Cyberflanerie: Ken Albala, Ellen Prentiss Campbell, Susan Merrell, Zack Rogow, San Miguel Writers Conference, Oxt, Leslie Wells, Burning Man's Economist

Ken Albala's Food Rant Blog.

My amiga the fabulous writer Ellen Prentiss Campbell interviews Susan Scarf Merrell about her new novel and the influence of Shirley Jackson.

Zack Rogow on Literary Fame
(So true…)

An outstanding example of a cover
designed for Kindle

The new bilingual blog of the San Miguel Writers Conference.

Oxt: the new word that will make your slightly simpler, forever.

"A New York Editor and Author Goes Indie," Leslie Well's eye-opening guest-blog for Jane Friedman. (Love that Kindle cover!)

The Burning Man Blog asks: Does Burning Man Have a Favorite Economist?

Stayed tuned for an avalanche of blog posts: Rose Mary Salum's splendid anthology, Lisa Sharp on Cananea, and Araceli Ardón on the magnificent Missions of the Sierra Gorda. And I'm working on Marfa Mondays podcast #14, on the Apaches. Spent the weekend updating the website for my latest book-- more updates to do-- but anyway, check it out here.

COMMENTS always welcome.

Cyberflanerie: Supergeil Starring Friedrich Lichtienstein

Dr. Konrad Ratz (December 20, 1931 - May 22, 2014)

I was very saddened to learn of the death of my friend, Dr. Konrad Ratz, translator, researcher, and writer whose contributions to our understanding of Maximilian von Habsburg and Mexico's Second Empire I admire more than I can say. Among his many works, all of them major contributions:

Tras las huellas de un desconocido: Nuevos datos y aspectos de Maximiliano de Habsburgo (Link goes to my note in English about this excellent and very illuminating book.)

Los viajes de Maximiliano de Maximiliano en México(co-authored with Amparo Gómez Tepexicuapan)(Link goes to my comments for the book's presentation in Chapultepec Castle, Mexico City.)

Correspondencia inédita entre Maximiliano y Carlota

El ocaso del imperio de Maximiliano visto por un diplomático prusiano

Maximilian und JuárezBand I Das Zweite Mexikanische Kaiserreich und die RepublikBand II Querétaro-Chronik

The musical:
http://www.myspace.com/maximilian1867http://www.myspace.com/maximilianoycarlota

Very few researchers can work in both Spanish and German, fewer still with the skills to research Mexico's most complex and transnational period of the 19th century. We are fortunate indeed that Dr. Ratz dedicated so much effort and so many of his years to these tasks.

From the note his son Wolfgang sent out (my translation from the Spanish):

He began his professional life in Bilbao as a translator for the automobile industry. After moving with his family to Vienna, he worked for many years as an economist and translator for the Austrian Chamber of Commerce. Following that, as Director of the Fund to Promote Research, he had the opportunity to support many innovative projects and young entrepreneurs. He also worked to help create similar institutions in various countries, among them, Mexico. In 1975 he received the Austrian Decoration for Arts and Science.

... As a historian, he dedicated his life to researching Maximilian von Habsburg, and especially so during his retirement when he considered Mexico his "adopted country" and spent many marvelous years there with his second wife, Herta, making many unforgettable friendships.

Throughout his life, music was a great passion. The musical "Maximiliano - el Sueño de una Corona" was debuted successfully in Querétaro and Mexico City.

Open to all cultures, his life created bridges among Austria, Spain, Switzerland, and Latin America.

COMMENTS always welcome.

Catherine L. Albanese's A Republic of Mind and Spirit: A Cultural History of American Metaphysical Religion

FRANCISCO I. MADERO
Author of Spiritist Manual
Leader of Mexico's 1910 Revolution
President of Mexico, 1911-1913

A couple of months ago, for Tony Payan's class on Mexican Politics and Culture at Rice University, I gave a talk-- my first for this newly expanded work--- on Metaphysical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution: Francisco I. Madero and His Secret Book, Spiritist Manual. Lots of bright kids, lots of good questions. One of them was, "Did Madero have followers?" After a blink, I realized what a telling question this is.

Of course, Madero had legions of followers-- after all, he was the leader of Mexico's 1910 Revolution and President of Mexico (1911-1913). But as a Spiritist? I explained that he did not set himself up as a kind of priest or guru; he was a healer and a medium (never working for pay) and, pseudonymously, the author of an evangelical text, which is the Manual espírita or, as I translated it, Spiritist Manual.

