Migrating this Blog to Self-Hosted WordPress

Finally, after more than a decade, I took my own advice to get Madam Mayo off the free Google blogger platform and onto self-hosted WordPress here at www.madam-mayo.com. It was one part 2019 new year’s resolution and another part yikes-my-book-Meteor-is-about-to-come-out-and-I-should-have-already-taken-care-of-this. For the past few weeks I’ve been huffing and puffing up a steeper learning curve, and one with quite a few more scenic (and not-so-scenic) detours, than I had anticipated.

Oops, I needed to have packed more trail mix and the glamping equipment! A few elephants to carry it all would have been fun, too. Well, dangit, I meant to spend the month of January writing about Texas. (Photo: Engraving by G.H. Cushman of a painting by G.P.A Healy, Library of Congress, in the public domain.)

I do not aim, by the way, to import the entire archive of Madam Mayo posts going back to 2006. Archaeologists of Ur-litblogdom are hereby invited to dig around in the archives right where they always were and shall remain, for as long as Googledom, for whatever reasons known only to itself, deems apt. What I am bringing over here to www.madam-mayo.com, with selected links updated, are those posts that I believe best hold up over time: some transcripts of my talks, and other items related to my books (including the one in-progress) and podcasts; book reviews and the richer notes on recommended reading; articles for my writing workshop; and the now substantial collection of Q & As with other writers.

If you’re new to this blog, a few of last year’s posts that I would consider representative of what you can expect here going into 2019 include:

Working with a Working Library: Kuddelmuddel
September 24, 2018

Diction Drops and Spikes
August 13, 2018
(In 2019 look for workshop posts on the second Monday of each month)

Top 10+ Books Read 2018
December 17, 2018

Q & A: Leslie Pietrzyk on Writers Groups,
the Siren Song of the Online World, and on Writing Silver Girl
February 26, 2018
(In 2019 Q & A’s will post on the fourth Monday of each month)

As of today, February 4, 2019, the top Madam Mayo posts for 2018–some thirty in all– plus a wee batch (mainly workshop posts) from a sprinkling of earlier years, are now live here at www.madam-mayo.com. So I have more to do.

I also need to figure out the signup-by-email thing…

In case you are also thinking of migrating a blog to WordPress, or starting a new blog on WordPress, herewith a few resources that I have found especially helpful:

“Building an Author Website on WordPress: How to Start Smart”
by Jane Friedman

Five WordPress Themes for Professional Authors
(a guestblog post by Nate Hoffelder for Jane Friedman’s blog)

WP Beginner

The Strangely Beautiful Sierra Madera Astrobleme

Q & A: Carolina Castillo Crimm,
Author of De León, A Tejano Family History

Marshall McLuhan: Some Notes

Visit my website for more about my books, articles, and podcasts.

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.