• I write the first draft of the book. Calling it a “first draft” is kind of funny, because by the time I get to the end of the “first draft” I have probably made a hundred changes… but no matter, we’ll call it the first draft.
• Then, I read the whole thing as a complete manuscript. As I read, I make changes… invariably there are mistakes, typos, better words that can be utilized, etc. And, just as likely there will be plot holes, redundancy or other major issues I have to go back and correct.
• I try to set it aside for a while and work on something else… I know that the piece needs a fresh look, but I’m not ready for it to be really read yet.
• Reading it once again, usually side-loaded on my Kindle, I read again for issues… then, either it is ready to go to beta readers, or set aside again to start the last step over.
• If all looks good, I send it out to a couple of beta readers for commentary. The feedback may include pointing out typos (they are still there… assuredly) as well as their feelings about the story… which is REALLY important. I pour over their feedback, correct glaring and obvious errors, possibly rewrite sections as needed.
• At this point I am either ready to send it back out to new beta readers or hit the publish button. Of course, I try to let it sit again for a little while, then reread it yet again looking for problems.
• I publish… and read it yet again.

To be a beta reader you do NOT have to be an English Lit major, Language Arts teacher, grammar master or anything else. All you really need is a desire to read and give valuable feedback. You can be granular… get down to the sentence level, or you can look at it as a complete story and look at characters arcs and personality progressions.

Valuable feedback is NOT saying “main character sucks”. It may be true… and if so, I want to know that… but it doesn’t really help. “Main character’s reactions to the situation are completely unrealistic. He is weak and therefore uninteresting to me” would be a WAY better example of great feedback. Or “main character’s infatuation with love interest seems contrived.”

If you are interested in doing some beta reading, I have one manuscript I hope to have ready early next week. Another will probably be ready a couple of weeks later. And a third probably two weeks after that. At that point I will be slowing down… I still have a pipeline of stories mostly finished (with the first draft) but I will be getting stories back from beta and making changes, so the other stories in line will get pushed back.

Realistically, I have seven stories in progress. Three are within striking distance of ready. Two more are 75% ready. The last two are only in the 20% range. I’m going to need plenty of readers…

I have a tendency to write several projects at a time. That way, when I hit a blockage on one, I can jump to another. The flip side is that I can get bogged down in one of them and ignore others. That is kind of where I am right now… I know that either Sniper… (Guardian) Angel (of Death) or At Arm’s Length will be the next one out. Both are REALLY close to going out to my beta readers (always looking for volunteers). Instead, I am writing on Invisible Jack and Chased.

I tend to categorize the stories by word count, at least as far as when I will do with them.

• Short Story – under 4000 words
• Short Story (episodes) – 3000 to 20,000 words
• Novella – 15,000 to 50,000 words
• Novel – 75,000 to 100,000 words

There are holes and overlapping areas… so I have to wing it sometimes. I also have to re-examine a story sometimes, too. If it is short of a novel, but too long for a novella, does it need more detail or more trimming? Is the story complete? Is it overtold.

I have also been experimenting with POV – point of view. Classically, most stories are told in third person. More and more, though, I see novels published in first person. The change is basically from “Jack walked into the room and looked around” to “I walked into the room, looking for Amy.” There are advantages and disadvantages to either POV.

In the traditional third person, the narrating voice can know what is on the mind of multiple characters (or have limited omniscience). They can be a fly on the wall or inside people’s heads. But it also separates the reader from the character… for good or bad. It is easier to read a character that the reader doesn’t identify with in a third-person narration.

But in first-person, the reader is asked to step into the character. They know what the character knows, assuming the author wishes to communicate that info. But they can only guess at what is inside the mind of other characters. Unless the POV shifts from character to character, usually at the chapter level.

I am trying this with Shining Star. It does require a different mindset to write. Instead of being able to reveal something, I might have to jump to a new chapter for the reveal to allow the correct character to voice the new revelation.

At this time, all of my titles are available through Kindle Unlimited. If you are a member of KU, any title in the KU universe is free for you to read, including all nine of my books. At least, nine as I write this post.

