His works include the novel The Licking Valley Coon Hunters Club and the novellas El Dia De Los Muertos and Five Days in April, all of which received Bram Stoker Awards.
In October 2018, he retired as the deputy director of the 76th Software Engineering Group at Tinker Air Force Base, culminating a 35-year civil service career.
[6] In 2001, Hopkins was diagnosed with an indolent form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, undergoing multiple rounds of chemotherapy over the years, as well as special targeted drug therapies.
The Licking Valley Coon Hunters Club was nominated for Best Novel and won Best First Novel, defeating a field including Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves.
Along with Garrett Peck, he also co-edited the nonfiction book Personal Demons, which was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award for Best Non-Fiction but did not win.