= 2024 =

Please Note: As of July 2024 this blog has a new name, C.M. Mayo’s Book Notes & Convos, and will post twice a month. For that archive, click here.

*** *** ***

ARCHIVE FOR MADAM MAYO BLOG 2006-2022

= 2023 =

Away for a while.

= 2022 =

This blog posts on Mondays. In the first quarter of 2022 the first Mondays of the month are for Texas Books, as I continue working on my portrait / memoir of Far West Texas; second Mondays are devoted to my workshop students and anyone else interested in creative writing; third Mondays a post related to my own work, past or in-progress; and fourth Mondays to a Q & A with a fellow writer.

The end of March 2022 marks the 16th anniversary of this blog, after which point, until further notice, I will be posting approximately two Mondays a month. The posts on Texas Books, the writing workshop, my own work, and a Q & A with another writer, will continue, each posting every other month and, as ever, when there is a fifth Monday in a given month, that’s for the newsletter.

September 12, 2022 – WORKSHOP:
John Steinbeck’s Use of Wigged-Out Exaggeration in “Travels with Charley”

August 15, 2022
From the Archives: Henry R. Magruder’s Woodcuts from his Memoir, Sketches of the Last Year of the Mexican Empire
August 1, 2022 – TEXAS BOOKS / Q & A:
Q & A with Judy Alter About The Most Land, the Best Cattle: The Waggoners of Texas

July 25, 2022 – Q & A:
Q & A with Rachel Fulton Brown About The Dragon Common Room and Aurora Bearialis
July 11, 2022 – WORKSHOP:
Writing Memoir: Taber’s To Write the Past and Conover’s Immersion

June 20, 2022
The Most Extraordinary and Beautiful Translation I Have Ever Seen (And You Just Might Say the Same)
June 6, 2022 – TEXAS BOOKS:
Texas Books: From the Archives: A Review of Sarah Cortez and Sergio Troncoso’s Our Lost Border

May 30, 2022 – NEWSLETTER:
Newsletter & Cyberflanerie
May 24, 2022 – Q & A:
From the Archives: Q & A with Poets Alenier, Anhalt, Crooker, Hill, Hutchison, and Mackay
May 9, 2022 – WORKSHOP:
Five Perhaps Apparently Silly But Ultra-Serious Reflections on Nurturing Creative Thought (Starting with Beethoven’s Ninth)

April 18, 2022
Thank you, Dear Readers: On the Occasion of Madam Mayo Blog’s 16th Anniversary
April 4, 2022 – TEXAS BOOKS:
Texas Books: The End of Night, West Texas Time Machine, How We See the Sky, and More Books About the Sky & Stars

The end of March 2022 marks the 16th anniversary of this blog, after which point, until further notice, I will be posting approximately two Mondays a month. The posts on Texas Books, the writing workshop, my own work, and a Q & A with another writer, will continue, each posting every other month and, as ever, when there is a fifth Monday in a given month, that’s for the newsletter.

March 28, 2022 – Q & A:
From the Archives: Q & A with Bruce Berger on A Desert Harvest
March 20, 2022
From the Archives: “The Essential Francisco Sosa or, Picadou’s Mexico City”
March 14, 2022 – WORKSHOP (SORT OF):
Readers Write: “Should I Move to Mexico?”
March 7, 2022 – TEXAS BOOKS:
From the Archives: A Review of Desert America: Boom and Bust in the New Old West by Rubén Martínez

February 28, 2022 – Q & A:
Q & A with Michael Hogan About Guns, Grit and Glory: How the US and Mexico Came Together to Defeat the Last Empire in the Americas
February 21, 2022
From the Archives: Some Old Friends Spark Joy (Whilst Kondo-ing My Library)
February 14, 2022 – WORKSHOP:
From the Archives: Five Super Simple Tips for Better Book Design
February 7, 2022 – TEXAS BOOKS:
From the Archives: My Review of Heribert von Feilitzsch’s
In Plain Sight: Felix A. Sommerfeld, Spymaster in Mexico, 1908-1914

