RPLA Showcase: John Hope

2017 Published Novella

Colby in the Crosshairs

John Hope

At the 2017 Royal Palm Literary Award Banquet, author John Hope won first place for his published novella Colby in the Crosshairs. Each year at the RPLA Banquet, authors experience the joy of earning accolades for all the hard work that is often done in the privacy of the home with little to no recognition. We’re showcasing the best of the best with our First Place winners spotlight. Not only does RPLA recognize extraordinary talent, but we’re giving readers an opportunity to sample excerpts from the winning stories

John Hope is an award-winning short story, children’s book, middle grade, young adult, and nonfiction writer. His work appears in paperback, hardback, audiobook, and multiple short story collections.

Colby in the Crosshairs. After Colby’s estranged father returns home, the nine-year-old struggles to survive a promiscuous neighborhood mother, money sharks, and an uncontrollable brother while discovering the true cost of living and brotherhood.

Click the link to read a sample:

Excerpt from Colby in the Crosshairs

An interview with John:

Q: Where do you get your story ideas?

A: Ideas come from a jar in the attic bursting with rainbows that my pet unicorn fills every time a child believes in fairies and blows kisses to a setting moon on a Thursday night. I often get this question, as it often seems to others that I’m bursting with ideas, characters, settings, and exciting adventures. The truth is, I don’t have a real answer to where ideas come from, aside from everywhere. I keep my mind open and continually search for new paths or places I’ve never been, not just at the start of a story, but throughout a story’s development. I often hear from other writers that they are searching for just the right idea. This frustrates me. To me, good stories don’t have one good idea; they have hundreds of good ideas. You have to just keep working at it and slowly pluck out the good ones.

Q: Anything in particular about your award-winning RPLA entry that you’d like to share?

A: Colby in the Crosshairs is one of my favorite stories and a true example of how perseverance pays off. It started as a short story that I wrote during an eight hour nonstop writing session, spanning the middle of the night. By about 4 am, I found myself weeping. I had never before cried from a story that I had written. Once cleaned up, I submitted the story repeatedly to various contests, magazines, and other publication and was universally turned down. This broke my heart. It sat on the shelf for a good ten or so years before I dusted it off and took another whack at it. It eventually transformed into the novella it is today – and based on the first place RPLA award, it’s far better than the one I fell in love with.

Q: Who do you credit with inspiring your writing?

A: Anyone has an opportunity to inspire me – the stranger the better. Like the old adage, be careful or you’ll end up in my book. Of course, the most influential people in my life are the ones closest to me, the ones who’ve poured love into my life. I find it amazing how, no matter how hard I may try to invent new and interesting characters, they often morph into various people in my life, past and present. Likewise, I try to leave positive impressions on others. Not that I’m trying to force myself into their stories, but I wouldn’t fight it if the likeness of John Hope popped up here and there.

Q: Any tips for new writers?

A: Don’t give up. Writing is a battle of self-will and self-motivation. It doesn’t matter how much you’ve written or what successes you might have attained, the next book is just as hard as the previous. But don’t let that scare you, let that inspire and challenge you to go deeper, grow as a writer and as a communicator of the conditions of mystery and the love of life. We all have reasons to write and to release the artist inside ourselves. Don’t suppress this artist. Work and wonderful things will happen.

Thank you for sharing, John, and congratulations! Visit his website: www.johnhopewriting.com

Ready to read the rest of the book? Click the link to purchase: Colby in the Crosshairs

A message about supporting literacy in Florida:

If every member of FWA went to Smile.Amazon.com, chose Florida Writers Foundation, Inc. as their charity and, instead of logging into Amazon.com, logged into Smile.Amazon.com, FWF would receive 0.5% of the purchase funds. Every time.

We could significantly fund the literacy efforts of our organization. No money out of your pockets…just some invested time to set this up.

How easy for us to make a difference. To see all of our work, please read the pages of our website www.floridawritersfoundation.com. You’ll be proud.

Tom Swartz, President, FWF