C J L MARR

Accents

 

I was born in 1951 in a town called New Amsterdam, in a country called British Guiana, which is now called Guyana, on the Carribean coast of South America. My father was born in Santiago, Chile, and my mother in British Guiana, but both of them were of Scottish ancestry. Confused? So was I for many years, as a pale, freckly little white boy with a strong West Indian accent.

I was educated in Bromley, just south of London, England (so I now have a cockney accent) and was lucky enough to join the fledgling information technology industry in 1969, straight from high school. In 1986 my wife and I along with our two sons emigrated to Perth, Western Australia which is now our home (so the cockney accent is now tinged with an Aussie accent!).

 

Family

 

Both our sons are now married, one to a girl with Irish ancestry, and the other to a girl with German ancestry (what a wonderfully cosmopolitan country Australia is!) and I'm now a grandfather to two boys and two girls.

 

Education

 

In 1998 I realised I had no real qualifications, just a ton of experience, so I started out on a computer science degree at Murdoch University that took me 6 years to complete.  Even then I found that kids coming out of primary school knew more about the modern computers and devices than I did so eventually I realised it was time for me to move on to the next stage of my life, retirement!

 

Astronomy

 

Thanks to growing up in a world touched by the marvelous Sir Patrick Moore, astronomy has always fascinated me, and was instrumental in setting me on the path to my degree.  Back in 1998, in the early hours of the morning, the ABC in Australia used to televise numerous programs which were related to degree courses with Open Learning Australia (OLA).  One of these programs was about astronomy and I used to record it and watch it at a more civilised hour.  That led to me taking the OLA course which led to me deciding to do the whole thing and get my degree.

 

For my 50th birthday, I decided to do something different, and bought myself a telescope.  Having looked at the Moon, a few planets, and the Orion nebula, I began to wonder what else there was to look at.  During a stroll through Murdoch University's campus, I noticed an observatory.  I made some enquiries, and found that there was a Murdoch Astronomical Society (MAS) attached to it, so I joined in the hope of getting some guidance about what else was out there.  After a few meetings where I learned a great deal, I put on a talk of my own.  I started with the Moon because I knew I could find out a lot about it.  I loved doing the research, and wanted to do more, so I created a few more presentations.  

 

When a vacancy came up at the Editor's position, I took the role and enjoyed researching 20-30 articles per year for the MAS magazine, "Astronomica".  When MAS merged with the Astronomical Society of Western Australia (ASWA) in 2004, they had a similar vacancy, so I am now the Editor of their journal, "The Sidereal Times".

 

I have always had a passion for writing and, more recently, I've found a passion for astronomical research, so it is such a pleasure to be able to combine the two.  I don't have a scientific background, and I don't understand all the science behind astronomy.  This doesn't mean that I can't write about complex astronomical subjects, but it means that in such articles, I try to use very simple terminology and as much plain English as possible.  Hopefully, this means that other beginners, like me, can relate better to what I'm saying than they might to an astrophysicist who's been doing it for years. Some of these articles are included on the ARTICLES page.

 

2009 was the International Year of Astronomy, and a website called 365 Days of Astronomy was created to deliver podcasts from astronomers around the world.  I created two such podcasts and both were used.  Click below to listen to my podcast about star magnitudes.

 

 

 

Music

 

Music plays a big part in my waking moments.  Life without music is like a book without words - pointless.  From Moby to Mozart.  From Beethoven to the Beatles.  From Debussy to Devil Sold His Soul, who are blowing my socks off at the moment - give them a listen on YouTube.

 

Writing

 

For as long as I can remember I've enjoyed writing and I came up with numerous short stories over the years on my trusty old typewriter - one or two are included on the SHORT STORIES page.  But in the late-1980s I obtained my first home computer, an Apple IIe, and suddenly writing was so much easier. 

 

One day I sat down and started what I thought was going to be another short story about a young lady named Suzi, but the words just kept coming and eventually I had written my first novel - "Suzi".  There were lots more words in my head so I just continued letting them flow and out came "Mindkey", which is the continuation of the Suzi story.

 

Then I hit a wall, not because the words wouldn't come, but because I couldn't find anybody who would print my novels.  So writing slipped down in my priorities and I concentrated on other aspects of my life.  Slowly, in my spare time, a third novel in the Suzi series arrived and there are two more started, as well as several more in my head.  Then I found about self-publishing ebooks, and quickly published "Suzi" and "Mindkey".  Hopefully more of my novels will eventually find their way into ebooks - keep an eye on this website for details.

 

Since retiring from full time work, I have written several articles on a variety of subjects for clients on HireWriters.com.  It only pays peanuts but it's fun, educational, and keeps my mind active.  Then I heard about ScienceNetwork WA, a local website promoting science related to Western Australia, and I applied to them.  I am now a freelance journalist writing articles on astronomy and computer science.  It's certainly a different discipline to writing novels, but I'm enjoying the challenge.