January 31, 2022 – NEWSLETTER:
Newsletter & Cyberflanerie (Rob Braxman on the Neural Hash New World Edition)
January 24, 2022 – Q & A:
Q & A with Thaddeus Rutkowski on Tricks of Light
January 17, 2022
From the Archives: “Tulpa Max or, Notes on the Afterlife of a Resurrection”
January 11, 2022 – WORKSHOP:
More on Seeing as an Artist or,
The Rich Mine of Stories About Those Who “See” the Emperor’s Clothes
January 3, 2022 – TEXAS BOOKS:
“What Is a Film Outside the Audience’s Mind?”
Notes on George Stevens: Interviews

= 2021 =

This blog posts on Mondays. In 2021 the first Mondays of the month are for Texas books, as I continue working on my portrait / memoir of Far West Texas; second Mondays are devoted to my workshop students and anyone else interested in creative writing; third Mondays to my own work, past or in-progress; and fourth Mondays to a Q & A with a fellow writer.

December 27, 2021 – Q & A:
Q & A: Some Hard-Earned Advice on Publishing from Poets, Novelists and Historians
December 20, 2021
Top Books Read 2021
December 13, 2021 – WORKSHOP:
Bringing in the Body
December 6, 2021 – TEXAS BOOKS:
Edna Ferber’s Giant & A Selection of Related Books, Plus Two Related Videos On (Yes) the Nuremberg Trials

November 29, 2021 – NEWSLETTER:
Newsletter & Cyberflanerie: Mexico Edition
November 22, 2021 – Q & A:
Q & A with Philosopher Richard Polt on The Typewriter Revolution
November 15, 2021
How Wide is Your Overton Window? Plus from the Archives:
“On Writing About Mexico: Secrets and Surprises”
November 8, 2021 – WORKSHOP:
Verbszzzzz… or Verbs!
November 1, 2021 – TEXAS BOOKS:
They Beat Their Horses with Rocks (And Other Means of Energizing Transport in the Permian Basin of 1858)

October 25, 2021 – Q & A:
How Are Some of the Most Accomplished Writers and Poets
Coping with the Digital Revolution? /
Plus: My Own Logbook and Stopwatch for Madam Mayo Blog
October 18, 2021:
“Julius Knows” in Catamaran
October 11, 2021 – WORKSHOP:
Itty Bitty But Bold! From the Archives: “Revision:
Take a Chainsaw to Those Little Darlings,
Prune, Do No Harm, Be an Archaeologist,
Move the Furniture Onto the Front Lawn, Flip the Gender”
October 4, 2021 – TEXAS BOOKS:
Into the Guadalupe Mountains: Some Favorites from the Texas Bibliothek
(Plus a Couple of Extra-Crunchy Videos)

September 27, 2021 – Q & A:
Q & A with Poet Karren Alenier on her New Book “How We Hold On,”
the WordWorks, Paul Bowles & More
September 20, 2021:
Neil Postman’s 1997 Lecture “The Surrender of Culture to Technology”
September 13, 2021 – WORKSHOP:
Fearless Fabian / Plus From the Archives:
“The Vivid Dreamer” Writing Workshop from the Guadalupe Mountains National Park
September 6, 2021 – TEXAS BOOKS:
From the Archives: My Review of Edward H. Miller’s
Nut Country: Right-Wing Dallas and the Birth of the Southern Strategy

August 30, 2021 – NEWSLETTER:
Newsletter & Cyberflanerie
August 23, 2021 – Q & A:
Q & A with Lynne Sharon Schwartz About Crossing Borders
August 16, 2021:
Trommelwirbel und Vorhang Auf! And a Bit About Adventures in Learning German
August 9, 2021 – WORKSHOP:
Writing More Vivid Descriptions (Start by Leaving the Smartphone Off)
August 2, 2021 – TEXAS BOOKS:
From the Archives: Claudio Saunt’s West of the Revolution

