alan pierce
Bio
Recently I published my first novel, The Burning Ones, a sword-and-sorcery-and-cyborg adventure balancing the youthful angst of a coming-of-age story with the realities of a world plagued by war.
Achievements (1)
Stories (68)
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Time to quit the quitter
Spring 2020 found me in over my head and overwhelmed. I know what you’re thinking, and no it didn’t have anything to do with COVID. This was actually just before that all got under way (and by that I mean literally two weeks before). The set up was such: I was playing the role of Feste the Jester in a community theatre production of Twelfth Night which basically means I was the second biggest role in the show and I was running from work to rehearsal multiple nights a week; frankly I was not loving it. Even with all of that going on I thought it was a fine idea to join another musical, a small highschool-college group putting on Disney’s Newsies in which I played the role of Race, the seventh biggest role. It was about that time, thinking about going from one rehearsal to another rehearsal I realized I was in way over my head. My first course of action wasn’t the best, but it also wasn’t the easiest. Obviously, drop out of one of the shows, Twelfth Night, because I had actually committed to Newsies first. That seemed like a good idea so I called my producer on the telly and told him “hey man, I can’t do the show.” He gave me a good talking to (like any good producer would) and we came to a compromise where I could stay in both shows and simply attend less rehearsals. Problem solved right?
By alan pierce5 years ago in Humans
Running into the wind
It was the fall and I was at One Life fitness, across the street from my old job at the Chiropractor. It was either an evening or afternoon and I was kind of going through the motions. I mean both the motions of working out and the general motions of life when things aren’t quite where I think they should be. My playlist ran up and Spotify decided to play a radio based on it and I thought that was fine-- I was in the cool-down/cartwheel phase of my workout anyway. This song by Sleeping At Last came on called Pluto, and let me be the first to tell you it’s one of those almost perfect songs which knows exactly how to give your brain a little serotonin push in the right direction. I say almost because it could be a little bit longer but I digress. My day was made, my week was made, and I still freak about it to this day.
By alan pierce5 years ago in Beat
The art of Discipline
Discipline is rough. My whole life it's something I've tried to develop though I've struggled to actually get anywhere with it. I know the benefits, I believe in the message, but walking it out has been my great dragon to slay. There are areas of life and certain disciplines where it comes more easily to me. Maintaining a workout schedule and routine isn't very hard for me, but going to bed at eleven o'clock is. As a Christian, someone who's passionate about what he believes in, everyone expects me to read the Bible… well, religiously. I think they expect me to have it built into my daily routine, but the truth is it's just like all the other disciplines. Even a gym schedule can be difficult.
By alan pierce5 years ago in Motivation
The soss of self
The song of the hour is intentionality and intimacy, though to be honest we find it hard. Either we withdraw and refuse to touch it with a ten foot pole, or we go full blast thinking intensity necessarily means honesty. Lately I’ve been going through a lot of stuff. I’ve been dealing with personal and emotional dissociation and it’s been driving me mad. It’s like I “just can’t even,” but the thing I’m attempting to even is just existing, being myself, or engaging with people around me. Who knew that wearing masks your whole life and trying to take care of everyone else’s emotions was so exhausting? Who knew it wasn’t easy to keep up appearances and smile? Yeah, cause that’s the thing: I said earlier it was hard to be myself, but in actuality it’s gotten difficult to be the version of myself that people (myself included) are used to seeing. I’ve been working a job that’s taken so much out of me I get to the end of the day and want to sit alone in a basement playing Skyrim. Or watching tv, or whatever. That would be okay, except that there are other people in my life, and, you know, sitting alone playing Skyrim isn’t actually what I want. Obviously (if you haven’t guessed) I love writing. I want to make a career out writing. Unfortunately that takes time and effort, and some days I don’t think I have it in me and that’s just one larger goal. So I vegetate on the couch, playing and replaying Skyrim, and feeling less and less and less in control, and more and more like my life isn’t where I want to be.
By alan pierce5 years ago in Motivation
Life's a bowl of lemons
Sometimes life is like a bowl of lemons. I don't exactly know what that means, people just tend to say things like that. Is it yellow and pulpy? I've never gotten that impression at all. I don't even know what that would mean. Life can be funny sometimes. That's something else people say, usually right before they go into a monologue about an ironic thing that happened to them, or how they ended up in a cubicle at a job they expected to hate after that football injury ended their college career and they're suddenly reintroduced to the person they took for granted in high school, so that a romance can bud. I don't really have one of those stories prepared but I'll see what I can do. *ahem*
By alan pierce5 years ago in Humans
A sunrise went to work with me
In early December of 2020 I was working for a remodeling company, renovating a bathroom for a manufacturing company in the middle of rural Opal, VA. Normally when going in to work meant I'd meet the guys at the truck and we'd drive to the site, but this one Friday the other guy was out of town so it was just the boss and me and he said I could pick up the truck in town or just drive straight to the jobsite and we'd work out of his truck. I punched in the address and it turned out to be ten whole minutes faster to drive straight to the jobsite, and with a couple other variables in mind I opted for skipping the truck.
By alan pierce5 years ago in Humans
Lumber in the Sun
Right now I work part time for a construction company, and we do remodeling both residential and commercial; every now and then (or super frequently and I just haven't noticed yet; I haven't been here that long) we build a bathroom in a flip house for a real estate agent. My first day on the job went something like this: I showed up outside the work truck on a backstreet in my hometown and drove off with a couple guys around my age who I met for the first time that day at 7:30 in the morning.
By alan pierce5 years ago in Humans
