Books with author Brian Clopper

"... I would put 'Irving Wishbutton and the Questing Academy' up against any modern teen coming of age series including 'Harry Potter'... " Welcome to the Questing Academy, a school devoted to helping book characters learn their roles. They attend classes while their authors finish their stories, only graduating upon publication. With a student body made up of heroes, villains, support characters, and folks who are just plain narrative window dressing, there’s conflict galore.Irving Wishbutton arrives at the Questing Academy incomplete. His author hasn’t fully described him, which leaves parts of him fuzzy and indistinct. Branded a smudge, he is treated like a second-class citizen. Trouble dogs Irving at every turn. He runs afoul of Sir Gared, a villain who’s convinced he’s destined to be a hero. Lord Raggleswamp and Dean Harmstrike also seem to have it in for him. Plus, far too many of the professors are villains. Something is amiss at the academy and Irving, willing or not, must unearth the school’s dark secrets. Aided by Roon, an undead detective whose fickle author can’t decide what undead type she truly is, and Sarya, a spunky fairy that sees Irving quite clearly for what he is even though he’s a lowly smudge, he embarks on a dangerous quest, one not written by his author. The Questing Academy is volume one in a four-book saga that tells a coming-of-age metafiction story for the ages.

For Graham, his first flight is sure to be a disaster. Expectations are high for him to fly. Teased for his puny wings and fear of heights, his only friends are an equally picked-upon troll named Ot and his grandfather who has hardened so much he may not make it to Graham's rite of passage. When his grandfather must leave Cascade to ascend to his final resting place atop a church tower, Graham makes a heart-wrenching decision and sneaks through a dimensional portal with him, keenly aware he may have just trapped himself alone on Earth. Will he make it back in time to attempt his first flight? Will Blord, the village bully, prove to be be too much of a thorn for the earnest young gargoyle? And what does his sister's volcano project have to do with saving his rocky hide? Revel in the answers as you read this heartwarming tale of friendship and faith.

"... Of the literally hundreds of self published, Kindle freebie, and kindleunlimited books I've read, skimmed and commented on, this is one of the most interesting, entertaining and satisfying finds to date..."Irving and Roon brave the wilds outside of the Questing Academy as they seek to rescue her brother from Revision Ravine. Their adventure finds unlikely alliances forged with Druthers the wish dragon, along with Knarl and his sharp-edged wife, Lady Edith. As the pair delve deeper into Revision Ravine, they learn more than they bargain for about Dean Harmstrike's sinister reach and his foul plans.Can Roon and Irving escape the Machine and the dark hold the ravine has on trespassers? Find out in the second book of the Irving Wishbutton saga.

It’s been a month since Roon and Irving snuck off campus to rescue the vampire’s brother from Revision Ravine. Though tempted to investigate the school's secrets, both have worked hard and attended classes to stay in Dean Harmstrike’s good graces. And then Roon and Irving stumble upon the secrets of the Tomb of Tomes. Venturing into this off-limits area angers Harmstrike, who once again makes their time at the academy miserable.Campus life becomes even more chaotic. Irving must find time to perfect his team’s dungeon runs, confront Harmstrike’s writers to find out the dean’s dark agenda, and figure out his spunky fairy girlfriend’s tragic secret and its connection to the Tomb of Tomes.The third book in the Irving Wishbutton saga offers up strange answers and even more mysteries. Readers will love the new characters of Cocoon Boy and the vile Vincent and welcome back favorites like Sarya, Lord Raggleswamp, Valiant Forge, and the ice princess Stacia. Although, to be honest, the princess is really nobody’s favorite but maybe a few might warm to her this time out.

Dean Harmstrike is fed up with supervising the characters that attend the Questing Academy and will stop at nothing to invade the real world. Irving and his eclectic classmates, along with a very special stranger, risk it all to stop him.Harmstrike expels Irving to the mysterious Domain of Sagas where Irving must inhabit the title role in three quests. He can’t lose himself in the heroic characters he’s hijacked as he barrels through the epic adventures, beating back the madness and searching for his true cast amid the narrative archetypes so they can all escape.Can Irving escape his storybook prisons and defeat the dean once and for all? The Domain of Sagas is the fourth and final volume in the Irving Wishbutton fantasy series.

"Plenty of mystery, angst, and wonder in this completely satisfying installment. The character list is huge and wonderful." It’s been a month since Roon and Irving snuck off campus to rescue the vampire’s brother from Revision Ravine. Though tempted to investigate the school's secrets, both have worked hard and attended classes to stay in Dean Harmstrike’s good graces. And then Roon and Irving stumble upon the secrets of the Tomb of Tomes. Venturing into this off-limits area angers Harmstrike, who once again makes their time at the academy miserable.Campus life becomes even more chaotic. Irving must find time to perfect his team’s dungeon runs, confront Harmstrike’s writers to find out the dean’s dark agenda, and figure out his spunky fairy girlfriend’s tragic secret and its connection to the Tomb of Tomes.The third book in the Irving Wishbutton saga offers up strange answers and even more mysteries. Readers will love the new characters of Cocoon Boy and the vile Vincent and welcome back favorites like Sarya, Lord Raggleswamp, Valiant Forge, and the ice princess Stacia. Although, to be honest, the princess is really nobody’s favorite but maybe a few might warm to her this time out.

