Mark David Gerson
Tell us a little about yourself
Mark David Gerson is the award-winning creator of The Legend of Q’ntana fantasy series and author of more than a dozen critically acclaimed books — from compelling fiction and memoir to transformational self-help books and popular titles for writers. A highly sought-after speaker, coach, editorial consultant, and media guest, Mark David, electrifies groups and individuals around the world with his inspiring stories and motivational talks and seminars.
I’m the author of 19 books and I’ve also written four screenplays, three of which have been optioned. I never wanted to be a writer. Or more accurately put, I never thought I wanted to be a writer. But my muse clearly had other plans, slowly and cunningly pushing me in an authorial direction until it was too late to turn back! If I’d been more observant, I might have noticed that my first typewriter, bought for me back when I was in high school, wasn’t a common brand like Underwood, Royal, or Smith-Corona. It was a Hermes, a Swiss-made machine named for the winged-heeled Greek god of communication! Still, I didn’t start my first novel (The MoonQuest), which would ultimately become the first book in my Legend of Q’ntana fantasy series, until I was in my late 30s.
Why do you write?
My usual answer to this question is, “because I can’t not”! It’s something I have discovered over and over through the past quarter century. But the following story, which I tell in several of my books, including my Acts of Surrender memoir and my The Way of the Fool personal growth book, is perhaps the most dramatic example…
It’s August 2013, and I have just completed a first draft of my stage-musical adaptation of The SunQuest, third story in TheLegend of Q’ntana. I have been at this nonstop for eight weeks now, and I’m beyond burnt out.
For more than 25 years, I have treated writing as a spiritual pursuit, writing from the deepest inner places I have been able to access. It’s also what I’ve taught. But on this day, I feel as though I have sacrificed too much for too little: My book sales are poor, my coaching income is negligible and the emotional pain of digging so deep has grown unbearable.
On this day, I declare to 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.”
I make one modest concession: I commit to editing and posting a “pre-strike” interview I had conducted a few weeks earlier with New York Times bestselling mystery author J.A. Jance.
About 30 minutes into our recorded conversation, as we’re chatting about craft, I tell Jance how much I love that she never outlines her books because I don’t either.
“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.”
“Shit,” I exclaim to the recording. The moment Jance talks about the faith that carries her from her first sentence to her last, I know that my strike is over. My creative and spiritual lives have always been inextricably linked, and both have been built on a solid foundation of faith.
As 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 give up. I can’t abandon my faith and I can’t stop surrendering to it.
I am a writer. Period.
Every time since, when I have been tempted to give up (and it has happened more than once!), I remember that experience…and I keep going.
What genre do you write and Why did you pick this genre?
I write in multiple genres — fantasy, literary fiction, memoir, spiritual/inspirational, personal growth/self-help and books on writing and creativity — although it was fantasy that started it all with The MoonQuest. As for how I pick my genres, I don’t. My genres pick me, as do my individual books. With The MoonQuest, for example, I was teaching a writing workshop in Toronto when uncharacteristically; I did the same exercise I had just given my students: an open-eye guided visualization based on a tarot card. The card I picked was The Chariot, and the result was the opening scene of a novel I knew nothing about and that I had no conscious plans to write. My second book and my first for writers, The Voice of the Muse: Answering the Call to Write, developed out of journaled jottings I had done for myself when I was feeling blocked on The StarQuest, the second Q’ntana story. One day, it occurred to me that those jottings might form the basis for a book on writing. Turns out I was right!
Tell us about your book
The MoonQuest takes place in the land of Q’ntana, where stories have been banned, storytellers have been exiled or put to death, and the moon has gone dark. Legend has it that the moon, so saddened by the silence in the land, has cried tears that have extinguished her light. A reluctant young bard and his three companions are dispatched on a quest to return stories and vision to the land and light to the moon. In a time-twister of a plot, the main character of The StarQuest is that young bard’s daughter…but it takes place before The MoonQuest! Her son is the main character in The SunQuest. The Bard of Bryn Doon takes places centuries after the events of The SunQuest: When his remote village is destroyed and its surviving inhabitants dispersed, a young bard is thrust onto a perilous journey to save Q’ntana from the designs of an evil sorcerer and to return the fabled Stallions of Bryn Doon to their mystical and mysterious home.
How much time do you dedicate to your author career?
I am a full-time writer, writing coach, screenplay/manuscript consultant, and workshop facilitator. The time I spend writing depends on whether I’m at work on a new project.
How long on average does it take you to write your books?
There is no “on average”! LOL. My quickest first draft (The SunQuest) took three weeks; my longest (The StarQuest) took 11 years!! But my all-time record goes to The Way of the Fool: How to Stop Worrying About Life and Start Living It… in 12½ Super-Simple Steps!, which raced from conception to publication in a short 10 weeks.
What is the best money you have ever spent on your author career?
After my agent of two years failed to find a buyer for The MoonQuest, I decided to self-publish. This was before the days of quality print-on-demand and before I felt confident enough to do my own book design. So I hired a book designer and cover designer and contracted with a book printer. That professionally produced first edition made me feel like a “real author” for the first time; the response to it (including multiple awards) gave me the confidence to keep going.
What is the most challenging part of being an author?
The solitude. Unless you’re collaborating, writing is a solitary pursuit, even more so when you’re single. Until covid, I would often park myself in a cafe to write, just to be around other people. I haven’t yet returned to that practice, but I probably will at some point soon.
What is the best piece of advice you have for other authors?
Trust your story and, if you’re writing fiction, your characters.
If I have learned anything over my decades of writing, it’s that my stories are smarter than I am. Infinitely smarter.
Your story knows itself better than you ever will. Your story knows its ideal form, shape, and structure. Your story knows its characters, situations, conflicts, and settings. Your story knows its theme. I would even venture to say that your story knows its ultimate destination and fate. Your job is to get out of the story’s way — and your own — and let it have its way with you. Your job is to let it write itself.
If you let it, it will.
What is your favorite book?
Of mine? That’s like asking a father who his favorite child is! But if you promise not to tell, I’d probably have to say that it’s The MoonQuest, my first-born. When I reread it recently, for the first time in a long time, I was astounded at how good it was (even though I hope I’m a better writer after so many more books since!) and how deeply it still affected me.
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