July 26, 2021 – Q & A:
From the Archives: Q & A with Mary S. Black on From the Frío to Del Río
July 19, 2021:
My Interview About Francisco Madero a “Classic Reboot” on Jeffrey Mishlove’s “New Thinking Allowed”– Plus From the Archives: A Review of Kripal and Strieber’s The Super Natural (and Reflections on Mishlove’s The PK Man)
July 12, 2021 – WORKSHOP:
Tools for a Novel-in-Progress
July 6, 2021 – TEXAS BOOKS:
From the Archives: A Review of Pekka Hämäläinen’s The Comanche Empire

June 28, 2021 – Q & A:
Q & A with Biographer David O. Stewart on the Stunning Fact of George Washington
June 20, 2021:
From the Archives: Sam Quinones’ Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic
June 14, 2021 – WORKSHOP:
From the Archives: “Giant Golden Buddha” & 364 More 5 Minute Writing Exercises
June 7, 2021 – TEXAS BOOKS:
Selected Cabeza de Vaca Books, Part II: Notes on Narrative Histories and Biographies

May 31, 2021 – NEWSLETTER:
Newsletter: Blog Post Roundup
May 24, 2021 – Q & A:
Q & A with Kathleen Alcalá on Spirits of the Ordinary
May 17, 2021:
From the Archives: “A Traveler in Mexico: A Rendezvous with Writer Rosemary Sullivan”
May 10, 2021 – WORKSHOP:
From the Archives: One Dozen Dialogue Exercises
May 3, 2021 – TEXAS BOOKS:
Selected Cabeza de Vaca Books, Part I: Notes on the Two Editions of Cabeza de Vaca’s La Relación (Also Known as Account, Chronicle, Narrative, Castaways, Report & etc.) and Selected English Translations

April 26, 2021 – Q & A:
Q & A with Susan J. Tweit on Her Memoir, Bless the Birds: Living with Love in a Time of Dying
April 19, 2021:
On the 15th Anniversary of Madam Mayo Blog
April 12, 2021 – WORKSHOP:
The Manuscript is Ready–Or is It? What’s Next?
April 5, 2021 – TEXAS BOOKS:
Carolyn E. Boyd’s The White Shaman Mural

March 29, 2021 – NEWSLETTER:
Newsletter
March 22, 2021 – Q & A:
Q & A with Jan Cleere on Military Wives in Arizona Territory: A History of Women Who Shaped the Frontier
March 15, 2021:
Ignacio Solares’ “The Orders” in Gargoyle Magazine #72
March 8, 2021 – WORKSHOP:
Recommended Literary Travel Memoirs
March 1, 2021 – TEXAS BOOKS:
The Texas Bibliothek’s Digital Doppelgänger: My Online Working Library of Rare Books

February 22, 2021– Q & A:
Q & A with Solveig Eggerz on Sigga of Reykjavik
February 15, 2021:
Upcoming Virtual Lecture on Francisco I. Madero and Spiritism at the Centro de Estudios de Historia de México
February 8, 2021 – WORKSHOP:
Recommended Books on the Creative Process
February 1, 2021 – TEXAS BOOKS:
From the Texas Bibliothek: The Sanderson Flood of 1965; Faded Rimrock Memories; Terrell County, Texas: Its Past, Its People

January 25, 2021 – Q & A:
Q & A with Christina Thompson on Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia
January 18, 2021:
Melanie Kobayashi’s Champagne Kegger — Plus From the Archives: Ruth Levy Guyer’s A Life Interrupted: The Long Night of Marjorie Day
January 11, 2021 – WORKSHOP:
Recommended Books on the Craft of Creative Writing
January 4, 2021 – TEXAS BOOKS:
A Trio of Texas Biographies in the Texas Bibliothek

= 2020 =

This blog posts on Mondays. On the second Monday of each month look for a workshop post, and on the fourth a Q & A with a fellow writer. Fifth Mondays of the month, when they pop up, are for my newsletter and cyberflanerie. Other Mondays, it’s whatever it wants to be, and that’s usually about my publications, podcasts, research and/or reading. I continue working on my portrait / memoir of Far West Texas.