FLAME AND FORTUNE is a spry fantasy featuring a combustive fire elemental, a hapless were-elf, and a willful will-o’-wisp on a quest to retrieve a lost mortal girl.Hot-headed Flame is too loud and flashy for his own good, while poor Fenris Fortune is a young elf burdened by a werewolf's curse. Each flee their unsettled lives and meet on the road, where they find a shared knack for hunting down mortal children that have strayed into the Shattered Realm. When the pair are joined by the strong-minded will-o’-wisp, Maleeka, the trio finds themselves battling a sinister foe who threatens to unravel their very reality. Their adventure take them from Seeker’s Sanctuary, the capital city where everybody and their nephew has a statue erected for themselves no matter how trivial their heroic deed, to a fantastic endgame at the besieged outpost of Grimhold.

Being a gargoyle with tiny wings, learning to fly is just the beginning of all too many of life’s challenges. It has been a year since Graham took his first flight and said goodbye to his grandfather. Even a trip to New Asgard isn’t enough to take his mind off the anniversary of his grandfather’s crossing over. Back home, his younger sister Flenn sneaks across to Earth using one of Graham’s spell scrolls only to have her highly illegal trip found out by the bully Blord. As Graham returns home, he learns from his hero escort, the Flying Mummy, that Cascade isn’t as safe as it seems. When mortals stopped believing in magical and mythological creatures, myriad magical denizens faced extinction without belief fueling their existence. They banded together and migrated to the new dimensional home of Cascade, hoping that belief in each other would keep them alive. But survival isn’t guaranteed. If a species closes themselves off from others, they risk fading out of existence. This has the young gargoyle worried, both his people and the nearby troll village, home to his best friend Ot, keep to themselves. When Flenn and Graham wind up at the troll village, they are shocked to find the trolls fading out of existence. Deeply disturbed the same fate awaits his own hermetic people, Graham and his sister defy convention and champion making changes. As they wrestle to convince the gargoyle council to take action, a deadly new complication arises. Gargoyles and woodland animals alike start popping up as statues. Soon, trolls do too and the troll council lays the blame squarely on Flenn and her overreaching plan to save them. Can Graham and his sister capture the evil presence that is turning everyone to stone and ensure that neither magical race evaporates into thin air? And what role do Blord and a fetching harpy play in their schemes? Find out in GRAHAM THE GARGOYLE: FLENN’S FOLLY.

New Asgard offers Graham, Ot, and Flenn wonders and dangers alike. Hobnobbing with valkyries, minotaurs, changelings, and elves is a far cry from their once-isolated village life. Their role as emissaries is clear: they must be in the thick of things to keep the belief in gargoyles and trolls strong. Attending the Celestial Institute can do just that. Things are amiss at their new school. With several unlikely allies, they must unearth the secrets of the headmaster and thwart the schemes of a fresh batch of elven bullies. All answers seem to lie in the school's forbidden tower. But are they willing to sacrifice their most precious memories to make things right?

Maggie and Heath won't be finishing high school. Ever. The arrival of the Makers made sure of that. Their ships hovered above major cities, dispersing a bioweapon that transformed a subset of humanity into the Altered, mutated killing machines programmed to scrub clean all that remains of mankind. But the aliens miscalculated. A certain population didn't fully transform. These hybrids, Offshoots, must overcome the fear they inspire and use their special abilities to overthrow the aliens. Maggie and Heath are blessed and cursed to be the first of the Offshoots. They, along with others of their kind, must unite the scattered humans to fight back with them against the Makers and their engineered army, the Altered. A fast-paced alien invasion epic begins here!

"... I would put 'Irving Wishbutton and the Questing Academy' up against any modern teen coming of age series including 'Harry Potter'... " Welcome to the Questing Academy, a school devoted to helping book characters learn their roles. They attend classes while their authors finish their stories, only graduating upon publication. With a student body made up of heroes, villains, support characters, and folks who are just plain narrative window dressing, there’s conflict galore. Irving Wishbutton arrives at the Questing Academy incomplete. His author hasn’t fully described him, which leaves parts of him fuzzy and indistinct. Branded a smudge, he is treated like a second-class citizen. Trouble dogs Irving at every turn. He runs afoul of Sir Gared, a villain who’s convinced he’s destined to be a hero. Lord Raggleswamp and Dean Harmstrike also seem to have it in for him. Plus, far too many of the professors are villains. Something is amiss at the academy and Irving, willing or not, must unearth the school’s dark secrets. Aided by Roon, an undead detective whose fickle author can’t decide what undead type she truly is, and Sarya, a spunky fairy that sees Irving quite clearly for what he is even though he’s a lowly smudge, he embarks on a dangerous quest, one not written by his author. The Questing Academy is volume one in a four-book saga that tells a coming-of-age metafiction story for the ages.

Gideon Thump knows magic abounds in his town, that a tight crew of his classmates are secretly champions of the light and face down evil on a daily basis. All he needs is proof. He foolishly trails their leader and soon finds himself no longer a simple observer. Dropped inadvertently into the role of the major hero, with heavy sword and all, Gideon must win over a supporting cast that blames him for the loss of one of their own, while facing down magical baddies that are thoroughly modern and a little absurd. Making matters worse, his annoying cousin moves in with him and runs afoul of magic herself. With a sinister foe dead set on harvesting Gideon's fledgling magic, he must rally the troops and employ his addled wits to carve out a destiny that doesn't result in him shuffling off this mortal coil.