About Kristan M. Blanchard

Background & Military

Kristan M. Blanchard (Trenton Phoenix – view Facebook profile here) was born in the Portland Oregon area, where he grew up until he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in June of 2005, and left in December 2005 – eventually being stationed on Marine Corps Base Kaneohe Bay, HI – serving two combat tours. The first with Bravo Company, 1st Bt, 3rd Marines, 3rd Marine Division to Haditha, Iraq – March-October 2007, the second with Charlie Battery, 1st Bn, 12th Marines, 3rd Marine Division to Camp TQ, Iraq August ’08 – April ’09. Blanchard was a Field Radio Operator (MOS 0621), and acted as Infantry and a Fire Support Team Radio Operator with the infantry to call in Artillery strikes, with 1/3, and as a RO primarily, and a vehicle commander, gunner, and driver secondarily with 1/12, as Task Force Military Police.

Writing

Blanchard first wrote a novel, “Dark Tomorrow” under his real name K. M. Blanchard at age 15, and published it while in Marine basic training in December of 2005 at the age of 19. “Dark Tomorrow” followed the brief and potent experience by a young teenage girl who became a victim of multiple violent rapes and ultimately ended it (her life) her self. Blanchard was also writing poetry at that age, and continued long through the Marine Corps, to present day.

While active duty early in his enlistment, Blanchard began compiling some of the nearly 300 poems he had to date into one manuscript, originally titled “Something Like Human”. During his first combat tour to Iraq, Blanchard invented the pseudonym “Trenton Phoenix” from a combination of Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails and the bassist for Linkin Park who’s stage name is “Phoenix” (real name is Dave Farrell). The name was suiting as many of his writing was similar in tone and weight to Trent (Reznor, of NIN), and he respected Trent’s (Reznor, of NIN) veracity and individual style of creating art and personal depth into his creations, while Phoenix’s command of the audience and stage presence was so great, while hardly ever speaking.

Due to the subject matter and the visceral depiction’s of violence, of fraught love, of conspiracy, and rape, he decided a pseudonym was appropriate for this next work, of which he titled “Of Blood & Ink” appropriately as he saw the work being very much the mixture of his own blood and ink on notepads, napkins, cardboard, wood, and computer entries. View “Of Blood & Ink” Facebook profile here.

Plans to publish “Of Blood & Ink” were stalled after returning home due to a divorce – OB&I would not be finally realized until his 23rd birthday, December 27th, 2008 in Camp Al Taqedum, Iraq.

Even after completing the manuscript, book work, press materials and other information required for publishing, Phoenix’s kept writing poems, obviously not to be included in his published work.

Years later, the amount of content generated by Blanchard has been far less, but the tone, depth, and focus of his work has matured, and laterally evolved, into this project which he hopes will someday be his second poetic compilation.

Photography & “the Con’cer’ta’tion of a mad MAN” Manuscript

Phoenix is also a photographer (see Xerxes Photography), is in college, and has been in Sales since his honorable discharge from the U.S. Marine Corps in December of 2009.

He is currently working under his real name, Kristan M. Blanchard, on a manuscript of a much different focus and texture titled “the Con’cer’ta’tion of a mad MAN” – and is running a congruent blog to this blog in an effort to collect various bits of poetry and prose over the years for inclusion in this manucript. Please follow “the Con’cer’ta’tions of a mad MAN” blog here.

Images of Kristan M. Blanchard, his Father & Haditha, Iraq