The thing is, when we think of "religion" we usually think of priests or ministers, large edifices, approved rituals, degrees of belonging or status, and so on and so forth-- in short, a social and physical architecture as a machinery of power. Though they had and have their temples and seminars and conferences, Spiritists did not then and do not now necessarily organize in this fashion, precisely because they believe that the individual can communicate directly with spirit and the Divine-- without the intermediation of an earthly authority. They have some temples, some congregations, (google and you'll find them in Mexico, the US, Brazil, Portugal, the Philippines, and Spain, and many more) but there are also many informal circles that meet in private homes. Like Wiccans, it would seem that some few (or many?) are solitary practitioners. Data? Well, that is precisely my point: there aren't much. It boils down to hearsay or, as in the case of a public figure such as Madero, careful archival research. And even still, the picture remains patchy.

Quick backtrack for those of you shaking your heads and asking, um, what's a Spiritist? 

An offshoot of American Spiritualism, which first appeared in upstate New York around 1850, Spiritism developed in France in the the 1860s. (There's so much more to say about it than that, and I do in my book.) The basic idea is, a human being is really an immortal spirit in a temporary body, and it is possible while in an earthly body, either by natural or cultivated talent, to communicate with spirits. Since one is immortal, one's earthy life should serve one's immortal life-- in a nutshell, don't take materialism too seriously and always try to do good. The basic ritual is the séance, which invokes the dead, inviting communication from them by a variety of means.

Before I get to my answer to the question-- did Madero [as a Spiritist] have followers?-- a note on religious organization.

A Republic of Mind & Spirit: A Cultural History of American Metaphysical Religion

One of the most illuminating books I came across in my research is Catherine L. Albanese's A Republic of Mind & Spirit: A Cultural History of American Metaphysical Religion (Yale University Press, 2007). From the dust jacket description:

"This path-breaking book tells the story of American metaphysical religion more fully than it has ever been told before, along the way significantly revising the panorama of American religious history."

What has this to do with Mexico, the gentle blog reader might ask? Well, all the very same metaphysical religions that came to the US also arrived south (via various paths, not invariably from the US) in Mexico.

Continuing with the dust jacket description:

"Catherine L. Albanese follows metaphysical traditions from Renaissance Europe to England and then America, where they have flourished from colonial days to the twenty-first century, blending often with African, Native American, and other cultural elements.

The book follows evolving versions of metaphysical religion, including Freemasonry, early Mormonism, Universalism, and Transcendentalism-- and such further incarnations as Spiritualism, Theosophy, New Thought, Christian Science, and reinvented versions of Asian ideas and practices. Continuing into the twentieth century and after, the book shows how the metaphysical mix has come to encompass UFO activity, channeling, and chakras in the New Age movement and a much broader new spirituality in the present. 

In its own way, Albanese argues, American metaphysical religion has been as vigorous, persuasive, and influential as the evangelical tradition that is more often the focus of religious scholars' attention. She makes the case that because of its combinative nature-- its ability to incorporate differing beliefs and practices-- metaphysical religion offers key insights into the history of all American religions."

Rather than considering these religions / ideas mere esoterica or superstition, mere footnotes in the grander history of denominational and evangelical churches (Roman Catholic, Baptist, Congregationalist, Pentecostal, Presbyterian, Lutheran, and so on), Albanese argues that the metaphysical religions are (p. 4) "at least as important... in fathoming the shape and scope of American religious history and in identifying what makes it distinctive-- the sign, in religious terms, of an emergent American ethnicity."

In other words, metaphysical religions have played a far more important role in our history than has been previously recognized. But it is difficult to research secretive groups that meet informally in private homes, and, on the other hand, relatively easy to research the history of denominational and evangelical churches.  (p. 8)

"There are central headquarters and archives, public buildings and structures with observable rituals, written personal testimonials, letters, and journals aplenty, with numerous press accounts of religious presence, to cite only the most obvious and accessible sources. To write the metaphysicians' tendencies into history, however, requires harder work."

In other words, it's all a big, ever-morphing muddle of a mosaic. And indeed, this was a big problem for me in trying to figure out Madero's ideas. He was a Spiritist but also a Mason, and some Masons were Spiritists but some were not, and some Spiritists were Theosophists, but Madero was not… and so on.

And both before and especially after Madero's death, Mexican Spiritism melded with folk beliefs and indigenous shamanism. (One example is the mediumnistic healer and folk saint Niño Fidencio, who was mentored by a German Spiritist but apparently did not consider himself a Spiritist.)

So, back to the question, did Madero, as a Spiritist, have followers?

Well, as a Spiritist, he played a leading role in organizing and evangelizing through magazines such as Helios and his book, Manual espírita. Certainly, as we know from his archives, he was in touch with and well-regarded by his fellow Spiritists, mostly Mexicans but also some Americans and Europeans, including Léon Denis, whose book, Après la mort, he published in Spanish (that translation by Ignacio Mariscal, then serving as Mexico's Minister of Foreign Relations.) Certainly people read Madero's works, but how many we do not know. He wrote them under pen names, mainly Arjuna and Bhima, both taken from the Hindu holy book, the Bhagavad-Gita. 

