ABOUT C.M. MAYO’S YE OLDE “MADAM MAYO” BLOG

Howdy, and welcome to my blog, dear curious and extra-adventurous writerly reader! I am C.M. Mayo, essayist, novelist, poet, and literary translator. Since the 940th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings, that is to say, 2006, I’ve been posting here at Madam Mayo blog about my works and podcasts, for my workshop students, and about whatever and whomever else pops up a-blinking on my Super-Extra-Interesting Radar.

More specifically, Madam Mayo focuses on Mexico and Texas, as related to the subjects of my books; literary translation; Q & As with other writers; reading; typosopheriana; and posts on craft and creative process for my writing workshop. Like bunnies in springtime, exceptions abound.

Whence the name? A poet once wrote to me, Dear Madam Mayo, and I thought that was hilarious. (Ha, I’m old enough to remember the Gang of Four.)

In the first quarter of 2022 I will once again be posting to this blog on Mondays, devoting
*First Mondays of the month to Texas books;
*Second Mondays 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.

The end of March 2022 marks the 16th anniversary of this blog, after which point I will be posting on only two Mondays a month, covering the above-mentioned topics each every other month.

If you are a first-time visitor, for a good sense of the variety of posts you’ll find here every Monday I invite you to check out the faves. You might also find of interest my reflections on this blog and blogging in general on the occasion of Madam Mayo blog’s 15th anniversary.

You’ll also find my podcasts here, including the Marfa Mondays Podcasting Project and Conversations with Other Writers.

For more about my books, articles, and workshops I invite you to visit my website, www.cmmayo.com.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do you call yourself Madam Mayo?

I don’t. I am C.M. MayoMadam Mayo is the title of this blog. Whence the moniker? Just when I was thinking of starting a blog (whoooooa, 2006), the poet E. Ethelbert Miller sent me an email that began, Dear Madam Mayo– which still makes me laugh. I appreciate playful or at least memorable names for blogs. Some of my favorites are Granola Shotgun, Mr. Money Mustache, Root Simple, and poet Reb Livingston’s (alas, defunct!) Home-Schooled by a Cackling Jackal. 

Why don’t you want comments at Madam Mayo?

Dear writerly reader, I welcome your comments! Posts here at Madam Mayo conclude with an invitation to send me your comments via email. In addition, you can ever and always find a link to my email from the main menu, and from the sidebar. I am also especially happy to hear from my workshop students, both about your concerns and your successes.

Why don’t you publish comments on the blog?

Madam Mayo is not a public forum. Madam Mayo is my blog. Perhaps that rubs your fur the wrong way and if so, I can only claim time is limited, I choose to spend it differently than many other bloggers do, and wouldn’t it be a bore if we were all the same?

UPDATE May 2021: WordPress’s block editor has been getting glitchy so the block with the link to send an email on all my posts has suddenly gone AWOL. You can always reach me via the contact page up on the main menu.

Would you be willing to speak to my book group / school / university?

Send me an email and ask.

Do you accept guest-blog posts at Madam Mayo?

Not anymore, with counted and highly unusual exceptions. I am not the only voice on this blog, however; for the past couple of years I have been posting a Q & A with a fellow writer on the fourth Monday of the month.

Do you have any tips for starting a blog?

Everything I can tell you about blogs is here. And roaring good wishes to you! (As of 2019 I recommend bluehost.com, which is the hosting service I use for this blog.)

When will you offer another writing workshop?

You can find my workshop schedule (along with many other resources for writers) on my workshop page.

For updates by email, I invite you to join my mailing list.

Would you read my manuscript?

Freelance editing is not my rodeo.

What’s all this about migrating Madam Mayo from blogger to self-hosted WordPress? 

Short answer: 
Don’t bother a brain cell about it, just come here, www.madam-mayo.com, when you feel so inclined to read Madam Mayo blog. If you are a long-time reader, bless you, and I hope that you are finding this new platform an improvement.

Longer technical answer of possible interest for fellow bloggers: 
Back in 2006 I started my blog on the Google-owned platform blogger.com. (You can find it at http://madammayo.blogspot.com) It’s a free, easy to use, and generally very good platform, however– huge problem–Google can, at any time, block, freeze, or even delete a blog. Customer service? Ooo. Moreover, I have found Google’s blogger software increasingly glitchy, especially with formatting. Recently, Google eliminated Google+. Who knows what they may decide to do one day with blogger? Plus there are a bunch of scraper sites (pirated copies of my blog on other blogger sites filled with spammy Google ads) and I cannot see that Google does much about that, if anything. 

I wish had I had started blogging on WordPress in the first place. I figured this out early on, but the migration did not inch up to the top of my “to do” list until, finally, I got started at the end of 2018.

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 the algorithms of the Lords of Googledom, for whatever reasons known only to themselves, deem 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.

As of the end of February, 2019, the top Madam Mayo posts for 2018–some thirty in all– plus a modest batch (mainly workshop posts) from a sprinkling of earlier years, are now live here at www.madam-mayo.com. 

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