Mark Gerhard has been a professional writer for a very long time.

He studied fiction writing as a teenager with the Nobel Prize winning author Isaac Bashevis Singer.  At UC Berkeley he studied short story writing with humorist Ishmael Reed, self-publishing the stories in a volume entitled "The Elf of the Shelf Sees Himself" in 1983.

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After graduation he worked at the Pacific Sun Newspaper in Mill Valley as the community affairs reporter.  He worked a variety of jobs in advertising and graphic design before joining Autodesk in 1990.  He became a 3d animation expert, focused on training and courseware development. Over the course of 20 years he received awards for excellence in technical communication for his animation tutorial work, and authored several books on Mastering Animation Software.

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In addition to his writing experience, he was been a classroom instructor teaching a variety of subjects to students of all ages around the globe. He teaches meditation and also is a classically trained musician, performing and recording on the tabla, a North Indian percussion instrument.