Bottom line: As a Spiritist, Madero was looking to evangelize, but not necessarily to build a movement around his person, as he was in the political arena. 

COMMENTS always welcome.

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SURF ON 

> Catherine L. Albanese, professor of Religious Studies, University of California Santa Barbara  

> Metaphysical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution: Francisco I. Madero and His Secret Book, Spiritist Manual (website for the book)

> Francisco I. Madero: A Cien años de su muerte

> Una ventana al mundo invisible or, Maestro Amajur and the Smoking Signatures

> Greg Borzo's article about my book for the University of Chicago Social Sciences Division newsletter

A New Mexican Book on the Regulation of (Yep) Pot

***UPDATE July 29, 2014: NYT on the "New Jim Crow" (Not really news, but well-stated)***

This blog steers far clear of politics, usually. Today I make an exception.

It seems to me that it doesn't take a coconutful of brain cells to recognize that (1) what one disapproves of and (2) what should be illegal for the greater public good, all costs considered, may not be one and the same thing.  (Though it may still need to be regulated.)

For example, I don't approve of pot smoking, except in the very few cases where there may be no other effective drug for pain relief. That said, I think it should be legal, as legal as many thousands of other completely daft things some people do, such as to become addicted to Coca Cola or Diet Pepsi, breakfast on Pop Tarts, watch television for hours and hours a day, care deeply about spectator sports (to the point of painting one's face an unnatural color and crying and screaming), wear high heels, drive motorcycles, join the Jehovah's Witnesses, keep gerbils as pets, forget to take their diabetes medicine, decorate with clashing plaids, get a nose stud, visit Las Vegas for any reason whatsoever… 

Gee, that's a long list and I haven't even gotten started! 

What I mean to say is, it's a free country-- or at least (hat tip to Mr Snowden), that's the idea. As long as you don't harm someone else in the process, I think you should be able to ingest whatever you want, go where you want, dress as you please, gussy up your fingernails if you feel so inclined, root for Red Sox or Manchester United or Hulk Hogan, and believe what you want about God and Jesus-- and the dinosaurs, for that matter.

At the same time, some regulation of some things is appropriate. For example, the ingredients on the label on a Diet Pepsi or a Pop Tart should be accurate. If you want to come into the stadium to watch a game, you should not be admitted without a ticket, nor if carrying a bazooka. You can keep pets, but not torture them. Etc.

Josefina Ricaño de Nava

It is a rotten shame that we spend so much taxpayer money to arrest and incarcerate people who grow, trade and smoke pot, and, add to the shame, this effort has caused no end of trouble and blood south of the border. So I for one am very happy to see this new book, just published by México Unido Contra la Delincuencia, a foundation that fights crime. (Read about its visionary founder, Josefina Ricaño de Nava.) 

My translation of the title: How to Regulate Cannabis: A Practical Guide.  I note that the back cover includes a quote from the President of Uruguay, who lead the way to legalize cannabis in his country (my translation): 

"The traditional approach has not worked. Someone had to be the first [to legalize non-medical use of cannabis]."

In other words, this is a serious attempt to provide a framework for making cannabis legal-- responsibly.

P.S. A little U.S. drug trade history for those with a literary inclination, over at Gregory Gibson's Bookman's Blog.



COMMENTS always welcome.

Cyberflanerie: Writerly Edition (Aimee Bender, Claire Cook, Djerassi, Historical Novelists Society, Guadalupe Loaeza, Leslie Pietrzyk & More)

Pictured left, my handsome new writing assistant, Uli Quetzalpugtl. Right now he is specializing in mind-clearing walks. He will be four months old on the 25th. Yes, he is a pug. Yes, those are his real eyebrows. 

Aimee Bender on What Writers Can Learn from Good Night Moon
(Hat tip to @portershreve)

Claire Cook on Why I Left My Mighty Agency and New York Publishers (For Now) on Jane Friedman's Blog (well worth reading, and Yours Truly left a lengthy comment.)

Djerassi Resident Artists Program
> Watch a brief introductory video

Day before yesterday I finally joined the Historical Novelists Society, thanks to fellow members of Women Writing the West suggesting it. Joining Women Writing the West was one of the best things I did last year. I may have been publishing for over 20 years, but everything in publishing has so changed in the past few years… fellow members' advice on the listserv has been invaluable. 

Uli visits the childhood home of Willa Cather,
Red Cloud, Nebraska, June 2014.
What can I say, Uli has good taste in authors.
(He does try to chew my hand, after all.)

