tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10297721238633069532024-02-06T19:22:01.375-07:00Mark David GersonEclectic musings on life, creativity and the human spiritMark David Gersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06235005264532240677noreply@blogger.comBlogger353125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029772123863306953.post-3303007405912110862018-07-09T18:02:00.000-06:002018-07-09T18:02:32.852-06:00We've Moved!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This blog platform and I have had a great run together (it's been a decade!), but it's time to move on. For my convenience and yours, I've relocated my blog to my website. You'll find at <a href="http://www.markdavidgerson.com/blog">www.markdavidgerson.com/blog</a>...where there are already three posts waiting for you (with a fourth scheduled to publish at the end of this week).<br />
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If you are subscribed to this blog's feed through a news reader, please update your subscription. And if you just check in here occasionally, please stop by our new home!<br />
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Regardless, I look forward to reading your thoughts and comments.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Once again, it's <a href="http://www.markdavidgerson.com/blog">www.markdavidgerson.com/blog</a>. See you there!</b></span><br />
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<br />Mark David Gersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06235005264532240677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029772123863306953.post-392950248187961672018-01-01T23:11:00.000-07:002018-01-01T23:11:10.455-07:00A New Year's Leap of Faith<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggW2M808sDjfAg3icOXbxavTf1jT5LMwy8dvO1fvTqx97b5ibF6i-8wUIGqJSG2hmTTdJg6OJyqRVdmFz4fiY7hyphenhyphenm3ac0bDq_LDtgl8k8xEwrL9yZqdGSz3-WW4ZAZfPyisnxhdk2D8VI/s1600/fullsizeoutput_e40.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1189" data-original-width="1125" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggW2M808sDjfAg3icOXbxavTf1jT5LMwy8dvO1fvTqx97b5ibF6i-8wUIGqJSG2hmTTdJg6OJyqRVdmFz4fiY7hyphenhyphenm3ac0bDq_LDtgl8k8xEwrL9yZqdGSz3-WW4ZAZfPyisnxhdk2D8VI/s320/fullsizeoutput_e40.jpeg" width="302" /></a>If you follow me on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/markdavidgerson" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, you will know that I am in the midst of preparing to leave the Southwest (where I have spent most of my time in the US) to move to the Pacific Northwest. As I have done so many times in the past (and have documented in my <a href="http://mybook.to/actsofsurrender" target="_blank"><i>Acts of Surrender</i></a> memoir), I am leaving with very little as I once again launch a new life for myself in a new place.</div>
<br />I don’t know what awaits me in Portland. All I know is that the call to move from the stark, monastic beauty of the high desert to the lush luxuriance of river and forest is one that I cannot ignore...even as it requires me to take what feels to be the greatest leap of faith I have ever taken. And I have taken many!<br /><br />From the first big one, more than three decades ago when I left my hometown, until the one that returned me to Albuquerque from Southern California seven years ago, each major leap has required more courage than the one before. <br /><br />Courage, of course, is not the absence of fear. It is the ability to move forward in spite of fear. When in my first novel, <i><a href="http://mybook.to/themoonquest" target="_blank">The MoonQuest</a></i>, Toshar is called to feel his fear, then pass through it to the other side where his destiny awaits, his fear-to-destiny journey was mine. <div>
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<br />With each of my leaps into the unknown, the "destiny" that has awaited me has been nothing that I could have (consciously) imagined. A new life in a new country? I never (consciously) wanted to live in the United States. A wife and daughter? I was a gay man with no (conscious) interest in parenthood. A teacher, speaker and coach? Not (consciously) interested. Fifteen books (and counting)? Hell, back in my teens, writing was the last pursuit I would have (consciously) chosen! <br /><br />This next leap, my move to Portland, will be no different. As my stories do in the writing of them, my new life there will reveal itself to me in the living of it. As with my books and stories, I have no outline or game plan for Portland. I have a place to land – for a month, at any rate – and the rest will make itself known in the same magical, miraculous, synchronistic way that my life and stories have always unfolded.<br /><br />Yet even as I surrender into the unknowingness and unknowable of what lies ahead, I still enter 2018 with certain hopes, desires and intentions (in as detached a way as I can manage!). On a professional front, these mostly revolve around both my own storytelling and my work helping others with theirs...helping you with yours – as a teacher, facilitator, coach, mentor and catalyst.<br /><br />These are my passions, and I look to 2018 and my presence in Portland to fire them up, express them and get them out into the world – to you – in new and exciting ways.<br /><br />By the way, "stories" can take many forms. If the written form is the most literal, it's not the only one. A story can express itself on an artist's canvas, on a potter's wheel, on a composer's notation paper, through a photographer's viewfinder or on a filmmaker's reel. It can express itself on a stage, on a screen or in a studio. It can also express itself in a kitchen or garden, or in a workshop or machine shop. More than that, even, it expresses itself every day as the story of your life.<br /><br />How it will express itself in my life as I take my leap of faith into this next phase of my journey remains to be seen, even as I have little doubt that continuing to tell my stories and to work with you to help you tell and/or live yours will remain an integral part of it. However it plays out, I hope that you will remain an integral part of my story and that I will also remain an integral part of yours!</div>
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<i>The year just ended was a challenging one for many. May this new one usher in an end to fear, dread and struggle. May it be a year of renewed hope, rekindled optimism and an abundance of joy, laughter and the fullest expression of your heart’s desire! Happy 2018!!!</i></div>
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Mark David Gersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06235005264532240677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029772123863306953.post-75749745684170534752017-10-17T16:44:00.000-06:002017-10-17T16:44:11.799-06:00A Super-Saver Pre-Holiday Special!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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You never know what you'll find when you open your storage unit.<br />
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What I found when I rummaged through mine recently was a small stack of unexpected cartons of the first editions of my first two books: <i>The Voice of the Muse: Answering the Call to Write </i>and<i> The MoonQuest (The Q'ntana Trilogy, Book I)</i>.<br />
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Unexpected, because apart from a handful of "souvenir" copies of these early editions, I didn't know I still had any left. Both first editions were superseded by newer versions a few years back.<br />
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With the holidays coming up, I decided that it was the perfect time to take this "storage surprise," throw in some of the few remaining copies of my 2-CD album, <i>The Voice of the Muse Companion: Guided Meditations for Writers</i>, and create a Holiday Supersaver package for you at an unprecedented discount: <i>The Voice of the Muse</i> book and CD at a combined price lower than either sells for separately – $16.77. On top of that, I'm throwing in a bonus copy of <i>The MoonQuest</i>, <b>absolutely free!</b><br />
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<a href="http://www.markdavidgerson.com/books/holidaysale" target="_blank">GET YOUR COPIES <i>NOW</i>!</a></h3>
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Factoring in the free <i>MoonQuest</i>, that's <b>more than 70% off the regular retail price</b> of the two books and CD set!<br />
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Even without the killer discount, <i>The Voice of the Muse </i>and<i> MoonQuest</i> books, along with <i>The Voice of the Muse </i>recording on CD, would make ideal gifts for both the writers and fantasy lovers on your holiday list...starting with you! </div>
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<b>But for $16.77, it's an absolute no-brainer!</b></div>
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<i>The Voice of the Muse</i> contains all the practical, inspirational and motivational content that turned it into an instant classic and got it named Best Writing Book of the Year not once but twice. As for <i>The MoonQuest</i>, the critically acclaimed story is an even more relevant allegory today than it was when it was first published more than a decade ago.</div>
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These two books were my first award-winners and are still my best-sellers. And <i>The MoonQuest</i> is on its way to the big screen as the first film in an epic fantasy trilogy!</div>
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So you won't want to miss this deal!! </div>
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<b>A few "fine print" details...</b></div>
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• This promotion will continue through Oct. 31...or until these last copies of the two books are gone. Because I have a limited number left, I urge you to act now! (I'm also running low on the CD version of <i>The Voice of the Muse Companion</i>; so its days of availability are also numbered.)</div>
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• I cannot sign copies of these super-sale editions. If you prefer signed copies, please order the new editions from <a href="http://www.markdavidgerson.com/books">www.markdavidgerson.com/books</a>.</div>
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• To make the process more efficient, all books will be shipped within 7 days of the end of the promotion.</div>
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<i>Photo of Storage Unit: Original Flickr image by MyBiggestFan; licensed under Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0); https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode. This version additionally processed in Luminar.</i></div>
Mark David Gersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06235005264532240677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029772123863306953.post-42579712548546310012017-09-09T01:11:00.000-06:002017-09-09T01:11:07.266-06:00Sex in the '90s<div>
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<i>That's 90s as in age, not as in the 1990s, and the nonagenarian in this first-person excerpt from my novel </i><a href="http://mybook.to/emmelinepapers" target="_blank">The Emmeline Papers</a><i> is the feisty, eccentrically iconoclastic Emmeline Mandeville, who is as unashamedly sexual at 92 as she was at 19, back in the final years of Queen Victoria's reign. </i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioeG9ueMat8vV_Ao32rUfb1b3qaeytiFOKpKN2sjg3BT80eYvBc3ZLrL1T3RfgU4TkO2c22jut8AlpRHGALNglb0wJwyueSc0EBhEpNXtpWKFAuBA1cdMzQRWaNihliDAZH0A6DGk4itA/s1600/Emmeline+Papers+Front+Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1083" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioeG9ueMat8vV_Ao32rUfb1b3qaeytiFOKpKN2sjg3BT80eYvBc3ZLrL1T3RfgU4TkO2c22jut8AlpRHGALNglb0wJwyueSc0EBhEpNXtpWKFAuBA1cdMzQRWaNihliDAZH0A6DGk4itA/s200/Emmeline+Papers+Front+Cover.jpg" width="135" /></a><i>Emmeline was a minor character in my novel </i><a href="http://mybook.to/aftersara" target="_blank">After Sara's Year</a><i>, but she turned out to be pushy enough that she wasn't shy about demanding a book of her own! </i><a href="http://mybook.to/emmelinepapers" target="_blank">The Emmeline Papers</a><i> is the result. I hope she approves...even if </i><a href="http://mybook.to/emmelinepapers" target="_blank">The Emmeline Papers</a><i> is not all about her. </i></div>
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<i>Rather, Emmeline's frank and funny musings on life and aging frame the compelling story of the friends and lovers who find themselves living in her London townhouse 14 years after her death (the London town house on the book cover.)</i></div>
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<i>Even if no author (like no parent) should ever name a favorite offspring, I have to confess that Emmeline is one of mine!</i></div>
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I have always enjoyed sex. That may not be a shocking admission in 1974. Even in this age, however, many would find it startling to hear it from a woman of my years. Yet, for a woman born when Victoria reigned to say how much she relishes sex, and to speak it out loud with neither blushes nor shame? That is shocking. Or it would be were any of my more strait-laced relatives or contemporaries still alive to be shocked.<br />
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Women of my generation were expected to squeeze our eyes shut, do our duty to Queen and country and produce an heir and a spare. We were expected to tolerate sex as necessary to the perpetuation of our lineage and to the survival of the Empire. We were not expected to savor it. We were absolutely not expected to seek it out — within a marriage or, worse, outside of it.<br />
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Sexual mores loosened up after the First War, of course, but I had not waited. I was nearing my forties by then and was already in possession of a past that no amount of smelling salts could have successfully revived Grandmama had she learned about it. I had a body, albeit an unshapely one, and I saw no reason why I should not extract from it as much pleasure as it could offer me. Nor did I see any reason to limit myself to men of my own class…or to men at all, come to think of it. ...<br />
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And orgasms? If a woman of my era admitted to having had one, if she were shameless enough to utter the word, that woman was viewed as little better than the most common of prostitutes. How ironic that Victoria should today be seen as the primmest, most prudish and most humorless of monarchs...of women. I do not believe it. Not for an instant.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlv0CNvbhFw_efev6f7YApdyHremo4mI__L3-AX-pjkAHHTv_fLv1Oi4FEs-fo2MlLqoeMzMNbG77jhrxsbzy6hXrvWa9JUOqMiqo6zOuB6xQDzimg8m1IWKDkfLjUnPg9cHkq_PpJc0M/s1600/92+edit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1600" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlv0CNvbhFw_efev6f7YApdyHremo4mI__L3-AX-pjkAHHTv_fLv1Oi4FEs-fo2MlLqoeMzMNbG77jhrxsbzy6hXrvWa9JUOqMiqo6zOuB6xQDzimg8m1IWKDkfLjUnPg9cHkq_PpJc0M/s320/92+edit.jpg" width="320" /></a>I have manifestly enjoyed mine through seventy years and a good score or more of able partners. Had Jeremy been unable to match if not surpass the prowess of his predecessors, I could not have married him, regardless of his other attributes, however admirable.<br />
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For a man with so little experience of women before me, Jeremy is surprisingly adept and pleasingly passionate. Frankly, if I didn’t fear that it would give him a heart attack, I would choose to die in bed with him, in mid-orgasm. I cannot imagine a more satisfying end. Can you?<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Excerpted from </i><a href="http://mybook.to/emmelinepapers" style="text-align: start;" target="_blank"><i>The Emmeline Papers</i></a><i> © 2017 <a href="http://www.markdavidgerson.com/" target="_blank">Mark David Gerson</a></i><br />
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<b>• • • For more excerpts from all my books, visit my author page on <a href="https://www.bublish.com/author/view/5354" target="_blank">Bublish</a> • • •</b><br />
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<b>Get your copy of <i>The Emmeline Papers</i> today! </b><b>In paperback or ebook from major online booksellers, </b><b>or signed by me to you from <a href="http://www.thesarastories.com/">www.thesarastories.com</a></b></h3>
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Mark David Gersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06235005264532240677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029772123863306953.post-60350938067806418322017-06-25T01:11:00.000-06:002017-06-25T01:11:02.403-06:00When Storytelling is "a Matter of Death...and Life!"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>"My characters are as real to me as any flesh-and-blood personage, and I am grateful to them for continuing to live out such fascinating lives and for continuing to compel me to tell their stories." </i></div>
<i><div style="text-align: right;">
<i>– <a href="http://www.markdavidgerson.com/books" target="_blank">Mark David Gerson</a></i></div>
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When the first words of what would become my first novel surged out of me 23 years ago in a Toronto writing workshop that I was facilitating, I couldn't know how much my life was about to change.<br />
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Within seven months, I would sell everything I owned, buy my first car and move a thousand miles east to rural Nova Scotia. A few years after that, I would sell up again and find myself living in a new country, embarked on a journey that I could never have dreamed up in my wildest imaginings.<br />
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Perhaps one of the biggest surprises would be the one that continues to astound me: I became an award-winning author and optioned screenwriter.<br />
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The child I was would never have wanted to be a writer. The child I was didn't believe he was creative and wasn't interested in being proven wrong. The child I was didn't trust his imagination, wasn't even sure he had one.<br />
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Yet, as I chronicle in <a href="http://amzn.to/2sSJJTu" target="_blank"><i>Acts of Surrender: A Writer's Memoir</i>,</a> my Muse had other ideas, fiendishly applying its tricksterish ways to bamboozle me onto the writerly path I have been following since the morning after that Toronto workshop, when I picked up those rough jottings, curious to see where they might lead. They led to <i><a href="http://amzn.to/2tQfKc8" target="_blank">The MoonQuest</a></i>, which like all those Biblical "begats" have carried me forward to what is now my 15th book and sixth novel.<br />
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I shared a bit about the peculiar genesis of that novel, <a href="http://amzn.to/2rXuB38" target="_blank"><i>The Emmeline Papers</i></a>, in <a href="http://markdavidgerson.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0a5d82b7099462b993f1c4ff7&id=666b1cacd4&e=b899983081" target="_blank">my most recent newsletter</a>. In short, it was neither a book I expected to write nor the book I thought it was going to be once I started writing it. Not for the first time, my characters had their own idea of the story they wanted from me.<br />
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<img align="left" alt="6 Characters in Search of An Author poster" data-file-id="2803069" height="267" src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/0a5d82b7099462b993f1c4ff7/images/9078c3d9-940d-40dd-9c71-53f190537024.jpeg" style="border: 0px; height: 267px; margin: 15px 15px 15px 0px; outline: none; width: 211px;" width="211" />It's a situation that reminds me of Pirandello's <a href="http://amzn.to/2rXkUln" target="_blank"><i>Six Characters in Search of an Author</i></a>, a stage play where six strangers interrupt a theatrical rehearsal and introduce themselves as unfinished characters who are seeking an author to finish their story. Like Pirandello's, my characters are as real to me any flesh-and-blood personage and have no hesitation in hijacking my writing enterprise to demand that their story be told – their way.<br />
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I'm not complaining. Their way has consistently proven itself to be more entertaining, inspiring and captivating than mine could ever be. From a writer's perspective, their way has also been consistently more challenging.<br />
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<i>The Emmeline Papers</i> was no exception. Both in terms of craft and content, the story never stopped challenging me – pressing me not only to sharpen my storytelling skills but to dig deeper and deeper within myself for the not-always-comfortable emotional truths that it required and demanded. I should have expected no less from a story that, early on, gave itself the tagline "it's a matter of death...and life!"<br />
