I have to tell them the specific changes that have been made. So, for each change, I have to give them a “location number” (which I think might be a paragraph, but I’m not sure) as well as the nature of the change… location 5476, changed word ‘ot’ to ‘to’ or some similar.

Well… I didn’t record all of that, and it is VERY difficult to go back and figure it out, so I have had to scour my books (I have done Planning Vengeance, Dig Two Graves, You Don’t Know Jack, Who What When Why?, and Grafton. I’m in the midst of Unknown Caller, then will be doing Triple Cross and finally Lies and Omissions. That is all eight of my books. Feel free to get a few of them.

If you already have a copy, you can go into your Amazon account and look for content and devices. Then, under content, search out the book titles (I order them by author… it’s easier because they are grouped together). Under the ones that have been updated, there is an “Update Available” tag. Click it and the new update will be sent to your app or device.

A word of caution… if you have notes, they might not survive the update. I think that has to do with the changes in location that can happen as words move. This is especially true if you have a much older version of the book.

None of the changes are truly significant. I’m not changing plot points, characters, structure or action. These are changes to words or (in a few cases) formatting. Typos, wrong words (I have a couple of hanger instead of hangar that I’ve found) and similar things. They are annoyances… especially to me. The most significant changes were VERY early in Triple Cross. Right after I published it I realized I had some of the timeline mixed up. I had changed some things BEFORE publishing and didn’t catch all of the related changes. I fixed it within a few days. But… if you are the other person that downloaded it then, you might have the old version.

Do I need to say that this doesn’t work with the print versions of the books? That is one of the reasons I don’t do the print versions right away… Readers spot mistakes and tell me, and I correct them.

The common thing I see on the webs is that if I wanted there to be no mistakes, I would hire an editor… and yet, reading BIG NAME authors, I often spot multiple mistakes, especially in first editions. They have a phalanx of editors and others that go through their books with a fine-toothed comb, and there are STILL errors. It happens.

I’m just trying to fix mine.

If you ever find an error, please let me know. If it is an old edition, there is a good chance I’ve found it, but if not, I will fix it for future editions. Because of the way Amazon does it, there have to be a bunch of changes to trigger an update, though.

Nicole had a big day planned.  She’d expected to be in the kitchen all day, but Mike had called the day before to ask her if she wanted to hang out with him for the day in Norfolk.  He was covering the Independence Day Celebration at the waterfront and would be there all day.  He only had a few segments, but the rest of the day he would be just walking around enjoying the event. 

He’d pitched the idea to the production team to have her, as one of their “fan-favorite” on-air chefs, taste a bunch of the food and talk about the event as a “foodie”.  They bought the idea and he just needed her to agree. 

She had a bunch of catering jobs that had to be ready.  Luckily, none of the ones they had going on were full-on with service and everything.  They were pick-up or delivery orders that were pretty easy.  And she had plenty of help.  Patti Gonzales, Erica’s mom, was coming in to help, as was Sherry and even her mother.  Nicole was supposed to be in Norfolk at noon. 

At eleven o’clock she figured out that wasn’t going to happen.  An oven in the shop had quit.  She called Bobby Gomez to see if he could fix it.  That was ten-thirty.  He got it fixed, but the back-up of orders was killing her.  Because of the terrible traffic in the tunnel, it was going to take two hours to get to Norfolk.  Everything was working again, but she wouldn’t be there until at least one. 

“Nic, I can fix this,” Bobby had said. 

“How?” 

“Don’t worry about it.  You’ll be at the waterfront at noon.  Call your boyfriend back up and tell him you’ll be there on time.  Don’t argue with me.”

“Madi, can you talk sense into your man?” Nicole said, exasperated. 

“No, but I also know he’s never told me he could do something when he didn’t have a plan,” Madison Gomez replied.  “Trust him.”

Nicole relented and called Mike’s cellular number back and told him that she would be there.  She said she didn’t know how, but that a friend was arranging transport.  She assumed it would be by boat, but even that would be tight at this point. 

Bobby walked into Nicole’s office, “Do you have everything you need ready to go?”

“I’m ready.  Do we need to head out?”

“Patience, Grasshopper,” Bobby replied. 

A few minutes later she figured it out.  Maybe not as much figured it out as much as saw it.  Duke Smythe’s helicopter landed in the parking lot.

