User Profile

Well, gee. I'm a writer living in Hollywood, California, author of numerous journalistic endeavors on film history, queer life in the City of Angels, various short stories, and the novel THE MASTER OF SEACLIFF. I'm a throw back to Hemingway-style authors: hard partying, hard working and I also like to type standing up. But I don't writing in short declarative sentences: I prefer the scenic route. I'm a bit too ego-centric and curious for my own good, but it's part of my charm.

I'm a Goldilocks when it comes to blogs(either too bitchy or too dull) or online journals, so don't expect to find any regular postings...unless you're clever enough to track down my randomly updated porn site (just kidding...?...)
I joined mainly as an avenue of support for my fellow Orphans of Harrington Park Press. Wouldn't you know: you bust your balls to get a book published and whammo! the company sells itself and divests the fiction division. I keep writing and expect that another novel will see the bookstore. For the most current goings-on, check out my eponymous website, maxpierce.com which I try to keep functioning on a semi-regular basis.

The direction on 'interest's' below was to 'list things you're into that can complete the phrase 'I like'. Okey dokey. I did that in beautiful narrative, but this f*cking program didn't save it apparently because I didn't just list like this: scotch, screwing, sewing. This is why I don't do regular blogging. Thank heavens for the copy/paste function.

What do I like: books, old movies, writing, procrastinating about writing, vowing not to write then finding myself writing (like now: with this stupid 'requirement' to be a LJ member). I like the process of writing, the business of writing but find finishing a project leaves me with serious post-partum depression. Sigh. Bring on the party.

I like reading bios and history, but oddly enough not much fiction except the stuff I come up with. I'm a die-hard Catholic who likes a nice High Mass with lots of incense and bowing, and then staying up till sunrise (not as often as you'd think) indulging in my bad habits. As for being queer and Catholic; the religion chose me, I didn't choose it, so lay off.
When I'm feeling drained, driving down Sunset Boulevard to the beach, looking for the 'Hollywood' exit on the 101 Freeway,sitting quietly in the Church of the Blessed Sacrament, circling the former M-G-M studio in Culver City or having two double margaritas and a #7 at El Coyote gets me back in the spirit to face life(like Portia!)(radio reference)

I love old Hollywood and finding the remnants of that world scattered around me. I like roaming the mausoleums at Forest Lawn, and I'm a sucker for trying the handle on any locked door.
I like the Bruins, the Longhorns(the schools that is, the sports are secondary except when beating USC) and the Dodgers. I think Kurt Warner of the Cardinals is hot: but I've always had a thing for football players.

I love a good scotch, a good cigar, the feel of leather and the company of men. Frankly, I like men in all shapes, sizes and ages as long as they're comfortable with themselves. When I'm motivated, I'm really into working out, bodybuilding, and helping men develop into a masculine ideal through physical and mental exercise. Somehow I've managed to make myself into almost exactly what I wanted to be when I was a skinny kid in Keller: a writer who's a Tom of Finland alpha-male clone. While my success shocks me, it turns me on as well(I've mentioned my ego-centric nature didn't I?). But I keep searching for something more.
To sum up Hemingway-style: I like life, living and finishing on top. I don't give up and I don't lose.

Other ancient trivia about me: born in Dallas, Texas, living in and around the Metroplex as we call it, an alumnus of DeSoto High School in a long-ago time when eating pizza, papering houses and driving through cemeteries made for a good night's fun. I'm a real-life orphan: my mother died when I was 12 and my father at 16. To say I miss them everyday is an understatement. Mama's death led me to Catholicism and a faith journey that continues, and having a natural tendency for copious guilt makes religion and my life a perfect fit. I've had my heart broken once and broke a few unintentionally. I've been in retail always and am blessed to have worked with most of the old-school department stores when it was an interesting profession.
My personal and professional life is richer for being trained at two of the greatest Federated department stores ever: Sanger Harris in Dallas and Bullock's in Los Angeles, both of which are long gone. The entity that occupies their remaining locations is in my opinion, a dinosaur fading to oblivion and I'm right there with a shovel to bury the beast. Retail is crazy but so I am: in the end it's a way to serve.
I'm fanatical about UT,UCLA, M-G-M and several other alphabetic acronyms not open to public knowledge. Get out your Scrabble set and think about it.

I made a decision a long time ago to grab life by the nuts and I have no regrets. I've done pretty damn good: accomplished a lot, seen much of the world and learned(perhaps not too well nor wisely) from every experience. When younger, I wanted to desperately 'have it all' and at mid life, found that I had gotten it all but that wasn't the answer. So, back to basics. However, to change my past would mean that 'me' today wouldn't be me, so no thank you. I'll continue my education at the School of Hard Knocks.

Please pronounce my adopted hometown as Lohs Ann-jell-ess; not L.A., La-la Land or any of those stupid nicknames. (I kind of like 'Lohs An-jell-eeze' but that's a bit too old school. I've only heard it pronounced like that in person by Otis Chandler and on film by Lucille Ball's character in 'The Long Long Trailer'.

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