the hardships and miseries of living in a fallen world. They await your arrival in their perfected bodies, knowing only happiness and the endless Glory of God.

(Which, BTW – women who have had an abortion are mother’s also. And I promise you, your baby is in heaven and they are rooting for you to find salvation and join them.)

Last year I put this picture up of my lovely wife with our wild-child daughter with this caption on FB:

I’ve written a dozen comments throughout today, and I keep deleting them because they don’t seem fitting enough. I love my wife, she’s an amazing mother. I don’t know how she does it. I would be doomed to a padded room and a straight jacket without her and banging my head against the wall screaming NO MORE DIAPERS! MORE SLEEP! But she just keeps chugging along. Often disheveled and delirious at times, but her sacrifice for our family has no limits. My wife rocks. Please don’t leave me. Unless you take the kids. And the dogs…. just kidding. But seriously, please don’t leave me. I can’t do what you do.