Fast-paced plots, white-knuckle moments, heart-stopping adventure. Learn how to pack your pages with action, from beginnings that grab to endings that leave your readers begging for more from the author of more than 180 novels.

“A vital book for authors wishing to add impact to their fiction.

… a very good analysis of the genre markets, a deft guide to the craft of modern fiction writing, & a glimpse into the life of the best-selling novelist—not the gazillionaires like King or Koontz or Mailer or whoever, but the scrivener who just makes a nice living at cranking out entertainment for the rest of us.

Newton shows you many passages that don’t quite make the grade (but went to press anyway, because that’s often how it works) & chunks that he feels are golden. He berates you to make it all larger-than-life—that’s the market!—but also stops you short of falling to mawkish self-parody. This is certainly a vital book for the mystery writer & those who do war stories, but I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it as a tonic before writing Western, Gothic, space adventure, or quest fantasy.

It’s worth ten bucks, & certainly a fiver, even though the world has changed so much since 1989.”

—Anthony D. Ravenscroft, Amazon.com reviewer