I am a nomadic author and podcaster hatched in Saaf London, and warped by a steady diet of sherbet lemons, medically prescribed comic books (absolutely true, ask me in person), dirty grey rain, and chips.
I was a child obsessed with science fiction, fantasy, and horror books, comics, films, TV, games, and toys.
I played video games on the Binatone TV Master (possibly a clone), the Sega Mega Drive, the original beige Nintendo Gameboy, and the breadbox Commodore 64; the system on which I first started programming.
My parents instilled in me a keen sense of history, and once I even assisted my mother's excavations of a cache of 19th century pennies scattered alongside our garden path.
I wrote stories, doodled, and, emulating my parents, snapped away with a series of film cameras.
These early interests led to an education and career in science, technology, heritage, and finally media, and the journey has given my creative output a distinct voice (and an unfortunate inherent quirkiness).
During an eternity in UK higher education, I cobbled together a peculiar mixture of skills and a bewildering array of impressive certificates, diplomas, and licenses, including a Masters degree in computery related stuff, and transferable credits and research experience in robotics, natural science, archaeology, and... quite honestly, you could write an academic paper about my bizarre, spaghetti-like educational trajectory. Let's just say that I have accumulated an iceberg size mound of certification secured within the confines of an ancient sentient grey filing cabinet called Mr Bisley, who exudes a Zen-like calm. Ommm!
My first career was a longish stint in the UK IT industry, before it went phut, thanks to the bosses, the bubble, and IR35. I started as a proper "have you tried turning it off and on again?" techie Morlock and ended running my own ETL (Extract Transform Load) consultancy. Sounds cool, right?
While working, I continued studying and volunteered in the conservation and heritage sector. After several years, I started running an archaeology practice, then became the curator and manager of a museum in Canada.
However, from the time I first entered the workforce, employment was never contiguous, (thank you very much late 20th/early 21st century socioeconomic chaos), but sandwiched between working in every conceivable job you care to mention, and quite a few you really would not, except astronaut as my application was rejected by NASA. Damn it!
Let's talk about writing and presenting, which are what I do now. After impressing (hypnotising?) the publisher and editors of the Independent Daily; the English language national broadsheet newspaper of Mauritius with my blog and podcast (yes, those actually got me the gig), I freelanced as their technology and culture columnist. When it closed in 2013, I returned home to the UK, where I worked as a freelance journalist; writing features, news articles, and opinion pieces for various print publications.
I am also a science fiction, fantasy, and horror author, but that pre-dates every else I have done by many years. Ouroboros style career planning or wot?
Other creative things I do include scriptwriting, voice acting, and developing text based computer games.
As well indulging extremely eclectic, esoteric, and frankly eccentric, tastes in art and culture, my spare time is spent attempting the ascension to rockstardom, technological tinkering, and on, under, or next to the big blue H2O.
Mirror, Mirror
Things written about me.
2006 Ridgley, Darren New Curator at the East Coulee School Museum, Drumheller Valley Times, Drumheller, AB, Canada
2006 Lehul, Dan East Coulee Museum Has a New Director, Drumheller Mail, Drumheller, AB, Canada
2006 Radio interview on Real Country 910 (CKDQ) (I think... It was a long time ago!), Drumheller, AB, Canada
Directorships
2014 to Present Freelance author, journalist, and presenter, UK
2012 to 2013 Freelance journalist, Port Louis and Curepipe, Plaines Wilhems, Maurtius
2013 Star Adventurer Magazine, neo-pulp online magazine, UK
2006 East Coulee Cougar, Community news sheet, East Coulee, AB, Canada
1998 Taleford Computers Ltd., IT consultancy, Kent and City of London, UK
A Scanner Nerdly/FAQ
These are a few of my favourite things:
Toob? Star Trek, Blake's 7, and Doctor Who.
Flicks? 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Man Who Fell to Earth, Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, Excalibur, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Blade Runner, Big Trouble in Little China, and Inception.
Lit? The Lord of the Rings, The Stars My Destination (Tiger, Tiger), The Man Who Japed, Dune, and Neuromancer.
Tunes? I'm fairly eclectic, but tend to favour the loud, punky, sinister, or all three, and Johann Sebastian Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor; the admittedly cliched choice of the discerning supervillain.
Jedi or Sith? Neither, as I enjoy limbs. I'd go with space pirate, but without the Solo smugness or family issues.
Empire or Republic? Republic!
Kirk or Picard? Kirk!
Doctor and Companion? Doctor? Jon Pertwee. Companion? Ace or Leela? Hmmm... Nitro 9 or pointy death? I'm conflicted!
Time Lord or...? Time Lord? Pah! Let's just leave it at "or" puny humans.
Sartorial Aspirations? Throw Marc Bolan, Jon Finch's Jerry Cornelius, Bela Lugosi, and Yul Brynner into a washing machine and spin. Vigorously.
Self? A conundrum lurking inside the shell of a carefully hollowed out walnut.
Superheroes? Batman, Dazzler (shut up, she's brilliant), Vanth Dreadstar, Garth, Green Arrow, the Question, and Spider-Man.
Supervillains? Ernst Stavro Blofeld, Catwoman, Elektra, Mekon, Ming the Merciless, Captain Nemo, Omega, and Penguin.
