The Muse & You with Mark David Gerson (#8): Radio About Writing, Creativity & Life

Episode Eight:
Thursday, Feb 18, 1pm ET
(click here to listen live or to the archived version any time after the show airs)

• Ask the Writing Coach (your questions for me about writing and creativity) and a special feature interview with book-marketer extraordinaire Penny Sansevieri author of Red Hot Internet Publicity: An Insider's Guide to Promoting Your Book on the Internet


If you want to know anything about online book marketing, there's no better person to ask than Penny C. Sansevieri. CEO of Author Marketing Experts, a decade-old San Diego-based PR firm that focuses on books and authors, Penny knows what exactly what it takes to harness the seemingly limitless resources of the internet and direct them aggressively and effectively to your benefit. She should: Penny was focusing her promotional efforts on the internet long before the rest of us came on board.

Her newest book, the just-revised and reprinted Red Hot Internet Publicity crams her vast experience and encyclopedic knowledge into 279 pages of tools, tips and advice, along with a cornucopia of web-related resources.

Wondering how to create a web site that sells? Or how to deal with Twitter?

How about getting your blog to work for you? Or the six need-to-know rules of 21st-century publicity?

Of course you should pick up Penny's book for the answers. But you should also tune in on February 18 when I ask her about these and other aspects of getting the word out to the world about you and your books in the sometimes-baffling internet age. You'll also have a chance to use three of the tools of the internet age to get your book-marketing questions to Penny: the BlogTalk Radio chatroom, Facebook and Twitter (see below).

Five Things Penny Wants You To Know About Web Marketing
1. Don't Listen to Your Mother: Be vocal!
2. Don't Languish in Obscurity: Get buyers to your web site.
3. Emphasize Your Personality: Get personal.
4. Be Helpful or Be Gone: Give your visitors reasons to return to your blog or web site.
5. Content Rules: Fill your site with good stuff!
~ adapted from Red Hot Internet Publicity


As usual during the first segment of The Muse & You, I'll offer some writing tips and inspiration and take your questions about writing and the creative process and about me and my books, The Voice of the Muse: Answering the Call to Write and The MoonQuest: A True Fantasy. Penny will be on right after that.

Please tune in, and bring your questions -- for me and for Penny!

There are three ways to ask questions of my and my guests or to post comments:
• Post your questions in the show's chat room (free Blog Talk Radio account required)
• Post your questions directly to me on Twitter (@markdavidgerson)
• Post your questions directly to me on on my Facebook wall

The Muse & You with Mark David Gerson, is all about writing and creativity, and it's for writers and readers alike -- an opportunity to listen to writers and creators of all sorts talk about how and why they create and, of course, about what they create. It's also an opportunity for you to ask your questions -- of me during the first segment of the show, when I offer writing tips and inspiration, and of my guests during the interview portion.

Listen to The Muse & You with Mark David Gerson on the third Thursday of every month at 1pm ET (10am PT). March guest TBA.

The Muse & You Show Archive
If you miss any live broadcast, you can listen to the archived episode, which is available shortly after each show on the show's web page. You can also download any show directly into your computer for later listening.

• #7 ~ Jan 21 ~ Cristina M.R. Norcrossauthor of Unsung Love Songs

• #6 ~ Dec 17 -- Karen Walker author of Following the Whispers

• #5 ~ Nov 19 -- Dan Stone author of The Rest of Our Lives

• #4 ~ Oct 15 -- Kristin Bair O'Keeffe author of Thirsty

• #3 ~ Sept 17 - Joanne Chilton and Jeanne Ripley co-authors of Wings to Fly

• #2 ~ Aug 20 -- Jared Lopatin, author of Rising Sign

• #1 ~ July 29 — Julie Isaac, founder of Twitter's #writechat, and Malcom Campbell, author of The Sun Singer and Jock Stewart and the Missing Sea of Fire


Writing/Creativity Coaching Groups with Mark David / in person and by phone via Teleconference

• Albuquerque, NM / Feb 9-Mar 30 / 7 pm MT (Only 1 slot still available)

• Via Teleconference / Feb 24-April 14 / 9pm ET (Discount fee through Feb 12)

An 8-week guided experience of creative commitment and acceleration. It doesn’t matter whether you have a project that’s ongoing, stuck or ready to kick off, or whether you just want help establishing and maintaining a regular writing rhythm; a Voice of the Muse Coaching Group will be your weekly compass alignment to keep you empowered, motivated, inspired and on track.


• Friday, Feb 12 ~ 7pm
Free Talk
• Fri, Feb 12 - Sun, Feb 14
At booth #505, offering discounted coaching sessions, signing books, answering writing questions


Private Writing/Creativity Coaching Sessions with Mark David

• Let Mark David help you unleash the power of your creative potential!


Coming to Las Vegas in April and to Portland/Seattle in June. Follow Mark David's events here.

Free Your Stories, Free Your Life

I never intended for The MoonQuest 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.