The order I would recommend is as follows…

• Planning Vengeance
• Dig Two Graves
• You Don’t Know Jack
• Who, What, When, Why?
• Grafton
• Unknown Caller
• Triple Cross
• Lies and Omissions
• Second Chance

That is slightly different that the order in which they were released, but that loads all of the main-line Dixon-Prince books at the front, and then sneaks in the others… which also have Dixon-Prince references. Really, though, you could read Lies and Omissions before or any time during the series. Triple Cross and Second Chance could also be read any time, but there would be minor spoilers.

“Dirk, I have an idea,” she said when Dirk laid the handset back in the cradle. “I didn’t want to say anything while Mr. Dixon was on the phone, because I don’t know if we can even do what I’m thinking…”

“What are you thinking?” he asked.

“That we hack into all of the carriers and steal their location data, then we filter it to find phones that showed up around the time Chance’s phone showed up where it was found, and then track any phones away from there and see where they are now.”

“That’s crazy. Can you write a program to sift the location data?”

“I think I might have something almost written… I can modify a tracking script I wrote for tracking IP addresses that were trying to attack us. I think I can have something in about an hour. It’s already designed to deal with a large database.”

Dirk put up his fist so she could give him a bump. “I’ll get the location data for you. Go do your thing.”

Jenny got up and left the room. As she headed down the hall, she grabbed her assistant, Cory, from his office just down the hall from hers. “Come on, Firefly, we have work to do,” she said. When he heard her use his old military callsign, he knew she was serious. She only used it when she was giving him a hard time, or when the problems in front of her were big.

He grabbed his tablet from his desk and took off from his office after her.

Two minutes later he was sitting in a chair next to her, reading over her shoulder as she modified one of her data sifting programs.

“You know your idea is crazy, right?” he said an hour later as he finished the stress test.

“Yeah… but I think it might work. We have nothing to lose.”

***

Dave felt the needle stick him in the leg despite the shock to his system from the taser. He went from paralyzed awareness to unconsciousness in moment. When he woke up, he was in a sitting position, his wrists tied behind his back and a bag over his head.

“Pam, are you here?” he said quietly. He knew that she could be there and still be unconscious, or that she might not be there. He also knew that there could be someone else in the room with him or them. Dave didn’t want to give away anything, but he needed to know that Pam was unhurt.

“Dave? What’s happening?” she replied, barely controlled panic in her voice.

“Are you ok? Are you hooded, too?”

“I’m ok… a couple of bruises. But I can’t see anything.”

“I’m glad to know they haven’t hurt you. I’m sorry you got caught up in this, but we need to be careful. Don’t say anything that helps them,” Dave said, his voice barely above a whisper. He still had some tricks up his sleeve, but without knowing their situation at all, he didn’t want to show his hand.

“Dave, I’m really scared.”

“I want to tell you everything will be fine, but I just don’t know. I’ll do whatever I can to try to protect you.”

Bryce had been able to freeze and seize not just the primary accounts but accounts up and downstream. The haul had been massive, but more importantly, it had destroyed the entire operation. Internal wars had broken out, with factions of the cartel blaming each other and attacking, looking for the upper hand. Even after over a decade, they hadn’t been able to rebuild from the ashes.

He wanted to utilize the same plan. He’d even done some illicit dry runs on the Merida Group. Neither Deke nor Owen knew exactly how ready he’d been for that particular order.

***

Raul walked up to Deke. Even before he approached, from across the room Raul could see the man was broken. He put his hand out to shake but found himself pulling Deke into a hug. “We’re going to strike them down,” Raul whispered in his boss’s ear.

“Do it, Raul,” Deke whispered back, still clinging to his Chief Engineer.

“I am using Dirk Bryce’s playbook. Are you good with that? You said scorched earth.”

Deke stepped back and looked into the other man’s eyes. There was an anger reflected in the engineer’s eyes that he’d seldom seen before. He didn’t know where it came from, but he respected it and it reflected his own rage. Deke took Raul’s hand and looked into his eyes, “End them.” Both men nodded.

Deke turned away and walked to the front of the chapel. He looked down at his beautiful wife, her hair splayed across the silk pillow of her casket. He leaned over and kissed her softly on the lips. “I’m so sorry, Helena. But the people that did this won’t get away with it.” He tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. Looking at her, she looked just like she was sleeping.

