Meet Peter Maeck | Writer & Photographer & Speaker

We had the good fortune of connecting with Peter Maeck and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Peter, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
I might say that a creative career pursued me. Which is to say that I was writing creatively at a very young age before I even knew what a writing career would be. I wrote a family newspaper; I wrote dramatic sketches for me and my sisters to perform for our parents. My 4th grade teacher assigned my class to write a short story, and to ease the challenge of filling up a blank page, she suggested we cut a picture from a magazine and make up a story about it. My story, about a police horse being rescued after falling into the Hudson River in New York, earned a top grade and an invitation to read it aloud to my classmates. “Peter has a style,” the teacher commented, explaining that I wrote in a very distinctive, individual way. Thrilled by the compliment, and having so enjoyed the writing exercise, I figured that having a “style” meant that I should be a real writer when I grew up. As the saying goes, I never looked back after that day.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Assuming the word “professional” means “getting paid to do it,” my professional career started when, just out of college, I was hired as a $47-a-week actor in a summer theatre company where in my first role I played opposite Meryl Streep. That was Meryl’s first professional theatre job, and mine also. Unlike her acting career, mine peaked at age 21, so I focused on writing and for my first play won $500 from the Dramatists Guild and a contract for a New York Off-Broadway production. I thus presumed immediate literary stardom and a hugely profitable career. Well, there’s a saying that you can make a killing in the theatre but you can’t make a living. And that saying is right! So to make a living I became an advertising copywriter, corporate speechwriter, business book ghostwriter, and TV soap opera writer. And in the gaps between those gigs I was a waiter in a midtown Manhattan restaurant until the day I spilled scalding coffee in a customer’s lap and was told to stick to writing. That I did, and had plays produced here and there, created dramatic scenarios for MOMIX and Pilobolus Dance Theatre, spoke at TEDx events and mental health conferences, lectured on cruise ships, and started a second career as a fine arts photographer. And I wrote a novel that has just been published. It’s entitled “Zänker” and will be on Amazon on February 7, 2023. My publisher insists I plug my books at every opportunity, so forgive my doing so here. And while in shameless self-promotional mode, let me cite my two books of poetry, “Aperture” and “Remembrance of Things Present: Making Peace with Dementia,” both now Amazon. I should also mention having just completed a 3-day formula race car driving school, a lifelong ambition, and as physically and mentally creative a project as I’ve ever undertaken. More info on me is at my website: www.petermaeck.com

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
First thing I do with visitors to our Colorado property is take them up the Long’s Peak trail, but since they’ve usually come directly from sea level and are sometimes hyperventilating when we reach timberline, we don’t push to the summit, though we may press on to Chasm Lake. However far we trek, the crisp, fresh air, the sensational views, and the general heavenly feeling of being above timberline are grand and memorable in themselves. That is unless a storm is threatening and the risk of a lightning strike keeps us down in the trees, or sends us hurrying back to our cabin where, as the storm passes, I will mix drinks for our guests and we’ll sip them on our deck as the sun dips then descends in blood-orange glory behind Long’s Peak’s east face. The next morning we’ll drive to Allenspark for a hearty and delicious breakfast at the Meadow Mountain Café, where my grandparents first took me when I was a young kid. We can then double back on Highway 7 to Estes Park and head straight to the cozy and extremely well-stock Macdonald Book Shop, another place I’ve been visiting since early childhood. Next, we’ll hike the Glacier Gorge trail to the Loch and fish for dinner. Again, we’re alert for fast-gathering storm clouds. A few years ago we were caught at the Loch as lightning suddenly streaked the sky, and we broke all land records sprinting back down to the trailhead, at only the cost of a sprained ankle.
I could go on about our high country paradise, where my grandfather purchased 200 acres from the U.S. Government in 1910 for $4.25 an acre, and which my mother inherited, and which my two sisters and I now own. Here, as much as we enjoy energetic outdoor pursuits, we revel equally in the stillness and quietness of the place, and the good company of the birds, rodents, and, as long as we keep our friendly distance, the mountain lions and the bears, too.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Having already credited my 4th grade teacher for inspiring me to be a writer, I’ll now signal another mentor, John Rassias (1925-2015), Dartmouth College Professor of French Language and Literature, whose lusty, theatrical approach to teaching reflected, and instilled in me, a full-bodied, full-throated, full-hearted approach to life. Above all, I credit my mother Elizabeth Maeck for her liberality of mind, independence of spirit, and bravery of heart, and for her dedication to passing these qualities on to me. I also thank Mom for bringing me and my two sisters to Colorado when we were young. She instilled in us a deep love of the Rockies, and made us understand that more than owning our plot of land, we shared it with every bit of flora and fauna on it. When Mom passed away in 2013 I celebrated her enduring Rocky Mountain spirit in these lines I wrote for her memorial:

She reveled in bluebells and Indian paint brush.
Compared to this land well it’s true that there ain’t much

That’s grander and she would say holier too,
In the sense of a place where our dreams can come true.

It truly is that which our country’s about:
The land and its wonders, the freedom to shout,

“I am one with the earth, the sky is my ceiling!
I’m friend to the wild things, flush with the feeling

That each bighorn sheep, every squirrel and bear
Is a part of my family, we’re all here to share

What none of us owns but which all do possess
As our birthright. We know when the world’s in a mess

That up here all is lovely and pristine and sane.
There’s ice for our bruises, and balm for our pain.”

Website: https://www.petermaeck.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/petermaeck/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-maeck-83696920/

Twitter: @PeterMaeck

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/peter.maeck.1

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXBNNQqE2jw&list=PLFmS50E-NKX–Yz4NtPNjIx6JrE0pSg7_

Other: https://www.petermaeckphotography.com https://www.pw.org/directory/writers/peter_maeck http://cruiseshipenrichment.net/speaker.asp?ID=78214344&DisplayStatus=1 https://www.espeakers.com/marketplace/profile/32105/peter-maeck https://www.unlikelystories.org/creators/peter-maeck https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=4019482151400299&set=a.2359204517428079