= 2019 =

On the second Monday of each month look for a workshop post, and on the fourth a Q & A with a fellow writer. This year I’m blogging about Meteor, my poetry collection that won the Gival Press Award and was published this March, and poetry generally; a sprinkling of typospheriana; and now and then, posts on books, people, places, and podcasts related to my book in-progress on Far West Texas. Maybe some on translation, too.

Please note that all posts from 2006-year-end 2018 can be found on the original blogger platform here (look for the archives on the right-hand column).

Migration of selected and updated posts to this new self-hosted WordPress blog is ongoing. As you will see below, much has been done, and much remains to be done.

= 2018 =

2018 found me working on my Far West Texas book, mainly, and that included intensive reading on the history of technology. Moving towards more regularly scheduled workshop posts and Q & As with fellow writers.

More 2018 posts will appear here shortly.

= 2017 =

December 18, 2017
Remembering Ann L. McLaughlin
December 12, 2017
Top 12+ Books Read
December 4, 2017
Waaaay Out to the Big Bend of Far West Texas, and
a Note on El Paso’s Elroy Bode

November 23, 2017
“The Typewriter Manifesto” by Richard Polt,
Plus Cyberflanerie on Technology
November 13, 2017
“Dear Mother, Am feeling hard as a rock and brown as an Indian…”:
More Postcards from the US-Mexico Border Circa 1916
November 6, 2017
Further Notes on John Bigelow, Jr. (1854-1936):
On the Bloody Trail of Geronimo, the Rare Westernlore Press Edition

October 30, 2017
Notes on John Bigelow Jr. and Garrison Tangles in the Friendless Tenth
October 23, 2017
From the Typosphere: “Bank”
October 9, 2017
Notes on Poultney Bigelow, Author, World Traveler, and Pioneer Editor of Outing: An Illustrated Monthly Magazine of Recreation

September 18, 2017 – Q & A:
Q & A: Mary S. Black on Her New Book, From the Frío to Del Río
September 11, 2017
Cartridges and Postcards from the US-Mexico Border of Yore
September 4, 2017
What Is Writing (Really)? Plus A New Video of Yours Truly Talking
About Four Exceedingly Rare Books Essential for Scholars of
the Mexican Revolution

August 7, 2017
Spotlight on Mexican Fiction: “The Apaches of Kiev” by Agustín Cadena in Tupelo Quarterly and Much More

July 31, 2017
Some Old Friends Spark Joy (Whilst Kondo-ing My Library)

May 22, 2017 – WORKSHOP:
One Simple Yet Powerful Practice in Reading as a Writer
May 20, 2017
What the Muse Sent Me About the Tenth Muse, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

April 3, 2017
A Visit to the Casa de la Primera Imprenta de América in Mexico City

MARCH 27, 2017
Thank You, Dear Readers: On the Occasion of Madam Mayo Blog’s Eleventh Anniversary
March 13, 2017
Catamaran Literary Reader and Tiferet: Two Very Fine Literary Journals

February 13, 2017
Lord Kingsborough’s Antiquities of Mexico

January 23, 2017
A Visit to El Paso’s “The Equestrian”
January 17, 2017
Biographers International Interview with C.M. Mayo: Strange
Spark of the Mexican Revolution
January 9, 2017
Typosphere, Ho! “Stay West” on my 1961 Hermes 3000
January 2, 2017 – Q & A:
Q & A: Ellen Cassedy and Yermiyahu Ahron Taub on Translating
Blume Lempel’s Oedipus in Brooklyn from the Yiddish

Throughout 2017 I was working on my Far West Texas book. I won the Gival Press Poetry Award for my collection, Meteor (to be published in March 2019), and when serving as artist-in-residence at the Guadalupe Mountains National Park, much to my surprise, the Muse sent me some haikus. Some literary translations as well.

More 2017 posts will appear here shortly.

= 2016 =

2016 was the year that, by Jove, and Jupiter, and the Jolly Green Giant, I tackled email! Working on the Far West Texas book. Had my “Come to the Typosphere” moment. Here and there, this and that related to some of my previous books on Mexico.

