Podcast: PEN / Sol Literary Magazine Reading Series, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico: Stone of Kings, Spiritist Manual

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN to the new podcast:

Gerard Helferich, author of Stone of Kings: In Search of the Lost Jade of the Maya, and C.M. Mayo (Yours Truly), translator of Francisco I. Madero's secret book of 1911, Spiritist Manual. Introduced by Eva Hunter, editor of Sol Literary Magazine. Recorded on February 22, 2012 in the café of Biblioteca Pública, San Miguel de Allende. *57 minutes.

(My talk starts at 26:36. You'll notice background noise throughout; the café had a burpy-slurpy cappuccino maker and, next door, a well-attended kindergarten. But the microphone for the readers seemed loud enough.)

More podcasts:

>All C.M. Mayo podcasts (master list)

>Conversations with Other Writers, an occasional series
So far: Sara Mansfield Taber, Solveig Eggerz, Rosemary Sullivan

>Podcasts for Writers (tips and more)

>Marfa Mondays Project 2012-2013: Exploring Marfa, Texas & Environs in 24 Podcasts
One podcast per month until the end of 2013. The most recent: Charles Angell in the Big Bend. Up next: Mary Bones on the Lost Art Colony.

>The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire
Includes my lecture at the Library of Congress and the Historical Society of Washington

>Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico
Some excerpts about Bob van Wormer and the Jesuits in San Ignacio

>Mexico: A Literary Traveler's Companion
A reading of the prologue (a good basic introduction, if I do say myself, to contemporary Mexican writing)

So, yeah, I am totally into podcasts! I'll be offering a workshop on podcasting for writers at the Writer's Center, near Washington DC, this summer (details to be announced), and meanwhile, after our chat in San Miguel de Allende last week, novelist Sandra Gulland spilled the beans over at her blog. Merci beaucoup, amiga!

Podcast Now Live: C.M. Mayo at "PEN Writers Aloud" in San Miguel de Allende

Here's the podcast from my recent reading and discussion of The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire as part of the PEN Writers Aloud Reading Series in San Miguel de Allende last week. The reading was co-sponsored by SOL Literary Magazine.


Relevant links:

---> PEN Writers Aloud Reading Series

---> SOL Literary Magazine

---> The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire

---> El último príncipe del Imperio Mexicano

---> Full archive of my podcasts

More anon.

Report from San Miguel de Allende

Think art colony + sunshine + pedestrian paradise (if you're wearing flat shoes, that is)... Oh, all the pink puffs of bougainvilleas against pure blue sky! I managed to reach escape velocity from Mexico City for a brief visit to San Miguel de Allende apropos of a reading of my novel, The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire, which took place in the gloriously pink and coral-red Salon Quetzal of the Biblioteca, sponsored by PEN San Miguel and SOL Literary Magazine.

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UPDATE:
PodCast is now live at podomatic.com
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Thank you, Eva Hunter, for the introduction, and Bill Pearlman, for all you do to organize this splendid reading series. Lucina Kathmann and Edward Swift, it was a delight to see you there. Edward-- everybody listen up! -- has a new novel about to come out, and it features Nezahualcoyotl's poems and stunning cover art by Kelly Vandiver. Edward's novel is one I am eagerly looking forward to reading, for I am a must-tell-EVERYBODY fan of his extraordinary memoir of growing up in the Big Thicket, My Grandfather's Finger. It was also a happy surprise to meet my fellow Unbridled Books author, George Rabasa, author of The Wonder Singer, whose new novel, Miss Entropia and the Adam Bomb, is about to come out this spring. And Mariló Carral, Marisa Boullosa, and Lulu Torbet, wonderful artists, I send you besos.

P.S. I'll be back in San Miguel de Allende later in February for the San Miguel Writers Conference, for which I'll offering the mini-workshop on "Techniques of Fiction."

Also of note: My amiga writer Gina Hyams will be giving a workshop on blogging. Check out her bodacious blog! For anyone interested in starting or improving their blog, this is a terrific opportunity.


And here's the Q & A that didn't make in time for the announcement in San Miguel de Allende's local paper, Atención:

Three Questions for C.M. Mayo

Q: Why did you decide to write about this period of Mexican history?

