Mark David Gerson: ibooks

As I write in Acts of Surrender: A Writer’s Memoir, birthdays for me have always been more about the transformationally personal than about big crowds and noisy parties.

Shortly before my 21st birthday, I came out as a gay man; shortly after, I moved into my first apartment. Just before my 30th, I lost my mother’s wedding band at Stonehenge – a symbolic break from her influence (I had been wearing it as a memento since her death six months earlier). On my 40th, having sold or given away most everything I owned, I moved to Nova Scotia. A few weeks before my 42nd birthday, I launched a new life in Sedona; four weeks after my 50th, that life abruptly ended.

Now, today, on my 61st, I once again leave the crowds behind in favor of a quiet birthday celebration…a shared birthday celebration. Shared with whom? With Sara’s Year, my 12th book and fourth novel, which launches officially today.

As I noted in last month’s issue, Sara’s Year emerged from a series of health scares that prompted me to ask what I wanted to be sure to accomplish if I were to die sooner rather than later. It’s not surprising, then, that a “death and rebirth” theme figures prominently in the story, even if it wasn't consciously planned. Given that, what better day to birth the book than my birthday?

Here’s another birthday parallel, one that makes today’s book launch even more apt: Just as we emerge into the world naked and vulnerable, we authors are similarly naked and vulnerable when we release the murmurings of our heart to the world. If each new book I write takes me deeper as a writer, then each new book also reveals more of that depth to you. That makes Sara’s Year my most “naked” book yet!

“Walk the earth naked, clothed only in your truth,” I write in Dialogues with the Divine: Encounters with My Wisest Self. How perfect, if somewhat scary, to be spending my birthday in my creative birthday suit!

Help Me Celebrate with a Gift That’s as Much for You as for Me: Order Sara’s Year TODAY!

Why today (apart from the obvious)? Amazon and other book-site rankings are affected not only by the number of books ordered but by how close together those orders are. That means that a bunch of book orders over a single day or two has a more dramatic impact on rankings than the same number of orders spread over several weeks.

Here's where to find Sara online...

• Amazon: Kindle/Paperback
• iBook store
• Sara’s Year is also available as an ebook in the Google Play, Kobo and Nook stores and as a signed paperback from my website

It's déjà vu all over again.
~ Yogi Berra

It's early 2009. I'm just coming out of a period of reclusiveness and I find myself suddenly thrust back into the public eye. If I did few public appearances other than book-signings when The Voice of the Muse: Answering the Call to Write was released eight months ago, I'm suddenly in nearly unquenchable demand for my insights about writing and the creative process. One coaching client grows to two, three, and then a dozen. I'm giving frequent talks and seminars. I'm teaching regular classes and workshops. I'm speaking at conferences and expos. I'm traveling. I have a media presence -- with my own radio show and as a frequent guest on others'.

And then, 18 months later, it all stops, almost as suddenly as it began and, for the next three years, I find myself turning inward again, focused almost exclusively on writing projects that force themselves on me with insistent urgency. Through that time, I finally complete The StarQuest novel, first sequel to The MoonQuest and a project that has been more than a decade in the making. I also complete my Acts of Surrender memoir, another project that has lingered far too long. In addition I start and take to their final drafts The StarQuest screenplay and The SunQuest novel and screenplay, as well as a new book on writing, Writer's Block Unblocked: 7 Surefire Ways to Free Up Your Writing and Creative Flow. It's a period of unprecedented creativity...and one that has just now shuddered to a halt.

Now, in an echo of 2009, I find myself thrust out of my creative seclusion in many of the same ways I was four years ago.

I once again have a new book about writing; this time, it's an Amazon top-seller within days of its release.
I'm teaching again, with tele-classes currently scheduled from this month through to July and with more under discussion.
Just as I was four years ago, I have been asked to create a radio show on a new network. This time, it's to be weekly instead of monthly and feature higher-profile guests. (It's set to launch next month.)
Once again, I find myself working with Susan Larison Danz's Lighted Bridge Communications on my events and media appearances. Susan and her company were instrumental in arranging many of my engagements and appearances in 2009/2010. Now, four years later, we're at it again...only now we're focused on larger, more visible events and venues.
If four years ago much of my focus was on one-on-one work through a thriving coaching practice, today's focus seems to be be more on groups. But the objective remains the same: Inspiring people to rekindle their passion and reignite the fire in their lives.

At first glance, you might be tempted to say, as I briefly was a few days ago, "Can't this guy move on? He's doing all the same stuff he used to do. How is that progress?"

No, this is not Groundhog Day and I'm not Bill Murray's arrogant weatherman. My experiences may appear to be identical to those of three and four years ago, but they're not.

As I have written here before, I dislike the expression "coming full circle" because it suggests that we're returning to a place we've already been, having learned nothing and grown not at all. My preferred image is that of a spiral, where we return to a place along the same axis, but at a higher level of consciousness and understanding, and where we are given the opportunity to operate, as I put it in a The Voice of the Muse, at "a higher level of awareness, mastery, openness and trust."

And so... a new book, new classes, a new radio show and new events and appearances -- all pushing me to my next level of professionalism and, as always in my life, to my next level of surrender.

Where do I go from here? If this renewed beginning is still somewhat veiled, it is replete with the promise that all new beginnings offer. Once again, from The Voice of the Muse: "From silence to silence, word to word, trust to trust -- the spiral is an infinite one, carrying you from one beginning to the next and one ending to the next on a journey with no beginning or ending."

The spiral is an infinite one. Mysterious, too. I can't even begin to imagine where it will carry me next.

For now, though, please check out these renewed, turn-of-the-spiral activities...

To celebrate the launch of Writer's Block Unblocked for Nook and Kobo, all my Nook, Kindle and Kobo ebooks are on sale for US$2.99 each through May 5...

New Tele-Classes...

Writer's Block Unblocked (5 Mondays in May/June) ~ You can write -- naturally, eloquently and flowingly. Become one of my many writer's-block success stories: Free up your creative flow today! ~ $199 through May 7, then $249
Beyond Writer's Block (5 Mondays in June/July) ~ You don't have to have been blocked to benefit from this class. Whatever your form, genre or experience level, Beyond Writer's Block will deepen your creative experience and awaken you to new skills, new stories and a renewed confidence in your innate gifts. ~ $199 through June 3, then $249
Two Tele-Class Discount Package ~ Writer's Block Unblocked + Beyond Writer's Block for a rock-bottom price: $399 through May 7