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Until now, my novels have revealed little of themselves to me in advance. I don't outline, and I generally discover the story I'm writing much the same way that you discover it as its reader: page by page and chapter by chapter. <i><a href="http://amzn.to/2tQ41dF" target="_blank">After Sara's Year</a></i>, my fifth novel, was the first to divulge its ending to me early in the process.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOnoHJ0yPn6WCxuA1rSYURNR1FI7dWySb6Tdp8GzNj7oxgB9jKSbdOIrfpL1QOEEw1ZKdMfBPdNNw4FR5sqE-dZv1v2Kfu6-9RMwd-RWqyLjZ0mLVJdJvuhihbCtLg9WahAGBLaoQH_bk/s1600/Emmeline+-+Coming+July+9+Tuscany.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1600" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOnoHJ0yPn6WCxuA1rSYURNR1FI7dWySb6Tdp8GzNj7oxgB9jKSbdOIrfpL1QOEEw1ZKdMfBPdNNw4FR5sqE-dZv1v2Kfu6-9RMwd-RWqyLjZ0mLVJdJvuhihbCtLg9WahAGBLaoQH_bk/s400/Emmeline+-+Coming+July+9+Tuscany.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
With <i>The Emmeline Papers</i>, the story was considerably more forthcoming – once it had shanghaied my initial concept, that is, and replaced it with its own!<br />
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My original idea was to weave two interrelated threads: the story of the eccentric, singleminded Emmeline Mandeville and the story of how copies of her memoir happen to fall, independently, into various related characters' hands.<br />
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In <i>The Emmeline Papers</i> as it wrote itself through me, Emmeline spends the final months of her 93rd year reflecting on her iconoclastic past, never imagining how profoundly her reminiscences will weave through the lives of the men and women who find themselves living in her house a decade and a half later.<br />
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If you have read my earlier Sara stories, you will recognize those men and women as Sara, Mac, Bernie, Erik and Sadie. However, you needn't have read <i><a href="http://amzn.to/2sCMPJ7" target="_blank">Sara's Year</a></i> or <i>After Sara's Year</i> to laugh and cry your way through the <i>The Emmeline Papers.</i> Nothing about <i>Emmeline</i> requires any prior knowledge of its characters or their previous exploits.<br />
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About those characters: I can't begin to tell you how grateful I am to them for continuing to live out such fascinating lives and for continuing to compel me to tell their stories – their way.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLAPnPYGRglz5asOHZu3stb6MHTuF0BgqsgO53yhXC1xVjT67mw_vTxgoocvQU0vWvfelNP39i8q5vLHcCRDLSSIpC3SFDPinodAVaDP0ppbG4dy8xS8kmnlG-r2myEuKDB8Vo47acBQE/s1600/Emmeline+Papers+Front+Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1083" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLAPnPYGRglz5asOHZu3stb6MHTuF0BgqsgO53yhXC1xVjT67mw_vTxgoocvQU0vWvfelNP39i8q5vLHcCRDLSSIpC3SFDPinodAVaDP0ppbG4dy8xS8kmnlG-r2myEuKDB8Vo47acBQE/s320/Emmeline+Papers+Front+Cover.jpg" width="216" /></a>I foresee one final installment in these <i><a href="http://www.thesarastories.com/" target="_blank">Sara Stories</a></i>. In fact, if you promise not to tell anyone, I'll share a secret with you: I have already written the opening paragraphs of an opening chapter to this next novel. This time, I have neither title nor concept. This time, all I have is a character and a time frame. Who knows whether either will prove to be accurate!<br />
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But that's a story for another day. Today's is <i>The Emmeline Papers</i>, and I'm excited to be able to share it with you – especially as early reviewers have uniformly praised it as "brilliant"!<br />
<br />
Although the book launches officially on July 9, the 20th anniversary of my arrival in the US, I am asking you to preorder your copy <i>today</i>. Why?<br />
• All ebook preorders are counted as opening day sales, and it's those numbers that can propel a book to bestseller status on Amazon and other sites<br />
• I have a limited number of paperback copies available for preorder, and I'd hate for you to miss out!<br />
<br />
<b><i>Here's what to do:</i></b><br />
• Preorder <i>The Emmeline Papers</i> in <b>ebook</b> today from any <a href="http://amzn.to/2rXuB38" target="_blank">Kindle</a>, iBooks, Google Play or Kobo store, and get your copy delivered on July 9<br />
• Preorder your <b>paperback</b> copy of <i>The Emmeline Paper</i>s from <a href="http://www.thesarastories.com/" target="_blank">my website</a> and there's a good chance that you will be reading your signed copy <i>before</i> it's available for general release!<br />
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<i>One final note:</i> Just as I am fussy about my first name (it’s "Mark David," not "Mark" or "David"), Emmeline is particular about hers. Emmeline pronounces it so that it rhymes with mine not with mean.<br />
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<br />Mark David Gersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06235005264532240677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029772123863306953.post-14770569406151615112017-03-29T01:11:00.000-06:002017-04-11T07:32:42.607-06:00My Muse: A Trickster Extraordinaire!<div dir="auto" style="margin-bottom: 12px;">
<a data-cke-saved-href="http://mybook.to/birthingyourbook" href="http://mybook.to/birthingyourbook" style="font-family: inherit;" target="_blank"><img alt="Bugs Bunny" data-cke-saved-src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/0a5d82b7099462b993f1c4ff7/images/23b33fc0-efc3-468e-8108-b4eba8c6ccf3.png" data-file-id="2572337" height="238" src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/0a5d82b7099462b993f1c4ff7/images/23b33fc0-efc3-468e-8108-b4eba8c6ccf3.png" style="float: left; margin: 0px 15px 15px 0px;" width="320" /></a></div>
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<em style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px;"><strong><br />
</strong></em> <em style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px;"><strong>"Your book is a trickster!"</strong></em><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">– Book-Birthing Rule #9, </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 16px;"><em><a data-cke-saved-href="http://mybook.to/birthingyourbook" href="http://mybook.to/birthingyourbook" target="_blank">Birthing Your Book…Even If You Don’t Know What It’s About</a></em></span></span></div>
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</span></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px;">The “trickster” exists in many cultures. In myth, think leprechauns (Ireland), coyotes (U.S. Southwest), the Greek god Dionysus and the Hawaiian/Polynesian demigod Maui. In literature and popular culture, think </span><em style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px;">A Midsummer Night’s Dream</em><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px;">’s Puck, </span><em style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px;">King Lear</em><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px;">’s Fool (along with every court jester ever conceived), Q in </span><em style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px;">Star Trek: The Next Generation</em><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px;">, Bart Simpson, the Pink Panther and Bugs Bunny.</span></span></div>
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In short the trickster is an archetypal figure that dupes its victims into doing its bidding. Mischievous by nature, it will lie unashamedly and break any rule to get its own way. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 16px;"><a data-cke-saved-href="http://www.amazon.com/author/markdavidgerson" href="http://www.amazon.com/author/markdavidgerson" target="_blank"><img align="right" alt="Coyote Medicine Card" data-cke-saved-src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/0a5d82b7099462b993f1c4ff7/images/38cada06-88ea-4ecd-84f4-7263ad969bb1.jpg" data-file-id="2572409" height="400" src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/0a5d82b7099462b993f1c4ff7/images/38cada06-88ea-4ecd-84f4-7263ad969bb1.jpg" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px 15px;" width="205" /></a>To date, I have written <a data-cke-saved-href="http://www.books4writers.com" href="http://www.books4writers.com/" target="_blank">five books on writing</a> and each includes some version of what I say in <a data-cke-saved-href="http://mybook.to/birthingyourbook" href="http://mybook.to/birthingyourbook" target="_blank"><em>Birthing Your Book</em></a>’s Rule #9: “As you craft the book you think you are writing, [your book and your muse] will often trick you into writing something you never expected to write, something you never thought you wanted to write, something, perhaps, that is uncomfortable to write.”<br />
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When the idea came to me for <em>The Emmeline Papers</em>, the third book in my award-winning <a data-cke-saved-href="http://www.thesarastories.com" href="http://www.thesarastories.com/" target="_blank"><em>Sara Stories</em></a>, it was going to focus on one of the minor characters in <a data-cke-saved-href="http://mybook.to/aftersara" href="http://mybook.to/aftersara" target="_blank"><em>After Sara’s Year</em></a>: Mac's quirky, eccentric, single-minded Aunt Emmeline Mandeville. The idea for the story arrived nearly fully formed (or so I thought), along with the title. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 16px;">Had I been smart, I would have remembered not only my Book-Birthing Rule #9, I would have recalled how that same tricksterish rule played out in <a data-cke-saved-href="http://www.sarasyear.com" href="http://www.sarasyear.com/" target="_blank"><em>Sara’s Year</em></a>, the first of my <em>Sara</em> novels. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 16px;">When I sat down in a Santa Monica Starbucks to begin <em>Sara’s Year</em>, I also had a concept and a title. The title never changed, but my original idea vanished within minutes of launching into that first day’s writing.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16px;"><a data-cke-saved-href="http://www.books4writers.com" href="http://www.books4writers.com/"><img align="left" alt="Q in Star Trek: TNG" data-cke-saved-src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/0a5d82b7099462b993f1c4ff7/images/7f423f9f-0fe9-48f0-94d9-80072cc2887e.jpg" data-file-id="2572385" height="300" src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/0a5d82b7099462b993f1c4ff7/images/7f423f9f-0fe9-48f0-94d9-80072cc2887e.jpg" style="border: 0px; float: left; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-right: 15px; margin-top: 0px;" width="400" /></a></span><span style="font-size: 16px;">Because, like lightning, a trickster never strikes twice in precisely the same place or the same manner, my experience with <em>The Emmeline Papers</em> was entirely different, if with the same ultimate effect: The title has not changed but everything else about the book has!</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 16px;">Part of the impetus for that change came from a book that I was asked to not only edit and design but contribute to, an anthology titled <a data-cke-saved-href="http://amzn.to/2n3ekvn" href="http://amzn.to/2n3ekvn" target="_blank"><em>Still Me…After All These Years: 24 Writers Reflect on Aging</em></a>.<br />
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I began my first draft of <em>Emmeline</em> the same way I began my very first novel: in a writing workshop I was leading. This time, I was teaching at Unity Santa Fe, not in my long-ago Toronto living room. And this time, I assumed that I knew what I was doing. (<em>Never</em> assume anything!)<br />
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Twenty-three years earlier at that Toronto workshop, I had felt guided to participate in a writing exercise that I was facilitating. The result eventually became <a data-cke-saved-href="http://mybook.to/themoonquest" href="http://mybook.to/themoonquest" target="_blank"><em>The MoonQuest</em></a>, and that evening’s writing would become an integral part of the novel.<br />
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<a data-cke-saved-href="http://amzn.to/2n3ekvn" href="http://amzn.to/2n3ekvn" target="_blank"><img align="right" alt="Still Me cover" data-cke-saved-src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/0a5d82b7099462b993f1c4ff7/_compresseds/1813115f-6578-4843-b7bb-6e1a53fe919c.jpg" data-file-id="2572501" height="400" src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/0a5d82b7099462b993f1c4ff7/_compresseds/1813115f-6578-4843-b7bb-6e1a53fe919c.jpg" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px 15px;" width="250" /></a>With <em>Emmeline</em>, I set out to begin a novel whose plot I believed I knew. Within a few weeks, however, I had trashed that opening scene and begun again, from an entirely different premise.<br />
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(This time I didn’t dare fight the title, which insisted on remaining intact. With <em>Sara’s Year</em> I did fight it, only to discover in the final scene of the first draft why that title was perfect!)<br />
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What happened to me that changed the <em>Emmeline</em> story? Author Karen Helene Walker, who had conceived and was compiling the <em>Still Me </em>anthology, sent me the first of its essays to edit.<br />
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Those, along with the essays and poems that followed in the ensuing weeks, moved me, inspired me, made me laugh, made me think and, in a few instances, made me cry. As a 62-year-old, I also recognized myself and my experiences, joys and concerns in many of them.<br />
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But the <em>Still Me</em> essays did more than that. The more I read, the more I began to think about <em>Emmeline</em> and her “papers” in a whole new way. It didn’t take long before I realized that the book I thought I was writing was to be something else altogether — something more engaging for its readers and, for better or worse, more emotionally and creatively challenging for its author.<br />
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<a data-cke-saved-href="http://www.thesarastories.com" href="http://www.thesarastories.com/" target="_blank"><img align="left" alt="The Emmeline Papers cover" data-cke-saved-src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/0a5d82b7099462b993f1c4ff7/_compresseds/fd91a336-8003-4eb6-b7fc-0b83b9d8592c.jpg" data-file-id="2574209" height="200" src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/0a5d82b7099462b993f1c4ff7/_compresseds/fd91a336-8003-4eb6-b7fc-0b83b9d8592c.jpg" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 15px 15px 0px;" width="400" /></a>Ironically, <em>The Emmeline Papers</em> is not a book about aging. All tricksters move in strange and mysterious ways, and my trickster-muse is no different. Aging is a component of <em>Emmeline</em>, but the story is more about many of the things that we experience regardless of our age. It’s about hopes and dreams. It’s about mortality and death. It’s about fear and courage. It’s about loss. It’s about relationship. It’s about life. It’s about many of the themes addressed — both touchingly and humorously — in <em>Still Me…After All These Years</em>. (And for fans of <em>Sara’s Year</em> and <em>After Sara’s Year</em>, it’s about far more than Emmeline: All your favorite characters are back for this third installment of the series.)<br />
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It will be a couple of months before you can get your hands on <em>The Emmeline Papers</em> (I’m aiming for a late spring release, but you can <a href="http://www.markdavidgerson.com/books/emmeline" target="_blank">preorder your copy now</a>). However, <em>Still Me…After All These Years</em> is <a href="http://amzn.to/2n3ekvn" target="_blank">available today</a> and well worth the read, regardless of your age. And I’m not just saying that because I’m a contributor!</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 16px;"><a data-cke-saved-href="http://www.books4writers.com" href="http://www.books4writers.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="The Pink Panther" data-cke-saved-src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/0a5d82b7099462b993f1c4ff7/images/e45f8a56-004b-4625-bf94-5a32c242af52.png" data-file-id="2572425" height="400" src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/0a5d82b7099462b993f1c4ff7/images/e45f8a56-004b-4625-bf94-5a32c242af52.png" style="border: 0px; float: right; margin: 0px 0px 15px 15px;" width="302" /></a>And what about my contribution? It also links back to <em>The Sara Storie</em>s. It’s called “It’s Never Too Late to Follow Your Dreams” and it tells the story of how I came to write <em>Sara’s Year</em>. A series of age-related health scares forced me to ask myself the question many of us of a certain age find ourselves asking, even without medical prompting: “If I’m to die sooner rather than later, what is it that I want to make sure I do before I go?”<br />
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It won’t surprise you (though it did surprise me!) to discover that it’s a question that also pops up in <em>The Emmeline Papers</em>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 16px;">As I move forward with <em>Emmeline</em>, I continue to be struck by the creatively tricksterish wiles of my muse and I have to wonder whether the fourth and final book in <em>The Sara Stories</em> (as yet untitled) will bear any resemblance to my current notion of it!<br />
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Meanwhile, <em>The Emmeline Papers</em> continues to unfold, thanks in some measure to the gifted and engaging contributors to <em>Still Me…After All These Years</em>!</span></span></div>
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<li style="margin-bottom: 12px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">Look for </span><span style="font-size: 16px;"><em>Still Me…After All These Years</em></span><span style="font-size: 16px;"> in paperback on <a href="http://amzn.to/2n3ekvn" target="_blank">Amazon</a> or as an ebook for <a href="http://amzn.to/2n3ekvn" target="_blank">Kindle</a>, Nook, Kobo or iBooks</span></span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">Look for </span><em style="font-size: 16px;">The Sara Stories</em><span style="font-size: 16px;"> (</span><a data-cke-saved-href="http://mybook.to/sarasyear" href="http://mybook.to/sarasyear" style="font-size: 16px;" target="_blank"><em>Sara’s Year</em></a><span style="font-size: 16px;">, </span><a data-cke-saved-href="http://mybook.to/aftersara" href="http://mybook.to/aftersara" style="font-size: 16px;" target="_blank"><em>After Sara’s Year</em></a><span style="font-size: 16px;"> and, soon, </span><em style="font-size: 16px;">The Emmeline Papers</em><span style="font-size: 16px;">) in paperback or ebook from your favorite online bookseller or signed by me to you from </span><a data-cke-saved-href="http://www.thesarastories.com" href="http://www.thesarastories.com/" style="font-size: 16px;" target="_blank">TheSaraStories.com</a><span style="font-size: 16px;">. (You can also <a href="http://www.markdavidgerson.com/books/emmeline" target="_blank">preorder <i>The Emmeline Papers </i>from my website</a>.)</span></span></li>