Duke casually walked across the parking lot to the building and walked in the door.  “Hey Nicole.  We probably should be on our way.  I don’t have permission to land here,” he joked with a smile.  He turned and casually headed back out, after picking up a couple of cookies from the counter.  Nicole was on his heels. 

***

Mike Holland was reporting from the Norfolk waterfront when a helicopter swept straight in from Indian River.  It wasn’t police or news, but it was interrupting his broadcast.  He asked to send the live feed to the studio while it landed. 

As he turned to look at the chopper, Nicole Dixon stepped out of the front seat.  She took off her headset, set it on the seat, grabbed a duffle bag, closed the door and walked straight toward him.  His cameraman shot the whole thing.

The production team never stopped Mike’s feed, so live over the air he said, “Damn, my girlfriend knows how to make an entrance.”

“No doubt,” he heard over his earpiece.

He was still looking at Nicole walking toward him when the chopper lifted off behind her and accelerated back to the north again.  Nobody stopped her as she walked right up to him.  She didn’t know he was live. 

“Hi Mike,” Nicole said, very relaxed. 

“Whose chopper?” Mike said.

“A friend.  He wanted some cookies, so we I traded for a ride,” Nicole laughed, with no idea that she was live in a couple hundred thousand homes. 

“Mike, you’re still live,” he heard in his earpiece. 

“Folks, her cookies are THAT good,” Mike said, recovering and looking at the camera. 

“We’re live?” Nicole said, looking at Mike, bordering on horrified at how that must have come across on TV. 

Mike just started laughing.  “That’s live TV, folks.  Back to you in the studio, Sandy… and we’re out.”

“Thanks for warning me Mike,” Nicole said, giggling.  “I look like an idiot now.”

“You?  I look like an idiot.  You look like the coolest chick in Hampton Roads.”  Then they both started laughing. 

“I gotta say, Nicole, Mike,” the cameraman started, “first, Nicole, your cookies ARE that good, and second, that was priceless.  That’s getting played at the station Christmas Party.”  Then he started laughing, too. 

After a minute, Tim, the cameraman, gathered his composure and started working up a plan for them to move around the celebration.  There were a lot of food vendors, a few with some unusual foods, and lots of people.  They were now expected to have a segment every fifteen minutes or so all afternoon, until the fireworks, except during the 4:45 to 7:00 slots which were regional and national news.  In addition to Mike, Nicole and Tim, they had a production assistant, a make-up person and an intern. 

“Timo is here with a booth, Nicole.  Should we hit him up?” Mike asked. 

“Yes, but I have to tell you something…  I might have a conflict of interest.  I’m a minor investor in his restaurant.  I’d hate to have anyone complain that we promoted him out of my financial interest.”

“Really?  When did that happen?” Mike asked. 

“Before he opened.  I hadn’t been there before, but that might be part of the reason he was so excited to see me.  It’s kind of on the downlow, though.  Only a few people know.”

“Ok.  Well, as long as you don’t trash all the competition, it should be ok,” Mike smiled.

***

Timo’s was their third stop.  Nicole had found the best menu items from each of the booths they visited.  She interviewed head chefs when they were available, and with the intern running ahead and giving a heads up, most of them were available during the course of the afternoon.  A couple, aside from Timo, joked about being in school with her. 

They sampled everything from Lobster Bisque to funnel cakes.  Nicole kept a running count of food on-a-stick and hit twenty-one different things “on-a-stick”.  Mike was comparing it to a State Fair in the Midwest.  By the time their dinner break rolled around, none of the six were hungry.  Nicole had spread the food around, dragging the Production Assistant, the intern, the make-up artist, and even the cameraman in front of the camera. 

“Folks,” Mike began, “standing next to me is Tim.  He’s been my main cameraman for the last six months.  If the camera is not quite as steady as it normally is, it’s because Nicole Dixon has all forty pounds of it on her shoulder and is the one doing the filming.”

“She insisted that I get to eat on camera,” Tim said nervously.  Then he took a bite of the corndog and extolled its virtues to the viewing audience.  “Hey, this is a beer-battered corndog.  I wasn’t expecting that.  It’s awesome.”  Then Tim did an interview with the owner of the booth while Mike looked on. 

