Kevin Wickart:  

Life Since there are bios for school and college, I'll start with post-college. You may want to read those before starting on this. After a fairly steady (but doomed) relationship with a college freshman named Sue, I fell in love with Rachel Parmenter, one of the women in my larger circle of wargaming friends. Rachel and I married within the year, and our first son (William) was born shortly after in 1984. We decided that it would be best for Rachel to be a stay-at-home mom; there were plenty of tough times, but I found steady enough work to provide the necessities. Second son Kevin Conal (don't call him Junior) was born in 1987, and daughter Shannon in 1993. Our sole family crisis came in 2004, when I left Target without another job lined up. My retirement package and the sale of some inherited real estate gave us about a two-year buffer. And we USED it. We traveled quite a lot and indulged ourselves until I realized we had $500 in the bank, so I went back to work. Over the years I've changed the focus of my interests from model rocketry to wargaming to computers to writing, switching back and forth after a few months or years. In competitive rocketry I've earned three national championships and broken two national records. I've won gaming tournaments, had articles published and plays produced. As a staff writer/graphic artist for an online new satire site (DailyProbe.com), I've had one of my creations picked up by Reuters news service. It's been a satisfying and interesting existence thus far. But through all the changes, one constant remains: My family is the core focus and most important factor of my life. Except maybe for ABBA. Right at this moment, my big things are rocketry, theater, music, and spending FAR too much ti...Expand for more