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Mark David Gersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06235005264532240677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029772123863306953.post-62720389770553801892017-01-21T12:12:00.000-07:002017-01-21T12:12:06.499-07:00Larger Than Life<a href="http://www.actsofsurrender.com/" style="color: #5f5fce; font-family: georgia, times, 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 15px; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank"><img align="right" alt="Barbra Streisand in concert" height="155" src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/0a5d82b7099462b993f1c4ff7/images/72ca8a31-0ec0-4a56-84b8-8ae6e8fb21ad.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: auto !important; margin: 0px 0px 15px 15px; outline: none; text-decoration: none; width: 233px;" width="233" /></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #606060; font-size: 15px;">Some years back when I was visiting Toronto, a friend treated me to a ticket to Barbra Streisand's first-ever concert performance in that city. Although we were sitting high in the rafters in a hockey arena that was anything but intimate, I was startled by how fully and personally her energy filled every corner of that venue.<br /><br />"She's larger than life," I remember gushing to my friend at intermission.<br /><br />I recalled the experience a few months later while listening to a recording of the concert. “That’s what<em> I</em> want,” I heard myself blurt out loud and was so startled by what seemed such an unspiritual, ego-driven thought that I was embarrassed. It would be a few months more before I was able to recognize the deeper meaning of both the Streisand experience and my response to it.<br /><br />“Larger than life,” I realized, was not about having Barbra Streisand’s fame. It was about continuing to shed whatever self-imposed limitations I still carried within me in the mistaken belief that they could protect me from some undefined evil. Even if I couldn’t detail all the ways I was holding myself back, I knew that I was.<br /><br /><a href="http://amzn.to/2jK2FvW" style="color: #5f5fce; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank"><img align="left" alt="Return to Love book cover" height="263" src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/0a5d82b7099462b993f1c4ff7/images/9b8159e6-6589-4f2b-8ef5-83428d0f86e8.jpeg" style="border: 0px; height: auto !important; margin: 15px 15px 15px 0px; outline: none; text-decoration: none; width: 212px;" width="212" /></a>"Our deepest fear," writes Marianne Williamson in <a href="http://amzn.to/2jK2FvW" style="color: #5f5fce; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank"><em>A Return to Love</em></a>, "is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure." Perhaps even deeper than the fear she describes is the fear of experiencing and expressing our power out in the world, of being larger than life, of living beyond the self-imposed walls and barriers we create in the mistaken belief they will keep us safe.<br /><br />They can't and they won't.<br /><br />Our only safety resides in living our largest life to its fullest potential, in living our truth...in living our passion. In walking through life as though we are safe...as though nothing can stop, limit or restrict us.<br /><br />As I write this, an old Cole Porter lyric keeps running through my head:<br /><br /><em>Oh, give me land, lots of land under starry skies above / Don't fence me in</em><br /><br />At a literal level, the song is sung by a cowboy who longs for the endless space of the open range.<br /><br />Yet it's also the song of every soul deprived of its fullest expression by the fences of a fearful mind, a soul that seeks only the limitlessness of its natural state.<br /><br />Whatever you think of Barbra Streisand's talent or personality, when you are in her energy field, you touch that limitlessness and your soul cries out, "Me too! That's who I am, too!!"<br /><br />Here in the Western world, where we have been taught to play small, we transfer all of our natural desire for the fenceless world of a life lived large to our movie stars and sports heroes.<br /><br />If we can't play out our own passion and power, we play it out through a celebrity cult that's no healthier than any other cult, one we also find in countries with charismatic leaders/dictators, in religions with unapproachable gods and in all situations where we abdicate the expression of our infinite nature to someone or something outside of ourselves.<br /><br /><a href="http://mybook.to/qntanatrilogyset" style="color: #5f5fce; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank"><img align="right" alt="Q'ntana Trilogy book covers" height="287" src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/0a5d82b7099462b993f1c4ff7/images/be2ba067-68d9-408e-b32a-bb826a84105c.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: auto !important; margin: 15px 0px 15px 15px; outline: none; text-decoration: none; width: 222px;" width="222" /></a>In my novel, <a href="http://mybook.to/themoonquest" style="color: #5f5fce; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank"><em>The MoonQuest</em></a>, very much a metaphor for all our journeys, the main character is destined for a greatness he continues to resist. Yet destiny, as he is constantly reminded, is not cast in stone. There is always a choice.<br /><br /><em>"Every choice you have ever made, has led to this moment. Your moment. Still, the power to make a different choice remains yours."</em><br /><br />The power to choose is always ours. In every moment and through every situation, we're offered the opportunity to choose our greatness, our passion, our light.<br /><br />It's what we do with each moment and situation that governs our destiny, that decides whether we live in our greatness or in the shadow of someone else's, that determines whether we build fences or tear them down.<br /><br />In this moment, what do <em>you</em> choose?<br /><br /><em>Adapted from </em><a href="http://mybook.to/actsofsurrender" style="color: #5f5fce; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">Acts of Surrender: A Writer’s Memoir</a><em> © 2012, 2013 Mark David Gerson</em></span><br style="color: #606060; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #606060; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #606060; font-size: 15px;"><em>• </em></span><span style="color: #606060; font-size: 15px;">Look for </span><em style="color: #606060; font-size: 15px;">The MoonQuest</em><span style="color: #606060; font-size: 15px;"> and </span><em style="color: #606060; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: 15px;">Acts of Surrender: A Writer's Memoir</span></em><span style="color: #606060; font-size: 15px;"> in paperback or ebook from your favorite online bookseller or signed by me to you from </span><a href="http://www.markdavidgerson.com/books" style="color: #5f5fce; font-size: 15px; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">my website</a><span style="color: #606060; font-size: 15px;">.</span></span>Mark David Gersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06235005264532240677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029772123863306953.post-34636247460484618062016-11-13T04:44:00.000-07:002016-11-13T04:44:00.151-07:00Election Night 2016: It's 2:30am and I Can't Sleep..<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<em style="color: #606060; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px;">Because I knew that, regardless of the outcome, I was bound to be stressed by Election Day reporting, I purposely avoided all news, including my Facebook news feed until bedtime.<br /><br />I fell asleep early but woke, stressed, 90 minutes later. Unable to get back to sleep, I broke my "news fast," hoping that good news would ease my anxiety. As you likely know by now, the news – at least as I saw it – was not good.<br /><br />After obsessing online for an hour, I tried again to sleep. Again, I was unsuccessful. Finally, I did what I do best: I put what I was feeling into words and posted it on Facebook.<br /><br />Some of those who read my words found them inspiring and comforting and encouraged me to share them here and in my <a href="http://eepurl.com/bwsLb1" target="_blank">newsletter</a></em><br />
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<em><span style="color: #606060;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px;">To be clear, this is not intended as an attack on anyone's voting choices. It is an expression of how I felt on election night and how I continue to feel days later.</span></span></span></em><br />
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<span style="color: #606060; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px;">It's 2:30am, and as I lie in bed unable to sleep, I feel moved to set down my thoughts about tonight's election results – as much to put something into words for myself as to share those thoughts with you. Maybe thinking "aloud" will help still my mind and free me to sleep. Maybe it will help someone reading this to do likewise. I hope so, on both counts.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /><span style="font-size: 22px;"><strong></strong></span><span style="font-size: 15px;">I will try, in the days ahead, to find some redemptive value in what has just happened, as I do my best to do with all perceived setbacks. I know that redemptive value is there because it is always there, somewhere in the "big picture," even if it is not always easily visible.<br /><br />For right now, though, I'm just heartsick...</span></span></div>
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<li style="margin-bottom: 12px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px;">For my daughter, who will spend the next four years governed by men and, yes, women, who have demonstrated little respect for the wisdom I know she possesses to make wise and considered choices about her needs and about her body</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 12px;"><span style="font-size: 15px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For my lesbian and gay sisters and brothers, who will spend the next four years governed by men and women who have vowed to strip us of our human rights</span></span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 12px;"><span style="font-size: 15px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For my Jewish coreligionists, who will spend the next four years governed by an administration endorsed by rabid antisemites</span></span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 12px;"><span style="font-size: 15px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For the millions who, like me, are certain to lose our health insurance if, as promised, Obamacare is repealed </span></span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 12px;"><span style="font-size: 15px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For my black, Muslim, latino and other minority friends, who will likely continue to be insulted and disrespected, now at the highest levels of government</span></span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 12px;"><span style="font-size: 15px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And for everyone of compassion in this country and beyond who respects human dignity and human rights. </span></span></li>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px;">It is easy to be frightened and angry right now. I have been both over the past several hours and have yet to let it all go. It is easy, too, to demonize and blame. I have done those, too. It is also hard not to feel powerless. I have felt that as well.<br /><a href="http://markdavidgerson.us11.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=0a5d82b7099462b993f1c4ff7&id=83c412d99b&e=bb0d966e15" style="color: #5f5fce; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank"><img align="left" alt="inspirational quote" height="177" src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/0a5d82b7099462b993f1c4ff7/images/9313e2fe-6fb0-48ce-a7fb-b24318d71f7a.jpg" style="border: 0.5px solid rgb(34, 34, 34); height: auto !important; margin: 15px 15px 15px 0px; outline: none; text-decoration: none; width: 355px;" width="355" /></a>But it is fear, anger, blame and feelings of impotence that created tonight's results, that got us into this situation. They cannot get us out of it. They will not get us out of it.<br /><br />I wish I had an easy alternative to offer, for myself as much as for those of you who have been feeling as I do. Unfortunately, there are no simple solutions, no quick fixes, despite what some of those elected tonight might believe.<br /><br />There is only the always difficult, moment-to-moment step of acknowledging our feelings, of not letting our fears and anger rule our words and actions, of not giving in to despair, of continuing to do our best to be the best we can be and of continuing to keep our hearts as open as we are able, as heartsick as we might feel in many of those same moments.<br /><br />It is difficult for me to feel hopeful at 2:50am, when it seems as though this darkness I am experiencing will never lift. I don't imagine it will be a whole lot easier when light dawns in a few hours.<br /><br />Yet in moments like these, hope is all I have. In moments like these, I have to push myself to remember that without hope, I have nothing.<br /><br />Is that simplistic? Perhaps. But if it gets me to sleep tonight and, coupled with constructive word and action, gets me through the next days and months, it will be enough. It will have to be.<br /><br />One final thought before I switch off the light and try again to sleep: I told a friend earlier today on a different topic that when times are tough, writing is the only thing that makes sense for me. Perhaps what I should have added is that when nothing else in my life seems to make any sense, writing is often the only thing that helps me to understand what I'm feeling and to find sense in the seemingly senseless. It has certainly begun to do that for me just now.<br /><br />Perhaps my sentences are the seams that hold me together. Perhaps, that's the real reason I write. Perhaps, in the end, it's the only reason.</span></span></div>
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<b><i>I invite you to share your feelings, experiences and comments. Please note, however, that insulting or inflammatory remarks will not be posted.</i></b></div>
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Mark David Gersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06235005264532240677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029772123863306953.post-25669299705696431602016-11-05T11:57:00.000-06:002016-11-05T12:07:16.424-06:00Not Just for NaNoWriMo: My Top 10 WritingTips<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">I am often asked at the end of an interview whether I have one piece of advice for the writers listening to the show. Or, if it's November, whether I have pointers to offer those writers cranking out a 50,000-word novel as part of <a href="http://nanowrimo.org/" target="_blank"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(95, 95, 206); color: #5f5fce;">National Novel Writing Month</span></a></span><span style="line-height: normal;">, </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">or NaNoWriMo, as it's popularly called.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">My problem with the question is not that I can't answer it. My problem is that I have more to say than the allotted time will allow! </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">My solution? This blog post, timed to coincide with NaNoWriMo but filled with suggestions that will work for you year-round. All apply to fiction or screenplays; many are equally relevant regardless of your form, medium or genre. So, here goes...</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">My Top Ten Writing Tips for Authors & Screenwriters</span></b></span></h4>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">1. You Don't Have to Know What Your Book Is About Before Starting.</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I have rarely known what my books were going to be about before I began writing them. With three of them, I didn't even know I was writing a book when I started!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">With <i><a href="http://mybook.to/themoonquest" target="_blank">The MoonQuest</a></i>, for example, a writing exercise in a class I was teaching sparked a story I knew nothing about. When the class was over, I just kept writing...and a novel eventually emerged. <i><a href="http://mybook.to/voiceofthemuse" target="_blank">The Voice of the Muse</a> </i>and<i> <a href="http://mybook.to/dialogues" target="_blank">Dialogues with the Divine</a> </i>each<i> </i>grew from journaled jottings that were never (consciously) intended for an audience. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(It's those experiences that prompted me to write a book I did know I was writing <i>and</i> what it was about: <i><a href="http://mybook.to/birthingyourbook" target="_blank">Birthing Your Book...Even If You Don't Know What It's About</a></i>, a step-by-step guide to getting your book written, whether or not you think you know what you're doing.)</span></span></div>
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<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">2. You Don't Need to Plot, Plan, Outline or Otherwise Prepare. </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Of course, you <i>can</i> plot, plan, outline or otherwise prepare. There's no right or wrong way to write a book...or any other creative project. The only right-write way is the way that works for you on <i>this</i> book. (It might be different next time!) Just so you know, though, I have <i>never</i> outlined. Nothing. Ever. Not even my screenplays, which orthodox screenwriting lore would have you believe is compulsory. (That's why I wrote <i><a href="http://mybook.to/organicscreenwriting" target="_blank">Organic Screenwriting: Writing for Film, Naturally</a></i> – to free you from creativity-stifling orthodoxy.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So how do you begin? With one word, any word. And then another and another and another. And another. No stopping. No editing. No censoring. No going back. Just racing forward through and past the fear, anxiety and inevitable nonsense and into the story that will reveal itself to you through the writing of it, if you get out of its way and let it. That's a<i> Cliff's Notes </i>version of my "Writing on the Muse Stream" method. Read more about it in any of <a href="http://www.books4writers.com/" target="_blank"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(95, 95, 206); color: #5f5fce;">my books for writers</span></a>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">3. Forget the Rules. All of Them.</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">All my books for writers include a set of tongue-in-cheek "rules" for writers. And although they vary depending on each book's theme, they all share the same first and final rule: <i>There are no rules. </i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Whether during NaNoWriMo or at any other time, write the book (or short story or poem or screenplay or stage play or essay) that demands to be written <i>as</i> it demands to be written, not according to anyone else's rules or strictures, including those set out by the folks at NaNoWriMo.</span></span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -36px;">You haven't started yet? Start today. Now. Or start tomorrow or the day after or next week. Just start!</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -36px;">Your book is a memoir or other non-fiction work? Or it's not a book at all but a screenplay? Celebrate the fact that you're writing </span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: inherit; text-indent: -36px;">something</i><span style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -36px;"> instead of beating yourself up for not having written a novel. The fact that you’re writing, that you’re moving forward with a project you’re passionate about, is more important than its form, medium or genre.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -36px;">Your NaNoWriMo draft is shorter than 50,000 words? Celebrate that you've finished your draft instead of mourning the fact that you didn't meet NaNoWriMo's arbitrary word count.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -36px;">You don't finish by NaNoWriMo's November 30 deadline...or by whatever deadline you have set for yourself? So what! However many words you have written are more words than you would have written had you not launched the process. When the time comes, celebrate that.</span></li>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Just as you are not judging your process, don't judge your output. If you're participating in NaNoWriMo, you are racing against the calendar to meet a November 30 deadline and have no time to fix 'n fuss as you go. That's a good thing. The most uncreative thing you can do is edit while you write that first draft...of anything. NaNoWriMo or not, let your first draft be as chaotic, repetitive, inconsistent and illogical as it needs to be. Just get your story onto the page, however it comes out. Use subsequent drafts to polish, hone and refine your rough stone into the jewel it was meant to be. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">5. Trust Your Book & Its Characters.</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Your book and its characters (if it's a novel) are smarter than you are. Get out of their way (and your own) and let them tell <i>their</i> story through you. Abandon control! </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">6. It's Okay to Be Out-of-Order.</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Like movies, which are rarely filmed in sequence, your first (or second or third) draft may not write itself in final book order. That's okay. In this as in all aspects of your writing enterprise, let the bits and pieces of your book or other writing project come as they come...and write them that way, knowing that your project's innate wisdom will determine the appropriate order when the time is right. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">7. Take Risks.</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Creative expression is about risk-taking. It's about pushing boundaries – your own as well as those of others. It’s about boarding <i>Star Trek</i>’s starship <i>Enterprise</i>, taking off for parts unknown and journeying to the edges of the creative universe. Commit to taking more risks. Commit to the creative artist you are.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">8. Do the Best You Can, and Let It Be Good Enough.</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Your book may be excellent, accomplished, creative and insightful. It may be brilliant, compelling and universally lauded. But perfect? Not possible. It’s not possible because when we translate an idea or concept into language, we’re taking something that is infinite (energy) and dynamic (neural impulses) and converting it into something that is finite (language) and static (squiggles on a page). The resulting “translation” can never be more than an approximation. Do the best you can, and let it be good enough...because your book will never be perfect. Not. Ever.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">9. Write</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It seems obvious, particularly in a month devoted to novel-writing. But it can be easy to put writing aside in favor of research. It’s even easier to put writing aside while you try to figure what your book is about.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Don’t wait to figure out what your book is about. Don’t worry about its direction, theme, structure or focus. Don’t worry about chapter breaks (my first <i>MoonQuest</i> draft had none). Don’t worry about what people will think of it, or of you. Don’t worry about anything. Set pen to paper or fingers to keyboard and, without judging or second-guessing what emerges, let your book do its wizardly work – on you as much as on the page.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In other words: Write...the book (or other project) you didn’t know you had in you...the book you could never have imagined writing...the book you believed you could not write...the book that is yours to write. </span></span></div>