Tim took the camera back and the team headed back to the remote van to drop their gear and head out to dinner, although none of them could possibly eat after their afternoon “grazing” as Tim called it.  They still went into a nearby restaurant and sat at a table for a little while and chatted while picking at an appetizer and enjoying some cold beverages. 

***

Just before the fireworks went off at 9:15, they did their last remote shot of the day.  After wrapping up, the six of them joked around for a few minutes, and signed a few autographs.  Mike was used to the autograph sessions.  Nicole was shocked the first time a kid came up and asked her for her autograph but got used to it.  Tim was the biggest surprise.  Several people came straight up to him and wanted a “Tim the Cameraman” autograph, and that was exactly what he gave them. 

After the drive back to the studio to drop the truck, Mike drove Nicole back to her shop.  She gave him a quick tour as the last of the delivery crews returned with their equipment.  He was suitably impressed with the production kitchen.  Then they had a goodnight kiss and she returned home, exhausted from a long day. 

In fact, I have 6 different books in various stages of development. Only one of them doesn’t have crossover characters. (all titles are working titles and may or may not reflect actual titles):

Skater – This one is set before Planning Vengeance, and has cameos by Jack Dixon, Nicole Dixon, Sherry Cross and Terry Gates. Terry and Nicole are the ones that figure the most prominently of the cameos.

Grafton – This is after You Don’t Know Jack, and obviously revolves around Gunny. Most of the good guy crew is involved, and we are introduced to several new characters, including Mali. She’ll kind of be a surprise.

Jenny’s Death Star – This is also after YDKJ, and has a couple of cameos so far… Gunny and Melody Grafton. Dirk Bryce is most involved in the story as well. Not just a cameo, but a supporting player.

New Life – This one is still pretty early in its development, but Bill Prince and Dirk Bryce will be prominently featured. It is also of the newer generation, after YDKJ.

The Call – This one is contemporary. Jack and Amy have a son, and Nicole and Rolf have a son and a daughter. Jack and Amy’s son is center stage on this one. It looks like Nicole and Rolf’s son might be prominent, too. Jack and Amy are certainly around, and we have mentions of Dirk, Jenny and Ellen (from Triple Cross)

The one that doesn’t have any of the core Dixon-Prince characters is called The Cruise.

Planning Vengeance is a story about secrets. Secret crushes. Secret lives. Secrets of the past and present. Jack has been in love with Amy since the moment they met. Paul managed to get in the way and peel her from everyone around her. When he makes a mistake and Jack gets an opening, Paul’s revenge unleashes secrets in the pasts of all three families… Jacks, Amy’s and Paul’s.

Dig Two Graves is the culmination of the revenge that started in Planning Revenge. Death, near death, betrayal and conspiracy all come together for the conclusion. We also are introduced to a few new series characters and locations. Gunny and his merry band come into prominence, as well as Agent Sky, who is an enigma.

You Don’t Know Jack is a few years later. Jack and Amy have embarked on their lives and are making their way in the world when Jack finds himself kidnapped by a drug cartel kingpin. As we can assume, Jack and Amy’s fathers get Gunny involved and a rescue underway. But the rescue changes everything for Jack, Amy and everyone they know.

Who, What, When, Why? is a collection of shorter stories from the Dixon-Prince universe. Characters that have floated into, around and out of minor roles in the mainline stories star in these vignettes. Jack’s friends Terry and Cy both have stories. We find out how Jack and Amy finally got married, as well as when happened to Rolf, a little more about Agent Sky, and finally, the story of Anna… Paul’s mother.

Triple Cross is my newest title. JD Ross gets the boot from the military and nobody knows why, except perhaps his former girlfriend, Christi. When JD shows up at home in GA, she’s there to meet him and help him get back to civilian life. But soon, JD is suspected in a crime, and Christi is too busy keeping secrets. JD has to count of his friends to save him. Relationships change and appear, and JD’s life is forever altered.

I hope you enjoy the excerpts. I always love feedback, as well as reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. Feel free to follow me and interact on those platforms. Thank you so much for reading my blog and my books.

You Don’t Know Jack – excerpt 1A

You Don’t Know Jack – excerpt 1B

You Don’t Know Jack – excerpt 2

You Don’t Know Jack – excerpt 3

You Don’t Know Jack – excerpt 4

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