Last Updated: 24 May 2000

Tommy Ferguson, Born Thomas Ferguson (no middle initial) 23 June 1967 in Ballykelly, Northern Ireland and brought up in a Catholic, nationalist household and consider myself Irish. Graduated from Queen's University, Belfast with an honours degree in Political Science which served me very well for six and a half years with the Inland Revenue. Spent some time doing the usual dust jacket jobs (selling insurance, researching a local history book, waiter, barman, accounts clerk... you know) before thinking it was all a waste of time.

I left Northern Ireland in September 1996 and moved to Toronto in Canada where I whiled away a few months ravelling around (Vancouver and Seattle, a brief stint in Chicago, some time in and around the great lakes in Canada; Niagara Falls an awful lot - not nearly enough - and farting about Toronto) before I finally got a job working in an Irish bar in Toronto. Allen's bar and restaurant employed me from St. Patrick's day 1997 (see issue 7 of TommyWorld) until my return to Belfast and Northern Ireland in October of 1997 (some other articles about my time in Allen's will be appearing on the web site.)

Upon my return I worked for the Belfast Telegraph as a Database co-ordinator for year, whilst sharing a house with Belfast fan Mark McCann. Frequent visits to Seattle later, I realised that it wasn't for me - for many varied reasons, most of them personal. Becoming disenchanted with the Belfast Telegraph, for many work and varied work reasons mostly, I took up an opportunity in Nottingham in March of 1999 with a software company called Science Systems (Commercial) Ltd as an Analyst/Programmer. A whole move to England, including laughable attempts to transport my belongs in, then ensued. I tried to settle into the work, which was all new to me, and I tried to settle into Nottingham, which was also all new to me.

After just over three months I realised this failure to settle in was a real bad idea and, again for many and varied reasons, both work and personal I left Science Systems and returned home. This statement probably says a lot more than it should but Northern Ireland is 'home' and I have been staying with my parents for a few months until I secure employment in Belfast again. and there you have it, to August 1999.

As a fan I've been involved in way too much shit over my eleven years in fandom. I started the Queen's University SF Society, helped organise and run four Belfast conventions (the last one being a very successful Unicon in 1989 - the new breed of Belfast cons can be seem here), was briefly a columnist for the BSFA, Apa Hack with a number of APAs and administrator for The Organisation APA (publishing over 40 issues of my apazine Thingy.) I written and produced a number of fanzines: TASH (The Amazing Sentient House) lasted 14 issues, some of them pretty dire and one or two I'm still proud off. Design For Life my new perzine which has reached issue two and that was about it, though I may restart it at some stage. I'm an editor of Götterdämmerung which has reached issue 11 (although there have already been eleven issues published. It's a Götter thing) and am quite proud of a lot more of those than any other thing I have been involved with. Whilst in Toronto I published a weekly E-zine (egotistically entitled TommyWorld) to try and keep in touch with people back in the UK which, after a small hiatus, has now returned.

My first convention was Albacon III the 1986 British Eastercon in Glasgow (where I met Ian Sorenson. It's all been down hill from there.) I liked it so much I decided to run one of my own - and the fateful NICon series was born. Since then I have been to too many conventions, been on too many con committees and am currently involved in the Toronto bid for the 2003 WorldCon, as its British agent, which I urge you to support.

24/05/2000

I am now working for the Northern Ireland Film Commission and if you really want to know what my mother means when she tells people that I 'work with computers' you can check my resume here. I'm still living in Belfast, still involved in fandom (I just came a poor second to Sue Mason in the 2000 TAFF race) and my next convention will be NovaCon 30 in Birmingham.

This biog will be updated periodically.