Here's what really impressed me about the Historical Novelists Society: their webpage is completely automated. I was able to pay, add my bio, and see my member listing without waiting for anyone to get back to me, bingo. (Such is life in the time of the bots…)

Yesterday I was interviewed for Mexico City's MVN radio live by Mexican writer Guadalupe Loaeza about Mexico's Second Empire / French Intervention and my novel El último príncipe del Imperio Mexicano (Agustín Cadena's translation of my novel, The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire), fue una verdadera delicia. Hope to have that link to the podcast by tomorrow. (P.S. Back in 2006, I translated a bit of Loaeza's hilarious classic on Mexico City's Polanco neighborhood for my anthology Mexico: A Traveler's Literary Companion). By the way, Loaeza's website takes a moment to load because it's got all this flash. Be patient... it's worth taking a look at. 

My amiga novelist Leslie Pietrzyk on the writing life: it really is a bowl of cherries.

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SURF ON, DEAR WRITERLY READER

30 Deadly Effective Ways to Free Up Bits, Drips & Gimungously Vast Swaths of Time for Writing

Giant Golden Buddha & 364 More Free 5 Minute Writing Exercises

Regina Leeds Guest-Blog for Madam Mayo 5 + 1 Resources to Make a Writer Happy in an Organized Space

Conversations with Other Writers podcast series

Brave Blood: The Bullfight in Mexico by Richard Finks Whitaker

Yeah, I'm one of those animal rights people but anyway, bullfighting is… bullfighting. And for anyone who wants to know anything about it, or write about it, Richard Finks Whitaker's Brave Blood: The Bullfight in Mexico, is required reading and an essential reference work. The beautiful new paperback is available from Editorial Mazatlán.

COMMENTS always welcome.

Kindle Lending or, Lo, The Inevitable Has Arrived

This just arrived in the inbox:

Hello, 

Today we are excited to introduce Kindle Unlimited-–a new subscription service for readers in the U.S. and a new revenue opportunity for authors enrolled in KDP Select. Customers will be able to read as many books as they want from a library of over 600,000 titles while subscribed to Kindle Unlimited. All books enrolled in KDP Select with U.S. rights will be automatically included in Kindle Unlimited. 

KDP Select authors and publishers will earn a share of the KDP Select global fund each time a customer accesses their book from Kindle Unlimited and reads more than 10% of their book-–about the length of reading the free sample available in Kindle books-–as opposed to a payout when the book is simply downloaded. Only the first time a customer reads a book past 10% will be counted. 

KDP Select books will also continue to be enrolled in the Kindle Owners' Lending Library (KOLL) available to Amazon Prime customers in the U.S., U.K., Germany, France, and Japan where authors will continue to earn a share of the KDP Select global fund when their book is borrowed. KOLL borrows will continue to be counted when a book is initially downloaded. 

For July, we've added $800,000 to the fund, bringing the July fund amount to $2 million. 

Learn more about Kindle Unlimited. Visit your Bookshelf to enroll your titles in KDP Select, and click on "Manage Benefits" to get started. 

Best regards,
The Kindle Direct Publishing Team

Yes, some of my titles are in Kindle Select-- notably, the most recent, Metaphysical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution and the Spanish titles Odisea metafisca hacia la Revolución Mexicana and the novel El último príncipe del Imperio Mexicano. 

Everything also listed at iTunes iBookstore, no.

My take on Kindle Lending is: Good thing. But it should exert a downward push on Kindle edition prices.

Another thought: Commercial book lending, whether electronic or bricks-and-mortar, is the future. In part because it's easier to do with digital technology and in part because I doubt that U.S. public libraries will be able to maintain their services in the coming fiscal crunch.

COMMENTS always welcome.

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SURF ON, DEAR READER

Seven Reasons Why Ebooks Will Be Big in Mexico or, El Kindle es el futuro

How I Published My Kindles

My Excellent (If Occasionally Head-Banging) Ebook Adventure

Michael Suarez, SJ on The Flow of Books and Money and Information

The website for Metaphysical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution: Francisco I. Madero and His Secret Book, Spiritist Manual

River of Ink: Literature, History, Art by Thomas Christensen

I've been a long-time admirer of Tom Christensen, and so I was delighted to receive a review copy of his latest, River of Ink, a collection of essays forthcoming from Counterpoint. Herewith my blurb:

Truffle-rich, cumin-exotic, from Mutanabi Street to Céline's ballets, Gutenberg and the Koreans, a winged sphinx and an iron man and Nur Jahan--  oh, and a beturbaned Sadakichi Hartmann-- these world-trotting essays make one groovy box of idea-chocolates.

Yes indeed, River of Ink goes on my top 10 books read list for 2014. (Here's the Top 10 for 2013.)

P.S. Christensen mentions the Youtube video of Sadakichi Hartmann dancing. Here it is:



COMMENTS always welcome.

