When I was a kid I wanted to be a stuntman.  Blame it on too many hours sitting too close to the television watching too many episodes of The Six Million Dollar Man.  Swept up in the excitement of a wry handsome hero kicking ass and taking names, I too longed to be a savior of men, women and children and make the world safe for democracy.  So I practiced.  Flipping over cars, jumping off cliffs, motor-crossing bikes and skating halfpipes, just to prove I could.  As a result, I broke my jaw, wrist, arm, finger, toe, rib, foot, knee, and collar bone… and was sewn up with enough stitches to make a quilt that would cover Kansas.  There’s got to be a better way I thought.  And so I took to writing, which enabled me to live vicariously through the actions of heroes.  Now I could be a cop, an FBI agent, a CIA operative, a Green Beret.  Basically, anything I wanted to be.  Anytime.  Anywhere.  And I didn’t break a sweat.  Or a leg.  

Soon I discovered that others liked my action writing and would hire me to write action movies… at Paramount, DreamWorks, Disney, Universal, Fox and more.  Not only was I not getting hurt, but I was getting paid.  After some hits and misses on the Hollywood rollercoaster, I returned home to the green trees and blue skies of Atlanta for an easier-peasier life.  With film and television on the upswing here, people everywhere suggested I teach what I had learned to help others tell their tales. I was surprised to find doing so was nearly as rewarding as writing them myself.  So I took to lecturing at Emory University, University of North Georgia, Reinhardt University and in my own workshops at Screenwriter School.  Soon I was inspiring hundreds of writers to tell their own stories to make the world safe for democracy.  Eventually one student said I should write a book sharing what I knew.  Then someone else said it.  Then a whole slew of people.  But like all good action heroes, I was slow to change.  But eventually, I acquiesced.  

Crash! Boom! Bang! How to Write Action Movies is my first book on screenwriting. It packs in every lesson I could squeeze into a 150 pages.  Even if you’re not an action scribe, you’ll still get a lot of it.  Because I put a lot into it.  Published by the renown MWP (www.mwp.com), it will be available June 1st in Barnes & Nobles across the globe.  But you can order one now at a discount from Amazon here, if you wish: https://goo.gl/qxO7qO.  

I hope you enjoy it.  

That you learn something.  About movies, writing, yourself.    

And that it keeps you from breaking any bones.

Michael