WORDWATCHERS

John Hoggard 

John Hoggard is a Scotsman with a Geordie accent who has lived in the south of England for a third of his life and has known his wife since they were 11. Born in Stirling (although his driving license says Sterling) his parents moved back to the North East when he was 3 and he and his wife attended the same Comprehensive School and Sixth Form College (although at this point neither knew of their future marriage). He has a degree in Physics and Computer Science and a Masters Degree in Defence Simulation and Modelling. Writing is his escape from a world where his colleagues wear socks and sandals and blue suits with brown shoes.

Writing has been a passion since he was five and his home town paper printed his first tentative steps into the realm of Science Fiction in the “Chipper Club” (and he was driven as much as by financial incentives as the need to be read as every 3 stories published earned him a £1.00 Postal Order). He started his novel “Three Brothers Three Swords” when he was 16, its on its 4th rewrite, one day it will be finished if for no other reason than the desire to start its sequel “A Fourth Brother” which has been trapped in his head for too long. He has entered many competitions through sci-fi fanzines (and won a few too) and once sent a homage to the “Discworld” Series to Terry Pratchett via email. Mr. Pratchett was very kind but pointed out that it was impolite to send somebody several hundred kilobytes of nonsense without asking to do so first. It wasn't until much later that John realised that Mr. Pratchett did not use Word or indeed Windows and the file was indeed nonsense. John therefore started his list of rules, the first being – send everything by email as plain text. Undeterred he has continued to write; penning poetry, short stories, a comic book (with a work colleague, but not helped by the fact that neither can draw) and of course re-writing his novel.

He and his wife Vee married in 1999 in Las Vegas, without family, friends and Elvis in attendance. They don't feel guilt, have only 22 photos and a 10 minute video of the day and 8 years of marriage to show for less than £500. Their marriage has produced two beautiful daughters; a brown eyed, honey blonde and a blue eyed, red-head, a large mortgage and a lot of laughter.

Apart from writing John's other hobbies include initiating friends into the delights of both his land of birth and spiritual home (Malt Whisky and Newcastle Brown Ale respectively), watching anything at all involving Science (fact or fiction) and trying to get the younger generation interested in science in his role (through work) as a Science and Engineering Ambassador. He has owned an electric guitar for two years although he cannot play anything on it. He hopes to live long enough to change this. He also owns his very own Star Trek Officer's Uniform – so yes, despite being married with children, he is still a sad, Star Trek loving, computer geek.

John didn't write this, he has his loving wife to thank for that (John: true – but I wouldn't change a word)