Cyberflanerie: Mexico, Dinofuzz, Head Like an Orange, Keffir, Farnam Street & etc

The always excellent food blog Mexico Cooks! offers a mezcal primer.

My amiga, intrepid traveler Judith Leaver on Finishing Spanish School (Or Did It Finish Me?)

Travel writer Sean Paul Kelley on José María Sánchez y Tapia.

Interesting GIFs on Head Like an Orange.

How to Travel with Keffir and Be a Pioneer.

Hooray for Dinofuzz! (I am still recovering from the elimination of Pluto; now they say dinosaurs had colorful fuzz…)

Shavings: a Blog for Woodworkers by Gary Rodowski.

Brainy: Anat Baniel and Jill Bolte Taylor on HuffPost.

Alain de Botton offers A Kinder, Gentler Philosophy of Success (Infectious accent alert!!)

More cyberflanerie at Farnam Street Blog.

COMMENTS always welcome.

My July 2014 Newsletter Just Went Out

Whew, it only took me a year and half. But finally I'm officially announcing the new book, a batch of podcasts, another batch of book reviews, and a big event next week at Mexico City's Palacio Nacional (though that's for an older book, the novel The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire). 

>Read the whole enchilada here.

I love Mailchimp. Here's the message they sent me after I hit that "SEND" button:

P.S. I'd be delighted to add you to the roster for the next newsletter, which might or might not go out in another couple of months. You can opt in here, via Mailchimp, the leading no SPAM email service.

YOUR COMMENTS always welcome.

Cyberflanerie: Cracking Open the Door to Creativity (A Few Resources)

Giant Golden Buddha & 364 More Free 5 Minute Writing Exercises

Debra Eckerling's new Kindle, Purple Pencil Adventures: Writing Prompts for Kids of All Ages

More for kids (of any age): Karen Benke's Rip the Page!

> Her guest-blog for Madam Mayo, 5 Writers on What It Takes to be a Creative Writer> Her latest book, Leap Write In!

My ever-longer list of highly recommended books on creative process/ life. 

Read interviews with accomplished writers, such as Leslie Pietrzyk.

Read even more interviews in the Paris Review.

Listen Better (Julian Treasure's TED Talk)

Follow poet, writer and creative writing teacher Zack Rogow's excellent "Advice for Writers" blog.

Get inspiration from visual artists (all links to the blog This Is Colossal)

Sand Creatures Suspended in Midair by Claire DropperMiniature Medieval Interiors by Matthew SimmondsWhy not bake some Planetary Cakes?

Wear the sky in luxurious silk

(Whew, even your coffee will taste, like, expanded.)

Organize your book-in-progress

Organize your refrigerator with Fridge Binz (I am not kidding.)

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SURF ON

>30 Deadly-Effective Ways to Free Up Drips, Bits & Gimungously Vast Swaths of Time for Writing

> The Secret Ingredient in my Writing Process

> Writing Loglines and the Concept of the "Eyespan"

> My workshop page with more resources for writers and workshop schedule.

COMMENTS always welcome.

Francisco I. Madero: A Cien Años de su Muerte (On the 100th Anniversary of His Death)

This handsome choc-full-o-photos tome might seem just the thing for the coffee table, yet it is filled with a  magnificent collection of original scholarly work. Published late last year by Mexico's Ministry of Finance (Secretary de Hacienda y Crédito Público), the edition is already out of print (agotada, as they say in Mexico). I sincerely hope a paperback and an ebook will be available soon, for every scholar of the period should be sure to consult it.

(Alas, it came out too late for me to be able to incorporate any of it into my own book, Metaphysical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution: Francisco I. Madero and His Secret Book, Spiritist Manual-- but then, this was to be expected, for Madero and the Mexican Revolution he led in 1910 are going to be the subject of studies, books, documentaries and more for years to come.)

Of special note:

The first chapter, on Madero's loaded gun of a book, La sucesión presidencial en 1910 (The Presidential Succession in 1910), rich in the detail of political intrigue, is by Josefina MacGregor, professor of history at Mexico's UNAM (National University). It is no exaggeration to say that the whole cascade of events that brought down the dictator, Porfirio Díaz, began with this, Madero's first book.

Lucrecia Infante Vargas wrote the chapter touching on Madero's Spiritism: "Conducir el espíritu, gobernar la nación: La Ilustración espírita (1870-1893) y la difusión del espiritismo en el México de entre siglos." ["Leading in Spirit, Governing the Nation: La Ilustración espírita (1870-1893) and the spread of Spiritist in Turn-of-the-Century Mexico"].  This covers the basics of Kardecian Spiritism in Mexico, Madero's intense involvement in Spiritism, and his Manual espírita. I was especially intrigued to read about Laureana Wright, a writer and Spiritist who in 1892 became the President of Mexico's  Sociedad Espirita Central de la República-- most unusual for a woman of that time.

