How to Write Action Adventure Novels

How to Write Action Adventure Novels
Author: Michael Newton
Publisher:
Total Pages: 176
Release: 2012-08-01
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9781618090058

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 of 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

A Study of Action-adventure Fiction

A Study of Action-adventure Fiction
Author: William Henry Young
Publisher:
Total Pages: 564
Release: 1996
Genre: Adventure stories, American
ISBN:

Employing hitherto closed access to the histories of several publishing houses, this is an investigation of the action-adventure novel, chronicling the rise and fall of small enterprises which first saw the potential in such an approach to fiction. It focuses first on the creations of Don Pendleton, tracing his 38-book series The Executioner, and examining the evolution of the series under a growing number of writers. The study also includes a commentary on the many Mack Bolan imitators.

War Against the Mafia

War Against the Mafia
Author: Don Pendleton
Publisher: Open Road Media
Total Pages: 186
Release: 2014-12-16
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1497685540

The first book in the classic vigilante action series from a “writer who spawned a genre” (The New York Times). Overseas, Mack Bolan was dubbed “Sgt. Mercy” for the compassion he showed the innocent. On the home front, they’re calling him the Executioner for what he’s doing to the guilty. In the jungles of Southeast Asia, American sniper Mack Bolan honed his skills. After twelve years, with ninety-five confirmed hits, he returns home to Massachusetts. But it’s not to reunite with his family, it’s to bury them—victims in a mass murder/suicide. Even though Bolan’s own father pulled the trigger, he knows the old man was no killer. He was driven to madness by Mafia thugs who have turned his idyllic hometown into a new kind of war zone. Duty calls . . . Introducing an action hero “who would make Jack Reacher think twice,” this is the first book in the iconic series of vigilante justice that has become a publishing phenomenon (Empireonline.com). With more than two hundred million Executioner books sold since its debut, the series continues to stimulate. Gerry Conway, cocreator of Marvel Comics’ The Punisher, credits the Executioner as “my inspiration . . . that’s what gave me the idea for the lone, slightly psychotic avenger.” The series is also now in development as a major motion picture. War Against the Mafia is the 1st book in the Executioner series, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

The Hollywood Action and Adventure Film

The Hollywood Action and Adventure Film
Author: Yvonne Tasker
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 219
Release: 2015-06-15
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0470659246

The Hollywood Action and Adventure Film presents a comprehensive overview and analysis of the history, myriad themes, and critical approaches to the action and adventure genre in American cinema. Draws on a wide range of examples, spanning the silent spectacles of early cinema to the iconic superheroes of 21st-century action films Features case studies revealing the genre’s diverse roots – from westerns and war films, to crime and espionage movies Explores a rich variety of aesthetic and thematic concerns that have come to define the genre, touching on themes such as the outsider hero, violence and redemption, and adventure as escape from the mundane Integrates discussion of gender, race, ethnicity, and nationality alongside genre history Provides a timely and richly revealing portrait of a powerful cinematic genre that has increasingly come to dominate the American cinematic landscape

The Story Grid

The Story Grid
Author: Shawn Coyne
Publisher: Black Irish Entertainment LLC
Total Pages: 459
Release: 2015-05-02
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 1936891360

WHAT IS THE STORY GRID? The Story Grid is a tool developed by editor Shawn Coyne to analyze stories and provide helpful editorial comments. It's like a CT Scan that takes a photo of the global story and tells the editor or writer what is working, what is not, and what must be done to make what works better and fix what's not. The Story Grid breaks down the component parts of stories to identify the problems. And finding the problems in a story is almost as difficult as the writing of the story itself (maybe even more difficult). The Story Grid is a tool with many applications: 1. It will tell a writer if a Story ?works? or ?doesn't work. 2. It pinpoints story problems but does not emotionally abuse the writer, revealing exactly where a Story (not the person creating the Story'the Story) has failed. 3. It will tell the writer the specific work necessary to fix that Story's problems. 4. It is a tool to re-envision and resuscitate a seemingly irredeemable pile of paper stuck in an attic drawer. 5. It is a tool that can inspire an original creation.

Adventure Therapy

Adventure Therapy
Author: Michael A. Gass
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 428
Release: 2012
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0415892902

Adventure therapy is a growing segment of working with mental health clients in a variety of settings. The theory, techniques, research, and case studies illustrated in 'Adventure Therapy' present the cutting edge of this particular field.

