On the Air with Mark David

Tuesday, January 8 ~ Albuquerque, New Mexico

Listen to my conversation with Nashville's Yvonne Perry of Writers in the Sky as she interviews me about writing, writers block and the meeting point of spirituality and creativity.

The interview first aired on January 4 and it's still relevant and inspiring -- whether you want to write, are just starting out or have written forever. Click here to listen.

"It's not that the words won't come. It's that we're not listening for them in quite the right way."

The Miracle of The Voice of the Muse

Saturday, December 22 ~ Albuquerque, New Mexico

I leave Albuquerque's Shepherd Studios this morning clutching the two CDs that hold my recording of the audio tracks for The Voice of the Muse Companion CD set.

My heart is pounding and I can barely contain my excitement. I haven't yet listened to all 11 tracks yet, but what I've heard so far is beyond anything I could have imagined. Put simply, I've never heard myself sound so good or so professional.

This recording is but the latest in the string of miracles and synchronicities that have surrounded The Voice of the Muse project. In fact, there have been so many that it's hard to track of them.

The first occurred early on, with the cover design: When my first designer proved unable to capture the book's spirit and essence, a replacement -- the highly talented Richard Crookes -- emerged by seeming happenstance through a casual conversation on Facebook.

This latest miracle is no less magical.

From my earliest vision of the book, there was always a companion CD containing my recording of the guided meditations. As I write in The Voice of the Muse, "when a book I’m reading includes guided meditations that it suggests I record and use, I hardly ever do it. Instead, I close one eye and read the meditation with the other, hoping it will have the desired effect. It rarely does."

For the single CD of meditations in the original eBook, I used a Sedona friend's home recording studio. For the new book and its two CDs, however, I no longer had access to free facilities.

Assuming that a professional studio would be beyond my means, I bought some basic equipment and recorded into my computer. The result was not even good enough for a digital mastering facility to fix.

Suddenly, I was faced with a tough decision: trust that a solution would present itself or immediately scrap the CD aspect of the project. Immediately, because the book, which was 24 hours away from being sent to the printer, would have to be stripped of all references to the CD.

With some trepidation, I opted for trust and put the word out that I needed an affordable recording studio. Fast.

Within days, I was in the sound booth at Shepherd Studios, being coached by its owner. A while later, as we're listening to one of the meditation tracks in the control room, he slides over to the electronic keyboard. "I think it would sound even better with something like this," he says, as he starts to improvise a track of contemplative music.

He's right. It sounds incredible. But...

"What would something like that add to the cost?" I ask hesitantly.

"Does it matter?" he answers back, clearly channeling the spirit of the project.

The bottom line? The full cost of the professional recording, editing, engineering, mixing and music was barely more than I had planned to spend on mastering my original recording. And the quality of the studio recording is so exceptional that mastering is no longer needed.

As I listen now to all 11 tracks, I'm in awe -- not only of the sound quality and inspirational power of the 2-CD set but of the trust in miracles that brought it to life...that same trust that brings our words to life on the page, when we let it.


Whether you're a seasoned writer or just starting out, whatever your genre or form, The Voice of the Muse book and companion 2-CD set will rekindle your creative fire, free your creative spirit and revolutionize your creative life. You'll never feel the same about writing again!

At 248 pages, The Voice of the Muse: Answering the Call to Write is 50 percent longer than its eBook predecessor and includes many new chapters, meditations and exercises. The companion 2-CD set (sold separately) contains my recording of the book's 10 guided meditations and an introductory track of instruction and inspiration. Although you don’t need the book to have a full experience of the CD set (or vice versa), the two work synergistically together to enrich your creative journey.

Click here to experience "You Are a Writer," the final guided meditation from The Voice of the Muse Companion CD set.

All copies of The Voice of the Muse book and/or CD set ordered before January 22 will be signed to you (or to whomever you're gifting it) and will get free U.S. shipping. (Normal shipping charges apply as of January 22.)

Why Are Americans Afraid of Dragons?

Wednesday, December 19 ~ Albuquerque, New Mexico

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.

"What about Eragon?" the younger woman asks. "I hear it's good."

"Does it have magic in it? I don't want a movie with magic," the older one -- her mother? -- responds sternly.

They move out of earshot and I'm too stunned to follow.

Are we truly living in some version of The MoonQuest'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?

What kind of culture have we created where children are denied magic, where fantasy is suspect and where dragons are relegated to dustbins?

