Oh, the ol’ blog. How I’ve missed you. What’s up? How’s it going?
***No, no, we want to hear from you!***
Thus spake the one-sided communication channel.
What a whirlwind it’s been since the last post. It’s not that I haven’t been writing… I feel like I’ve been doing nothing but. Anyone who’s kept up with the blog knows how what began as — well, Blog Posts — spiraled into an increasingly narrative-driven psycho-autofiction web that I caught myself deep, deep inside of. This culminated in the last post, on which I signed “the end,” but it felt like the Story™ of True Modern Romance was still one step away from being over. I spent the last few months writing what I’ve been referring to as the Epilogue1. Well, I’ve finished it, and I’ve decided to leave it unposted.
***12 versions later and we don’t get to read it??***
Hold your Goddamned horses, dear reader.
It’s probably time I officially announce that I have finished my novel. I’m calling it True Modern Romance; or, The Infinite Loop: A Murder Mystery. I’ve threatened the idea of me writing a novel for months now, and by Jove I’ve really done it. It started out as a physical printing of the blog posts, but ended up being a 275-page Expanded Edition™. A complete rewrite, in Atomic Detail, now that it’s all in the rearview. If the blog has been overly personal, the novel is a complete invasion of my privacy2. New posts, journal entries, and dare I say a Plot-Driven Narrative™ interwoven throughout. The Epilogue to the blog can be found a the end of the novel. What I thought was the end of one 10-year-long odyssey turns out to actually be the beginning of a new one.
***As if there’s really a difference***
Just one lesson I’ve learned from writing this Behemoth.
It is at this inflection point where the cursed smog of a year I’ve been calling True Modern Romance officially splits from the blog and therefore my life. It is now incarnate in a physical form, forever separated from me and put to rest. That’s right. True Modern Romance is over. The clouds have lifted. I feel happy again.
My life, now not being lived for the sake of writing about it, has been moving at a crazy pace. I haven’t even had much time to update the scrapbook. To summarize, I ran out of money earlier this year and had to downsize. Now I’m living with Lorenzo in a score-of-the-century 3.5bd/2br+detached garage in East Hollywood. I got a job, which probably comes as a surprise to everyone who knows Max Bennett Kelly, but since I’ve reclaimed Marcello I can get a day job without feeling like a hypocrite. Spoilers— I even have a girlfriend now, which was only made possible after my heart opened up once I trapped Max Noir in the Hall of Mirrors when I closed the Lion’s Gate and collapsed the Infinite Loop. If all of this sounds insane, it’s because It Is and because I Was. My life is non-fiction again. You can read all about it in my book.
***Get ready to hear that a lot from here on out***
I’m tired of explaining myself.
I played a showcase in February, and headlined last week, and they’ve been the best shows I’ve ever put on. I’ve put all my focus into building my live rig and creating my light show and can’t wait for the next one to graduate from Test Phase to Full Execution. When it will be is impossible to say right now, but I what I am sure of is that I’ve been reconnected with Why I am doing this in the first place. I Just Like Making Loud Noise.
As for new music, Eternal Underdog is on the horizon. I can’t wait to lean fully into this new era, but True Modern Romance must have its swan song before I lay it to rest. There’s one more installation of the Codename: TMR Show to put out, a merch drop and a formal release for the novel after which I intend to find a publisher3. Lots of hopes, lots of dreams. I am back to myself.
I’m excited to use the blog to update you all about my life again rather than using it as a vessel for my bout with psychosis. No more taking 3 months and learning inDesign to write. I’m happy with the 20 minutes I spent on this. I’ve changed, permanently, from this last year, from True Modern Romance and from writing the book. I’m excited that it’s all behind me. Thanks for sticking around.
Talk soon
-mbk
FOOTNOTES:
1. An incredibly strange way to view an ongoing life, I know.
2. Inflicted, of course, by that ever-meddling Self.
3. Make sure you read the 1st Edition before they make me edit out all the incriminating tea.
