What’s scarier—getting yanked into a flooded pipeline for twelve bucks an hour or signing away 75 percent of your life’s work to a publisher? Geoff Hopf has survived both and turned the panic into profit.
A Maryland farm kid who became a Marine infantry sergeant, Geoff carried Desert Storm grit into commercial diving, executive protection and—after a near-death wake-up call—forty post-apocalyptic and Western novels that outsold Stephen King on Amazon. Today he runs Beyond Afraid Publishing, mentors vet writers and keeps readers prepping with his “four pillars of survival.”
He finally quit letting anyone else own his stories—and shows you how to do the same.
The moment the Trinity River tried to swallow him whole
Quitting a “safe” job after one royalty check beat last year’s salary
Why a $250 K advance felt like a shackle, not a win
The four pillars that turn panic buyers into prepared people
How fiction became his weapon for healing and building community
⏱ Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
01:48 Farm kid to Marine Corps grit
10:15 Desert Storm lessons that stuck
19:30 Pipeline nightmare at 36 feet down
28:55 Bodyguarding to breakout bestseller
38:10 The four pillars of real-world survival
46:40 Firing Penguin and going indie
56:22 Living off forty novels
1:05:50 Advice for vets who want to write
https://gmichaelhopf.com/
https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B00F33H8S0
My name is Adam Peters, and I’m here to unf*ck the transition.