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<b>10. There Are No Rules</b></div>
As I noted in Tip #3, this is the one rule that never changes. No matter what you’re writing, the only certainties are that flow is fluid, your creation is unique and your book makes its own rules. Truly, there is no universal right way or wrong way. There is only your way, the way of your book. <br />
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You may be wondering whether I have ever participated in NaNoWriMo. The answer is yes. Three years ago, I wrote <a href="http://mybook.to/thesunquest"><i>The SunQuest</i></a>, the third and final installment in my <a href="http://mybook.to/qntanatrilogyset"><i>Q'ntana</i></a> fantasy trilogy, during NaNoWriMo. Amazingly, I did it in 21 days. But not every book can be written in 21 days...or 30. <a href="http://mybook.to/thestarquest"><i>The StarQuest</i></a>, <i>The Q'ntana Trilogy</i>'s Book II, took me 11 years and two false starts to get from the first to the final word of a first draft!<br />
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However long it takes, the important thing is that you're writing. So hurry up and finish this blog post, open your notebook or writing application and WRITE!<br />
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Oh, and don't wait until your book is finished and released to start promoting it on social media. The best time to start talking about it online and off is now...even if you haven't started writing it yet! My newest book – <i><a href="http://mybook.to/socialmedia">Engage! Winning Social Media Strategies for Authors</a> –</i> has lots of tips to help you do just that!</div>
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Mark David Gersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06235005264532240677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029772123863306953.post-33436195625327844102016-08-27T09:11:00.000-06:002016-08-27T09:11:02.832-06:00Writing as an Act of Pilgrimage<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW8br0zR766h8oVPlbdkQ4s9xOOrdEHmF1oB-Y86NlacFSP5fZ8kt2zbXRCGVHJbCVFhVzedYF3Z1M-63frsk7Frg23sdbfKwgrCCwa3QuTdDTNK7iclmLJ246dwAjj5g1PXlxR9lHIGI/s1600/IMG_1579.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW8br0zR766h8oVPlbdkQ4s9xOOrdEHmF1oB-Y86NlacFSP5fZ8kt2zbXRCGVHJbCVFhVzedYF3Z1M-63frsk7Frg23sdbfKwgrCCwa3QuTdDTNK7iclmLJ246dwAjj5g1PXlxR9lHIGI/s320/IMG_1579.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "san francisco" , , "blinkmacsystemfont" , ".sfnstext-regular" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><i>"Don't be fooled into thinking you are supposed to arrive at a destination. It is the going that is central, the you that is going. Your pilgrimage is really about yourself observing your own transit across the landscape."<br />– Richard Leviton, "Designing Your Pilgrimage"</i></span><br />
<br style="color: #1d2129; font-family: 'San Francisco', -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, '.SFNSText-Regular', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "san francisco" , , "blinkmacsystemfont" , ".sfnstext-regular" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;">Writing is also an act of pilgrimage. </span><br />
<br style="color: #1d2129; font-family: 'San Francisco', -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, '.SFNSText-Regular', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "san francisco" , , "blinkmacsystemfont" , ".sfnstext-regular" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;">We set out on a journey, often intent on a p</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "san francisco" , , "blinkmacsystemfont" , ".sfnstext-regular" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;">articular direction and destination. Yet if we're true to our art and to our heart, we free the story to carry us where it will.<br /><br />The resulting journey is one that reveals not only the story we're writing but the one we're living.<br /><br />When we listen for the stories that move through us, we also discover the story that is us.<br /><br />How has your writing been a pilgrimage? What has it taught you – about yourself, about your work, about the world?</span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show" style="color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "san francisco" , , "blinkmacsystemfont" , ".sfnstext-regular" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><br /></span>
<span class="text_exposed_show" style="color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "san francisco" , , "blinkmacsystemfont" , ".sfnstext-regular" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><i>• Need some help getting going? Check out my <a href="http://www.books4writers.com/" target="_blank">books and recordings for writers</a>, along with links to many free resources, <a href="http://www.markdavidgerson.com/" target="_blank">on my website</a>.</i></span><br />
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<span class="text_exposed_show" style="color: #1d2129; display: inline;"><span style="font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><i>• Read how my writing journey has been a pilgrimage in </i>Acts of Surrender: A Writer's Memoir<i>, in paperback or ebook from your favorite online bookseller or signed by me to you from <a href="http://www.actsofsurrender.com/">www.actsofsurrender.com</a>.</i></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;">Photo: <a href="http://www.instagram.com/markdavidgerson" target="_blank">Mark David Gerson</a></span></span>Mark David Gersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06235005264532240677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029772123863306953.post-23874625973285226572016-07-17T08:11:00.000-06:002016-07-22T16:19:29.116-06:00How Sara's Year Got Its "After"<div style="text-align: right;">
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<span class="s1">When the earliest readers of <i><a href="http://mybook.to/sarasyear" target="_blank">Sara’s Year</a></i> approached me in the days and weeks following the book’s publication, they spoke with a single voice, and an unexpected one: “We want more,” they cried. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Many wanted to know what was next for Marc-Allan Cameron (Mac), the celebrity artist in <i>Sara’s Year</i> who turns out to be as unlucky in love as he is lucky with fame and fortune. Others demanded to know the fates both of Bernie Freed, the young man who walks out on his mother’s funeral and spends the rest of <i>Sara’s Year</i> discovering all that he never knew about her and about himself, and of his friend, Erik Donnekin. And what about the title character, still others asked: What’s her after <i>Sara’s Year</i> story?</span></div>
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<span class="s1">As I wrote in the introduction to <i>Sara’s Year</i> (and in an <a href="http://markdavidmuse.blogspot.com/2015/09/its-never-too-late-to-follow-your-dreams.html" target="_blank">earlier blog post</a>), that book was sparked by a series of health scares, in the midst of which I asked myself what I would want to make sure I accomplished should the worst occur. The answer was a new novel. <i>Sara’s Year</i> was the result.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">It was to be a one-off. When <i>Sara’s Year</i> was finished, I planned to produce a new <a href="http://www.books4writers.com/" target="_blank">book for writers</a>. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Sarah’s fans had other ideas. (That’s not a typo: There’s a reason why Sarah the character has a different spelling than <i>Sara</i> the book.)</span></div>
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<span class="s1">At first I insisted that there would be no <i>After Sara’s Year</i>. I felt complete with the story and its characters and felt no call to continue the saga. But as readers continued to push and prod, I began to reconsider. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">In fact, the more I thought about it, the more I had to confess that I, too, was curious about the fates of Mac, Sarah, Bernie and Erik. But the character who most intrigued me, the one no one ever asked about, was Sadie Finkel. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">If you’ve read <i><a href="http://www.sarasyear.com/" target="_blank">Sara’s Year</a></i>, you’ll remember Bernie’s aunt as the quintessential <i>alteh machashaifeh</i>; that’s Yiddish for old witch (“that’s witch with a b”). Sadie was so utterly unpleasant in <i>Sara’s Year</i> that the author in me wondered how she had become that way and whether there could be any hope for her. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">It didn’t take me long to realize that the only way I would find out what happens to Mac, Sarah, Bernie, Erik and, yes, Sadie would be to write them into another <i>Sara</i> story. And now it's finished!</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Although <i>After Sara’s Year</i> is, officially, the second book in what I am now calling <i><a href="http://www.thesarastories.com/" target="_blank">The Sara Stories</a></i>, you don’t have to have read <i>Sara’s Year</i> in order to be able to follow this new story. The two books are interconnected, but each telling stands on its own. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">By the way, <i>The Sara Stories</i> will not end with <i>After Sara’s Year</i>. I had barely begun a second draft of <i>Sara’s Year</i> when an idea for a third installment in the series popped into my head. No, I won’t be calling it <i>After After Sara’s Year</i>, but it looks as though it will include all your favorite <i>Sara</i> characters...plus more!</span></div>
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<span class="s1">For now, though, I invite you to enter (or reenter) the world of Sarah and her friends in <i>After Sara’s Year,</i> the book I couldn’t have written without readers like you. And to encourage you, I have a special offer for you: </span></div>
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<b><a href="http://www.thesarastories.com/" target="_blank">Preorder your signed copy of <i>After Sara's Year</i> today, and start reading it before it hits bookstores!</a></b></h3>
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<b>You haven't read Sara's Year?</b></div>
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<b>No problem. Each of the Sara Stories stands on its own!</b></div>
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Look for both books at<br />
<a href="http://www.thesarastories.com/" target="_blank">www.thesarastories.com </a></h3>
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While you're there, considering adding the award-winning <i>Sara's Year</i> to your order – for yourself if you haven't read it yet or for a friend if you have...or any of my other books. Just let me know to whom you want those signed as well. </div>
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<b><b>Marc-Allan Cameron hasn't felt alive in 30 years. </b></b></h3>
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<b><b>For Sadie Finkel, it's been more than 50. </b></b></h3>
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<b><b>When life comes knocking, will they let it in?</b></b></h3>
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<b>The newest spellbinding addition to the award-winning <i>Sara Stories</i>!</b></h3>
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<b><a href="http://www.thesarastories.com/" target="_blank">Preorder your signed copy today!</a></b></h3>
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<i>Preordered books will ship by mid-August, Priority Mail to US addresses. </i></div>
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<i><b>** Note to Canadian Readers</b>: If there's a Canada Post shutdown, your books will ship once the labor dispute is over. To bypass Canada Post, contact me about UPS rates.</i></div>
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Mark David Gersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06235005264532240677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029772123863306953.post-12181467000479526452016-07-14T09:51:00.000-06:002016-07-14T09:51:19.670-06:00Sara's Year: Now an Award-Winner!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1_ZR5QhIFyIU2Fo20SYQpLUA8aCg7V-xzkfKYoPqn95ZpO9AU1GhM1GyJ7gnohyphenhyphenAGBpsXP-Fwe1FaBPhZfSKqI-yaTHFJxl_fA_z6dyL78uwdrspu3bVyd8P9cL5nGcZVq5Tf6Y3eRxs/s1600/Sara+cover+with+New+Apple+award+top+%2522sara+stories%2522+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1_ZR5QhIFyIU2Fo20SYQpLUA8aCg7V-xzkfKYoPqn95ZpO9AU1GhM1GyJ7gnohyphenhyphenAGBpsXP-Fwe1FaBPhZfSKqI-yaTHFJxl_fA_z6dyL78uwdrspu3bVyd8P9cL5nGcZVq5Tf6Y3eRxs/s320/Sara+cover+with+New+Apple+award+top+%2522sara+stories%2522+copy.jpg" width="216" /></a></div>
In February <i><a href="http://mybook.to/sarayear" target="_blank">Sara's Year</a></i> was named the top 2015 medal-winner for general fiction in the New Apple Book Awards! This is a first literary award for <i>Sara</i> but a ninth for its author, with six prizes already received for <i><a href="http://mybook.to/themoonquest" target="_blank">The MoonQuest</a> </i>and two for <i><a href="http://mybook.to/voiceofthemuse" target="_blank">The Voice of the Muse: Answering the Call to Write</a></i>. Check out these critically acclaimed books today!<br />
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• Look for all my books <a href="http://www.markdavidgerson.com/books" target="_blank">on my website</a> or in paperback or ebook from your favorite online bookseller.<br />
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<b>• <a href="http://www.thesarastories.com/" target="_blank">Preorder your signed copy of <i>After Sara's Year,</i> my sequel to the award-winning <i>Sara's Year</i>, TODAY!</a> </b>Mark David Gersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06235005264532240677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029772123863306953.post-35382225170855475092016-05-26T11:11:00.000-06:002016-05-26T11:11:04.074-06:00R-E-S-P-E-C-T<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>This is a slightly edited version of piece that I originally posted to Facebook on May 24. <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154869354017166&set=a.10150321242747166.413069.523132165&type=3&theater&notif_t=like&notif_id=1464100003001116" target="_blank">Click here to view the original post and its comment stream</a>.</i></div>
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If you I have just unfollowed another Facebook friend because of a vicious, vitriolic post attacking one of the Democratic candidates. This one was venomously anti-Sanders from someone who is vehemently pro-Clinton. But there have been just as many, if not more, from Sanders supporters. That both sets of attacks have been far more searing than anything coming from the Republicans should concern anyone who cares about the future of this country, not to mention the future of political discourse. (See "<a href="http://markdavidmuse.blogspot.com/2016/01/dont-be-hater.html" target="_blank">Don't Be a Hater</a>."</div>
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Unlike those whose posts I have reluctantly chosen to mute, I see the many positive qualities in both Democratic candidates; I also see the many flaws in both. As I view it, both are qualified to be President, either would bring unique skills, passions and gifts to the Oval Office...and neither would be perfect. Whichever one would ultimately make it to the top job would alternately delight and infuriate their followers; that's the reality of politics.</div>
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It's also important to note that neither would damage this country, its citizens and its world standing and reputation the way a Trump presidency would, if Donald Trump's public rhetoric is to be believed.</div>
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One side note: Anyone who thinks you can equate a Clinton presidency with a Trump presidency has not been listening to Donald Trump and the Congressional Republicans or to their allies...like the KKK, for example, which has trumpeted its support for Trump in the hopes that he will put Jews in their place. A Republican presidency and Congressional majority would destroy American's remaining international credibility, would do its best to dismantle what little social safety net we have, including Obamacare, and would continue to strip women and minorities of their rights, making certain that those changes are upheld with Supreme Court appointments.</div>
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I understand the passionate yearning for radical change, and I share it. However, if Trump and the Republicans are elected because those who should be opposing them are instead opposing each other, we will all get radical change – just not the kind any of us desires and definitely the kind it will take generations to overturn.</div>
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I also understand that the political process is fraught with passion, and that's a good thing. Passion fuels change. But wouldn't it be better to channel our passion constructively, using it to broadcast the solid qualities of our candidate rather than misusing it in vicious attacks that are too often grounded more in rumor than truth?</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpPH1HdGIpez9PORa5C0J2YgkNzUhlFrqHDJGs3Qpj1Ixt6o1U4cEYGA_xjzEXZo5ghwWaQYUxloD4fEDiRWD7N3tC87-SUtyOslXYEnWcoq2KQ4BNMv0TYJynLy5ihTcPlUa2zeMRFJk/s1600/maxresdefault.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpPH1HdGIpez9PORa5C0J2YgkNzUhlFrqHDJGs3Qpj1Ixt6o1U4cEYGA_xjzEXZo5ghwWaQYUxloD4fEDiRWD7N3tC87-SUtyOslXYEnWcoq2KQ4BNMv0TYJynLy5ihTcPlUa2zeMRFJk/s320/maxresdefault.jpg" width="320" /></a>If all elections are important, this one is perhaps more important than most. Let's keep the debate alive, but let's dial up the <a href="https://youtu.be/6FOUqQt3Kg0" target="_blank">r-e-s-p-e-c-</a>t and crank down the vitriol, which seems to grow more rabid as each day brings us closer to the Democratic Convention. This country deserves more. We deserve more. </div>
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<i>I welcome your comments as to why your candidate is the best choice or what your experience has been with the campaign so far. Negative comments, simplistic comments or those that simply say something like "your candidate is no good" or "your candidate should drop out" will be deleted.</i></div>
Mark David Gersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06235005264532240677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029772123863306953.post-47660926980230599112016-05-15T05:55:00.000-06:002016-05-15T05:55:01.299-06:00How I Tried to Give Up Writing...and Failed<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>"I can't do this anymore. It's too emotionally draining. As soon as I finish with this draft, I'm closing the door on my writing 'career.' I'm not a writer anymore. It's over."</i><br />
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It's August 2013, a few weeks before my 59th birthday, and I'm about two-thirds through a first draft of my stage-musical adaptation of <i><a href="http://mybook.to/thesunquest" target="_blank">The SunQuest</a></i>, the third story in my <i><a href="http://mybook.to/qntanatrilogyset" target="_blank">Q'ntana Trilogy</a></i>. I've been at this nonstop for six weeks now. I started with <i><a href="http://mybook.to/themoonquest" target="_blank">The MoonQuest</a></i>, the first story, and have continued straight through <i><a href="http://mybook.to/thestarquest" target="_blank">The StarQuest</a></i> and into <i>The SunQuest</i>. I still have a fair bit of work left on this trio of initial drafts and I'm beyond burnt out.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpP-fDdW6WtFbu3K-PrzM90Wmfr1c7U_pXdKgILdVnd2n4sRw4tjgHn3Y5WrXTMpZ9CQY9erFNFaF-bOR9irfA3ju5yzx_CegdkQ8QcRP_fJd5wOHNeXzcWXrssPsmajzWDLcqETjNrdA/s1600/QT+triptych+poster+w+seal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpP-fDdW6WtFbu3K-PrzM90Wmfr1c7U_pXdKgILdVnd2n4sRw4tjgHn3Y5WrXTMpZ9CQY9erFNFaF-bOR9irfA3ju5yzx_CegdkQ8QcRP_fJd5wOHNeXzcWXrssPsmajzWDLcqETjNrdA/s200/QT+triptych+poster+w+seal.jpg" width="154" /></a>For more than two decades, I have treated writing as a spiritual pursuit, writing from the deepest inner places I have been able to access and, as the title of my memoir suggests, surrendering more and more fully with each project to what I view as my highest imperative. This is also what I've taught – in my books for writers as well as through my coaching, classes and workshops.<br />
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But on this day, it feels as though I have sacrificed too much for too little return: My book sales are poor, my coaching income is negligible, I no longer have a home or car of my own and the emotional pain of digging so deep has grown unbearable.<br />
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On this day, my only commitment is do whatever it takes to finish this draft of <i>The SunQuest</i> so I can bring my trilogy of stage musicals to completion.<br />