Manuel Guerra de Luna, the author of a biography of Madero, and of the Madero family (Los Madero La saga liberal), and the screenplay for  the documentary "1910: La Revolución Espírita" wrote the chapter on how the Revolution was financed. ("Los Madero y el financiamiento de la Revolución Mexicana en 1910.") No one knows the Francisco I. Madero and the Madero family archives better than Guerra de Luna, and this subject should be of special interest for anyone looking into the Revolution. Madero was a scion of one of Mexico's wealthiest families, so the story most often told is that he simply paid for the 1910 Revolution out of his own pocket. Conspiracy theorists retail their version-- not substantiated in the archives-- that involve a meddling Uncle Sam and oil companies. The story, as Guerra de Luna reveals, is not so simple-- more an action-packed thriller with an astonishingly unlikely outcome. 

COMMENTS always welcome.

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SURF ON:

>Mexican historians Enrique Krauze, Manuel Guerra de Luna, Alvaro Matute and Jean Meyer discuss Francisco I. Madero, October 18, 2010. Podcast: click here to listen (in Spanish).

>Francisco I. Madero by Stanley R. Ross

>Enter Allan Kardec, Chef du Spiritisme

> Después de la muerte by Léon Denis, a Spiritist book translated by Ignacio Marsical and sponsored by Francisco I. Madero and his father, Francisco Madero, published in 1906. Includes a video showing my copy of the book.

>A rare book adventure in Mexico City: Una ventana al mundo invisible: Master Amajur and the Smoking Signatures

> Francisco I. Madero and Dr Arnoldo Krumm-Heller: Some Notes on Sources

> My talk in 2012 about translating Madero's Manual espírita, in English, for PEN San Miguel de Allende and SOL Literary Magazine. Podcast: click here to listen. (At the time, my introduction was very brief-- not the full-length book it is now-- and only available in Kindle. So you'll see if you click through to the podcast, the cover and title were different.)

>My book is now available in paperback and Kindle: Metaphysical Odysey into the Mexican Revolution: Francisco I. Madero and His Secret Book, Spiritist Manual. Also, the Spanish is available in Kindle: Odisea metafisica hacia la revolución Mexicana. More news about that title soon.

30 Deadly-Effective Ways to Free Up Bits, Drips & Gimungously Vast Swaths of Time for Writing

[Please note that as of January 2019 "Madam Mayo" blog is in-process of moving to self-hosted Wordpress at www.madam-mayo.com. You can also read this post in its entirety on the workshop page at www.cmmayo.com]

A MENU OF POSSIBILITIES TO CONSIDER

Where do you find the time? (Was it hiding in the crawlspace?) It’s not so much finding time as it is prying your physical presence and attention away, either permanently or for a spell, from someone, something, someplace less valuable to you—if you really do want to write, that is, not just pretend and fantasize and gripe. Herewith, 30 ideas— some of which might make you shake your head, but some just might work for you. For me, most of these have always been no-brainers, but I confess, a number of them took me awhile to recognize and/or fully appreciate.



Possibility 1. Give up TV, Netflix, and social media. Just give the screens, deep-freeze turkey & freakin' forever and oceans of time, vast and sparkling, shall spread before ye. 

> Adiós, Facebook! The Six Reasons Why I Deactivated My Account
> Jerry Mander's Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television
> Jaron Lanier's Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts, Right Now

Possibilty 2. Cut the digital leash, the crackberry, whatever you want to call that soul-sucking hypnotic thumb-twiddler. That's right, I am suggesting that you DO NOT "TEXT" and turn off that Pavlovian ding. The price of this is that you must therefore continually combat tidal waves of exasperation from loved ones and others that you are not instantly and always available to them. Find the humor in this. Because really, how blazingly ridiculous.

Possibility 3. No drugs. Duh. And I include prescription drugs here, too. Exercise, eat lots of vegetables, drink raw juice, meditate… do whatever you possibly can to avoid adult onset diabetes and joint issues and so having to take drugs, for aside from suffering from lousy side effects, you'll waste countless hours waiting for doctors to write prescriptions, then getting them filled at the pharmacy, dealing with insurance, and complications, and so on & so forth. Ah! But I am not a doctor, I have no idea what you should do!

Possibility 4. Reduce, better yet eliminate, or at least make use of your commute. If you can possibly live closer to where you need to be during the day, even if you have to sell half your furniture to fit into a smaller place, do that. Otherwise, try to get into the habit of writing while commuting. I hear some people have been able to do that. I admire them genuinely.

