From the Archives: “Giant Golden Buddha” & 364 More 5 Minute Writing Exercises

This blog posts on Mondays. Second Mondays of the month I devote to my writing workshop students and anyone else interested in creative writing. Welcome!

> For the archive of workshop posts click here.

Fab free writing workshop stuff! That maybe you can bite into! My writing assistants model the concept.

A little housekeeping going on over at the official homepage, www.cmmayo.com, which is still (eeee) in the verily Mezozoic software program Adobe PageMill, but about to make the move over to WordPress. I’ve got a good start by moving the writing workshop page resources, including the ever-popular “Giant Golden Buddha” & 364 More 5 Minute Writing Exercises, over to a new dedicated page here at Madam Mayo blog—appended to the archive of workshop posts from the main archive menu.

Today’s 5 minute writing exercise:

June 14 “Bob’s Front Page”
What if Bob appeared on the front page of his local newspaper, but he didn’t know about it until the following day?

Have a look.

I welcome your courteous comments which, should you feel so moved, you can email to me here.

Q & A with Katherine Dunn on White Dog and
Writing in the Digital Revolution

Überly Fab Fashion Blogger Melanie Kobayashi’s
“Bag and a Beret” (Further Notes on Reading as a Writer)

Remembering Ann L. McLaughlin

Find out more about
C.M. Mayo’s books, articles, podcasts, and more.

Tip Jar? Not Exactly… But you can buy my books!

Patreon and PayPal are oftentimes used by bloggers and podcasters as a “tip jar,” however, for reasons too lengthy to go into here, I do not use either of these services for Madam Mayo blog or my podcasts.

I write Madam Mayo blog and podcast for whomever might happen to find it of interest, whether they be long-time readers, my workshop students, friends, family, or chance visitors. (For more about the idea of creative work as gift, see Lewis Hyde’s The Gift.)

And of course, I hope the writing and podcasts here may entice you to also read my books. You can always buy my books here. If you buy the book new, I earn royalties. If the book is in-print and you buy a used copy, however, Krampus will fart on you. Either way, if you encounter me in meatspace and ask nicely, I shall be delighted to inscribe it for you!

By the way, you can now also find some of my longform essays not-yet-in-print on Kindle, among them: “Dispatch from the Sister Republic or, Papelito Habla” and “From Mexico to Miramar or, Across the Lake of Oblivion.”

On a tight budget? It is also possible that you can find some of my books in your local or university library. If not, don’t be shy, ask the librarian to consider ordering it for the library. Guess what, sometimes they do!

Official disclosure: Madam Mayo blog is an affiliate seller for amazon.com, which means that if you click on a given link and then purchase that book on amazon, I receive a sliver-thin commission. Dear writerly reader, know that these modest sums go not towards additional polar bear fur upholstery for the narwahl-tusk armchairs in the mahogany-paneled library of my trans-Arctic yacht (where all naughty children may slurp hot chocolate whilst fingering the first editions) but rather, towards covering the costs of this blog and the podcasts.

Any links to amazon.com are for books I sincerely recommend and/or by request of many of the authors who appear here in the monthly by-invitation-only Q & As. (That is to say, many of the authors I interview specifically request that I provide a link to buy their book on amazon.com; as a courtesy to them, I do so.)

I am well aware of the problematic nature of Amazon’s outsize market power. If you wish to make your book purchases directly from independent bookstores and small publishers, I would celebrate your doing so by your going to their webpages, which links I provide on occasion, and when not, dear writerly reader, Google or duckduckgo and ye shall find.