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Two weeks later, as soon as I ring down the final curtain on <i>The SunQuest</i> and my<i> Q'ntana</i> musicals, I declare to my housemate and my closest friends that I'm on strike. "If I'm going to return to writing," I insist, "something has to shift. Otherwise, I'm giving it up. The work is much too hard for so pitiful a payoff."<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXl3C1MJMCGj_TiscThLzLz_Gd57Ui8TDK5P2qOKMMEh4csd1aIejExhuczTAiGcokjFNZix8HXlEjYmqJfwaiut4vxbPUS9LsHrZPw_HtTWbmtPdNVeXktdOBy62xpItHBXGstO3RcVU/s1600/JA+Jance+%257C+When+you+have+an+important+story+to+tell.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXl3C1MJMCGj_TiscThLzLz_Gd57Ui8TDK5P2qOKMMEh4csd1aIejExhuczTAiGcokjFNZix8HXlEjYmqJfwaiut4vxbPUS9LsHrZPw_HtTWbmtPdNVeXktdOBy62xpItHBXGstO3RcVU/s400/JA+Jance+%257C+When+you+have+an+important+story+to+tell.png" width="400" /></a>My friends, some of whom are writers themselves, make sympathetic noises. I'm certain that they don't doubt my sincerity, but I suspect they doubt my determination. "Let them doubt," I mutter as I settle into a diet of Netflix movies and murder mysteries. "If nothing changes, I'm not going back."<br />
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My sole concession is to a pre-strike interview I conducted with <i>New York Times</i> bestselling mystery author J.A. Jance the previous month (<i>see below</i>). Because Jance was so generous with her time, I commit to editing the interview and posting it to YouTube as the sole writing-related interruption to my job action.<br />
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About 34 minutes into our recorded conversation, as we're talking about craft, I tell Jance how much I love that she never outlines her books because I don't either.<br />
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"I have to sort of step out with faith," she says, "that if I can write the first sentence of the book, I can eventually get to the end of it."<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1yKzj3YewthJWejkRxRpX_kleuBu584K7Y6LfrKiiUpnswJpkbDvjwvXwK8QIBisyJC9pswERTZm_PMkFKceZ3dJ5Iw4JdDudwYtWdxm1PxDGKR2W-VmdP8vJRHSGIC8iZAm0TBeWank/s1600/AoS+3D+crop.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1yKzj3YewthJWejkRxRpX_kleuBu584K7Y6LfrKiiUpnswJpkbDvjwvXwK8QIBisyJC9pswERTZm_PMkFKceZ3dJ5Iw4JdDudwYtWdxm1PxDGKR2W-VmdP8vJRHSGIC8iZAm0TBeWank/s200/AoS+3D+crop.png" width="151" /></a>"Shit," I say out loud – not to J.A. Jance in the interview, but to the recording I'm editing. The moment she talks about the faith that gets her from her first sentence to her last, I know that my strike is over.<br />
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My creative and spiritual lives have always been inextricably linked, and both have been built on a solid foundation of faith.<br />
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My faith, as I describe it in <i><a href="http://mybook.to/actsofsurrender" target="_blank">Acts of Surrender</a></i>, is not about submitting in any kind of demeaning fashion to some white-bearded, white-robed gentleman peering down from on high. "Rather," I write in the book, "I acknowledge the existence of an infinite mind whose wisdom transcends my conscious thoughts, and I do my best to defer to it. Whatever [that infinite mind] is – and I don’t pretend to have solved the theological and scientific question of the ages – it is something that is both within me and of which I am part. Whatever it is, it is definitely smarter than I am, and that is where my surrender is directed."<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIU5jEMrQ9DJS73vRdaymbjJhsHmQaRajA2KBM_08FSBCOmz8BLjCBOxSdITqJwBUBYnkTgN_2iKd3qMUo_9xJxGaEDqHarA7d73Go_gdBphI_H_WOKIDvDuKufbsdU4dXVSz6esWpVHg/s1600/Tom+Grimes+%257C+If+you+have+to+write+-+small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIU5jEMrQ9DJS73vRdaymbjJhsHmQaRajA2KBM_08FSBCOmz8BLjCBOxSdITqJwBUBYnkTgN_2iKd3qMUo_9xJxGaEDqHarA7d73Go_gdBphI_H_WOKIDvDuKufbsdU4dXVSz6esWpVHg/s320/Tom+Grimes+%257C+If+you+have+to+write+-+small.jpg" width="276" /></a>As J.A. Jance's words echo in my heart and mind, I realize that if the deepest part of me has determined that I am a writer and that my writing (and all that derives from it) is the most important part of my being, I can't walk away from it. I can't abandon my faith and I can't stop surrendering to it. I am a writer. Period.<br />
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I would be lying if I said that I never again doubted and never again half-wished that I could turn my back on the sometimes-onerous demands of my Muse. But every time I'm tempted, I remember my 2013 writer's strike and the words of faith that aborted it. <br />
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In the end, as I'm reminded over and over and over, all that matters is that I'm writing.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNCBDLjpuj8h9wIvcMCGP2KOZghCFzkxJ-EEc5SQD54n1TPSZSeaww03ySo7_4XLSpD_Fe5IOH1Vb3yq8ywQvpdDjM5865KjvIqtSjoo1Oe2JJ7QivfPNAcF9aTFVaifpO6IVyoD8T7Bo/s1600/Sara+cover+with+New+Apple+award+top+smaller.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNCBDLjpuj8h9wIvcMCGP2KOZghCFzkxJ-EEc5SQD54n1TPSZSeaww03ySo7_4XLSpD_Fe5IOH1Vb3yq8ywQvpdDjM5865KjvIqtSjoo1Oe2JJ7QivfPNAcF9aTFVaifpO6IVyoD8T7Bo/s200/Sara+cover+with+New+Apple+award+top+smaller.jpg" width="135" /></a><i>The writing has definitely continued since my failed strike; if anything, the pace has picked up. Although I have yet to return to my </i>Q'ntana<i> musicals, I am now at work on my 13th book, </i>After Sara's Year<i>, a reader-demanded sequel to last year's award-winning </i>Sara's Year,<i> itself a story about never giving on your dreams. </i><br />
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After Sara's Year <i>will be available later this year; meantime, pick up the<a href="http://mybook.to/sarasyear" target="_blank"> </a></i><a href="http://mybook.to/sarasyear" target="_blank">Sara's Year</a><i>, the first installment in what is now </i>The Sara Stories<i>! Look for all my books in paperback or ebook from your favorite online bookseller or signed by me to you from <a href="http://www.markdavidgerson.com/books" target="_blank">my website</a>.</i><br />
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<b>From my interview with J.A. Jance (if the video doesn't play from the player, <a href="https://youtu.be/2aIASHsA0KM" target="_blank">click here</a>)...</b></div>
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<b>"I hated outlining in 10th grade geography class and I hate it now. Because I write murder mysteries, I usually start with somebody dead, and then I spend the rest of the book trying to figure out who did it and how come. I have to sort of step out with faith that if I can write the first sentence of the book, I can eventually, 100,000 words later, get to the end of it."</b></div>
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<br />Mark David Gersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06235005264532240677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029772123863306953.post-38244029253234794822016-05-09T11:26:00.001-06:002016-05-09T12:19:11.564-06:00The Act of Surrender That Created Acts of Surrender<div class="p1">
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: inherit;"><i>In this excerpt </i><a href="http://mybook.to/actsofsurrender" target="_blank">Acts of Surrender: A Writer's Memoir</a><i>, I share the act of surrender that helped birth my memoir into the world...</i></span><br />
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</span> <span class="s1">It’s May 6. I have just finished breakfast, and as I stare into my empty coffee cup, I contemplate my immediate future. It has been less than twenty-four hours since I completed a final draft of my novel <i><a href="http://mybook.to/thesunquest" target="_blank">The SunQuest</a></i> and, along with it, an odyssey that has occupied nearly one-third of my life: Eighteen years ago I surrendered to the words that would become the first draft of <i><a href="http://mybook.to/themoonquest" target="_blank">The MoonQuest</a></i>, a story I knew nothing about, a story that would launch a fantasy trilogy that I did not yet know existed. Now that I have written “The End,” both to <i>The SunQuest</i> and the trilogy, what’s next for me?</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqa68TgQBWGY9MdT6Ror0fq8gZ_kp6W4Ui1nKFR-faJKAs3GQJDtswPFA4n2RZVXUe6MycmCkvdX1pBQM7yyEZ025JlDZVBQp0PQ16GfbgsnuDJT_2XXW8R91mO9U2zO1Ke-jhorHpicw/s1600/IMG_6736.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqa68TgQBWGY9MdT6Ror0fq8gZ_kp6W4Ui1nKFR-faJKAs3GQJDtswPFA4n2RZVXUe6MycmCkvdX1pBQM7yyEZ025JlDZVBQp0PQ16GfbgsnuDJT_2XXW8R91mO9U2zO1Ke-jhorHpicw/s200/IMG_6736.jpg" width="150" /></span></a><span class="s1" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span>As I stare into that coffee cup, I am certain that another draft of this memoir, of <i>Acts of Surrender</i>, must follow <i><a href="http://mybook.to/qntanatrilogyset" target="_blank">The Q’ntana Trilogy</a></i> on my creative agenda. How can it not when <i>The SunQuest </i>is, among other things, about Ben’s coming to terms with <i>his</i> past? How can it not when Ben’s story, like Q’nta’s and Toshar’s before him in <i><a href="http://mybook.to/thestarquest" target="_blank">The StarQuest</a> </i>and <i>The MoonQuest, </i>is also my story? Hardly a day went by, while I worked on <i>The SunQuest,</i> that I failed to notice a parallel between Ben’s life and mine, between what he discovers through reliving his journey on the page and what I have already discovered through living mine on these pages. </span><br />
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span>At the same time, I ask myself: Wouldn’t it make sense to wait a month before taking on a new draft of <i>Acts of Surrender</i>? Between the Q’ntana screenplays and novels and the early drafts of this memoir, I have been writing nonstop for nearly two years. Maybe it’s time for a break. Besides, I have a business trip to Las Vegas coming up in a few weeks. Wouldn’t it make sense to wait until I get back? </span><br />
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span>You would think that after writing three fantasies where conventional sense is an elusive commodity, not to mention penning two drafts of a memoir that exposes similar threads in my own life, I would have more sense than to ask questions about sense. Apparently, I don’t.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span>The coffee cup is still empty, and my mind wanders, away from my creative life and on to my life — not that it’s altogether possible to separate the two. I have now been back in Albuquerque for eighteen months. A 2010 move from here to Los Angeles ended after ten weeks, when I felt a call to return to New Mexico. Through this, my third sojourn in Albuquerque, I have become aware how much my life here has come to resemble my 1994-95 time in rural Nova Scotia: a hermit-like existence where little occurs beyond my writing. </span>In Nova Scotia, my focus was on the first two drafts of <i>The MoonQuest</i>; once they were finished, I found myself back in Toronto, my monkish tendencies forgotten.</span><br />
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span>There is, however, one significant difference between these two periods in my life: In Nova Scotia, I had no conscious desire ever to leave. I thought I had rebirthed myself on the East Coast and, when the call came for me to go back to the big city, I was initially startled and dismayed. Here in Albuquerque, I have never stopped longing to get back to L.A., to resume a life that has felt on hold since I returned here. </span><br />
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span>Suddenly, the opening scene of <i>The MoonQuest</i> pushes my mental wanderings aside. In it, the dreamwalker Na’an interrupts an elderly Toshar, who has long resisted writing his story. </span></div>
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</span> <span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span>“It is not for me to boast of my exploits,” Toshar argues. </span>But Na’an is firm. “It is your story to tell,” she says. “It is for you to fix it in ink, to set the truth down for all to read.” </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span><i>I cannot move on to other realms and set off on other journeys until I have told </i>my<i> story,</i> I hear myself speak out loud, paraphrasing Toshar’s thoughts in <i>The MoonQuest</i>. The words catch in my throat, and I’m gripped by an emotion so strong that I find myself on verge of tears.</span><br />
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span>I can’t know what those other realms and journeys might be. I can’t know whether, in another parallel to my time in Nova Scotia, they will mark the end of my creative retreat and launch me back into the world’s bustle — this time to L.A. instead of Toronto. What I can do is recognize the charge I experienced and the truth that underlies it: Like Toshar, I must tell my story, <i>this </i>story, or I will not be free to move forward with my life. </span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1yKzj3YewthJWejkRxRpX_kleuBu584K7Y6LfrKiiUpnswJpkbDvjwvXwK8QIBisyJC9pswERTZm_PMkFKceZ3dJ5Iw4JdDudwYtWdxm1PxDGKR2W-VmdP8vJRHSGIC8iZAm0TBeWank/s1600/AoS+3D+crop.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></a><span class="s1" style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span class="s1" style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1yKzj3YewthJWejkRxRpX_kleuBu584K7Y6LfrKiiUpnswJpkbDvjwvXwK8QIBisyJC9pswERTZm_PMkFKceZ3dJ5Iw4JdDudwYtWdxm1PxDGKR2W-VmdP8vJRHSGIC8iZAm0TBeWank/s1600/AoS+3D+crop.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1yKzj3YewthJWejkRxRpX_kleuBu584K7Y6LfrKiiUpnswJpkbDvjwvXwK8QIBisyJC9pswERTZm_PMkFKceZ3dJ5Iw4JdDudwYtWdxm1PxDGKR2W-VmdP8vJRHSGIC8iZAm0TBeWank/s200/AoS+3D+crop.png" width="151" /></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">I know one other thing: Whatever the “sense” of the matter, I cannot wait a month to begin. In the act of surrender that is the book, I must make Acts of Surrender my primary focus, and I must begin now...in that realm where all stories begin: Once upon a time...</span></span><br />
<span class="s1" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /><b>• An excerpt from <a href="http://mybook.to/actsofsurrender"><i>Acts of Surrender: A Writer's Memoir</i></a> (c) Mark David Gerson, available in paperback and ebook from your favorite online bookseller or signed by me to you from <a href="http://www.actsofsurrender.com/">my website</a>.</b><br /><i><br /></i></span><br />
<span class="s1" style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Photos: Coffee mug and L.A. billboard by Mark David Gerson. Flag is the Nova Scotia provincial flag. MoonQuest book cover designed by Angela Farley. Acts of Surrender book cover: Ojai, CA; photo by Sander Dov Freedman.</i></span></div>
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Mark David Gersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06235005264532240677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029772123863306953.post-21408567075955491432016-04-12T01:01:00.000-06:002016-04-12T01:01:03.545-06:00In Freeing My Story, I Freed My Life<div class="p1">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMO1Nmpz7XswXUgXUaCiH_0AgV6YgsVoYLi_aQ2b9TYWUtH8jfseD_nv0qeovUOKKy-D6LMQfClUaW327fFUpbHmJC96bquDFC6ImqkLNJp2D6JRT1iN8bQdz7VJIKoN4-xWJB-l5rXYY/s1600/QT+triptych+poster+w+seal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMO1Nmpz7XswXUgXUaCiH_0AgV6YgsVoYLi_aQ2b9TYWUtH8jfseD_nv0qeovUOKKy-D6LMQfClUaW327fFUpbHmJC96bquDFC6ImqkLNJp2D6JRT1iN8bQdz7VJIKoN4-xWJB-l5rXYY/s200/QT+triptych+poster+w+seal.jpg" width="154" /></a><span class="s1">I never intended for <a href="http://mybook.to/themoonquest" target="_blank"><span class="s2"><i>The MoonQuest</i></span></a> to be such a powerful metaphor both for my creative journey and for creative blocks and the creative process. But that's what it turned out to be...through my act of surrender to the story that wanted to be told through me.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">In the book excerpt I share on this video, the main character is visited by a Muse-like being who insists he tell his story.</span></div>
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<i>Na’an says it is my story. Perhaps she is right. Is that why the words come so reluctantly? So many seasons of storytelling and still I hesitate. Of all the stories to stick in my throat, how ironic that it should be The MoonQuest, a tale of the freeing of story itself...</i></div>
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• Look for <a href="http://mybook.to/themoonquest" target="_blank"><span class="s2"><i>The MoonQuest</i></span></a> and its two <a href="http://www.theqntanatrilogy.com/" target="_blank">Q'ntana Trilogy</a> sequels (<i><a href="http://mybook.to/thestarquest" target="_blank">The StarQuest</a> </i>and<i> <a href="http://mybook.to/thesunquest" target="_blank">The SunQuest</a></i>) </div>
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<span class="s1"><i>• </i>For more about the personal and creative journey that led to <a href="http://mybook.to/themoonquest" target="_blank"><span class="s2"><i>The MoonQuest</i></span></a>, pick up <i><a href="http://mybook.to/actsofsurrender" target="_blank">Acts of Surrender: A Writer's Memoir</a>.</i></span></div>
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<span class="s1">All my books are available in paperback or ebook from your favorite online bookseller or signed by my to you from my <a href="http://www.markdavidgerson.com/books" target="_blank">website</a>.</span></div>
Mark David Gersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06235005264532240677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029772123863306953.post-42177240054832838212016-03-27T08:59:00.000-06:002016-03-27T08:59:04.695-06:00Raising a Glass in Gratitude, for Every Moment in My Life<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It's always significant for me when Easter falls in March. Although Easter is not part of my religious heritage, this holiday that marks death and celebrates resurrection parallels two personally significant death and resurrection events in my own life: the death of my mother in 1984 and the resurrection of my creativity 10 years later, almost to the day.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhykVJ140f8DT2OWe2c7kz7yLdlBL3xmgDMtPwYmmr-XNX6xUM_QwKqFrkUo7WawHkSbNLF700YiBkvGRC2w1QzPYXvz62-TyhOsotOcu18gOoMqbpowmHf6hHKXxR5ofg09y-s4a0UgE/s1600/196%253F+Passover+Seder.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhykVJ140f8DT2OWe2c7kz7yLdlBL3xmgDMtPwYmmr-XNX6xUM_QwKqFrkUo7WawHkSbNLF700YiBkvGRC2w1QzPYXvz62-TyhOsotOcu18gOoMqbpowmHf6hHKXxR5ofg09y-s4a0UgE/s1600/196%253F+Passover+Seder.jpg" /></a>My mother rarely pressured me to be or do anything other than what I chose to be or do, and for that I will always be grateful. Yet all parents carry expectations for their children, however unconscious, and all children tune in to that, even if they're not aware they're doing it. When my mother died on the evening of March 26, 1984, the burden of that unconscious awareness lifted. This is how I tell it in my <i><a href="http://mybook.to/actsofsurrender" target="_blank">Acts of Surrender</a></i> memoir...<br />
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"As courageous as I had allowed myself to be while [my mother] was alive – to come out as a gay man, for example, or to quit a secure job for the risks of freelancing or to leave my hometown – all my choices and actions had been colored by how I thought she might respond and had been filtered through her world view. With her gone, all her hopes, fears and expectations for me were gone, too. Suddenly, without being conscious of it or of what it meant, I was free. It would take a few more years before I could begin to grow into that freedom, before I could let it unalterably transform me and my world."<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN0R0dYIQ95PCB9HBT2xuEstg60aWJlbSsHSoC0gK4oC-DjufxEEEMRz44cFLvU2Tr9ErTYHl3ad9CJflHlj3faQwkvoqkMHucP51LXgbC38ImtFHoEv9gle7CEN6zx8uFJP9Z2ot10zI/s1600/MQ+covers+-+old+%252B+new.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN0R0dYIQ95PCB9HBT2xuEstg60aWJlbSsHSoC0gK4oC-DjufxEEEMRz44cFLvU2Tr9ErTYHl3ad9CJflHlj3faQwkvoqkMHucP51LXgbC38ImtFHoEv9gle7CEN6zx8uFJP9Z2ot10zI/s320/MQ+covers+-+old+%252B+new.jpg" width="256" /></a>One of the most dramatic expressions of that newfound freedom showed up on March 28, 1994. That was the day I penned the first words of what would become <i><a href="http://mybook.to/themoonquest" target="_blank">The MoonQuest</a></i>. This, my debut novel, would come to stand as a metaphor for the unblocking of my stifled creativity: It takes place in a land where stories have been banned and storytellers put to death.<br />
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When it was finally published 13 years later, it would also launch a writerly career that has now produced 12 books (with a 13th on the way), a trio of optioned screenplays and three stage plays-in-progress.<br />