December 12, 2016 – WORKSHOP:
Email Ninjerie in the Theater of Space-Time

November 28, 2016 – WORKSHOP:
Consider the Typewriter (Am I Kidding? No, I Am Not Kidding)
November 21, 2016
Reading Mexico: Recommendations for a Book Club of Extra-Curious
& Adventurous English-Language Readers

October 26, 2016 – WORKSHOP:
Five Techniques for a Journey to Einfühlung
October 10, 2016 – WORKSHOP:
Five 2 Word Exercises for Practicing Seeing as a Literary
Artist in the Airport (or the Mall or the Train Station or
the University Campus or the Car Wash, etc.)

September 26, 2016 – WORKSHOP:
Cal Newport’s Deep Work; Study Hacks Blog, and on Quitting Social Media
September 19, 2016 – WORKSHOP:
Literary Travel Writing: Notes on Process and the Digital Revolution

August 29, 2016
Cymru & Comanche: Cyberflanerie
August 21, 2016 – Q & A:
Q & A: Shelley Armitage on Walking the Llano: A Texas Memoir of Place
August 16, 2016
The Strangely Beautiful Sierra Madera Astrobleme

July 4, 2016
Another One Hundred Foreigners in Morelos: José N. Iturriaga
(and Yours Truly) in Cuernavaca’s Historic Jardín Borda

May 23, 2016
Peyote and the Perfect You
May 9, 2016
13 Trailers for Movies with Extra-Astral Texiness
May 2, 2016
Notes on Artist Xavier González (1898-1993), “Moonlight Over the Chisos,”
and a Visit to Mexico City’s Antigua Academia de San Carlos

April 18, 2016
Global Migration: People and Their Stories (Introduction to the Panel with Elizabeth Hay, Lisa See, Luis Alberto Urrea, and Juan Villoro at the San Miguel Writers’ Conference)

March 28, 2016- Q & A:
Q & A: Carolina Castillo Crimm on De León: A Tejano Family History

February 15, 2016- Q & A:
Q & A with Paul Cool about Salt Warriors
February 3, 2016- Q & A:
Q & A with John B. Kachuba, Author of The Savage Apostle

January 13, 2016 – WORKSHOP:
Podcasting for Writers: To Commit Or Not (or Vaguely?)

More 2016 posts will appear here shortly.

= 2015 =

2015 was rich with reading and other research for my Far West Texas book. Starting to cast a gimlet eye on the so-called Digital Revolution. Giving talks and interviews about some of my previous books, in particular, Metaphysical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution.

November 11, 2015
Translating Contemporary Latin American Poets and Writers:
Embracing, Resisting, Escaping the Magnetic Pull of the Capital

November 3, 2015
On the Trail of the Rock Art of the Lower Pecos

October 29, 2015
Translating Across the Border

August 31, 2015
Q & A: Sonja D. Williams on Writing Word Warrior:
Richard Durham, Radio, and Freedom
August 12, 2015 – WORKSHOP:
Adios, Facebook!

July 17, 2015
Guest-Blogger Diana Anhalt on Five Books That Inspire Poetry
July 15, 2015 – Q & A:
On Francisco I. Madero as Medium: Q & A with
Rev. Stephen A. Hermann, Author of Mediumship Mastery
July 6, 2015
The Pecan: A History of America’s Native Nut By James McWilliams
July 1, 2015 – Q & A:
Q & A: Roger Greenwald, Poet and Literary Translator of Gunnar Harding

June 19, 2015 – WORKSHOP:
IBPA’s “Publishing University” 2015: My Notes on Four Outstanding
Talks on Selling Books, Making Books, Metadata, and Video—
and a Felicitous Observation
June 1, 2015 – WORKSHOP:
So Good They Can’t Ignore You by Cal Newport

April 15, 2015
Q & A: Independent Publisher Michele Orwin, Founding Editor
of Bacon Press Books

March 30, 2015 – WORKSHOP:
The StandStand: One Highly Recommended Way to Keep on
Writing While Standing
March 13, 2015
The Solitario Dome

February 25, 2015
Lone Star Nation: How Texas Will Transform America by Richard Parker
February 2, 2015 – Q & A
An Interview with Alan Rojas Orzechowski about Maximilian’s
Court Painter, Santiago Rebull

More 2015 posts will appear here shortly.

