I have been here a very long time.
I think.
My internal chronometer expired long ago so I have no means to mark the passage of time. I used to count my breaths, but I have lost count of the number of times I have lost count.
Utter darkness.
I have explored as far as I dare.
The feed tube into my belly is both my life-sustaining umbilical and my ball and chain.
Is this still life?
No.
One day soon, I will be brave, pull it out and flee into the void, hoping to find death in the blackness.
John Hoggard has been writing for as long as he can remember, his first publishing successes coming in the Hartlepool Mail “Chipper Club” aged 6. Since then he’s continued to write mainly in the Science-Fiction and Fantasy genres, winning prizes for his “fan-fic” of the Star Trek franchise in his twenties at the various Conventions he attended.
John has also written several pieces of background fiction based on the game Oolite and his most popular work, Lazarus, serialised over 16 weeks, received over 15,500 viewings during that time. The E-book Anthology, Alien Items, featuring some of John’s work (writing as DaddyHoggy), was released in early 2012.
In June 2012 John won the Biting Duck Press “Science in Fiction” Short Story Competition.
In November 2012, John’s SF short story Baby Babble was included in the Anthology Fusion by Fantastic Books Publishing.
In May 2016, John’s had two SF short stories All in the Mind and The House included in the Anthology Synthesis also by Fantastic Books Publishing.
John was most recently published in the horror anthology ‘666’, where his 666-word story ‘Headhunted’ was highly commended by the editors of the anthology.
John’s main work in progress is a contemporary novel entitled Endless Possibilities about the world of Online Gaming and Science-Fiction Conventions. He is also working on a collection of 75-word short stories based on his successful contributions to the Paragraph Planet website and is working with illustrator Helen Withington to bring a selection of these stories to life.
John can also be found on Twitter under the guise of his online gaming name, @DaddyHoggy (https://twitter.com/DaddyHoggy)