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However, just as my mother's passing did not unleash an immediate flood of creativity, nor did <i>The MoonQuest:</i> It would take me more than a decade to complete an initial draft of my second manuscript, <i><a href="http://mybook.to/thestarquest" target="_blank">The StarQuest</a></i>. (Ironically, I started writing <i>The StarQuest</i> a few days after Easter in 1998.) <i><a href="http://mybook.to/voiceofthemuse" target="_blank">The Voice of the Muse: Answering the Call to Write</a></i>, my third manuscript but second published book, also didn't materialize for several years. And it wasn't until five or six years years ago that the real tsunami of creativity hit: It's only since 2010 that I have started and/or completed most of my books, screenplays and stage plays.<br />
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It's not surprising, then, that I greet this and every March with mixed emotion: with gratitude to my mother and sorrow at her absence, and with awe at the creative awakening that ignited 10 years later in a Toronto writing workshop I was teaching (a story I shared in my <a href="http://eepurl.com/bPFo59" target="_blank">February 2016 newsletter</a>). I will be raising a glass to both as the month draws to an end.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOQrBrcW6Y9Ih33Ugp2sL76STQGPNc7q1nae0FyQiuDIbb7pe2Gzq2To1i4skc2zQ8jB3azh1o9L6K6pL0oOEd9yluXnkjfSbt8lfuoQiRzdnWxJCDs3wrJBMes0ozPoNbF1o4HmkKxqM/s1600/VOM-3D+crop.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOQrBrcW6Y9Ih33Ugp2sL76STQGPNc7q1nae0FyQiuDIbb7pe2Gzq2To1i4skc2zQ8jB3azh1o9L6K6pL0oOEd9yluXnkjfSbt8lfuoQiRzdnWxJCDs3wrJBMes0ozPoNbF1o4HmkKxqM/s200/VOM-3D+crop.png" width="158" /></a></div>
One final note: A year before her death from cancer, my mother confessed to me that she had made many poor choices in her life. I thought a lot about those regrets as I wrote my most recent novel, <i><a href="http://mybook.to/sarasyear" target="_blank">Sara's Year</a></i>, the story of how one woman's abandoned passions inspire both her son and her oldest friend to live their dreams.<br />
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I am now 61, my mother's age when she spoke those words and when she died the following March. Like my mother's, mine has not always been an easy life and there are situations and circumstances that I sometimes wish had played out differently.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8py20vnpk2j1yyuZek6U32gOlEVVepwi_8pU5OAywxfrsEUqliLV6q-H0s4z7-dWKk7WEplw1sb_TDLpzjYVmtWuM5dt3jO9VBjtAXD4LUFGRob0FUsEd08JUru4kDJ2LQi8yhyphenhyphenwvM_Q/s1600/IMG_1350+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8py20vnpk2j1yyuZek6U32gOlEVVepwi_8pU5OAywxfrsEUqliLV6q-H0s4z7-dWKk7WEplw1sb_TDLpzjYVmtWuM5dt3jO9VBjtAXD4LUFGRob0FUsEd08JUru4kDJ2LQi8yhyphenhyphenwvM_Q/s200/IMG_1350+%25281%2529.jpg" width="200" /></a>But unlike my mother and the Esther character in <i>Sara's Year </i>who borrows bits and pieces from my mother's life, I have no regrets. I recognize, not always happily, that all my choices and all my experiences have made me a stronger, more compassionate human being, a more insightful and creative artist and a more effective and intuitive coach, mentor and motivator.<br />
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Perhaps the greatest gifts of all were those very years when I didn't feel free to create and when I felt tied to my mother's hopes, fears and expectations. Like the caterpillar trapped in its cocoon, they forced me to push free to become the butterfly I now am.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZIQjEQfx2jwevtP5j9WLX-MQQ5bFmBLOPg-YFKstPNTSgEbRcuIgKvcaopefV-iist0_lh17X2yq1svfrdSUuquQE9mFbJWxsUadIfgfl8wji-5p1Ky9nmd3Ki2cLVYdRCP_8EhiwfjM/s1600/champagne-toast-m.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZIQjEQfx2jwevtP5j9WLX-MQQ5bFmBLOPg-YFKstPNTSgEbRcuIgKvcaopefV-iist0_lh17X2yq1svfrdSUuquQE9mFbJWxsUadIfgfl8wji-5p1Ky9nmd3Ki2cLVYdRCP_8EhiwfjM/s200/champagne-toast-m.jpg" width="200" /></a>So as I raise that glass, it will be in gratitude for every moment in my life – the blocked as well as the flowing, the deaths as well as the resurrections. And I will look forward to many more years of that same flavorful yet maddening goulash of love, fear, frustration and creation that comes together in every moment to shape each of our lives.<br />
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<b><i>Photos:</i></b> <i>My mother on her second wedding day, some time in the 1970s • Me and my mother at a family gathering in the late 1960s • The current and original MoonQuest book covers.</i><br />
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<b>Look for <i>The MoonQuest</i>, <i>Acts of Surrender</i>,<i> Sara's Year</i> and all my books in paperback or ebook from your favorite online bookseller or signed by me to you from <a href="http://www.markdavidgerson.com/books" target="_blank">my website</a>.</b><br />
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<b><i>And watch for The MoonQuest movie, the first installment in a trio of epic motion pictures based on my screenplay adaptations of my <a href="http://www.theqntanatrilogy.com/" target="_blank">Q'ntana Trilogy</a> fantasy novels.</i></b><br />
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<b><i><br /></i></b>Mark David Gersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06235005264532240677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029772123863306953.post-36604500654484001452016-02-12T00:12:00.000-07:002016-02-12T00:12:02.400-07:00Why Are Americans Afraid of Dragons?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It's December 2008 and I'm in the video section of Target, Christmas shopping for my daughter. As I'm browsing through the movie racks, I overhear an older and younger woman discussing which DVD to buy a child on their list.<span class="s1"></span></div>
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<span class="s1">"What about<i> </i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000NA28I4/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=markdavidgers-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000NA28I4" target="_blank"><span class="s2"><i>Eragon</i></span></a>?" the younger woman asks. "I hear it's good."</span></div>
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<span class="s1">"Does it have magic in it? I don't want a movie with magic," the older one – her mother? </span>– responds sternly.</div>
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<span class="s1">They move out of earshot and I'm too stunned to follow.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Are we truly living in some version of <a href="http://mybook.to/themoonquest" target="_blank"><span class="s2"><i>The MoonQuest</i></span></a>'s mythical setting? This land where vision is outlawed and visionaries put to death, where myth and magic are forbidden, where "once upon a time" is a forbidden phrase, and where fact is the only legal tender was a creation of my imagination... Or was it?</span></div>
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<span class="s1">What kind of culture have we created where children are denied magic, where fantasy is suspect and where dragons are relegated to dustbins?</span></div>
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<span class="s1">More than 30 </span>years ago in an essay, author <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Ursula-K.-Le-Guin/e/B000AQ2M2S/?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&linkCode=ur2&qid=1360256708&sr=1-2-ent&tag=markdavidgers-20" target="_blank"><span class="s2">Ursula K. Le Guin</span></a> asked, "Why are Americans afraid of dragons?" She concluded that most technological cultures dismiss works of the imagination because they lack measurable utility, an outlook only exacerbated in this country by our Puritan heritage.<span class="s3"></span></div>
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<span class="s1">If 30 years ago dragons were not fit for adults, are they now unfit for children, too?</span></div>
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<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
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<span class="s1">While the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/J.-K.-Rowling/e/B000AP9A6K/?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&linkCode=ur2&qid=1360256892&sr=1-2-ent&tag=markdavidgers-20" target="_blank"><span class="s2">Harry Potter</span></a> books and movies broadened the reach of imaginative fiction for kids (and adults), it also expanded our hysterical suspicion and suppression of it.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY8n2hQzTdLOETUW9kFAJQIectdCdVtyB0E9Q1g8kM2_HtbaYNZ9AW1Fx8EqWjp_yaxKURXLLvijbu7WpeXsqeeYRSigfKEjEM5xHlI7qx4i-LadpfiPeUc41gDRRTgag5Fcn6XcWAvIM/s1600/MQ+covers+-+old+%252B+new.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY8n2hQzTdLOETUW9kFAJQIectdCdVtyB0E9Q1g8kM2_HtbaYNZ9AW1Fx8EqWjp_yaxKURXLLvijbu7WpeXsqeeYRSigfKEjEM5xHlI7qx4i-LadpfiPeUc41gDRRTgag5Fcn6XcWAvIM/s320/MQ+covers+-+old+%252B+new.jpg" width="256" /></a><span class="s1">The <i>fact</i> is, imaginative fiction opens our hearts, expands our spirit and broadens our minds in ways that nonfiction never can, and that magical/fantastical fiction can carry more truth in its castles, dragons and trolls than many pieces of so-called literature.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">That's why I called the original, pre-<a href="http://www.theqntanatrilogy.com/" target="_blank"><i>Q'ntana Trilogy</i></a> edition of <a href="http://mybook.to/themoonquest" target="_blank"><span class="s2"><i>The MoonQuest</i></span></a> a "true fantasy." There is <i>nothing</i> factual about it. But as those two women in Target have proven, it's decidedly true.</span></div>
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<i>Look for </i>The MoonQuest <i>and its </i>StarQuest<i> and </i>SunQuest<i> sequels in paperback or ebook from your favorite online bookseller or signed by me to you from <a href="http://www.theqntanatrilogy.com/" target="_blank">my website.</a></i> </div>
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<h4>
<b><span style="font-size: large;">The Q'ntana Trilogy: Soon to be a Trio of Epic Motion Pictures!</span></b></h4>
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Mark David Gersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06235005264532240677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029772123863306953.post-81078261532827798792016-01-31T12:44:00.001-07:002016-01-31T12:44:40.840-07:00Don't Be a Hater<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span class="s1">Watching the primary campaigns play out here in the U.S., I have begun to wonder whether we human beings are programmed to be haters and attackers. Maybe it's something primeval, dating back to our hunter-caveman days. I sure hope it's not innate.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">You might think I'm talking about the Republican primary, populated as it is by rabid bigots, homophobes, racists and misogynists, whose various campaigns have been endorsed by the KKK, so-called "pastors" who think all gays should be put to death and other so-called "spiritual leaders" who claim God will kill all Jews who don't accept Jesus. (I'm a fiction-writer and even I couldn't make this stuff up.)</span></div>
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<span class="s1">No, I'm talking about the Democratic primary campaign, where Hillary-supporters attack Bernie with a virulence that's matched only by the apparent hatred that Bernie supporters have for Hillary. Of course, overblown rhetoric has been the hallmark of every election campaign every fought. But this feels different.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">When Bernie's supporters proclaim that they will stay home before voting for Hillary as president and Hillary supporters make equally foolish statements about what they'll do if Bernie is nominated, you have to wonder what these people are smoking. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">There is no such thing as perfect candidate, any more than there is such a thing as a perfect human being. Every political candidate throughout history has been flawed. Bernie is flawed. Hillary is flawed. Each comes in to this campaign with baggage, and should one of them be elected President, she or he will have to govern not only based on campaign promises but on the messy reality of Washington politics.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">But to dismiss the other candidate's flaws as fatal is to ignore what is really at stake in this primary season, not to mention in the election season that will follow. If you as a Democrat (or Independent or compassionate Republican) believe that any of the GOP nominees would make a better president than either Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders, then by all means sit on your hands (or vote Republican). </span></div>
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<span class="s1">What you'll be voting for, through your action or inaction, is a theocratically leaning government that treats its women and minorities as, at best, second-class citizens. And you'll be voting in a President (whichever Republican it is) who will nominate Supreme Court justices that will uphold these restrictive, retrogressive and retrograde policies for generations to come.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">If you think I'm exaggerating, pay closer attention than perhaps you have been not only to what the Republican nominees have been saying but to what kinds of groups and individuals are publicly supporting them. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Then ask yourself how you would feel living in a country under any of the Republican nominees for president were you an immigrant, a raped woman seeking an abortion, a homeless or suicidal teenager disowned by his parents for being gay, a Muslim attacked on the street because of her religion, a Jew being blamed for the Holocaust that wiped out his family or a soldier being sent to war only to be stripped of her benefits when she returns home.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Whether you're "feeling the Bern" or supporting Hillary, don't sit this election out if your candidate doesn't make it to the final ballot. Don't be a hater. There are enough haters out there, and this country doesn't need another one. This world doesn't need another one, especially in the White House. </span></div>
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Mark David Gersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06235005264532240677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029772123863306953.post-20793995542291332482016-01-27T01:33:00.000-07:002016-01-28T12:21:28.339-07:00Happy 11th Birthday, Mark David!<div class="p1">
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<span class="s2"><i>In January 1998 "Mark David Gerson" became "Akhneton Yoseyva," a spiritual name that, six months later, would be made legal in an Arizona courtroom. It was a powerful transformation and one that would define my life for the next seven years. </i></span></div>
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<span class="s2"><i><br />
Then one day, as suddenly as Akhneton had entered my life, he left. A few weeks later – 11 years ago today – Mark David Gerson was reborn in that same Arizona courthouse, this time not as "Mark," but as "Mark David." </i></span></div>
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<span class="s2"><i><br />
Today, on the 11th anniversary of the legal birth of my "Mark David" persona, I share the story behind my name change, in this excerpt from </i><a href="http://mybook.to/actsofsurrender"><span class="s3">Acts of Surrender: A Writer's Memoir</span></a><i>. </i></span></div>
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<span class="s2">I was driving along California’s Pacific Coast Highway in early January 2005 when suddenly, as I had experienced with “Mark” seven-and-a-half years earlier, the name Aq'naton no longer fit. [I had changed the spelling from Akhneton to Aq'naton a few years earlier.] I swerved into the next pullout and, shaken, stared at the ocean, steel-gray on this overcast day. If I wasn’t Aq’naton, who was I? Was I David again? Mark? Neither felt right.</span></div>
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<span class="s2">Over the next days, I called myself, variously, Mark, David and Aq’naton. None seemed to express who I was becoming. Perhaps, I thought sinkingly, nothing can.</span></div>
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<span class="s2">“What about ‘Mark David,’” my friend Martha suggested, rapidly calculating its numerological significance.</span></div>
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<span class="s2">I repeated it a few times. <i>Mark David. Mark David. Mark David. </i>It felt odd, an unusual compound name that seemed to stumble out of my mouth rather than trip easily off my tongue. Still, “Mark David” felt more right than a return to Mark, David or Aq'naton, so I adopted it...and once again reintroduced myself, somewhat anxiously, to the world.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRR2RA2P37z74ll2lWvQVuI5PNVaGAp63p6V2n6bHGvzuY0CwtSdwjCOlapjYhKzD9G3MxC16BGq05BS3D9WTzRi4E-mIFZjinHhbRjTEcEa8P2tBAu0jMjDO6jX-odQW7emiTbNZIdIE/s1600/yavapi-courts.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRR2RA2P37z74ll2lWvQVuI5PNVaGAp63p6V2n6bHGvzuY0CwtSdwjCOlapjYhKzD9G3MxC16BGq05BS3D9WTzRi4E-mIFZjinHhbRjTEcEa8P2tBAu0jMjDO6jX-odQW7emiTbNZIdIE/s320/yavapi-courts.jpg" width="320" /></a><span class="s2">A few days later, I drove back to the Camp Verde courthouse, to the scene of that first legal name change. In Arizona at the time, name-changes did not require legal notices in a newspaper. They involved a summary hearing before a judge. The first time, in 1998, my court appearance took place a few weeks after I handed in the paperwork, in a session filled with uncontested divorces and other quick-gavel decisions. This time, I was only passing through Sedona with no plans to stay beyond the next few days.</span></div>
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<span class="s2">“I’ll be traveling,” I told the clerk when she offered possible court dates weeks out. “Are there no other options?”</span></div>
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<span class="s2">“Hang on a sec,” she said, and disappeared into a back room. Five minutes later she reemerged. “Can you be back here in two hours?”</span></div>
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<span class="s2">I nodded.</span></div>
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<span class="s2">She grinned. “I found a judge who will give you a private hearing.”</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhauGfwywf2oNtefmByXheaR3alUT2aLVZk0J0OzPmm4xN09BCdKNO7H-d7TDA2KKTOpjA3RQ1DxH5LpYrZahj8eBMdbFicGRs6-aJP5GdsuEQu6E7fa-6JyGBh5a3c_qctueYX8vmXums/s1600/51EcCdQDVUL._SY344_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="122" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhauGfwywf2oNtefmByXheaR3alUT2aLVZk0J0OzPmm4xN09BCdKNO7H-d7TDA2KKTOpjA3RQ1DxH5LpYrZahj8eBMdbFicGRs6-aJP5GdsuEQu6E7fa-6JyGBh5a3c_qctueYX8vmXums/s200/51EcCdQDVUL._SY344_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" width="200" /></a><span class="s2">Three hours later I was in Division Six of the Superior Court of Arizona. “Why are you changing your name?” the judge asked.</span></div>
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<span class="s2">I told him Aq’naton had been a pen name and that I now wanted all my affairs back in my birth name. It was the simplest piece of a larger truth.</span></div>
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<span class="s2">He scribbled something on his pad.</span></div>
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<span class="s2">“Are you changing your name to avoid debts or to hide from creditors?”</span></div>
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<span class="s2">“No, sir.”</span></div>
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<span class="s2">He scribbled something else on his pad, signed the name-change order and passed it to the clerk. She stamped it.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxzYr-OBScmlJ4fwpv18R61WldR9NxGJtBxJJpPZCXoZGnl2Ui8rjN74WQe1NpAXuG7G71-trRUwGwjZmvFA5qB1QrR6gw132Ox-eHQyBLp9f_ncx5IuhyxfqmU7hNMh2TBNdpanDXnUw/s1600/+AoS+front+Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxzYr-OBScmlJ4fwpv18R61WldR9NxGJtBxJJpPZCXoZGnl2Ui8rjN74WQe1NpAXuG7G71-trRUwGwjZmvFA5qB1QrR6gw132Ox-eHQyBLp9f_ncx5IuhyxfqmU7hNMh2TBNdpanDXnUw/s200/+AoS+front+Cover.jpg" width="135" /></a><span class="s2">It was 11:11 on January 27, 2005. Six years and eight months to the day after Akhneton Yoseyva had been legally created in this same building, he ceased to exist. Mark David Gerson had been reborn.</span></div>
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<span class="s4"><b>Adapted from<i> </i></b><a href="http://mybook.to/actsofsurrender"><span class="s5"><b><i>Acts of Surrender: A Writer's Memoir</i></b></span></a><b> </b></span></div>
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<span class="s4"><b>© Mark David Gerson</b></span><span class="s6"><i> </i></span></div>
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<b>Read more about my many name-changing experiences – and much more – in </b><a href="http://www.actsofsurrender.com/"><span class="s3"><b><i>Acts of Surrender: A Writer's Memoir</i></b></span></a><b>, available in paperback on most </b><a href="http://mybook.to/actsofsurrender"><span class="s3"><b>Amazon sites</b></span></a><b>, from selected other online booksellers, from </b><a href="http://www.markdavidgerson.com/bookstore"><span class="s3"><b>my website</b></span></a><b> or from your favorite ebook store.</b><span class="s2"></span></div>