Thirty years ago in an essay, author Ursula K. Le Guin 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.

If 30 years ago dragons were not fit for adults, are they now unfit for children, too?

While the Harry Potter books broadened the reach of imaginative fiction for kids (and adults), it also expanded our hysterical suspicion and suppression of it.

The fact 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.

That's why I call The MoonQuest a "true fantasy." There is nothing factual about it. But as those two women in Target have proven, it's decidedly true.

Hidden Desires of the Heart

Monday, December 17 ~ Albuquerque, New Mexico

A funny thing about dreams is that we sometimes don't even know we have them until they're on the verge of being fulfilled.

Getting The MoonQuest published wasn't that kind of unconscious dream for me. Rather, it was a conscious dream I had held since the book's second draft was completed more than a decade ago.

The Voice of the Muse was different. As I wrote here six months ago in You Want Me to Do What?!?, publishing this book on writing was not something I knew to be my heart's desire. Even when I sensed Spirit urging me forward with the project, I felt more obedient than impassioned.

Today, though, as The Voice of the Muse's final files reach the book's Michigan printing plant, I'm suddenly overcome by the power in my life of this unconscious dream. It hit me today in much the same way a forgotten nocturnal memory is unexpectedly reawakened by a chance thought or encounter.

Once I heard that the printing process had begun, I was overwhelmed by a surge of excitement I hadn't previously felt. In an instant, my intuitive knowingness had become visceral, emotional. Suddenly, I felt connected to all those who will be freed by this book to tell their stories. It was as though my path and theirs had merged in a burst of shared passion and creative purpose.

Now, to my amazement, the prospect of holding The Voice of the Muse in my hands and of sharing its wisdom into the world fills me with the same anticipatory fervor I felt eight months for The MoonQuest, when it was at a similar stage.

The dream I didn't know I had is being realized, and I'm grateful.

Art by Mark David Gerson: "Creative Force," inspired by Mount Garfield, the eastern edge of the Book Cliffs, near Grand Junction, Colorado

"The words lie within you. They hover in the shadows, longing to be noticed, yearning to be heard, aching to be shared. Together through this book, you and I will give them voice."

The 248-page book of inspiration and instruction is 50 percent longer than its eBook predecessor and includes many new chapters, meditations and exercises. Also available is a companion 2-CD set with my recording of the book's 10 guided meditations, plus an introductory track of instruction and inspiration. You can read/hear excerpts here

All copies of The Voice of the Muse book and/or CD set ordered before January 22 will be autographed to you (or to whomever you're gifting it) and will get free U.S. shipping. (Normal shipping charges apply as of January 22.)

Instant Gratification

Friday, December 14 ~ Albuquerque, New Mexico

I'm sitting at a book-signing table at the Hastings store on Tramway Boulevard with my friend and fellow author Gary A. Wilson. Somehow, through a miracle of grace (and Gary's enthusiasm for my book), I've managed to sell three copies of The MoonQuest, even though I've felt thoroughly ungrounded and largely incoherent since arriving here.

A young couple approaches our table. As is often the case, it's the woman who's the reader. She picks up The MoonQuest and, instead of scanning the back cover, immediately begins reading from page one.

Her eyes and face begin to glow with pleasure. It's clear she doesn't want to put it down.

"I love it," she exclaims, "the names...the places...the story. I love it!"

I sign it for her and she and her friend move on, leaving me profoundly grateful -- not for the sale but for the light in her eyes as she read my words.

Although, I've been blessed with good reviews and positive feedback, I've never witnessed someone experiencing my story. I've never been gifted with the immediacy of a reader's delight. I've never experienced the instant gratification of a reader's instant gratification.

It's a rare privilege -- one closed to most authors. Tonight, I have seen the impact of my words in real time and I'm humbled by the power of the story that lives within me, the story that lives within us all.

A Sandia Earth/Sky Montage

Tuesday, December 4 ~ Albuquerque, New Mexico








Photos of the Sandia Mountains and Albuquerque sky by Mark David Gerson

In Gratitude

Wednesday, November 21 ~ Albuquerque, New Mexico


I'm sitting at my kitchen table on this day before Thanksgiving, the wind outside my window blowing the last of the warm weather away, contemplating the cornucopia of blessings in my life for which I'm grateful.

Despite all the upheaval in my life and in the world around me, the blessings are still limitless.