= 2014 =

2014 was the year my book about Madero and the Mexican Revolution came out, hence many posts on related subjects, especially esoterica. Wiggy stuff! Trying to write two books at the same time (I was also at work on the Far West Texas book and the related Marfa Mondays podcast series) was challenging; several of my posts for this year I now file under “Future Reminder to Take My Own Advice.”

November 17, 2014
Why Translate? The Case of the President of Mexico’s Secret Book

September 24, 2014
Guest-blogger Clifford Garstang on Five Favorite Novels About
a Dangerous World
September 8, 2014
12 Tips for Summer Day Hiking in the Desert
(How to Stay Cool and Avoid Actinic Keratosis, Blood, and Killer Bees)

July 11, 2014
The Harrowingly Romantic Adventure of US Trade with Mexico
in the Pre-Pre-Pre NAFTA Era: Notes on Susan Shelby Magoffin
and Her Diary of 1846-1847, Down the Santa Fe Trail and Into Mexico
July 2, 2014 – WORKSHOP:
30 Deadly-Effective Ways to Free Up Bits, Drips & Gimungously
Vast Swaths of Time for Writing

June 27, 2014 – WORKSHOP:
Why I Am a Mega-Fan of the Filofax

May 11, 2014
Una Ventana al Mundo Invisible (A Window to the Invisible World):
Master Amajur and the Smoking Signatures

April 16, 2014
Bruce Berger’s The End of the Sherry

February 24, 2021 – WORKSHOP:
Writers’ Blogs (and My Blog): Eight Conclusions After 8 Years of Blogging

January 9, 2014 – WORKSHOP:
My Uncool “Cool Tool”: Grandma’s Recipe Box Solution to
Internet Password Management

More 2014 posts will appear here shortly.

= 2013 =

Throughout 2013 I was working on the Far West Texas book and my book about a book I translated: Metaphysical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution: Francisco I. Madero and His Secret Book, Spiritist Manual. This was also the year that, woo hoo, Madam Mayo blog clocked 10 years. I was still (as I am) trying to figure it out.

July 22, 2013
Jiddu Krishnamurti and The Lives of Alcyone

June 12, 2013
Francisco I. Madero’s Commentary on the Baghavad-Gita (or Bhaghavad-Gita)

May 23, 2013
So How’s the Book Doing? (And how many copies have you sold?
And what was your print run?)

May 8, 2013
Guest-blogger Joanna Hershon on Five Links From A Dual Inheritance
That Traverse the Globe

March 6, 2013: – WORKSHOP:
Why Aren’t There More Readers? A Note on Curiosity, Creativity,
and Courage

February 1, 2013
Ingo Swann, Bon Voyage

More 2013 posts will appear here shortly.

= 2012 =

In 2012 I started work on a book about Far West Texas and, simultaneously, the Marfa Mondays Podcasting Project. As for the Madam Mayo blog, this year I experimented with posts that were for the most part brief and link-rich, in the style of two blogs I was following then, economist Tyler Cowan’s Marginal Revolution and designer Tina Roth Eisenberg’s Swiss Miss. I was still running guest-blogs (a fashion that has since faded among writers with a book to promote, and that would include myself). I also note my deepening fascination with podcasting. Not reflected in this selection of top posts for the year are the many posts apropos of my reading and other research for Metaphysical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution (which would be published in 2014) and my two podcast series, Marfa Mondays and Conversations with Other Writers.

September 26, 2012:
A Life Interrupted: The Long Night of Marjorie Day by Ruth Levy Guyer

February 22, 2012 – WORKSHOP:
Writing Loglines and the Concept of “the Eyespan”

More 2012 posts will appear here shortly.