The Big Book of Adventure Stories

The Big Book of Adventure Stories
Author: Otto Penzler
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 898
Release: 2011-05-31
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 030747450X

A hair-raising collection of adventure stories that's so big and enthralling if you open it you may never be seen again: enter at your own risk. Everyone loves adventure, and Otto Penzler has collected the best adventure stories of all time into one mammoth volume. With stories by Jack London, O. Henry, H. Rider Haggard, Alastair MacLean, Talbot Mundy, Cornell Woolrich, and many others, this wide-reaching and fascinating volume contains some of the best characters from the most thrilling adventure tales, including The Cisco Kid; Sheena, Queen of the Jungle; Bulldog Drummond; Tarzan; The Scarlet Pimpernel; Conan the Barbarian; Hopalong Cassidy; King Kong; Zorro; and The Spider. Divided into sections that embody the greatest themes of the genre—Sword & Sorcery, Megalomania Rules, Man vs. Nature, Island Paradise, Sand and Sun, Something Feels Funny, Go West Young Man, Future Shock, I Spy, Yellow Peril, In Darkest Africa—it is destined to be the greatest collection of adventure stories ever compiled. Featuring: Lawless open seas Ferocious army ants Deadeyed gunmen Exotic desert islands Feverish jungle adventures Including: The story that introduced The Cisco Kid The complete novel of Tarzan the Terrible

What Is Your Quest?

What Is Your Quest?
Author: Anastasia Salter
Publisher: University of Iowa Press
Total Pages: 217
Release: 2014-11-01
Genre: Games & Activities
ISBN: 1609382757

What Is Your Quest? examines the future of electronic literature in a world where tablets and e-readers are becoming as common as printed books and where fans are blurring the distinction between reader and author. The construction of new ways of storytelling is already underway: it is happening on the edges of the mainstream gaming industry and in the spaces between media, on the foundations set by classic games. Along these margins, convergent storytelling allows for playful reading and reading becomes a strategy of play. One of the earliest models for this new way of telling stories was the adventure game, the kind of game centered on quests in which the characters must overcome obstacles and puzzles. After they fell out of fashion in the 1990s, fans made strenuous efforts to keep them alive and to create new games in the genre. Such activities highlight both the convergence of game and story and the collapsing distinction between reader and author. Continually defying the forces of obsolescence, fans return abandoned games to a playable state and treat stories as ever-evolving narratives. Similarly, players of massive multiplayer games become co-creators of the game experience, building characters and creating social networks that recombine a reading and gaming community. The interactions between storytellers and readers, between programmers and creators, and among fans turned world-builders are essential to the development of innovative ways of telling stories. And at the same time that fan activities foster the convergence of digital gaming and storytelling, new and increasingly accessible tools and models for interactive narrative empower a broadening range of storytellers. It is precisely this interactivity among a range of users surrounding these new platforms that is radically reshaping both e-books and games and those who read and play with them.

Serial Vigilantes of Paperback Fiction

Serial Vigilantes of Paperback Fiction
Author: Bradley Mengel
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 234
Release: 2009-10-21
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 078645475X

Rough justice has often been served in the pages of serial novels, notably beginning with Don Pendleton's The Executioner in 1969. This is the first overview of the serial vigilante genre, which featured such hard-boiled protagonists as Nick Carter, Mark Stone, Jake Brand and Able Team among the 130 series that followed Pendleton's novel. Serial vigilantes repeatedly take the law into their own hands, establishing and imposing their own moral standards, usually by force. The book examines the connections between the serial vigilante and the pulp hero that preceded him and how the serial vigilante has influenced a variety of tough guys, private eyes, spies and cops in different media. A complete bibliography for each series is featured.

Spies and Holy Wars

Spies and Holy Wars
Author: Reeva S. Simon
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2010-11-15
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0292723008

Illuminating a powerful intersection between popular culture and global politics, Spies and Holy Wars draws on a sampling of more than eight hundred British and American thrillers that are propelled by the theme of jihad—an Islamic holy war or crusade against the West. Published over the past century, the books in this expansive study encompass spy novels and crime fiction, illustrating new connections between these genres and Western imperialism. Demonstrating the social implications of the popularity of such books, Reeva Spector Simon covers how the Middle Eastern villain evolved from being the malleable victim before World War II to the international, techno-savvy figure in today's crime novels. She explores the impact of James Bond, pulp fiction, and comic books and also analyzes the ways in which world events shaped the genre, particularly in recent years. Worldwide terrorism and economic domination prevail as the most common sources of narrative tension in these works, while military "tech novels" restored the prestige of the American hero in the wake of post-Vietnam skepticism. Moving beyond stereotypes, Simon examines the relationships between publishing trends, political trends, and popular culture at large—giving voice to the previously unexamined truths that emerge from these provocative page-turners.