More than anything he wanted to rouse her, to gently let her know it was time to wake up. And when he tried harder, he would see how damaged and broken she truly was. That was the nightmare he’d had for the last several nights. He’d failed her a million ways, but this time he would not. The people that killed his wife would pay dearly.

“Are you ready, Deke?” Owen said, walking up to him. “There are a lot of people that are here to pay their respects.”

He glanced up. Raul was at the back of the room talking into his phone. When he saw Deke look at him, he flashed a quick thumbs up, then returned to his call. Jimmy was sitting in one of the pews of the chapel with Jill Takanata. She had her arm around the boy and was comforting him. There were two other security guards in the room. Helena would have hated that they had to have security for her funeral, but she would have understood it, and to keep Jimmy safe, she would have accepted it. What she would have hated more was that part of Deke was still at work… even as he made preparations to bury her.

Deke nodded to his friend. Owen opened the door and let in the crowd that was milling around in the vestibule. Deke wiped his face and tucked away his emotion.  All he had to do was make it through the next couple of hours, then he could finally grieve in private.

***

Owen and Taki bookended Deke and Jimmy as they walked back to one of the armored, black Excursions that the company owned. Dutch and three other guards climbed into an identical truck ahead of them. The two vehicles pulled out of the cemetery and turned toward the cabin. From where they were, it would be about an hour’s drive.

Deke put his arm around his son’s shoulder and pulled him closer. At five years old, he understood what death meant, but the finality was only now sinking in. As he realized that his mother would never hug him again, that he wouldn’t be able to show her his latest drawing or have her tuck him into bed with a kiss on the forehead, tears started to fall from his eyes in earnest. Even with the few words he’d been able to utter to his father, or that Taki had told his father he’d uttered to her, the older man knew exactly what he was feeling.

“Jimmy, you know I talk to Mommy every night. I know that she isn’t there… but I still talk to her. You can, too,” Deke said.

“Can she hear you?”

“I think she can, son. I think she’s in heaven watching over us. I know that more than anything she would want to watch you grow up… and if she can’t do it here, heaven for her would mean watching you from there.”

“Ok. I’ll try that. I have her picture in my room… I’ll talk to her picture. It won’t be the same, but you’re probably right… she probably can listen to us. I just wish she could talk back,” Jimmy said.

“Me, too, buddy. Me, too.”

The Excursion made the turn onto Ridgeback Road. As much as everyone hated it, there was no way to drive to the cabin without driving past the spot Helena had died. They would have gone somewhere else, but father and son both felt closer to her at the cabin. It was the place she loved to be more than any other. Without warning, the other Excursion exploded in a fireball in front of them, lifting off the ground and landing on its side. Owen slammed on the brakes. He smacked the shifter into reverse as the big diesel engine revved. The rear tires spun as the axle hopped, looking for traction. There was a Suburban behind them, and as they backed toward them, it turned to block the road.

So, I’m looking for reviewers. Obviously, I want good reviews… but I also really want honest reviews (I’d rather have an honest 4-star than a BS 5-star). Potential readers that value reviews can spot a fake a mile away. I know that I have.

To get that done, every once in a while I will gift a few books to try to get reviews. Right now, I am willing to do another 5 free books (you get to choose any of my Kindle titles). I gift them through Kindle… so you will have to give me your email address. I won’t record it beyond using it to send you the notification to pick up the gifted Kindle book.

I won’t be offended if you choose to subscribe to my blog, but you don’t have to… And even leaving the review is on the honor system. After you pick up the book, I can’t take it back. Again, my only requests are A) you collect the book from Amazon fairly quickly. They don’t notch it as a sale until you claim it… so I pay for it, but don’t get the royalty… which offsets part of the cost of the book… until you claim it and B) that you read it sometime in the not too distant future and leave a review.

Sorry, but I can’t do the same deal with the printed books. It’s too expensive.

If you REALLY want to help me out, you will also leave reviews for other books of mine that you might read. Other indie authors would appreciate you reviewing them, too. Publishing house pay review services a LOT of money to get those initial reviews. I just don’t have that kind of budget… nor the patience to deal with a publishing house. Frankly, I don’t have the kind of budget I would need to start with a publishing house anyway. Unless you already have the name recognition, they want new authors to front most of the money they are going to spend to get you launched.