A: I was so surprised to learn that the mother of the prince of the title– Agustin de Iturbide y Green (1863-1925) – was an American. I am also an American married to a Mexican, one very distantly related to her mother-in-law, so I was curious to learn more about her, how she came to Mexico and what made her agree, at first, to collaborate with Maximilian von Habsburg. When I started to delve into reading about the period and about her, however, I quickly found so many contradictions, mysterious distortions and vagueness, that I realized her story, and that of her son, had never been properly researched. I also felt it is an important story, for both Mexicans and Americans.

Q: As the author of nonfiction books, two on finance and a travel memoir of Baja California, how did you make the transition to writing fiction?


A: I made an effort to learn the craft of fiction through taking workshops, reading books on craft, and then re-reading novels, not as consumer wanting to be entertained, but as as a fellow craftsman, actively noting, for example, how does Chekhov describe the snow? Or Tolstoy, a dress? Lampedusa, a dance? Flaubert, a sense of joy or despair? How do they handle dialogue, transitions, building suspense? And so on. It was really as simple– and as difficult— as that.

Q: Which authors have most influenced your writing?


A: For this novel, the most influential was Guiseppi di Lampedusa's richly splendid novel, The Leopard, which covers a similar period in Sicily. For the flexible narrative voice and language I learned from Henry James’s Portrait of A Lady and Edith Wharton’s The Custom of the Country and for structure, her tragic novel The House of Mirth. Contemporary influences include A. Manette Ansay, Kate Braverman, Bruce Chatwin, Ted Conover, Douglas Glover, V.S. Naipaul, and oh, so many others. Everyone in Mexico asks me if I’ve read Fernando del Paso’s Noticias del Imperio. The answer is, other than a very few pages which I translated for my anthology, Mexico: A Traveler’s Literary Companion, no, and not because I am unaware that it is considered one of Mexico’s greatest novels. Del Paso covers the same period and many of the same characters, and I wanted to have a clear conscience that my novel is my own. So now I have to read it!

More anon.

PEN WRITERS ALOUD Speaker Series, San Miguel de Allende

In San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Hosted by Bill Pearlman.

PEN SAN MIGUEL & SOL Magazine’s WRITERS ALOUD SERIES FIFTH YEAR
WEDNESDAYS FROM 3:00 to 4:30 PM
In the Sala Quetzal of the Biblioteca

January 5====Hal Johnson and Lynda Schor
The series begins with iconic poet Hal Johnson and prose stylist Linda Schor.

January 12==Eva Hunter and Christopher Cook
San Miguel well known memoirist Eva Hunter & popular writing teacher and co-editor of Sol Literary Magazine http://solliterarymagazine.com). Also, Christopher Cook, whose novel Robbers was made into a film, will read from recent work.

January 19==C.M. MAYO
Novelist C.M. Mayo will read from her recent work, The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire, the novel based on the true story.

January 20==A tribute to Leonard ‘Red’ Bird
Bill Pearlman, Jane Leonard and others will pay tribute to the great “atomic veteran” and astonishing poet Leonard ‘Red’ Bird, who recently passed on.

February 2==Wim Coleman and Pat Perrin
Acclaimed writing team Wim Coleman & Pat Perrin take the stage.

February 9==Margaret Tallis & Katka Pinosova
Short story writer and artist Margaret Tallis has the mike, along with Czech poet Katka Pinosova.

Feb. 16==Carolyn Hernandez & Wayne Frank
Prose stylist Carolyn ‘Cazz’ Hernadez, who also serves as assistant editor of Sol, teams with Milwaukee playwright and poet, Wayne Frank.

February 23==Jan Harvey and Bill Pearlman
Storyteller and essayist Jan Harvey reading with poet Bill Pearlman.

Series Ends March 2==Geoffrey Young
Series ends with Figures Press editor & poet Geoffrey Young from Great Barrington, MA

(All proceeds go to help support Pen & Biblioteca Scholarship Fund. 70 pesos, students 50 pesos)

SOL Literary Magazine: Call for Manuscripts

Here's the direct link to the submission guidelines:
http://solliterarymagazine.com/about-the-magazine/call-for-submissions/

From editor Eva Hunter:

SOL: English Writing in Mexico is seeking submissions for its third on-line literary magazine, which will come out in March. Deadline for submissions is January 15. SOL seeks fiction, literary nonfiction, and poetry. Well-known writers in previous issues are C.M. Mayo, Christopher Cook, Tony Cohan, Wayne Greenhaw, and others. SOL seeks material from already publishing writers, as well as promising new writers. A hard-copy of each year's on-line magazine will be published at the conclusion of each year's issues. Full information about submitting to SOL can be find in the writers' guidelines section of the magazine, http://solliterarymagazine.com

P.S. Want to meet the editor? Eva Hunter is reading in the PEN Writer's Aloud Speakers Series in San Miguel de Allende on January 12th.
More anon.