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Mark David Gersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06235005264532240677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029772123863306953.post-68303011552902105992016-01-22T11:11:00.000-07:002016-01-22T11:11:35.534-07:00Finally, a Home for My Book Excerpts!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFRvs9kpzKHUhOaQE9EgzrPSD-0iahdHIZtSfKPydz5aW5zRCpBTDMmlzBU7LtTgo7FCqNWuuQP4aRExTNidMPJXKsfe6jjr-UmwBqr2O3zFOuSWkJ6_mvz6x3OoZvWY-WnA9q3NN1k4w/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-01-22+at+10.36.20+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFRvs9kpzKHUhOaQE9EgzrPSD-0iahdHIZtSfKPydz5aW5zRCpBTDMmlzBU7LtTgo7FCqNWuuQP4aRExTNidMPJXKsfe6jjr-UmwBqr2O3zFOuSWkJ6_mvz6x3OoZvWY-WnA9q3NN1k4w/s400/Screen+Shot+2016-01-22+at+10.36.20+AM.png" width="400" /></a></div>
Two years ago when I streamlined my <a href="http://www.markdavidgerson.com/" target="_blank">website</a>, the first pages to go were those featuring excerpts from my books. It had been simple, with only one or two books, to include excerpts on my site. But as the number of my <a href="http://www.markdavidgerson.com/books" target="_blank">published titles</a> swelled from two to four to ten, those excerpt pages were threatening to take over the website!<br />
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Then I discovered <a href="https://www.bublish.com/author/view/5354" target="_blank">Bublish</a>, and it was as though the service had been created just for me: It was a centralized way for me to share not only excerpts from all my books with potential readers, but also short personal essays (or "author insights," as Bublish calls them) about those excerpts. On top of that, visitors to my Bublish pages could easily navigate back to my website, as well as to my books at their favorite online bookstores.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicpXzXKNNO5a1ieE0JMQRkYX1iYssflvYaeAYGH2sCBICKhT8B10KC-V-AOy5crTojOu8V7FMiKXAp-zv7CPQT72vK954nZkwPRNbepe4Y4XVofSHZ5gagmSeUPJJKMTb6DxNWLOCZN6s/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-01-22+at+10.36.42+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicpXzXKNNO5a1ieE0JMQRkYX1iYssflvYaeAYGH2sCBICKhT8B10KC-V-AOy5crTojOu8V7FMiKXAp-zv7CPQT72vK954nZkwPRNbepe4Y4XVofSHZ5gagmSeUPJJKMTb6DxNWLOCZN6s/s400/Screen+Shot+2016-01-22+at+10.36.42+AM.png" width="400" /></a><br />
I was hooked. Even before my free trial was over, I signed up for the full service. Now, seven months later, my excerpts (or "book bubbles," as they're called on Bublish) have been viewed nearly 20,000 times, and more than 10% of those views have translated into online bookstore visits. As an indie author, that's terrific. And for readers wanting to get a risk-free taste of my titles, it's even more terrific.<br />
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If you haven't visited me on Bublish, please do at <a href="https://www.bublish.com/author/view/5354" target="_blank">https://www.bublish.com/author/view/5354</a>, where you'll find two or more compelling excerpts from each of my titles and, coming soon, excerpts from <i>After Sara's Year</i>, my new novel-in-progress, a sequel to <i><a href="http://mybook.to/sarasyear" target="_blank">Sara's Year</a></i>.<br />
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Mark David Gersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06235005264532240677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029772123863306953.post-3063569488215928462016-01-13T03:33:00.000-07:002016-01-13T03:33:06.520-07:00Destination Unknown: The Magic of the Open Road<div style="text-align: right;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp46SP678g0eHSF5Dlg0fy74MwX10X0uQ7Y-M4FjJfiFZgFubRHYXg4bN8bEpPINUL7torRStspGgLyJR0zR4UwBrcVwI7OXKZQQ4pPeKgrwX5LAt5DmU4ooVh8MO1WanICykz52KBLyY/s1600/DestinationUnknownWEB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp46SP678g0eHSF5Dlg0fy74MwX10X0uQ7Y-M4FjJfiFZgFubRHYXg4bN8bEpPINUL7torRStspGgLyJR0zR4UwBrcVwI7OXKZQQ4pPeKgrwX5LAt5DmU4ooVh8MO1WanICykz52KBLyY/s1600/DestinationUnknownWEB.jpg" /></a></div>
<i>In the following exchange with a fellow screenwriter on <a href="http://facebook.com/markdavidgerson.page" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, I spell out why I believe that control is anathema to the creative process – in both writing and life. </i><br />
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<i>It's ironic that my Facebook colleague chooses to use the "unmapped drive" example to criticize what he terms the wastefulness of unplanned writing. Going for a random, unplanned drive is the example I always use in my <a href="http://www.markdavidgerson.com/birthyourbook" target="_blank">workshops and coaching sessions</a> to </i>celebrate<i> the magic of discovery. It's also the basis for what I call "writing on the Muse Stream," which I explore in </i><a href="http://mybook.to/organicscreenwriting" target="_blank">Organic Screenwriting: Writing for Film, Naturally</a><i> and <a href="http://bit.ly/books4writers" target="_blank">all my books for writers</a>.</i><br />
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<b>Other Writer:</b> The problem I think a lot of screenwriters have is not being able to nail down exactly what your ending is before starting. That would be like getting in the car for a weekend getaway and not having any idea where it is you're going... just driving... aimlessly, wasting a whole hell of a lot of gas. This is where the idea of mapping comes in... if you know where you're going, you'll get there, and usually in the most direct line.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgyoY5lGjXrAFS9jYH-9X1p30NTpspmpUZwGRJGlwX7JccsWCAEL5lbzlLNFeuv1XPD3-gI9_JP-O3Bu-Czlh2RX_0CR6QjIFFzH6COHc4bN8mJZC38wtO6vUmDEVsVlRkC17bMHh-LSc/s1600/OS+Cover+final+front.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgyoY5lGjXrAFS9jYH-9X1p30NTpspmpUZwGRJGlwX7JccsWCAEL5lbzlLNFeuv1XPD3-gI9_JP-O3Bu-Czlh2RX_0CR6QjIFFzH6COHc4bN8mJZC38wtO6vUmDEVsVlRkC17bMHh-LSc/s320/OS+Cover+final+front.jpg" width="195" /></a><b>MDG: </b>I'm glad you used the analogy of going for a drive without a fixed destination in mind because that's precisely how I like to go for drives. It's much more fun to get in the car, start it up and see where it will take me. Nearly always, it takes me to a place I never could have imagined going, along a route I never would have thought of taking.<br />
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As it turns out, it's also how I write and live my life. It can be scary sometimes. It can certainly feel out of control. But those are the places where magic resides and miracles thrive. And what's life and creativity if not a magical, miraculous journey of wonder and surprise?<br />
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To go back to your "out for a drive" analogy: When I write, I sit in the passenger seat of the experience; the story is in the driver's seat. The story is in the driver's seat because it's its own entity, if you will, one that knows its direction and imperative far better than I ever could. And if I let it take charge, it will introduce me to characters and situations my controlling mind would never have thought up.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk1VEwAeflfMXkwZNWgmW7C2LsaAI52HKYCR-6w-WoXQaMcRUlGygy3yp7knw2zhCF4zZQpNMSRXNeUP-pI9ycHQCvz5foJxXx8aRc-i9vAEdAwRyb9RVyDpkHUTOZWqOjgwAquLnUbyk/s1600/iceberg.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk1VEwAeflfMXkwZNWgmW7C2LsaAI52HKYCR-6w-WoXQaMcRUlGygy3yp7knw2zhCF4zZQpNMSRXNeUP-pI9ycHQCvz5foJxXx8aRc-i9vAEdAwRyb9RVyDpkHUTOZWqOjgwAquLnUbyk/s320/iceberg.jpeg" width="214" /></a>As for my life, if I had set a fixed destination and mapped out the journey, I would never have written <a href="http://www.markdavidgerson.com/books" target="_blank">12 books</a> and a trio of optioned screenplays (in fact, it's unlikely I ever would have been a writer), I would not likely be living in the U.S. (I'm Canadian), and I doubt that I would be a parent...just to name three pretty <a href="http://mybook.to/actsofsurrender" target="_blank">amazing life-altering experiences</a>.<br />
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Just like the greatest bulk of an iceberg, my deepest desires and greatest stories often lie largely hidden in the ocean of my unconscious mind. The only way I know to access them is through those leaps of faith that keep my controlling mind out of the process.<br />
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In the end, my directions in writing and life are neither aimless nor energy-wasting. Rather, they're guided by a wiser part of myself that knows the destination and the way to reach it far better than the limits of my conscious mind ever could, as powerful and wonderful as that conscious mind is. That guidance is the best GPS there is.Mark David Gersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06235005264532240677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029772123863306953.post-14149550063197607232016-01-01T20:53:00.003-07:002016-01-01T21:07:30.648-07:00Mark David Gerson: A Writer's Life Revisited<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>This is an updated version of an interview that originally appeared on Jean Vallesteros's Book Nerd blog a few years ago. Read the original and related material <a href="http://jeanbooknerd.blogspot.com/2011/12/mark-david-gerson-author-interview.html" target="_blank">here</a>. </i><br />
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</i> <b>Book Nerd:</b> What inspired you to pen your first novel? Where did you get your ideas for <i>The MoonQuest</i>?<br />
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<b>Mark David Gerson:</b> I have written about the birth of <i><a href="http://mybook.to/themoonquest" target="_blank">The MoonQuest</a> </i>in my <i>Acts of Surrender </i>memoir<i>. </i>In short, though, I had no plans to write a <i>MoonQuest</i>, nor did I have a conscious desire to write a fantasy novel, let alone a trilogy. <i><a href="http://themoonquest.com/" target="_blank">The MoonQuest</a></i> birthed itself during a Toronto writing workshop I was facilitating when, in an unprecedented in-the-moment inspiration, I did the same exercise I had presented to participants. What I wrote that evening became the opening scene of the first draft of a novel I knew nothing about. From there, I just kept writing, discovering the story as I went along, until I was done. <i><a href="http://mybook.to/thestarquest" target="_blank">The StarQuest</a></i> and <i><a href="http://mybook.to/thesunquest" target="_blank">SunQuest</a></i> stories emerged similarly.<br />
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<b>BN: </b>What tools do you feel are must-haves for writers?<br />
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<b>MDG: </b>An open heart and mind and a willingness to surrender to your story and travel wherever it takes you (and to break all the rules getting there).<br />
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<b>BN: </b>How long have you been writing?<br />
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<b>MDG: </b>Perhaps the better question would be, "How long did I resist writing?" I often joke that my Muse tricked me into writing, given that for most of my early life, I resisted anything remotely creative. My first jobs out of university were in public relations, where I had to write, even if what I wrote at first was largely formulaic. However, that experience gave me the confidence to try my hand at freelance work and, before I knew it, I was a full-time (self-taught) freelance writer and editor, doing mostly magazine, newspaper, corporate and government work. However, it wasn’t until my early 30s, when the double-whammy of a creative and spiritual awakening knocked me over the head that I began to explore more creative avenues. And it wasn’t until I was 39 that <i>The MoonQuest</i>, my first foray into serious creative writing, began to have its way with me. I’ve been hooked ever since.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMNwTx51zd7blBTsuCEGxAv7slOkOgORYlzNZ_mc4AXru0eumhhEHHapx_nX0tMVzAWuqFwf6atphAp5CQvCAi-5RdYPKYS48QbNdMM9ItnOwB42XvZhxa03xXMo35rJeZjF4AesUJ6cU/s1600/MQ+Cover+2014+FINAL2+front.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMNwTx51zd7blBTsuCEGxAv7slOkOgORYlzNZ_mc4AXru0eumhhEHHapx_nX0tMVzAWuqFwf6atphAp5CQvCAi-5RdYPKYS48QbNdMM9ItnOwB42XvZhxa03xXMo35rJeZjF4AesUJ6cU/s320/MQ+Cover+2014+FINAL2+front.jpg" width="206" /></a><b>BN: </b>What is <i>The MoonQuest</i> about?</div>
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<b>MDG: </b>Imagine a land where storytelling is banned, where storytellers have been put to death, where dreams and visions are outlawed, where imagination has been stripped from the land and its people. This is the Q’ntana of <i>The MoonQuest</i>, a land where, as Toshar, the main character, puts it, "'once upon a time' is a forbidden phrase and fact is the only legal tender." In this land, legend has it, the moon has been so saddened by the silence and tyranny that she has cried tears that have extinguished her light. As a result, the moon has not been seen for many generations. <i>The MoonQuest</i>, then, is the journey undertaken by a reluctant Toshar and his three companions to restore story and vision to the land and to rekindle the light of the moon. Check out the <a href="https://youtu.be/oAAojM_PyrA" target="_blank">book trailer on YouTube</a>.</div>
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<b>BN: </b>Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing? Did you learn anything from writing <i>The MoonQuest</i> and what was it?</div>
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<b>MDG: </b>When I begin a project, I rarely know the story in advance. When I began <i>The MoonQuest</i>, for example, I knew nothing about it, except what emerged in each day’s writing. I didn’t have a title until about halfway through and I had no idea of the ending until about two-thirds of the way through. It was an experience in surrender: in surrendering unconditional control to my Muse and to the story. And it was tough! It was tough to keep writing with no plot, no outline and not even the remotest clue where the story was taking me. But it taught me how to get out of the way and let the story have its way with me. That’s still how I write — regardless of the form, genre or project. I now do it with much less resistance than I did it on <i>The MoonQuest</i>. But it’s still, sometimes, the most challenging aspect of the work...even as it’s also the most exhilarating and is, for me, the key to the magic!</div>
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<b>BN: </b>If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?</div>
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<b>MDG: </b>I’d probably have to say <a href="http://markdavidmuse.blogspot.com/2015/12/10-writing-tips-you-wont-read-anywhere.html" target="_blank">Madeleine L’Engle</a>, author of <i>A Wrinkle in Time</i>. I didn’t discover <i>A Wrinkle in Time </i>and its sequels until I was an adult, when I also discovered, through her nonfiction writings, L’Engle’s deep spirituality, one that informed her creativity and her life. While L’Engle’s spirituality found its expression through the Episcopal Church and mine is largely unstructured, she was a profound influence on my writing and my life. In a sense, she already was a mentor without me knowing it. Now, if she were still alive, I’d like to thank her for that.<br />
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<b>BN: </b>What is your work schedule like when you're writing?</div>
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<b>MDG: </b>For the most part, I don’t believe in fixed routines. Rather, I operate intuitively — in my writing and in my life. I’m not one of those people who writes at the same time every day or who believes that you should sit down to write regardless of how you feel. While other coaches and instructors recommend applying a regular routine to creative production, that method never works for me for very long. Rather, I remain as in-the-moment as I can and follow wherever the inspiration leads me — in my life as well as in my writing. That way of living and writing is both exhilarating and, at times, terrifying. But it does keep things in an organic balance!</div>
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<b>BN: </b>What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating <i>The MoonQuest</i>?</div>
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<b>MDG: </b>Three things, I suppose. The first was that I was actually creative. The second, that the methods I had been teaching (what I call "writing on the Muse Stream": writing nonstop, without thinking, without worrying about where the story was going) actually worked on something as long as a novel. And the third, related to the second, that the story was, truly, way smarter than I was!</div>
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<b>BN: </b>How many books have you written? Which is your favorite?</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNNynhr-h-aNM8nAbP_LcwkeAkc6zeEcmyd-3SanAKlCDD4A5qDo8lzsbjB9F8mcuTZjZORLenhXvakGJNgt-ucPDPYj3a0vs6XvG5inZ3lik9MEjFh_gH63SIb4tpKJFK0IsCj0fjI0g/s1600/MDG+w+new+VOM+7-8-14+cleaned+up+crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNNynhr-h-aNM8nAbP_LcwkeAkc6zeEcmyd-3SanAKlCDD4A5qDo8lzsbjB9F8mcuTZjZORLenhXvakGJNgt-ucPDPYj3a0vs6XvG5inZ3lik9MEjFh_gH63SIb4tpKJFK0IsCj0fjI0g/s320/MDG+w+new+VOM+7-8-14+cleaned+up+crop.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<b>MDG: </b>I have 12 books out: the three books in <i><a href="http://www.theqntanatrilogy.com/" target="_blank">The Q'ntana Trilogy</a></i> (<i><a href="http://mybook.to/themoonquest" target="_blank">The MoonQuest</a></i>, <i><a href="http://mybook.to/thestarquest" target="_blank">The StarQuest</a></i> and <i><a href="http://mybook.to/thesunquest" target="_blank">SunQuest</a></i>), five books for writers, including the award-winning <a href="http://mybook.to/voiceofthemuse" style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank">The Voice of the Muse: Answering the Call to Write</a>, two memoirs, the inspirational<i> <a href="http://mybook.to/bookofmessages" target="_blank">Book of Messages</a> </i>and my latest, a novel called<i> <a href="http://mybook.to/sarasyear" target="_blank">Sara's Year</a></i>. Plus, I have a <i>Sara's Year</i> sequel in progress. (As well, I have adapted the three <i>Q'ntana</i> stories for the screen.) But asking which is my favorite would be like asking a parent to choose a favorite child. Each is meaningful to me in particular ways and each is a favorite for particular reasons! </div>
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<b>BN: </b>What were your feelings when you first saw the cover of of your first published book?</div>
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<b>MDG: </b>When I opened the FedEx envelope and pulled out my advance copy of <i>The MoonQuest</i>, I burst into tears. I didn’t expect to have that same reaction with my second book, <i>The Voice of the Muse</i>....but I did!</div>
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<b>BN: </b>If you gave some of your characters an opportunity to speak for themselves, what would they say?</div>
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<b>MDG: </b><i>What took you so long to get our story out??!?</i> Seriously, I spoke to my characters while writing all three books in the fantasy trilogy. It was some of those conversations that led to some of the most surprising (to me) and powerful scenes in the books.</div>
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<b>BN: </b>Are there any tips you would give a book club to better navigate their discussion of <i>The MoonQuest</i>?</div>
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<b>MDG: </b>I would invite readers not only to look at the book from the outside, as readers, but to look at the journey the main characters undertake in the book through the lens of their own life experience. In other words, where does <i>The MoonQuest</i> speak to you, personally, in your life? In addition, I have a <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537b7e4ae4b06a0113084574/t/5387d20ee4b0c0fe8df037dd/1401410062378/A+Reader%27s+Guide+to+The+MoonQuest.pdf" target="_blank">Reader's Guide to <i>The MoonQuest</i>, available free from my website</a>.</div>
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<b>BN: </b>Who is your favorite character in <i>The MoonQuest</i>, and why?</div>
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<b>MDG: </b>I’ll answer this question as long as you don’t reveal my answer to the book’s main characters! My two favorite characters, I think, are the two quirkiest...the ones that always make me smile and sometimes make me laugh out loud: the Ferryman (he’s so minor that he has no name) and Pryma, a giant, one-eyed turtle-like creature, who makes a return appearance in <i>The SunQuest</i>.</div>
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<b>BN: </b>What was your favorite chapter to write and why?</div>
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<b>MDG: </b>Given that the first draft of <i>The MoonQuest</i> was one 400-page chapter, that one’s impossible to answer! As I mentioned earlier, I had no idea what the story was or where it was taking me, so I just kept writing, with no chapter breaks, until the first draft was done. I only added chapter and section breaks in later drafts. I did include chapter breaks in the first draft of <i>The StarQuest </i>and <i>The SunQuest. </i>Although they felt arbitrary at the time, my intuitive sensings must have been fairly accurate as most of those chapter breaks have changed.</div>
