Thanks, The Last Fat Lady Sang, I’ll Be Wearing Robes Tomorrow, and Other Tales

First of all, let me thank everyone from yesterday and today who “liked” and liked my articles on horror. It was the most “Likes” I’d ever gotten on here–in one day and ever–and I more than appreciate it and the new readers that I have Following me. I just love writing about subject matters as though I am some kind of expert, though I tend to expand on just a few thoughts I have rolling around in my head and fill in the blanks with Internet and whatever books or other people I have access to. I also notice that there are some topics and themes that can really strike at the heart of the matter when you write about them or when they are even seen: some human universals if you’d like and I woud definitely like to write about more of them. But let me thank you all again: you are all awesome and I hope to make many more things here that will be worthy of further entertainment.

Well, I didn’t make it to the Finalists on ENO’s Mini-Opera Contest, however they are all pretty bad ass from what little I’ve skimmed through. I’m not surprised I didn’t make it–what with it being my first attempt and being done more or less at the last minute–however, it left me with quite a few ideas that I want to work on in other ways, shapes, and forms. And I also get to say that I dabbled briefly with librettos at one time too. For those of you just tuning in now, you can find my works through my “mini-operas” tag because linking to them apparently makes WordPress believe that I am actually commenting on the post directly and that just plain feels weird.

But speaking of standing ovations and conclusions, I’m going to be Graduating tomorrow. It is my Convocation Ceremony at York University at the Rexall Centre at 10:30 in the morning (I do wish my section had been given the afternoon time-slot and was closer to campus–I’m not used to as early mornings these days though I am working on it). Of course, I will have to be there much earler to wear a bunch of rental robes and then help my guests get their seats and all the fun that entails because I was only able to get three tickets in advance: again making something that should have been simple into rocket-science. So I want to get some writing of various kinds today while my time is still my own. I am kind of nervous, but it is one day and I will get through it. And I get to wear robes and a strange hat legitimately too.

What else can I tell you? I am very proud of finally getting my Master’s. But I also very proud of the Master’s Thesis that got to this point: a paper that used Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, Herodotus, and their works as its basis. I finished off my first year of Undergrad reading American Gods for the first time and there is some symmetry in ending my Graduate Program with a paper on a good portion of my favourite author’s work as well. There is something really satisfying in that that I can’t explain except to say it is. I think of all the books and articles I used as old friends or collaborators. We all came together, sometimes procrastinating, sometimes arguing, and constantly moving around to make this paper. We’ve been together for a long time, some of us, but we really worked together for two and half years: perhaps even longer. Now some of them are back in the libraries, others still roaming on the Internet and quite a few more back on their respective shelves having said goodbye to one another. We don’t know when we will meet again, but I know that even if I don’t always hold them in my hands, they will always be with me: them and the work that I did.

It’s been a long ride and I am glad I got to tell a little of the story.

A Work in Progress and Site Updates

Which is exactly what I am calling this Blog. After spending an afternoon yesterday toggling around with WordPress, I have managed to add what I think will be automatic posting to my Facebook and LinkedIn accounts as well as allowing other people using the two applications, along with tumblr and such to follow me and even post comments. I am not sure if this is the case, but that is the assumption that I’m working on. I do wish I could make this compatible with BlogSpot links (because I know a lot of people on there) and such, but I am technologically challenged and I have to deal with one thing at a time.  I am still confused about the Publicize option to gain more traffic here (WordPress explains Sharing more easily and it is supposed to be a little more involved), but I might still be able to do something with that with my future posts.

One thing that I know I did, however, was allow the creation of an Email Subscription Button on here. So if anyone wants to follow me by email, the button is on the lower right side of the screen under the other buttons. I would definitely–and always do–appreciate the visit.

Doing these things yesterday has hit home the fact that there is still a lot I have to do with this Blog: particularly with regards to its aesthetic. I have, at this time, no idea how to approach making my Blog either more fancier or making a simple and elegant style of my own. I do want to customize it a bit, but like I said I am still trying to figure out how to go about it. Also, to be honest, I am more interested in writing things on here than I am about working on appearances, but I also know that tailoring my Blog’s appearance to suit its personality (whatever that is) is also more key in making more my own. And look at this way: you get to watch me learn with this application too along with my writing.

I had planned to do some writing on here today, but stuff has come up and we will have to see if that will still happen. In the meantime, let’s see if I can further this experiment a little more.

ETA: I am also considering fully completing my Twitter account, though I am still up in the air about it as well as revising my About section or my profile. We shall see.

Hello and Welcome

Hello everyone. My name is Matthew Kirshenblatt and this is my first ever Writing Blog. While I have had other online journals before this, I am both excited and somewhat daunted by the prospect of making this one. But before I go on some other kind of tangent, I’d like to go into a little more detail about myself and what I want to do here.

Up until fairly recently, I’ve been a Graduate Student at York University working for my Master’s Degree in the Humanities. I guess it might just be easier to say that I have been in school for a very long time and it will be very strange not to be after my Convocation this coming June. At the same time, I am greatly relieved to finally graduate and move on towards some other pursuits. Perhaps I’ll pursue my PhD one day, or perhaps not.

Now I’m finding that with one long-term goal no longer hanging over my head, I have another Damoclean sword to contend with: finding a job. This has forced me to make some very difficult decisions–both financially and personally–but at the same time, it poses me with enough impetus to pursue a whole variety of different possibilities.

As a writer, I have published a few stories on Gil Williamson’s Mythaxis Magazine as well participated in a few writing contests such as Dark Idol, The Friends of the Merill Collection Short Story Contest and Albedo One’s Aeon Award. Aside from these, a whole lot of Amazon comics and novel reviews, and winning first place  in Zauberspiegel’s Adventurers in Hell Contest by writing a 400-word entry that sent Friedrich Nietzsche into Hell, much of my work still isn’t out there and I know that I need the means to make myself known. One of these means will be this Blog.

I mention in my site description that the title Mythic Bios created as a challenge and a promise to myself. I began this collection of creative writing sketches, vignettes, and short stories many years ago when I found myself in a creative rut. Really, I think of it as a creative space where I created–and still create–a writing laboratory for myself: a place where I could experiment with what I do.

It was at that time that I sat down and realized that I could only write about what I knew. At the same time–however–I also knew that what I didn’t know I could learn. It’s one thing to know something intellectually, but it is a whole thing to understand it on a deeply intuitive level. It’s awesome when these things line up, but it takes a lot of growing to happen and if there is one thing three years of Grad School and living on campus and downtown Toronto taught me it is closing that gap between knowledge and experience.

I’m still not done doing that, of course, but I have made a lot of progress. Which brings me back to the purpose of this Blog. I now realize that the Mythic Bios that I write for myself in various notebooks isn’t enough. I have written reviews of books that are scattered throughout Amazon, but that is also not enough. I have stories on Facebook, Mythaxis Magazine and other places but they are not unified. Moreover, I need a place to articulate my thoughts.

This Blog is going to function as all of these things and I will do my best to update it as regularly as I can: to make myself known, to find my reader-audience, to have my friends know what I am working on, and to perhaps even find new readers. I am still toggling around the settings here (I do tend to have some difficulty with technology), however please expect to see some short stories, thoughts, the occasional poem, philosophical fragment, book review and anything I find interesting enough that I want to post a link to or talk about.

So, I just want to say hello and actually begin this. I hope that whatever else, at the very least, you will be entertained.