Featured Authors – Worldhoppers Guild

C.R. Berry

C.R. Berry writes conspiracy thrillers with lashings of sci-fi and fantasy. He is a former lawyer turned full-time writer and blogs regularly about conspiracy theories, time travel and otherworldly weirdness.

He was shortlisted in the 2018 Grindstone Literary International Novel Competition and has been published in numerous magazines and anthologies, including Storgy, Dark Tales, Theme of Absence and Suspense Magazine. He was also shortlisted in the Aeon Award Contest, highly commended by Writers’ Forum, and won second prize in the inaugural To Hull and Back Humorous Short Story Competition.

Why conspiracy thrillers? Because Berry’s favourite characters are often the villains, and in a conspiracy thriller, the villains are numerous and everywhere. They tend to be part of the government, the church, a big corporation, or a secret society, which makes them much scarier — and harder to beat — than a singular bad guy. Part of the fun of a conspiracy thriller is unveiling those involved, discovering their plans, and exposing the ‘big bad’ who masterminded it all.

Berry grew up in Farnborough, Hampshire, a town he says has as much character as a broccoli. He’s since moved to the “much more interesting and charming” Haslemere in Surrey.

Mitch Larkins

“A native Floridian, Mitch Larkins attempts to translate his obsessions with comic books, and video games into his writings. WILD WORLDS: CRASH COURSE is his first major foray into writing a full series, with GOING ROGUE being the recently-released sequel. In between writing and working, he juggles his many hobbies while being the okayest dad ever.”

Catherine McCarthy

Catherine McCarthy grew up in the valleys of South Wales where she went on to teach for almost three decades. She was inspired to write from a young age, having fallen in love with story-telling and books after being ‘shown the light’ by her mother who had the tradition of oral story-telling down to a fine art!
She is the author of Hope Cottage, a dark and mysterious family saga of triumph over adversity, reconciliation and, well…hope! Penned as a cathartic means of coming to terms with the loss of her own mother it is her second novel, the first being The Gatekeeper’s Apprentice, a dark-fantasy for older children.
Her most recent publication is a collection of short stories for adults entitled Door and other twisted tales. All ten stories in the collection explore the darker side of fantasy with a twist of cosmic horror. An absolute joy to write, the collection visits a variety of locations and incidents throughout history and imagines them affected by supernatural forces or creatures of myth.
She now lives with her husband, who is also her illustrator and animator, in an inspirational old Welsh cottage in West Wales where she writes, reads, sews and bakes.

Justin Fike

I Started this journey as a 12-year-old dreaming of worlds full of magic, intrigue, and adventure

I’ve loved stories for as long as I can remember. As a boy my grandma often told me tales of her adventures growing up on the South Dakota prairie as I drifted off to sleep, or filled my head with faerie queens, questing knights, and everything in between. Those stories shaped the way I saw the world and helped me understand my place in it. Eventually, I realized that I wanted to spin stories that would be just as important for someone else someday.

Pursuing that dream led me into a lifelong pursuit of the writer’s craft, both on my own and by learning from some of the most well-regarded professionals in their spheres at the Masters in Creative Writing program at Oxford University.

I grew up in the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia and was blessed to have a mother who didn’t complain when I came home from the woods covered in mud and burs, and a father who told me the stories that sent him out there in the first place.

I live in Colorado with my amazing wife Mindy and Pixie in disguise who permits me to claim her as my daughter at parties.

Martin Owton

I was born in Southampton, Hampshire in 1958, and grew up on the edge of the New Forest. At the age of 13 I was lucky enough to win a county scholarship to Winchester College (1972-76). From there I went to St. Catharine’s College, Cambridge (1977-80) where I read Natural Sciences. I then went to Southampton University where I studied for a PhD in synthetic chemistry.

I spent two years as a post-doctoral fellow at St George’s Hospital Medical School in south London, where I met my wife Mary. We now live near Camberley in Surrey, where I work for the research division of a major international pharmaceutical company.

I have been writing seriously since 1995, and have had somewhere above 20 short stories published. I now find myself writing fewer short pieces, due to my commitment to novel writing.

Beside writing I follow cricket, and Southampton FC, and enjoy a good pub quiz.

Jamie Edmundson

An Introduction, by Jamie Edmundson

I grew up in the English counties of Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire, where as a teenager I developed my interests in History and the world of Fantasy Fiction. This was the 1980s, so as well as Lord of the Rings, think David Edding’s Belgariad, the Dragonlance Chronicles by Weis & Hickman, Tad Williams etc. In film there was Star Wars, Ladyhawke, The Princess Bride and (dare I say it? Oh, go on then) Hawk the Slayer. The 1990s saw me study History at the University of Hull in East Yorkshire. By the 2000s I had moved to Yarm in North Yorkshire – I became a teacher, got married and became a father. At various points along the way I dabbled with a fantasy story that became Toric’s Dagger but it wasn’t until I left full-time teaching in 2015 that this became a more serious pursuit. The world of publishing, like many things, has taken a quantum leap since the 1980s and I find the idea of indie writing very exciting.

