Incredible writer? Check. Multi-genre author? Check. Marketing master? Check. Dedicated volunteer? Check. There are few challenges John Hope hasn’t faced and come out on top. The soft-spoken yet hilarious author has been a key resource in the FWA as well as one of its treasured gems. John was recognized with the Kaye Coppersmith Award in 2018 for his service and dedication to the organization. He spends a multitude of hours helping other writers yet still has time to write many, many wonderful books. His children’s book, Floppyopolis, won First Place in the Royal Palm Literary Awards last year as well. John has some amazing advice for writers this week on the RPLA showcase so get ready to take some notes!
John’s Writing Journey
At the age of eight, I ascended to the highest peaks of the Swiss Alps where I befriended a peckish goatherd with a Flock of Seagulls haircut with whom I shared a Three Musketeers as he taught me the ways of storytelling involving finesse, depth of literary knowhow, and a bucket of BS. Or maybe I just liked stories as a kid and in my adulthood I’ve put in the work day after day trying to build my dreams into a certain reality. My first published work was a short story in a small publication back in 2003. Over the years, I’ve honed my craft, grown older and wiser, and now I have a thriving readership and stories keep coming.
The Winning Entry, Floppyopolis 
Logline: Freddy Floppy travels to Floppyopolis only to discover the ick and the grime. But when he sees how Floppies take pride in their home, he brings his lesson home.
Floppyopolis is a sequel to another one of my children’s picture books, Frozen Floppies – a book I wrote specifically for my son. After Frozen Floppy’s success, my illustrator, Mark Wayne Adams, encouraged me to write a sequel. So I wrote three, handed them to Mark, and asked him to pick his favorite. Floppyopolis was the winner. The origin of the Floppyopolis story simply came from the name. As I wrote the optional stories for Mark, I played around with a number of made-up terms that centered on the name “Floppy”, the name of the cuddly creatures that star in these stories. I recalled a church skit that I had performed in as kid that had a tongue-twisting name: Aggopopolis. I barely remember what the skit was about, but I liked the name. With a slight transformation, I took the name Floppyopolis and made up a story with this strange-sounding metropolis in the center.
Two Truths and a Lie, Writer’s Edition
All you need is that one million-dollar idea.
The keys to success in anything are persistence and attention to detail.
Sometimes it’s hard.
The lie? All you need is that one million-dollar idea. This is one of the biggest hunks of malarkey ever. Ideas are never worth a million dollars. Ideas are practically worthless, in fact. That is, unless they are planted, well attended, and given life with persistent hard work and continual feeding of even more ideas. Every great book has more than one idea––rather, it has a multitude of great ideas amassed in a perfect lattice so tightly woven together that it seems they belonged together since the beginning of time.
One of the best pieces of advice came from my middle school bus driver. The keys to success in anything are persistence and attention to detail. This is true in writing as it is in everything in life. This has been one of my favorite life lessons and I remember it constantly from the daily grind of writing page after page and the painstaking work of getting every word right.
My grandfather used to say, “Sometimes it’s hard.” Very often, this life lesson applies to the weight of defeat as it drags down all of us from time to time. But there’s always a refreshing burst at the end of hardship where we come up for air, allowing us to take the next stroke. Grit doesn’t come easy, but it gets us through the times when things are hard.
Other Works by John
Floppyopolis is my fourth published children’s picture book and I’m anxious to publish more. Although, my primary focuses are my young adult and middle grade fiction works. Both of which I have ten full length books, including the exciting Silencing Sharks, the funny page turns for older elementary Pankyland series, the warm, heart-felt No Good, and my newest book the Secret Adventures of Foxfire. All have been well-received and I like them too.
Coming Next from this Author
Later this year, I’ll be publishing a story in a collection entitled Fairy Tales, the Sequel which takes a series of classic tales from Hansel and Gretel to Cinderella, and continues each in a follow-up story. Also later this year, I’ll have Shark’s Deep, a sequel to my Amazon best seller, Silencing Sharks. In this new book, shark whisperer Peter is kidnapped and forced into a submarine down a three mile abyss to unravel the mystery of why sharks do not contract cancer and possibly discovering a cure for mankind––until something goes awry.
Connect with John
Learn more about me at my website www.johnhopewriting.com. You can also follow my Amazon author page.
More about RPLA
The Royal Palm Literary Awards competition is a service of the Florida Writers Association established to recognize excellence in members’ published and unpublished works while providing objective and constructive written assessments for all entrants. Judges include literary agents, publishers, film producers, current or retired professors, teachers, librarians, editors, bestselling and award-winning authors, and journalists from across the nation. Entries are scored against the criteria set by RPLA using rubrics tailored to each genre. Winners are announced at the annual FWA conference during the RPLA awards banquet. To learn more about RPLA, click here for the guidelines.