Possibility 5. No drama. Mantra: not my circus, not my monkeys. If you relish fighting / debating / gossiping because you find it entertaining, that's your writing mojo leaking like water onto the asphalt. Incessant worrying about other people's problems that are not yours to solve is also silly. You can be aware, you can be concerned, you can be compassionate, and when they are your problems, then they are your problems.

Possibility 6. No ruminating over the past.  Regrets, nostalgia, whatever, writing gets done in the now.

Possibility 7. Less fantasizing about the future. Again, writing gets done in the now.

Possibility 8. Quit nursing grudges against editors / agents / other writers / reviewers / readers. Oh, the injustices of the literary world! These can vacuum up untold hours with yammering in workshops, at conferences, and over sad and grumbly cups of coffee. But listen here: the so-called gatekeepers and the clueless readers and half-literate kids glued to their handheld devices, they’re just doing the best they can, too. So are the peasants wading through their rice paddies in Burma. You are luckier than a lottery-winner to even be able to write at all. So strive to always improve and write for those who appreciate what you do, knowing that, of course, even if you one day win the Nobel Prize, only the teensiest portion of the population of Planet Earth will have heard of you, never mind actually read anything you wrote. Bottom line: If you can’t stay focused on doing your own best work, you’re not writing, you’re back to ruminating.

Possibility 9. Stop picking up the telephone. As Marie Antoinette might have put it, Let them send email. If you can, pay for an unlisted number and caller ID and change your telephone number at least every other year. If that little click to voice mail distracts you, why, just unplug it! And, pourquoi pas? Plunk it in the oven!

Possibility 10. Eliminate recreational shopping, aka "retail therapy." Whew, this one adds up over a season, a year, two years. So never, ever shop in stores or on-line or in fact anywhere anytime without your list. If an item is not on your list, do not buy it. Shopping malls are time- and money-gobbling maws and believe it, the marketers, watching your every move on their cameras, are more sophisticated than you think you are. Not only does recreational shopping squander prime writing time, but it tends to fill up your house with clutter-- a time-suck in itself. Go to a park, a museum, a library, the seashore, a basketball court, have fun and refresh yourself as necessary, but stay way away from the maw. I mean, mall. 

Possibility 11. Do not accumulate a large and varied wardrobe based on navy, brown and/or beige. And better yet, give all that away to Goodwill. If you wear clothing that is black and/or coordinates with black, you'll be able to make fewer shopping trips, pack faster, and do far less laundry and dry cleaning. And since black makes colors "pop," your blue sweater, say, will appear brighter. Yet another advantage: black makes you look slimmer.  (Ha, maybe I was a Jesuit in my last life.)

Possibility 12. Cancel the manicure. Horrendous time sink there. Plus, the polish is toxic and it flakes. (Nobody notices or cares about your fingernails anyway except manicurists, I guess, and those who get manicures themselves. Last I checked, they aren't getting much writing done.)

Possibility 13. Quit following the stock market on a daily basis. This is a tick-like habit that achieves nothing but a heightened sense of anxiety. On par with spectator sports.

Possibility 14. Quit playing computer games. On par with drugs. Or any other addiction. Including following the stock market on a daily basis.

Possibility 15. Do not color your hair. Depending on how often you feel you must cover up the roots... for most people who color, this is about once a month. If you add highlights or lowlights (which, my dears, if you do color, you probably should lest you sport that "helmet look"), you're talking about two and half hours in the salon chair. You might be able to read something fluffy but you probably cannot write while someone is washing and poking and pulling at and blowdrying your hair. Go au naturel to recover as many as 30 hours a year, free and clear. 

Possibility 16. Ignore spectator sports. Do not attend games, do not watch or listen to or otherwise follow games, do not discuss games, and whole weekends for writing will emerge from the sea of froth. 

Possibility 17. Do not indulge in expensive, time- and space-consuming activities such as, oh, say, collecting and expounding upon various types of fermented grape juice. Come on, folks, once it goes into a carafe, 99% of your guests won't know the difference between one chablis and the next chardonnay. Pick a reasonable brand and stick with it, white and red. For me, it's Monte Xanic—or else it goes into the pot for coq au vin.

Possibility 18. No more hauling laundry. You've got to get your clothes clean so, failing a maid to do it for you, get a washer / dryer for your house or apartment. If you do not have space, if it's not allowed, or you cannot afford this, then consider a portable washer/dryer because hauling bags to the laundro-mat or down to the basement only to find the machines full, that is one woolly mammoth of a time suck. (If you're paying for each load at a landro-mat, you might find it cheaper in the long run to use your own portable washer. I wouldn't know, since I'm fortunate enough to have a washer/dryer, but a little bird told me...)

Possibility 19. Never hunt for your keys / wallet / purse / cell phone. This is an easy fix. The moment you step in the door, you always, always put them in the same place, a designated hook or a bowl or a basket. This might seem minor, but those two to ten minutes of running around with your hair on fire add up.

