It’s Sunday again and time for another Stream of Consciousness five minute brain dump. Fadra, our host, has been giving us prompts to work with. I love that she does this because some Sundays, I honestly
can’t come up with a brain dump, at least not a five minute dump. Ask me on a week day or Saturday and I might be able to write a brain dump.
I love the prompt for today which asks the question about what we won’t write about in our blogs. I can write about this, but today I am choosing another topic. Read on to see what my choice is today.
Last night before shutting down my laptop for the night, I remembered I wanted to check out a friend’s Facebook page to see why I haven’t read anything about his new books or goings on in his life. When I met him through Facebook three or four years ago, his author page said he had published over forty books. I thought that was marvelous, and I could learn a lot from someone who published that many books. It’s true, I learned a lot from him. One thing I took away from our online friendship was how he inspired so many people. How he could tell one-liner, hilarious jokes. He always made me laugh. I learned about the many different stories he wrote. One of his novel series was about a heroine named Chloe, called the Chloe Files, and he always left excerpts about her escapades. She seemed real, and to many people who read her, she was real. Horror was a biggie for Howard, yet, he wrote children’s books, too, in the horror genre, on their level. He also wrote westerns under a pen name, using his middle name as the pen name for that genre.
I even considered asking my school if they’d consider having him come to talk about his books to our students in middle school. Kids can’t get enough of the books he writes. Or, I should say, wrote. I learned last night he passed away. My heart sank. No, I never met him personally, but he was a terrific person, both as a man and as an author. He left behind a loving wife and a family who loved him. He meant so much to his author friends, as well, me being one of them. He passed away in January. This is March and I just found out and I feel awful. It’s been 
some time now that I kept wondering why I never saw his daily posts. But, I would get distracted and forgot to go to his page. A lesson learned: Don’t put off till tomorrow what you can do today. My heart is saddened. Rest in Peace Howard/Lance Hopkins. You will be missed. Links to his work are included below.
Official Website Howard/Lance Hopkins
Howard Hopkins Facebook Author Page
This is my five minute write for today. #SOCSunday
Go here for your own: All Things Fadra
Middle Graphic from Glitter-Graphics.com
Mary J. McCoy-Dressel 
10 thoughts on “Tribute to an Online Friendship R.I.P.”
Author Mary J. McCoy-Dressel
Fadra, that’s a great post. Years ago I read an article/blog about the same thing, and I’ve often wondered if anyone in my family might put a post somewhere. It’s probably a good idea to leave instructions for our family. Another good point you mentioned was about friending or unfriending one of our friends who passed on, on Facebook, Twitter, etc. I know in my case, I still see this friend’s picture in my ‘friends’ box and it hurts to think what his family has gone through. What to do about it is the question.
Thanks for commenting.
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Fadra
I understand this post quite well. I’ve met so many bloggers over the years and every once in a while, someone will pop into my head. They’re gone from Twitter. There blog is gone or stalled and I wonder, did they give up blogging or did something else happen and how would the casual reader know?
You might want to check out this post I wrote on my other site: http://socialdialect.com/2012/02/planning-your-social-media-death/
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Author Mary J. McCoy-Dressel
Hi, Lorraine,
Thank you. Glad you came by to read my #SOCSunday post. Have a great day.
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Lorraine
A touching tribute to a person who apparently shared his gifts and love generously.
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Author Mary J. McCoy-Dressel
It would be nice for you to check out Howard’s work. Thank you for commenting. Hope you find something your tweens like.
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sayitrahshay
So sorry to hear about your friend. I will certainly take a look at his work; my tweens are always looking for something “a little scary”
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Erin O'Riordan
That’s too bad that Howard passed away. He wrote horror for children on their level? That sounds like something my 8-year-old niece would like to read.
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Author Mary J. McCoy-Dressel
Howard says on his website about writing, “I love entertaining people and taking them away from reality and giving something back to others.” Howard Hopkins
Isn’t this what we all want as writers. I’ll miss his humor and inspiration.
Thanks for stopping by Erin.
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Kenya G. Johnson
Awww that is a sad way to find out about a someone you have grown fond of. Nice tribute you have given him here. I will go check him out on Amazon.
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Author Mary J. McCoy-Dressel
Hi, Kenya,
Thank you so much. It was rather shocking to find out about Howard. Appreciate you commenting.
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