= 2011 =

2011 was an in-between year. Still actively promoting my novel, The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire, I was finding my way with new media such as Kindles, podcasting and video– all fascianting but tremendously time-consuming– and translating Francisco I. Madero’s “secret book,” Manual espiríta of 1911. I finished the translation and presented it, together with a brief introduction, in San Miguel de Allende that November, but by then I had realized I needed to do much more than the translation; I needed to to write a book about it.

July 4, 2011 – WORKSHOP:
Language Overlay

June 13, 2011 – WORKSHOP:
The Arc of Writerly Action

April 25, 2011 – WORKSHOP:
On Decluttering Your Writing or, Respecting the Integrity of Narrative Design: The Interior Decoration Analogy

March 28, 2011 – WORKSHOP:
One Dozen Dialogue Exercises

February 15, 2011
John Bankhead Magruder: A Military Reappraisal by Thomas M. Settles
February 11, 2011 – WORKSHOP:
Techniques of Fiction: The Number One Technique in the Supersonic Overview

January 7, 2011 – WORKSHOP:
Decluttering a Library

More 2011 posts will appear here shortly.

= 2010 =

2010 was all about podcasting and Kindles. I figured out that I had retained the digital rights to some of my books and that without much ado, I could upload them as Kindles. My novel, The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire, came out in Spanish, so in 2010 I was still focused on that.

= 2009 =

In 2009 my novel, The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire came out, hence lots about the 1860s, that wildly transnational period in Mexican history. It was a wild year in cyberspace as well: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, it was really getting bubbly-nuts. I bought a McBook Pro and started podcasting. And I kept on blogging.

July 4, 2009 – WORKSHOP:
Michael Talbot’s The Holographic Universe

March 17, 2009 – WORKSHOP:
From the Writer’s Carousel: Literary Travel Writing

A very few of the multitudinous posts from 2009 will be posted here soon.

= 2008 =

Oh, dear. By spring 2008 I thought I had blogging figured out. Looking back from 2019, as I write this note, I’d say I had some important elements figured out, but I was still a ways from any kind of summit, as it were. The genre was quickly evolving–by year end, much of the mojo was going over to social media. And indeed, many of my posts from this time would have been more apt for social media: most in the old blogger archive for this year now strike me as utterly trivial. (Why not delete them? Because it was a moment of cultural foment and discovery and as such I think it makes for an interesting record.)

Only a very few of these posts deserve the bother of migrating here.

A very few of the multitudinous posts from 2008 will be posted here soon.

= 2007 =

In 2007 I was still trying to figure out, what is this blog? (What is blogging?) This year I was promoting Mexico: A Traveler’s Literary Companion and the paperback edition of Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico. I hosted a good number of guest-posts– mainly from my writer friends and acquaintances.

August 13, 2007 – WORKSHOP:
10 Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your Writing Workshop

May 29, 2007
Yet More Pix of Las Pozas
May 20, 2007
More Pix of Las Pozas
May 20, 2007
A Visit to Las Pozas, Xilitla, San Luis Potosí, Mexico

More 2007 posts will appear here shortly.

= 2006 =

In 2006 blogging was something very new. And strange. This was a frothy moment in literary history– just before social media shanghaied the show. As an already well-published writer (three books in-print and pieces in the LA Times and Wall Street Journal, etc), I found blogging appealing but confusing… A diary? Or like a newspaper column? (What kind of column?) Or, a species of bulletin board for little notices? PR Platform? Something for my workshop students? My mind was awhirl with the possibilities. After I started posting at the end of March, I blogged often throughout the year, but apart from some noodling about “litblogging,” these were snippets more apt for Twitter. Twitter had yet to make its appearance, however. Mainly I was mainly focused on promoting my anthology Mexico: A Traveler’s Literary Companion, and some of my other writing. Several of my writer friends had started blogs. Typepad? WordPress? I went with blogger because that’s what a friend of mine used, and it was free. Alas!

More 2006 posts will appear here shortly.