Possibility 20. Never hunt for Internet passwords (or wait for the "resend password" email). Keep track of passwords, some way, somehow. I use Grandma's recipe box— deemed seriously uncool on the Cool Tools blog, but it works beautifully for me and, so they tell me after reading that infamous blog post, many of my friends. (So there.)

Possibility 21. No boat. Do not ever even shop for a boat. Do not even think about shopping for a boat. Unless you plan to sell your house and live in the boat. Ditto RV, camping equipment, or motorcycle. And anyway, you cannot live in your motorcycle. If you like to go out overnight into nature, check out Mike Clelland’s Ultralight Backpacking Tips. (Watch out, though, he features a link to his UFO page.)

Possibility 22. No second home. On par with the boat. No, worse.

Possibility 23. Stop buying loads of soft drinks and bottled water. Take into account the time it takes to shop for them, carry them to the car, lug them out of the car, store them somewhere in the pantry or the fridge, then recycle the bottles and cans… Drip, drip, drip goes your time (and money). A good water filter will pay for itself and quickly.

Possibility 24. Prepare your meals with mis-en-place. Even when making a peanut butter-and-jelly sandwich, it sure does help to do mis-en-place. If you hate cooking, you probably never heard of the mis. Check it out. (If you want to keep it easy by microwaving everything or relying on take-out, see #3 above.) 

Possibility 25. Take email seriously. In other words, stop letting it pile up and become a giant, throbbing source of lost opportunities, embarrassment and guilt. Email is vital for a writer— as vital as letter writing in days of yore, so do it well. This also means get quick-on-the-draw to delete spam.

>Email Ninjerie in the Theater of Space-Time

Dear Pope Francis….

Possibility 26. Use a "bucket" for all your to do lists and ideas. In other words, quit trying to keep everything from next week's dentist appointment to the ideas for your novel in your head. I use David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) system and thereby free up yottabytes of short term memory for more creative work. (One day I may set up a little altar in a corner of my office to St. Allen.) For me, a Filofax is an indispensable tool for implementing GTD.

> See Why I Am a Mega-Fan of the Filofax.

>Listen to this podcast of November 6, 2013 about the GDT method for creative people. (I couldn't find the direct link; you may need to scroll down for it once you land on that page.)

Possibility 27. Keep your closet decluttered and organized. Clutter not only makes it difficult to find things when you need them, it pulls and yanks and pinches your attention to decisions you haven't made (like, whether to get rid of that old mustard-colored shirt, but which might maybe go with something, or sew back on the two missing buttons?) So you're rushed and addled, right at the start of the day. It all adds up over a week, a month...

Possibility 28. Fie to piles. Piles are sinkholes of chaos and, to pile on another mongrel of a metaphor, they tend to sprout and ooze all over the place like fungi. (Yeah, did that need an editor.) Any time you need to do anything important, pay taxes, file a claim, send out a manuscript, if you have to paw and dig through piles to find what you need you will add possibly hours, possibly days, possibly weeks or even months to the process— not to mention a walloping dollop of time-sucking anxiety. So get a filing cabinet, even if it has to be a cardboard box, and make proper, labeled files, and dagnabbit, file things.

Possibility 29. Let go of things you won't use but someone else might. This might sound strange as a source of time for writing, but think about it: any clutter, anywhere, becomes a drag on your time and attention. So all those old winter coats, faded towels, mismatched dishes, clothes than haven't fit for 10 years, overflows of flower vases, toys… For heavenssakes, sell that stuff, gift it, and/or make regular runs to Goodwill or the like. (But remember, trying to sell it will take up your time.) As my favorite estate lady Julie Hall puts it, "the hearse doesn't have a trailer hitch." 

Update-- on Cool Tools 12/12/14: 

“My top recommendation for the holidays is the Kindle of Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing ($10). A one-time Shinto shrine maiden, Kondo bases her “KonMari” method on the assumption that one’s house and all the objects in it have consciousness but, boy howdy, even if you’re a die-hard materialist, follow her method and you’ll zoom to a wiggy new oxygen-rich level of tidy.” — C.M. Mayo

And last but far from least:

Possibility 30. Remember your pen and notebook. Always, except in, say, a swimming pool, keep these on your person; you never know when the muse may whisper. What I'm saying is, some of the most valuable writing time arrives in snatches— while you're standing in the dog park, about to get out of the car, riding an elevator, etc. In other words, you might not have been planning to write, but write you do because write you can.

> Your comments are always welcome. 

+ + + + + +

How to Declutter a Library: The 10 Question Flowchart

Why I am a Mega Fan of the Filofax

On Decluttering Your Writing or, 

Respecting the Integrity of Narrative Design: 

The Interior Decoration Analogy