HOME | ABOUT | MAPS | THE BOOK | > ALL PODCASTS
World Waiting for a Dream: A Turn in Far West Texas is my work-in-progress about my travels in the Trans-Pecos, enriched with narrative history and interviews.
As I proceed, I will be posting many of these interviews and some related writing in the Marfa Mondays podcast series. For people who live in Far West Texas, my using the town of Marfa as a flag for the wider region may seem a strange choice. I’ll have a lot to say about it in the book.
A few other preliminary things I can say are that I’m especially interested in exploring the contrasts and comparisons with the subject of my previous travel book, Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico (geography, flora and fauna, history); Marfa’s (and the Trans-Pecos’) iconic status in the American imagination; how the vast spaces and the quality of the light inspire various artists; and the way so many of us, all over the world, are connected on the Internet, and how this fundamentally changes a travel writer’s approach to a place, and interaction with both places and people.
With the Internet– and I imagine that some people who live in Marfa and the region, at some point, may find this webpage–the writer’s relative anonymity as he or she travels has evaporated. Similarly, far more of a writer’s research, before, during and after travels, will be on-line. With Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, TripAdvisor, YouTube, webpages of all kinds, we are experiencing a hyper-accelerating social transparency—or, the sometimes very misleading appearance of transparency. I find this change disconcerting, not altogether good, yet richly interesting.
At this point it is not possible to say more for, if I’ve learned one thing, it is that any journey, and that includes the journey of writing a book, is strewn with surprises.
Thank you for your interest in my work. I invite you to join my mailing list for occasional updates and also, follow my Marfa Mondays podcasts on Podomatic or iTunes. You’ll hear about all these if you subscribe to my blog, Madam Mayo, as well.
UPDATE 4/ 2020: I’m still at work on World Waiting for a Dream, having been interrupted by writing another (albeit related) book, Metaphysical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution. Stay tuned!
PRAISE FOR OTHER WORKS BY C.M. MAYO
METAPHYSICAL ODYSSEY INTO THE MEXICAN REVOLUTION:
Francisco I. Madero and His Secret Book, Spiritist Manual
BY C.M. MAYO
WINNER, NATIONAL INDIE EXCELLENCE AWARD FOR HISTORY
“In my fifteen years of researching the life of President Francisco I. Madero, I have never read a more complete book as the one just written by C.M. Mayo. It will simply surprise any reader. The research is impeccable and the narrative well-rounded.”
Manuel Guerra de Luna, author of Los Madero: La Saga Liberal
“Mayo does a brilliant job combining the known facts of the Mexican Revolution and Madero’s role within it, and creates an intellectual bridge to the president’s spiritist belief structure…
Heribert von Feilitzsch, author of In Plain Sight: Felix Sommerfeld, Spymaster in Mexico
THE LAST PRINCE OF THE MEXICAN EMPIRE
BY C.M. MAYO
A LIBRARY JOURNAL BEST BOOK, 2009
“I have read a few sweeping historical novels that have remain inside of me forever. Tolstoy’s War and Peace is one of those, Dickens’s A Tale of Two Citiesis another, Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago is another, and now The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire is another.”
James Tipton, Mexico Connect
“a swashbuckling, riotous good time, befitting the fairy-tale promise of the opening sentence.”
Austin American-Statesman
MIRACULOUS AIR:
Journey of a Thousand Miles
through Baja California, the Other Mexico
BY C.M. MAYO
“With elegant prose and an artist’s eye for detail, Mayo may just have written one of the best books ever about Baja California. Highly recommended”
Library Journal
“A breathtaking vision of the past, present, and future of [Baja California]… Meticulously researched… a valuable combination of historical and social study”
El Paso Times
SKY OVER EL NIDO
BY C.M. MAYO
WINNER, FLANNERY O’CONNOR AWARD FOR SHORT FICTION
“A remarkable literary debut… tautly fashioned prose, alive with myriad turns of phrase as on-target as they are idiosyncratic.”
Publisher’s Weekly (starred review)
“C.M. Mayo writes some of the most exquisitely fashioned, perfectly measured prose alive in the world today. Her stories glitter with delicious odd details. They feel electrically charged, richly mysterious, and rhythmic. I love her layering of cultures, her offbeat humor, her potent instinct for voices. Bravo! Captivating! Yes, yes, yes!”
Naomi Shihab Nye
MEXICO:
A Traveler’s Literary Companion
EDITED BY C.M. MAYO
“This is a book to throw in a suitcase or mochila (backpack) on the way to Mexico or just settling into a favorite patio chair. It will open your eyes, fill you with pleasure and render our perennial vecinos a little less distante.”
Los Angeles Times Book Review
