At a conference on indie publishing that Trish and I attended earlier this year, one of the speakers declared that what readers sought in the books they read were "adrenaline hits" - moments of deep emotional or dramatic satisfaction. She argued that if your story offered the reader 30 to 40 such "hits," then almost inevitably, it would succeed in the marketplace. This week on the water I instinctively agreed with her and have recently been thinking in more depth about the points she raised....