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<b>BN: </b>Can you see yourself in any of your characters?</div>
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<b>MDG: </b>Authors who claim that they don’t see aspects of themselves in all their characters are either lying, blind or woefully un-self-aware. I am in all my characters, even (I hate to admit) the nastiest! In <i>The MoonQuest</i>, though, the character I most identify with is Toshar, the main character whose first-person account the story is. This young man who discovers his stories and his storytelling ability through his <i>MoonQuest</i> journey was very much a metaphor for the creative deepening that writing the book represented for me at that time in my life.</div>
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<b>BN: </b>Has a review or profile ever changed your perspective on your work?</div>
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<b>MDG: </b>I haven’t had that experience with a review. But I have had it with reader comments. Two experiences in particular were surprising, and gratifying. In the first, a reader told me why the most difficult scenes in the book supported the story’s theme. Those were scenes that had been challenging for me to write, were often challenging for readers to read and, although I intuitively knew they belonged in the book, I couldn’t explain why. In the second instance, a reader brought up a theme that I hadn’t known was there but that made perfect sense to me once he mentioned it. Truly, my books are smarter than I am!</div>
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<b>BN: </b>Tell us your most rewarding experience since being published.</div>
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<b>MDG: </b>Although winning awards and getting great reviews for both books have been tremendously gratifying and validating, and although having a film producer primed to turn my books into movies is fabulously exciting, what’s most rewarding is when individual readers tell me how one or both of my books has affected them and, in some cases, changed their lives. <a href="https://youtu.be/s4U0YmFkQmA" target="_blank">This moving video</a>, for example, was sent to me by one of my readers.</div>
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<b>BN: </b>What are your current projects?</div>
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<b>MDG: </b>As I mentioned earlier, I'm working on a sequel to <i>Sara's Year</i>, tentatively titled <i>After Sara's Year</i>. It wasn't a book I planned to write, but so many <i>Sara's Year </i>readers asked for a sequel that I felt I had to give it try. Now, I'm excited to be discovering aspects of the original story and its characters that I didn't know when writing <i>Sara's Year. </i></div>
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<b>BN: </b>If you couldn’t be an author, what would your ideal career be?</div>
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<b>MDG: </b>My secret ambition would be to be a singer! More realistically, I’m also an artist and photographer and would be quite happy devoting more time to those creative pursuits. You can see some of my <a href="http://www.mark-david-gerson.artistwebsites.com/" target="_blank">art and photography on my fine art website</a>, as well as on <a href="http://www.instagram.com/markdavidgerson" target="_blank">Instagram</a>.</div>
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<b>BN: </b>Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?</div>
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<b>MDG: </b>This is for all writers, not just aspiring ones! Trust the story, even if you don’t yet know what it is. Trust your innate creativity. Take it word by word and allow your pen or the keyboard to spell out the story for you. Allow yourself to be the passenger on your creative journey, not the driver. And, of course, get a copies of <a href="http://www.markdavidgerson.com/books" target="_blank">my books</a>! Seriously, if you can begin to believe that your story always knows best, you’ll never go wrong.</div>
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<b>BN: </b>Where is your favorite place to read/write?</div>
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<b>MDG: </b>I’m a bit of a café freak. I love reading and writing at Starbucks (as my <a href="http://facebook.com/markdavidgerson" target="_blank">Facebook</a> friends/followers have discovered)!</div>
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<b>BN: </b>One of your favorite quotes?</div>
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<b>MDG: </b>From <i>The MoonQuest</i>: “You either trust or you do not. There is no halfway in between.”</div>
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<b>BN: </b>Where can your readers stalk you?</div>
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<b>MDG: </b>I'm easily stalkable in all the usual places! lol</div>
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The best place to contact me is either via my <a href="http://markdavidgerson.com/" target="_blank">website</a> or <a href="http://facebook.com/markdavidgerson.page" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, or by leaving comments on my <a href="http://markdavidmuse.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">blog</a>. I’m also on <a href="https://plus.google.com/+MarkDavidGerson" target="_blank">Google+ </a>. FYI: I do my best to respond to all comments and queries...but sometimes it’s just not possible. But I read and appreciate them all.</div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span></b>Mark David Gersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06235005264532240677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029772123863306953.post-16258787496284148692015-12-14T09:46:00.000-07:002015-12-14T09:47:54.198-07:00Rejected? Don't Feel Dejected!<div>
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The literary world is littered with later-regretted rejections. My favorite, not because it’s the most extreme but because it involves an author whose work and life have profoundly influenced mine, involves Madeleine L’Engle, author of the young adult classic, <i>A Wrinkle in Time</i>.</div>
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L’Engle received two years’ worth of rejections from 26 publishers for <i>A Wrinkle in Time</i>, which was finally published in 1962 and went on to win major awards and be translated into more than a dozen languages. </div>
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Madeleine L’Engle was hardly unique...</div>
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"I received your rejection by email recently, which was surprising since I did not submit an application to the Art San Diego Short Film Program. Like most artists, I am accustomed to having my work rejected, but being rejected from something I did not enter is a new low."</div>
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– Shawnee Barton </div>
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<li>Theodore Geisel’s first book as Dr. Seuss was turned down 27 times before landing a publishing contract. </li>
<li>J.K. Rowling was rejected by a dozen publishers before Bloomsbury embraced the first Harry Potter novel.</li>
<li>The original <i>Chicken Soup for the Soul</i> book was nixed by more than a hundred publishers before it launched a multimillion-dollar franchise.</li>
<li>Publishing giant Alfred A. Knopf passed on George Orwell’s <i>Animal Farm</i>, as well as on Vladimir Nabokov and Sylvia Plath.</li>
<li>Stephen King, discouraged after <i>Carrie</i>’s 30th rejection, tossed the manuscript into the trash. Fortunately, his wife retrieved it: <i>Carrie</i> sold more than a million copies in its first year; King is now ranked as one of the top-selling authors of all time. </li>
<li>Other literary rebuffs? William Golding’s <i>Lord of the Flies</i>, Oscar Wilde’s <i>Lady Windemere’s Fan</i>, Joseph Heller’s<i> Catch-22</i>, John le Carré’s <i>The Spy Who Came in from the Cold</i> and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s <i>The Great Gatsby</i>. </li>
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<i> "I received your rejection by email recently, which was surprising since I did not submit an application to the Art San Diego Short Film Program. Like most artists, I am accustomed to having my work rejected, but being rejected from something I did not enter is a new low."</i></div>
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<i>– Shawnee Barton </i></div>
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Six Tips for Dealing with Rejection</h2>
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When someone passes on your manuscript, regardless of the reason, here are six ways to help you get through and past the pain. </div>
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<b><i>1. Feel What You Feel</i></b></div>
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Don’t bottle up your feelings. Cry. Curse. Scream. Throw things. Throw up. Then get past the rejection and move on.</div>
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<b><i>2. Write Your Feelings</i></b></div>
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Powerful emotions birth powerful writing. Channel all you feel into one of your characters – if not as part of this story, then as part of another.</div>
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<b><i>3. Take Writer's Revenge </i></b></div>
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Write a scene where you subject the source of your rejection to something unspeakably hideous, hurtful and horrific. It’s the writer’s equivalent of sticking pins into a voodoo doll, and you'll have more fun writing it than you ever ought to admit!</div>
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<b><i>4. Look for the Silver Lining</i></b></div>
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Every experience, however emotionally debilitating, contains the seeds of something positive. Once the pain begins to subside, be open to a flash of insight that will reveal the silver lining around your storm cloud of rejection.</div>
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<b><i>5. Look for the Spark of Truth</i></b></div>
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If your rejection letter offers reasons for the turndown, pay attention to them and use your discernment to determine whether those reasons highlight real weaknesses that it would serve you to address in a new draft. </div>
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<b><i>6. Keep Writing</i></b></div>
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Don't let rejection stop you. Keep writing and keep seeking out ways to improve your craft. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0TjiDsqU6Zfm2YRAF9KvklHK7BUBS6cJEZ13j3kJKow9GgBS9HxL5dNbfjOJ345hGWn_thNMgpyOnu__pNWAcRUN08gLUUvj0Qn2fwZrwzXoRE8qmsFA9ZwsNzavGsG84LleEEv4uqUM/s1600/0375_Corbis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="142" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0TjiDsqU6Zfm2YRAF9KvklHK7BUBS6cJEZ13j3kJKow9GgBS9HxL5dNbfjOJ345hGWn_thNMgpyOnu__pNWAcRUN08gLUUvj0Qn2fwZrwzXoRE8qmsFA9ZwsNzavGsG84LleEEv4uqUM/s200/0375_Corbis.jpg" width="200" /></a><i>"I cannot read your M.S. three or four times. Not even one time. Only one look, only one look is enough. Hardly one copy would sell here. Hardly one. Hardly one."</i></div>
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<i>– Publisher Arthur C. Fifield's 1912 rejection letter to Gertrude Stein</i></div>
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Ask Yourself These Questions When Faced with Criticism or Rejection</h2>
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<li>Can I refuse to let criticism or rejection stop me from moving forward with this writing project?</li>
<li>If I am unable to get an agent, a publishing deal or a screenplay option, can I trust that there may be other reasons why I was called to write this? Can I be okay with that? </li>
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And Finally...</h2>
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Toward the end of her demoralizing two-year period of rejections, Madeleine L’Engle covered up her typewriter and decided to give up on writing. On her way to the kitchen, she had an epiphany: an idea for a novel about failure. In a flash, Madeleine L’Engle was back at her typewriter. “That night, I wrote in my journal, ‘I’m a writer. That’s who I am. That’s what I am. That’s what I have to do – even if I’m never, ever published again.’ And I had to take seriously the fact that I might never, ever be published again. It’s easy to say I’m a writer now, but I said it when it was hard to say. And I meant it.” </div>
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<b>• Adapted from <i><a href="http://mybook.to/voiceofthemuse" target="_blank">The Voice of the Muse: Answering the Call to Write</a></i>, <i><a href="http://mybook.to/birthingyourbook" target="_blank">Birthing Your Book...Even If You Don't Know What It's About</a></i> and <i><a href="http://mybook.to/organicscreenwriting" target="_blank">Organic Screenwriting: Writing for Film Naturally</a></i>. Read more about famous rejections and how to deal with yours in any of these books.</b></div>
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<b>• This post first appeared in my newsletter. <a href="http://eepurl.com/bIKikD" target="_blank">Subscribe now to get articles like this in your inbox as soon as they're posted</a>!</b></div>
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Mark David Gersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06235005264532240677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029772123863306953.post-29516929453033823912015-12-01T08:49:00.001-07:002015-12-01T14:38:04.729-07:00AIDS Beyond December 1<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisw_8gDXDHbBhpLh6kCnhBnc0kfUA5ugQmx7K6gUon8KINtB-24m1sfTQ9ePy3fmGWoJ709MjwOXBLFJTf4JZeC8tzGsP3I2X1FcANBOLm7BF5EcWNrZKW1mwpB7JuErzH6jmZG0HkMFA/s1600/aids.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="251" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisw_8gDXDHbBhpLh6kCnhBnc0kfUA5ugQmx7K6gUon8KINtB-24m1sfTQ9ePy3fmGWoJ709MjwOXBLFJTf4JZeC8tzGsP3I2X1FcANBOLm7BF5EcWNrZKW1mwpB7JuErzH6jmZG0HkMFA/s400/aids.jpg" width="400" /></a><i>Although I am posting this memoir-excerpt-as-tribute on World AIDS Day, it's important to remember that AIDS/HIV is with us 365 days a year...and not only in the West and in the gay community. </i></div>
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I'm old enough to remember the first public awareness of AIDS in the gay community – first the fear and panic, then the extraordinary coming together in the face of tragic loss.<br />
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I'm also old enough to have lost too many friends to AIDS in those early years, when no one really understood what was going on or why.<br />
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One of those friends was Roy Salonin, so important to my own coming out all those decades ago in Montreal. Today I honor Roy with this excerpt from my <i>Acts of Surrender</i> memoir. Wherever you are, Roy, thank you!<br />
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But I also want to honor those more fortunate than Roy, those many have not only survived but have continued to live – and live passionately – with HIV. May they always remind us to celebrate life, whatever our age and HIV status...whatever our age and health status. And may they always inspire us to make this the last generation to have to know AIDS.<br />
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<i>(By the way, the Ray David Blackman character in my <a href="http://mybook.to/sarasyear" target="_blank">Sara's Year</a> novel is a silent tribute to the three friends who were so instrumental in my coming out and so supportive in the years that followed: Roy Salonin, David Brody and Harvey Blackman.)</i><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Gay and Jewish</span></b></div>
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<i>Adapted from </i><a href="http://mybook.to/actsofsurrender" target="_blank">Acts of Surrender: A Writer's Memoir</a> <i>© Mark David Gerson</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu9-C22zgjCrYbEpeVaMK_jBsVf2G6jf1UyqFnr5l7-w4HtZXNaK5lr3wC5px3zFOsybV-yhw_kQt5QzXxxvlupj2GcfZSQIbulzIe45Bv2nDZ0_d2u9ozgI3-81jNKanAg4r00V8Mxuw/s1600/00662_512.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu9-C22zgjCrYbEpeVaMK_jBsVf2G6jf1UyqFnr5l7-w4HtZXNaK5lr3wC5px3zFOsybV-yhw_kQt5QzXxxvlupj2GcfZSQIbulzIe45Bv2nDZ0_d2u9ozgI3-81jNKanAg4r00V8Mxuw/s1600/00662_512.jpg" width="200" /></a>One evening in 1975, with my mother and stepfather safely out and my bedroom door firmly shut, I again dialed the number for Gay Montreal. This time, I forced myself to stay on the line.<br />
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“Good evening, Gay Montreal,” a pleasant male voice answered.<br />
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“I-I think I’m gay,” I stammered after saying nothing for what seemed decades but was likely little more than a breath.<br />
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Charles was a pro, expertly navigating me through my fears, reassuring me that I wasn’t alone and inviting me in for a counseling session.<br />
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Next afternoon, freshly showered and looking my twenty-year-old best, I walked into the Peel Street greystone that housed Gay Montreal. Compassionate and to the point, Charles looked me up and down and asked, “Are you Jewish?”<br />
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Having been born into a generation of Jews with a contemporary knowledge of the Holocaust and firsthand experience of anti-Semitism, I couldn’t help but react inwardly to Charles’s question with a genetic spark of paranoia.<br />
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Trying to wipe my upbringing from my mind, I nodded.<br />
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“Then you’ve got to meet Roy Salonin!” he exclaimed.<br />
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I raised my eyebrows.<br />
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“Roy Salonin. He runs a gay Jewish group. It’s called Naches.” He pronounced it na-kess. Charles scribbled a phone number on a scrap of paper and shoved it across the desk at me. “Call him,” he insisted.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIYU_0_RhxCQqNJmZ0XuPZEexgOKrFhwwnrH7qs8Nqbtni-OzisE2hoehkH-KDfvOUPTLrNsdAEsXJqDA9R22gC5JigBTjeQxrqTFM9jRLF4g1qJnRq5zypoImitI4xyFzSZcTB84uad4/s1600/Acts+of+Surrrender+-+Naches.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIYU_0_RhxCQqNJmZ0XuPZEexgOKrFhwwnrH7qs8Nqbtni-OzisE2hoehkH-KDfvOUPTLrNsdAEsXJqDA9R22gC5JigBTjeQxrqTFM9jRLF4g1qJnRq5zypoImitI4xyFzSZcTB84uad4/s1600/Acts+of+Surrrender+-+Naches.jpeg" width="320" /></a>Next I knew I was back on Peel Street, Charles having already faded into some recess of my past. Cars pushed past me up the steep hill. Crushes of McGill students swallowed me up and spit me out as they rushed to class. I was oblivious to it all. A <i>gay</i> Jewish group? A gay <i>Jewish</i> group? Called Naches? Talk about chutzpah! <i>Naches</i> is a Yiddish word that expresses the joy a parent only gets from children. For a moment, I wondered how much naches I would bring my mother when I told her I was gay. Only for a moment. With my next breath, I felt calmer and more alive than I had felt in months. <i>A gay Jewish group!</i><br />
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For the next eight years, the group that Roy Salonin had created formed the cornerstone of my gay experience. I attended weekly meetings and became one of the group’s organizers. I demonstrated with fellow members to protest police raids on gay bars and bathhouses. I wrote provincial and national legislators on behalf of the group to press for equal rights. I manned the Naches booth at the city’s early Gay Pride celebrations. I let my name be used in articles in the <i>Montreal Gazette</i> and <i>Canadian Jewish News</i>, then sifted through the resulting answering machine messages — all ugly or obscene.<br />
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The hateful comments didn’t matter. For the first time in a long time, I felt like I belonged and was comfortable with who I was. No one was going to take that away from me.
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<b>Read more about my many coming out-type experiences – and much more – in <i><a href="http://www.actsofsurrender.com/" target="_blank">Acts of Surrender: A Writer's Memoir</a></i>, available in paperback and ebook from major online booksellers or signed by me to you from <a href="http://www.markdavidgerson.com/bookstore" target="_blank">my website</a>.</b><br />
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<i>Photos: Roy Salonin's square on the <a href="http://www.aidsquilt.org/about" target="_blank">AIDS Memorial Quilt</a>; "<a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Peel_Street_Golden_Square_Mile_1.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Peel_Street_Golden_Square_Mile_1.jpg" target="_blank">Peel Street Golden Square Mile 1</a>" by abdallahh from Montréal. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.</i>Mark David Gersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06235005264532240677noreply@blogger.com0