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.

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...

For more videos on life and the creative process, visit me on YouTube.



Writing/Creativity Coaching Groups with Mark David / in person and by phone via Teleconference

• Albuquerque, NM / Feb 9-Mar 30 / 7 pm MT (Discount fee through Jan 28)

• Via Teleconference / Feb 18-April 8 / 9pm ET (Discount fee through Feb 8)

An 8-week guided experience of creative commitment and acceleration. It doesn’t matter whether you have a project that’s ongoing, stuck or ready to kick off, or whether you just want help establishing and maintaining a regular writing rhythm; a Voice of the Muse Coaching Group will be your weekly compass alignment to keep you empowered, motivated, inspired and on track.


Mark David's January Events / Denver Area

• Free Talk, Author Q&A and book-signing
Topic: Birthing Your Book...Even If You Don't Know What It's About
Thursday, Jan 28~ 7pm~ Bemis Public Library, Littleton, CO

• Writing workshop -- From Memory to Memoir: Writing the Stories of Your Life
Friday, Jan 29 ~ 6-9pm ~ Colorado Free University, Denver, CO

• Writing workshop -- Write in the Flow: Answering Your Call to Write
Saturday, Jan 30 ~ 10am-4:30pm ~ Colorado Free University, Denver, CO

• The Call to Write: Answering the Voice of Your Muse
Sunday, Jan 31 ~ 1-5pm ~ Phoenix Healing Center, Longmont, CO


• Friday, Feb 12 ~ 7pm
Free Talk
• Fri, Feb 12 - Sun, Feb 14
At booth #505, offering discounted coaching sessions, signing books, answering writing questions


Private Writing/Creativity Coaching Sessions with Mark David

• Let Mark David help you unleash the power of your creative potential!


Coming to Las Vegas in April and to Portland/Seattle in June. Follow Mark David's events here.

The Muse & You with Mark David Gerson (#7): Radio About Writing, Creativity & Life

Episode Seven:
Thursday, Jan 21, 1pm ET
(click here to listen live or to the archived version any time after the show airs)

• Ask the Writing Coach (your questions for me about writing and creativity) and a feature interview with poet Cristina M.R. Norcross author of Unsung Love Songs and The Red Drum


If there's one thing you can say about Cristina M.R. Norcross, it's that she's dedicated and committed to her writing. Over the years she's clerked in a shoe store and gourmet candy shop, she's worked as a florist and lifeguard, she's taken phone orders for law books and customer complaints for a gas company, and she's taught basic skills and high school English.

As she tells it, there wasn't a free moment during those years when she wasn't writing: "At night...on days off...on note pads next to the cash register -- any ounce of time I could spare."

All that writing time paid off. Cristina has been published in literary magazines in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Algeria, has published two poetry collections -- Land & Sea: Poetry Inspired by Art and The Red Drum -- and has a third poetry collection, Unsung Love Songs, due to be released in time for Valentine's Day.

During this month's feature interview on The Muse and You, we celebrate Valentine's Day three weeks early as Cristina offers us a sneak preview of Unsung Love Songs, shares her creative process, talks about how art inspires her poetry, and reads from a collection that celebrates the quiet, everyday moments of love that can be the heart's biggest flourish of all.

Sometimes there are no word -- just moments.
This is where happiness lives.
~ "No Words", by Cristina M.R. Norcross

It promises to be an enlightening and inspiring conversation, and I hope you'll tune in (and join in, with your questions and comments).

During the first segment of the show, I'll offer some writing tips and inspiration and take your questions about writing and the creative process and about me and my books, The Voice of the Muse: Answering the Call to Write and The MoonQuest: A True Fantasy.

Please tune in, and bring your questions and quirks -- for me and my guest!

There are three ways to ask questions of my and my guests or to post comments:
• Post your questions in the show's chat room (free Blog Talk Radio account required)
• Post your questions directly to me on Twitter (@markdavidgerson)
• Post your questions directly to me on on my Facebook wall

The Muse & You with Mark David Gerson, is all about writing and creativity, and it's for writers and readers alike -- an opportunity to listen to writers and creators of all sorts talk about how and why they create and, of course, about what they create. It's also an opportunity for you to ask your questions -- of me during the first segment of the show, when I offer writing tips and inspiration, and of my guests during the interview portion.

Listen to The Muse & You with Mark David Gerson on the third Thursday of every month at 1pm ET (10am PT). Coming up in February: a feature interview with marketer extraordinaire Penny Sansevieri, author of the red-hot must-read for authors, Red Hot Intenet Publicity: An Insider's Guide to Promoting Your Book on the Internet


The Muse & You Show Archive
If you miss any live broadcast, you can listen to the archived episode, which is available shortly after each show on the show's web page. You can also download any show directly into your computer for later listening.

