Methuselah of Blogdom here. Why am I still blogging? I am heartened to say, dear readers, that I know you’re there, more of you each year, and I appreciate your visits and your comments (as always, I welcome comments via email, see below.)
As for the granular whys and wherefores of this blog, I wouldn’t say much that I didn’t say last year, on its tenth anniversary, which echoed much of what I had to say on its eighth anniversary. The latter link goes to my talk for the 2014 AWP Conference panel on “Homesteading on the Digital Frontier: Writer’s Blogs.” To quote from that:
Madam Mayo blog is not so much my so-called “platform,” but rather, a net that catches certain special fish— the readers who care about the things I care to write about.
As ever, I aim to provide posts on a variety of topics that might be, in turn, of use and/or interest for my writing workshop students, and/or for Mexicophiles, and/or for Far West Texasphiles (is that a word?), adventurous readers, and myself.
One of my many motivations for blogging is to iron out my own thoughts, especially on subjects that tend to come up in my correspondence with other writers and in my writing workshops, for example:
(What do you mean, “reading as a writer”?)
One Simple Yet Powerful Practice in Reading as a Writer
(How do you keep up with email?)
Email Ninjerie in the Theater of Space-Time
(Where do you find the time to write?)
Thirty Deadly-Effective Ways to Free Up Bits,
Drips & Gimungously Vast Swaths of Time for Writing
(What do you think about social media?)
Adios Facebook!Six Reasons Why I Deactivated My Account
You will also find posts on my work in-progress and anything relevant to it (at present, a book about Far West Texas):
A Visit to El Paso’s “The Equestrian”
Book review: Pekka Hamalainen’s The Comanche Empire
The Strangely Beautiful Sierra Madera Astrobleme (What’s an Astrobleme?)
Peyote and the Perfect You
Top 13 Trailers for Movies with with Extra-Astral Texiness
The Harrowingly Romantic Adventure of Trade with Mexico
in the Pre-pre-pre-NAFTA Era
Notes on Artist Xavier González (1898-1993)
Once in a zera-striped-chartreuse moon of Pluto I touch on nonwriterly topics:
Yet one more reason to check in with this blog is for announcements about my publications and interviews:
Catamaran and Tiferet: Two Very Fine Independent Literary Journals
Biographers International Interview:
Strange Spark of the Mexican Revolution
New Thinking Allowed Interview by Jeffrey Mishlove
and a Review by Michael Tymn
Ax of Apocalypse: Strieber and Kripal’s Super Natural
To share my talks and podcasts:
For the 2016 Women Writing the West Conference:
On Seeing as an Artist or, Five Steps to a Journey to Einfuhlung
For the American Literary Translators Association Conference:
Translating Across the Border
> All Marfa Mondays Podcasts here.
> All podcasts here.
And, something I especially relish, to learn about and celebrate the work of other writers:
Ellen Cassedy and Yermiyahu Ahron Taub on Translating
Blume Lempel’s Oedipus in Brooklyn from the Yiddish
Shelley Armitage on Walking the Llano: A Texas Memoir of Place
P.S. For those of you who are writers / bloggers, herewith the top five things I would have done differently back in 2006 had I known what I know now:
1. Use WordPress
2. Post once per week, something verily crunchy, otherwise take a vacation;
3. Post interviews with other writers more often;
4. Maybe tweet the link to a post once or twice; otherwise do not waste time with social media;
5. When possible and when there is substantive content, upload the bulk of that content to the webpage, not the blog itself (because of those scraper sites).
P.P.S. Yep, one of these days I will move the whole enchilada over to WordPress. It’s still on my to-do list… [UPDATE JANUARY 2019: This blog is now on self-hosted WordPress at www.madam-mayo.com]
I welcome your courteous comments which, should you feel so moved, you can email to me here.
From the Writer’s Carousel: Literary Travel Writing
The Pecan: A History of America’s Native Nut By James McWilliams
The Marfa Mondays Podcast is Back! No. 21:
“Great Power in One: Miss Charles Emily Wilson”
