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.
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.
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…”
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.
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 heard about this Weird West anthology a couple months ago when it first opened for submissions.
It was being held by Ranconteur Press, a relative new comer to the publishing world. But they’ve been selling books chock full o’ short stories like mad, so I figured why not put in.
And beside. Weird West?
That’s right up my alley, alongside West of Prehistoric.
Originally, I was going to write a ‘WoP’ type story. Not directly related of course, since my publisher currently holds the rights to Jedidiah Huckleberry Smith. But of a similar vein. Cowboys and dinosaurs. Woohoo.
Then my wife told me I should try something new. She suggested Sasquatches. (They are all the rage in our little town in the NC mountains. We have a Big Foot Festival every year.)
But with everything going on between my daughter’s health and writing Book 5, it really didn’t appear like I’d be able to write a story.
And it bothered the heck out of me. Because I wanted to do expand a little bit and try my hand at the short story game. And this seemed like the best opportunity I’d have.
Then, on Monday, things aligned. I sat down and started writing… knowing that the story was due on Friday.
Four days. Four days to come up with a basic plot and fill in the details and action.
With the wife’s blessing, challenge accepted.
So, I wrote. A bunch. About 1k words per day, which is a lot for me… for three days straight. Last night, I wrote 2.2k words.
(It has to be between 5,000 – 8,000 words. I hit 5,267 words. 🙂 )
After finishing at about 10pm, I hopped on my personal Facebook page and asked if anyone was still awake who was willing to read my first short story submission.
A few folks came to the rescue. Including my former Platoon Commander from the Marines. He stayed up until almost 2am taking notes then sent them over with some ‘conditions’.
Erik,
I am not an author and have never written anything outside of a 5 paragraph order.
I have been drinking.
I have read your prior work and I think that you are a very talented author. I am proud to say that I know you and even more proud to say that I should call you my brother. The following is my honest and candid response:
Then he proceeded to tear my wonderful little story apart. 🙂
Which was awesome. It was exactly what I wanted and needed. Then I freaked out and typed like crazy to fix it.
And now my story is 10x better.
Summed up? If I had to put it into a quick little blurb:
An unnamed man seeks death and a confrontation with God. Finds Sasquatches instead.
Fun, fun.
If it’s not picked for the Wyrd West anthology, that’s fine. (Really, it’s just my feelings and pride that will be hurt…) I’ll post it up here for everyone to read. It was a great learning experience and neat to try my hand at something other than the WoP series.
For anyone else interested in Raconteur Press, below is the link to their site.
And now feels like a good time to thank my Beta Readers. Not just my old Officer buddy, (Who was the greatest officer I’ve ever known.), but to everyone who has offered to read my stuff first to make sure I don’t look stupid when it goes to print.
That includes, everyone from NC4x4.com and CarolinaGunForums.com.
You guys rock.
And a special shout out to Joel. You ALWAYS read my stuff and give the BEST feedback. And you’re enthusiasm for what I write keeps me going. Thanks Buddy!
I should know by the end of the month if I get picked.
Now it’s time to get back to Book 5, wrap it up, and move on to what I owe Conundrum Publishing. (So excited to write some WWII sea monster and Modern Day Expendables type stuff!)
Oh yes, before I forget.
I grew a magnificent mustache the past weekend. It lasted for about 8 hours before being shaved. But man, it was so cool. I just walked around the house quoting Tombstone to myself.
(You’re a daisy if ya do….)
Have a great month folks.
Thanks for the prayers for myself and my family. Answers and solutions for my daughter’s health are on the horizon and coming our way. And writing will be restored to it’s usual pace once again… one day….
Gunpowder and Ink! 