Former Nova Scotian awarded gold medal for novel written in Yarmouth and Kings Counties.

Mark David Gerson’s The MoonQuest: A True Fantasy has placed first in

visionary fiction in the Independent Publisher Book Awards

The gold medal was awarded on May 30 in Los Angeles in conjunction with Book Expo

America, the U.S. book industry’s premier trade show, in a competition that attracted more than

3,000 entries from Canada, the U.S. and beyond.

“The quality of this year's entries is totally amazing,” according to the IPPY press release, “and

judging was difficult, as we saw better designed books, read higher quality writing and were

exposed to a more sophisticated concepts.”

The MoonQuest is Gerson’s first novel and is the tale of a young bard’s quest to restore vision and

imagination to a mythical land where stories have been banned and storytellers put to death.

Although Gerson conceived The MoonQuest in Toronto, he wrote most of the first draft while living

in Yarmouth County (Amirault’s Hill, and East Pubnico) and all of the second draft in Canning, Kings County. He came to Nova Scotia from Toronto in late 1994.

“Nova Scotia remains a special place for me,” Gerson says, “and not only because of The MoonQuest.”

This is The MoonQuest’s fourth award, having garnered recognition in the USA Best Book Awards,

the Readers View Awards and the New Mexico Discovery Awards.

As well, it has been lauded by U.S. critics as “an evocative and emotionally moving tale of

adventure” (Midwest Book Review) and “an exceptional, timeless novel” (The Mindquest Review of

Books).

Gerson is also author of The Voice of the Muse: Answering the Call to Write, based on

his 15-plus years of teaching creative writing (including workshops at TH’YARC in Yarmouth and at

Acadia and St. Francis-Xavier universities).

Both Gerson’s books are available in Canada from Amazon.com and other online retailers, as well as from the publisher at www.lightlinesmedia.com.

A native Montrealer, Gerson lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he’s at work on a

screenplay adaptation of The MoonQuest and a sequel to the book.