The first on my mind, for I leave in a few minutes for the two-and-a-half-hour drive to pick her up, is my daughter, who will join me here in Albuquerque for Thanksgiving this weekend.

This is our first Thanksgiving together as just the two of us and the first time since her mother and I separated that I have a home of my own to welcome her into. I'm profoundly grateful for her presence in my life and for the home I'm now able to share with her.

This time last year, still on the road and about to spend my second consecutive Thanksgiving with my friends Bob and Diana Mitchell in Michigan, I could not have begun to imagine all the unexpected gifts this year would bring, among them:

• a home of my own after 30 months of full-time travel...and the arrival here in Albuquerque, a month after mine, of one of my closest friends -- who now lives a five-minute walk away.

• a home in the foothills of (and with a view of) the Sandia Mountains, which have inspired and uplifted me from the moment I first saw them nearly three years ago. (In fact, my very first place drawing was of the Sandias.)

• the long-awaited publication of my novel, The MoonQuest, not to mention the two awards it has already garnered and the glimmerings of interest in my screenplay adaptation of the book.

• the imminent publication of a second book, The Voice of the Muse: Answering the Call to Write and the production of its companion CD. (I'll have more to say about these in a newsletter in the next week or so, when I'll unveil its amazing cover...though you can get a small-size sneak preview on MySpace.)

• all the wondrous and miraculous ways I have been taken care of, even as I've let go most of the touring, teleconferences and private sessions that were my financial mainstay on the road.

There is so much more...too much to enumerate. But I can't complete my incomplete list without mentioning you. Through all the radical shifts and transformations in my life and, no doubt, in yours over the past year, I'm enduringly grateful that you are still in my life, part of my creative and spiritual family.

Whether or not you celebrate Thanksgiving tomorrow, I wish you an abundance of all that would bring joy and gladness to your heart -- today, tomorrow and every day.

Photo by Mark David Gerson: Sunrise over the Sandias

On the Air with Mark David

Tuesday, November 20 ~ Albuquerque, New Mexico

Through the miracle that is the internet, I'm able to share with you two recent radio/podcast interviews.

The first, aired back in October and produced by Authors Access, talks about how to get through and past writer's block. You can listen to it here.

(I have lots more to say about writer's block in my upcoming book and companion CD set, The Voice of the Muse: Answering the Call to Write.)

The second, aired earlier this week and part of the Authors On the Air series hosted by the irrepressible Marlive Harris, is free-range talk about writing, including how I came to write The MoonQuest. You can listen to it here.

Please check them out and let me know what you think!

Paying More Attention

Friday, November 2 ~ Albuquerque, New Mexico

Sometimes messages come to me through insects and cars, sometimes through dream.

Sometimes, they come in dream shorthand -- through snatches of song that flit and flutter through my consciousness (or repeat insistently) as I wake up in the morning.

This morning's was the latter, an Elton John lyric that is still looping through my mind hours after I opened my eyes.

For you and I have a guardian angel...

It's the second consecutive morning I've been awakened by these reassuring words from the song "True Love," and they remind yet again me that as I pay attention, I am taken care of...magnificently.

Yesterday's guardian angel message, for example, arrived shortly before I learned that The MoonQuest had been named a finalist in a national book award!

"How can I doubt?" I ask myself....even as, in my humanity, I still sometimes do.

The MoonQuest Wins National Award!

Thursday, November 1 ~ Albuquerque, New Mexico

The MoonQuest: A True Fantasy by Mark David Gerson has been named a finalist in the Visionary Fiction category of the 2007 Best Books Awards.

The national awards, sponsored by USA Book News, the premiere online magazine and review website for mainstream and independent publishing houses, were announced today in Los Angeles.

This is the second award for The MoonQuest, which was a New Mexico Discovery Award winner for unpublished fiction in 2006.

The MoonQuest is available online through Amazon.com, where it's a five-star selection, and coast-to-coast in the U.S. at selected retailers.

Recent reviews have praised The MoonQuest as "an evocative and emotionally moving tale of adventure" (Midwest Book Review) and "an exceptional, timeless novel" (The Mindquest Review of Books).

Mark David's newest book, The Voice of the Muse: Answering the Call to Write, will be published in February 2008 by LightLines Media. For Mark David's upcoming book-signings and events, visit booktour.com/author/mark_david_gerson.

At this writing and for a limited time, The MoonQuest is available at a discounted price through Amazon.com