• #6 ~ Dec 17 -- Karen Walker author of Following the Whispers

• #5 ~ Nov 19 -- Dan Stone author of The Rest of Our Lives

• #4 ~ Oct 15 -- Kristin Bair O'Keeffe author of Thirsty

• #3 ~ Sept 17 - Joanne Chilton and Jeanne Ripley co-authors of Wings to Fly

• #2 ~ Aug 20 -- Jared Lopatin, author of Rising Sign

• #1 ~ July 29 — Julie Isaac, founder of Twitter's #writechat, and Malcom Campbell, author of The Sun Singer and Jock Stewart and the Missing Sea of Fire




Writing/Creativity Coaching Sessions with Mark David

• Let Mark David help you unleash the power of your creative potential!


Writing/Creativity Coaching Group with Mark David / Feb-March / Albuquerque

• An 8-week guided experience of creative commitment and acceleration. It doesn’t matter whether you have a project that’s ongoing, stuck or ready to kick off, or whether you just want help establishing and maintaining a regular writing rhythm. Regardless, The Voice of the Muse Coaching Group will be your weekly compass alignment to keep you empowered, motivated, inspired and on track. (Discount fee through Jan 25)


Mark David's January Workshops / Denver Area

• Free Talk, Author Q&A and book-signing
Topic: Birthing Your Book...Even If You Don't Know What It's About
Thursday, Jan 28~ 7pm~ Bemis Public Library, Littleton, CO

• Writing workshop -- From Memory to Memoir: Writing the Stories of Your Life
Friday, Jan 29 ~ 6-9pm ~ Colorado Free University, Denver, CO

• Writing workshop -- Write in the Flow: Answering Your Call to Write
Saturday, Jan 30 ~ 10am-4:30pm ~ Colorado Free University, Denver, CO

• The Call to Write: Answering the Voice of Your Muse
Sunday, Jan 31 ~ 1-5pm ~ Phoenix Healing Center, Longmont, CO (Discount fee through Jan 25)


• Friday, Feb 12 ~ 7pm
Free Talk
• Fri, Feb 12 - Sun, Feb 14
At booth #505, offering discounted coaching sessions, signing books, answering writing questions

Feeling Rejected? Don't Be Dejected!

I didn't discover Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time until I was an adult in the early years of my spiritual awakening. It's a gem of a book, filled -- as is all her writing -- with spiritual truths for young adults and adults alike. Today, nearly two decades after that first reading, the profound wisdom of this prolific author and devout Episcopalian continues to inspire me.

One of my favorite L'Engle stories, apart from the one that follows, comes from one of her nonfiction books -- I don't now remember which. In it she describes legions of white-bearded Old Testament prophets, their faces raised to the sky, shouting up at God, incredulously: "You want me to do what!?" There are days I know just how they felt!

I first posted a version of this piece about rejection in June 2008. But I've reposted the link so often, I decided to make it new again.

Feeling rejected? When you read L'Engle's story, I guarantee you won't be dejected!


Author Madeleine L'Engle received two years' worth of rejections from 26 publishers for her novel A Wrinkle in Time, which, once it was finally published in 1962, went on to win major awards and be translated into more than a dozen languages.

Toward the end of that two-year period, L'Engle covered up her typewriter and decided to give up -- on A Wrinkle in Time and on writing. Then on her way downstairs, a revelation: an idea for a novel about failure. In a flash, she was back at the typewriter.

"That night," as she explained in April 1993 on the PBS documentary Madeleine L'Engle: Stargazer, "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."

Today, the bibliography on L'Engle's web site lists 62 works spanning the period from 1944 through 2005, plus a 63rd, published posthumously in 2008. Sadly, Madeleine L'Engle died in September 2007.

"I cannot possibly tell you how I came to write A Wrinkle in Time," her New York Times obituary quotes her as having said. "It was simply a book I had to write. I had no choice."


Whether you're published or not, if you're writing, you are a writer.

Need some help believing that? Listen to the guided meditation, "You Are A Writer," from The Voice of the Muse Companion: Guided Meditations for Writers.




Writing/Creativity Coaching Sessions with Mark David

• Let Mark David help you unleash the power of your creative potential!


Mark David's January Workshops / Denver Area

• Free Talk, Author Q&A and book-signing
Topic: Birthing Your Book...Even If You Don't Know What It's About
Thursday, Jan 28~ 7pm~ Bemis Public Library, Littleton, CO

• Writing workshop -- From Memory to Memoir: Writing the Stories of Your Life
Friday, Jan 29 ~ 6-9pm ~ Colorado Free University, Denver, CO

• Writing workshop -- Write in the Flow: Answering Your Call to Write
Saturday, Jan 30 ~ 10am-4:30pm ~ Colorado Free University, Denver, CO

• The Call to Write: Answering the Voice of Your Muse
Sunday, Jan 31 ~ 1-5pm ~ Phoenix Healing Center, Longmont, CO


• Friday, Feb 12 ~ 7pm
Free Talk
• Fri, Feb 12 - Sun, Feb 14
At booth #505, offering discounted coaching sessions, signing books, answering writing questions