Ken Harris

Ken Harris is a freelance writer, storyteller, and puppeteer.

He is a contributing writer for Point of View Community Magazine, along with entertaining readers with short stories and puppeteering. A large portion of Ken’s energies are focused on bringing his previous employment experiences in policing and corrections to help others with information to be proactive in safeguarding data. Together, he encourages each one of us to stay safe in the never-ending challenge imposed by cyber attackers in our growing technological world.

Ken also prides himself as a horror, thriller, mystery, suspense and sci-fi author. His newest novella, Night Terror, is an exciting read. He is happy to share it with the Worldhopper audience.

Jason Kilgore

Jason is a multi-genre writer in speculative fiction, including horror, paranormal humor, fantasy, and science fiction. By day he is also a scientist with a global biotech company, specializing in microscopy and cell biology. He lives in Oregon and loves hiking and camping in the mountain wilderness areas and the Pacific coast. He has two teenage children, a bunch of cats, and an insatiable craving for chocolate.

S.L. Briden

Born and raised in Sussex on the south coast of England, S.L Briden is a freelance writer and business owner with deep interests in the Dark Ages history of the UK. Inspired by the age-old myths and legends of King Arthur, she loves creating historic fantasy tales full of adventure and edge-of-your-seat suspense.

For fun, S.L Briden loves travelling and can often be found up and down the UK, delving into the legends of the places she visits. She loves the forest trails of her country and the dramatic coastlines of Cornwall.

C.T. Phipps

C.T. Phipps is a lifelong student of horror, science fiction, and fantasy. An avid tabletop gamer, he discovered this passion led him to write and turned him into a lifelong geek. He is a regular reviewer at The United Federation of Charles and the author of Agent G, Cthulhu Armageddon, The Red Room series, Lucifer’s Star, Straight Outta Fangton, and The Supervillainy Saga.

Rosie Scott

Rosie Scott has been writing novels for over twenty years and publishing since 2010. She writes unconventional adult dystopian, fantasy, and science fiction novels which are partial to themes such as warfare, gray morality, and rebellion. Obsessed with the human psyche and how experiences, events, and trauma can transform a person, most of her books have protagonists who walk just off the path of being a hero. Rosie loves building characters from the ground up with different viewpoints and backgrounds, having them interact uniquely with one another, and then playing with their mortality in her novels because she believes no character should ever be invincible.

Kelsey Clifton

I grew up in Houston, where I might have been kidnapped by bridge trolls and sewer alligators and then traded back for control of local water interests. As a teenager I won my familiar (a cantankerous grey cat) in a contest with a Faerie Queen (although to be honest, she was sick of him hogging all the covers anyway). At the tender age of 119 I began writing my first novel, which has since disappeared into the bowels of my closet, never to be seen again. After college I sold my services to a witch, and we spent four years living in Italy, righting wrongs and drinking too much espresso. Eventually I moved back to Houston and started selling off organs to support a ridiculous life decision: Becoming a full-time novelist.

In all semi-seriousness, I’ve been putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboards) since I was a kid, but my writing career started in earnest on August 26, 2018 when I released my debut novel, A Day Out of Time. I spent years trying to go down the traditional route, and now I’m enjoying the creative control that comes with being an indie author – but not the instability. So if irreverent science fiction is your jam, give my work a try. If you like what you read, be sure to tell your friends, families, and mortal enemies about it, because my latte-and-book fund is getting low.

Bob Gunner

Bob Gunner was born in Houston, Texas in 1955. As a writer of fiction/non-fiction and a small press publisher, he has written or edited and contributed to several published projects over the past ten years. He is a new media pro who has spent his whole career working for Houston-area print and online publications. These days he serves as CEO, Editor & Publisher for Fat Cat New Media Group (http://fatcatwebproductions.com) in Houston, Texas, a full service web development and Public Relations company, who also publishes The Paper Magazine (http://thepapermagazine.com) a daily on-line hyper-local community news magazine covering The Woodlands, Spring, Conroe & North Houston, Texas. You can visit his website at: BobGunner.com or see all of his published works on his Amazon Author Page.

J.M. Robison

J.M. Robison is a fantasy author who chronicles the events which drive heroes to their knees, dethrone kings, and unhinge history to bring magic back to life. Someday she’ll pack the wagon and roam the mountains in search of dragons. She dares to believe in magic. Do you?

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