[JenB]

Thanks for the recommendations!

My plot had all the action toward the end (hero is convicted of crime, sent to prison, escapes, comes back and seeks revenge, lives happily ever after) and it was going to take ages to set that up. So now I've inserted, into the plot build-up, at least one kidnapping/hostage crisis, a sightseeing trip to Earth, and a lot of my old reliable scene-padders, arguments between relatives.

It's not great, but it's going to be something special. In one form or another I've been working on this story for five years, almost.

[Fedora]

I'm back--the chicken cacciatore turned out very well :)

Arguments between relatives--never thought of that one, that's a good idea :) On the buildup, do you have some action in the opening scene? Koontz's formula for keeping the action flowing is that the opening scene should plunge the protagonist into some type of crisis, and every attempt to resolve this crisis should complicate things even further until the final scene actually resolves the crisis. As you describe your story, it sounds like maybe your opening scene would relate to how the hero became convicted of a crime. Maybe if you start at the crime scene you could get some action in there?