Heroes? Han Solo, Flash Gordon, Indiana Jones, Sinbad, and Conan the Barbarian.
Anti-Heroes? Kane the Mystic Swordsman, Kerr Avon, Mister X, and Harry Palmer.
Tech? The microcomputer/personal computer is the best (and most annoying) invention since the wheel.
Code? MS-DOS Batch, Microsoft QBASIC and QuickBasic, UNIX Shell, Rexx, Fortran, C and Lua/LOVE, to name but a few.
Martial Arts? Many, though currently Grand Ultimate Fist, and the terribly effective Way of the Spider. My special move is running away.
Yums? Mauritian caramelized or Sumatran ground coffee, Parisian chocolate ganache truffles heavily dusted with fine cocoa, crescent shaped French croissants (not the straight British monstrosities), proper French baguettes because "It's a quarter past baguette!"---2023, Garibaldis, sherbert lemons, traditional lemondade, bitter lemon, lemon buttercream cake, lemons and limes, homemade blackberry preserve with all the bits left in because I'm a nasty bugger, and many many cheeses.
Alignment? Chaotic Neutral.
Character? Wizard4Life.
Peeves? Don't get me started.
Faults? Massive and completely justified superiority complex.
Places? Curepipe, Mauritian beaches, the pyramids at Giza, and here.
Utopias? Iain M. Banks's Culture.
Dystopias? The one in which I rule you puny humans.
HQ? A shape-shifting trans-dimensional vimana (TARDIS? Pah!); initially a strange tower in the Himalayan Kingdom of Garudastan, but now temporally and spatially unmoored and occupying the same XYZT coordinates as my hat. Visa enquiries should be ECHO'd to NUL via the Embassy of Garudastan, Grand Cabaret, Mauritius; an ironically named tiny village near the larger town of Petite Cabaret, NE of Dead Man Island. Only some of that is satire.
Location? Pssst! Behind you!
Descent? I was born in London of Indo-Mauritian Hindu Brahmin parents and spent most of my life in the UK. As an adult, I also lived for several years in Canada, then a couple in Mauritius, before returning home to England. Mars next?
Roy? Why, pray tell, does a Hindu chap possess a Norman/Frankish/Gaelic derived forename? For a start, it's also an Indian name, but here we go. Dad's given name was supposed to be "Rohit", but the colonial British registrar's ears couldn't cope with something quite so Indian and wrote "Roy" on the birth certificate. When I was born, I was named after Dad.
Mathur? Not a name originating from this scepter'd isle and bloody well pronounced "mat-tour". If you mispronounce it, I will respond with an offensive snort of derision. Don't expect me to help you either because I do so love watching people squirm. Go on worm, squirm, squirm, squuuiiirrrm! Hahahahahahahahaha!
Code Name? I categorically deny that I am not a thoroughly reliable narrator, "The Captain!", a wizard, or a filthy transdimensional tourist.
More? That is as much as I can tell you without boring your pants off, but buy me a Betelgeusian Brain Buster and I'll talk the hind pods off an Arcturan zingbat. If you can't wait that long, feel free to rummage, but beware of the cabling, the carnivorous plants, and the giant winged thing. Aaaaaaawk!
Seriously? You actually read all the way down to here? What is wrong with you? There, there, have a scrumptious sherbet lemon.
Reviews
Blog reviews:
"There’s Ed, Op Ed, Op, and then there’s this blog."---The Captain
"Well done son, keep it up!"---The Captain's mum"
"People will think you’re a nerd."---The Captain's dad
"I hate this!"---vox populi
"I don’t care."---The Captain
"Who the hell is the Captain anyway?"---Roy Mathur
"Finally, an honest review... great!"---Shayne T. Wright
Pod reviews:
"Podcast 71: Despite not feeling well, you did your 71st podcast, so I must say well done. You are a very determined podcaster. Keep it up."---Premjyotee 2015-03-02
"Great listen: A great podcast from an engaging host."---FragDoctor 2015-02-16
"A Fine Podcast for those of a Geeky Disposition: Roy's Rocket Radio was, until recently, unknown to me. As a confirmed geek, I'm always on the look out for podcasts that genuinely reflect my concerns as someone with interests that go beyond the mainstream. What's great about Roy is that he really knows his eggs. From the obvious, such as Trek and Star Wars, to the more obscure, The Captain is always on the mark. Plus, he's got a great way with the mic, making it a very easy listening experience---give it a go!"---The Geekhood Guy 2015-02-16
About This Site
This cerebrally concocted and cleverly crafted grimoire is inspired by the d'elvish shadow scripts of Far Below (take the elevator down at Far Away). The curses within, cast by a foul and twisted sourcerous hand, wielding vile accursed instruments cunningly wrought by dwarven-kind. Acknowledgements are grudgingly granted to the diverse legion of humans, gnomes, trolls, ogres, giants, the great and terrible Roc, rakshasa, satyrs, nymphs, djinn, skin walkers, centaurs, and other magical creatures and cryptids too numerous to mention, who have, under a terrible geas, unwillingly toiled in this villainous endeavour, and shall continue to do so (if they know what's good for them) unto the end of time! Hahahahahahahahaha! Look, I write... a lot, and I am a geek, so what did you expect? I mean, really...