Introductions are always so awkward!

It seems so strange to me to be introducing myself to well...everyone...literally! Yet at the same time its nothing but awesome to know that just about anyone in the world could somehow tumble down some google-link-rabbit hole to my little blog here on the Twenty One site...I love the internet! But anyhow, let's get down to it! My name is Mat Raney, and yeah, there's only one "t" in my name because it's short for Matlack. Anyway, I was born in '79 which makes me a just ripening 26 years old. Growing up in a military family meant that my sister and brother and I grew up in several countries besides our own and in more states than I can count on one hand! Basically, bad for digging roots, but great for learning some cool lessons about the world around me and the people who live in it. Eventually, I graduated from the University of Kentucky with a degree in Eastern Studies (mostly language, literature, and history for those of you who were wondering). So besides watching great basketball and football at the time (we went to two bowl games while I was a student) I got the chance to learn a new language (Russian) and read a great deal of books written by guys who not only lived in other parts of the world than me, but were writing in completely different time periods. I was so fascinated by the fact that while these genius fellows had long since kicked the bucket, their ideas were still alive and valid in their writings. It was in my reading and writing about these guys and their works in college that clued me into something I never realized about myself: I love ideas and I love writing about them! Not only did these authors enlighten me to this new aspect of my soul, but they also guided me in the pursuit of what ideas sculpt and study, namely humanity and the human condition, a topic at which I could only hope to reach a fraction of their boundless insight.


So when I first started writing seriously, with a mind to someday pursue as a profession, I started with short stories, personal narratives, and some vague attempts at poetry. These early efforts eventually led me to give a crack at a novel, which I suppose you could call a success since I did write a 400 page document, or a failure seeing as how that particular 400 page mountain just lies in a pile collecting dust in my room! The truth is I just didn't know how to get someone to read my work who possessed the know how and the connections to guide me along in the path to published author heaven (actually the real truth is I couldn't get anyone at all to read it accept my friends and my sister). So, I guess you could say I was wandering aimlessly in the wastelands of wannabe writers when an old college buddy of mine, Dave Cottingham, and I started hanging out again. You see, back in the day, Dave and I had really been big into acting, we took lessons from the same guy and sometimes we would talk afterwards about ambitious dreams and goals. One day Dave tells me about this crazy idea he has to start making his own independent films, right here in Kentucky. So, curious young man that I was, I hung out on the sets, met a guy who was directing their pictures named Russell Johnson, and in general just being a nuisance. Then pesky life got in the way and took me to various other places in the country for a while until I finally came back, which brings me back to my story. Dave has a little short movie called Hidden Truth that he and Russell came up with, I read it, and I like it, and then an idea hits me: In the contests I'd sent my work to, my highest scores were consistently in dialogue, so why not read the Syd Field textbook and try and write a screenplay?

So in an act of grace (one for which this layman writer will always be appreciative) Dave let a developing prose writer try his hand at screenplay...and I've been hooked ever since! In fact, over the past year and half or so, I've written about five screenplays and although I am without doubt only a learner in the screenwriting game, with each successive script I can feel my comfort, confidence, and ability growing, and I can't tell you how humbled and proud I am to be working with Dave and Russell, not to mention grateful, for the numerous opportunities they give me along with the patience they extend to me every day. I am truly excited about the stories and ideas that we are going to be creating for you over the next year or two!! So be ready! Twenty One is coming strong in '06 and '07!

And as for this blog, what can you expect? Well, I like to talk alot about philosophy, ideas, storytelling, sports, books, current events, and of course: movies! I'd like to try and include a review of a film, whether old or new, independent or studio, every week, but who knows! I may throw in a book review here and there as well. So anyway friends, forgive my long winded introduction, though don't expect these to get any shorter, and I hope to talk to you again soon!