Sol: English Writing in Mexico, Edited by Eva Hunter

Mexico City, San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Ajijic, Cuernavaca, Tepoztlan, Todos Santos, La Paz... so many Mexican cities and towns have been attracting U.S., Canadian, English, and other English language writers, why not a literary magazine? Well, now we have one. Eva Hunter has just launched a beautiful new on-line literary journal focusing on English language writing in Mexico: Sol (which means "sun"), with fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. The inaugural issue includes works by James Cervantes, Tony Cohan, Eva Hunter, Wim Coleman, Jan Harvey, Carolyn Hernandez, Halvard Johnson, Bill Pearlman, Pat Perrin, Margaret Tallis, and Yours Truly, with an excerpt from my novel, just out in paperback, The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire. Read Hunter's introduction to the inaugural issue here. Viva Sol!

Guest-blogger Writer and Writing Coach Eva Hunter on 5 Ways to Avoid Writing

Writer's block? Sometimes you can begin to dissolve it by looking unblinklingly at the ways you make it worse. But what's tricky about that enterprise is that, lo, you might discover an idea for a story! Today's guest-blog post is by my San Miguel amiga, Eva Hunter, a writer who knows the inside-out-and- upside-downs of this wacky (if you can call it a) business. Eva has been a writing coach for over 20 years, in addition to producing hundreds of literary nonfiction stories, feature articles, short stories and a book, The Lord of the Dolls: Voyage in Xochimilco. Her writing credentials include The New York Times Magazine, Quii, The Quarterly, Northwest Magazine, Oregon Magazine, Portland State Magazine, The Oregonian, Oregon Business Magazine, and the Boston Herald. Currently she is currently writing a memoir about growing up near Las Vegas in the 60s: A Little Mormon Girl. She has taught creative writing as faculty at Portland State University, at the Art Museum School of Portland, and privately in both the United States and Mexico. A popular writing conference speaker, she is co-founder of the Portland, Oregon based Connexus, The Writer's School, and The Writer's Workshop: San Miguel in Mexico. In June, 2010, she started a blog, Professional Writing Coach, which conveys information about the craft of writing. Her weekly series, under the heading "The Craft of Writing" takes the writer from concept to finished product.

Five Ways to Avoid Writing

When I lived in Portland, Oregon, I had a writer friend I called every morning, or— indeed— every time I thought about the particular writing project I was avoiding at the moment. Grant you, this means we talked on the telephone several times a day. One of our regular topics was the imaginary book we threatened to write together: One Thousand Ways to Avoid Writing. Of course we never wrote that book. We were too busy avoiding writing. But what follows is the abridged version. And, of course, one of the best ways to avoid writing is to call someone up and talk about avoiding writing.

1. Investigate 500 potential mates on a dating website even if you already have a mate.

2. Bake a batch of brownies then eat them all yourself, planning your weight-loss diet while you’re doing it.

3. Decide to join Netflicks again, and compile the list of movies they’ll mail you for the next ten years.

4. Plan a trip around the Mediterranean, comparing freighter cruises, air, and land travel.

5. Check out bargain catalogue sites for red boots, (overstock.com, bluefly.com, smartbargains.com) real leather, in your size.

Or write a guest blog for someone.

--Eva Hunter


---> For Madam Mayo's archive of guest-blog posts, click here.

Blogs Noted: Steven Axelrod, Eva Hunter, Christoph Niemann, and More

Steven Axelrod

Professional Wrting Coach Eva Hunter

Christoph Niemann

Cydwoq

Writing of Blahging

Benevolent Postcard Society

Casa Gregorio

Lord of the Dolls: Voyage in Xochimilco

Just back from the fabulous San Miguel Writers Conference, unpacking a suitcase full of books--- among them, the deeply weird chronicle of the discovery of what may well be the modern survival of a violent pre-Hispanic cult: Lord of the Dolls: Voyage in Xochimilco by Eva Hunter with photographs by Jo Brenzo. Read Roy Sorrels's review on culturevulture here. Where is Xochimilco? Here's the wiki. More anon.