The Blog Buzz at BEA

Over at Booksquare, an excellent post on the latest about lit-blogging.

Writers's Blogs: Best (& Worst) Practices-- The handout, now on-line and packed with links, from my workshop at the Maryland Writers Assoc. Conference

Now on-line: the handout from my workshop on writers's blogs at last Saturday's Maryland Writers Association Conference.

Unbridled Books's Fred Ramey on the End of the Lit-Blog Co-op and the Roomless Salon of Web 2.0

For anyone interested in the future of book culture, an important post.

On the Occasion of "Madam Mayo's" 2nd Anniversary: Five Lessons Learned About Blogging (So Far)

So, it's the end of March; I've been blogging steadily for two years. Why did I begin? For a bit of an adventure, and to promote my then-hot-off-the-presses anthology of 24 Mexican writers, Mexico: A Traveler's Literary Companion. So, like most literary bloggers, I waded in somewhat naively and self-servingly (if promoting an anthology of 24 Mexican writers can be called self-serving... humph... no, I think not. Would somebody please award me the Aztec Eagle now?) Here are the five lessons learned--- thus far:

#1.Blogging isn't necessarily "blogging"
By which I mean, a lot of people, especially literary types my age and older, have set ideas about what blogs and the so-called "blogging culture" are--- and they are missing the whole point. It's a literary genre, kindasorta, but it's also a delivery system, the whole Web 2.0 social networking technology-phenomenon--- in sum, we do not yet have the precise vocabulary to describe this. I've told writer friends who resist blogging (with that inevitable oh-so-subtle curl-of-the-lip), if you have a newsletter--- and many do nowadays, as adjuncts to their websites--- you already are "blogging." Just call your newsletter a blog. And if you have some resistance to that, well, then, call your blog a "newsletter." Call it a cupcake, whydoncha! Apropos of which: "To Blog or Not to Blog, That is Not the Question".

#2. Good blogging is more than flogging.
I don't read "flog blogs"--- the thud of "me, me, mine," is deadly. The best blogs offer quality writing and quality information--- however quirky a combination (e.g., Phronesisaical's politics, philosophy, international affairs & fruit) or specialized (e.g., Seth Godin's Blog on marketing). (That said, um... why take ads when I can advertise my own books? Yes indeed, look over to right side of this screen for all relevant links.)

#3. My blog is not a log or diary of my life; neither is it a forum or a community bulletin board. It's a filter.
You want to know what blogs to read? Come see what I recommend here and here and here. Want to find out about some extraordinary books? Try this 1,000-year-old apparently true adventure that almost defies belief and Hypnerotomachia Poliphili and all 10 of these. And how about this mind-blowing (literally) video, this Icelandic movie and this sleep-inducing CD and the magic Baby Muse... I blog about my books, events and workshops (yeah, I'm flogging) but also, generally, my interests, my tastes, what I want to share (e.g., "All Hail E.T., Minister of Information!") and celebrate (e.g., Mexico's beloved English eccentric's masterwork, "Las Pozas"). If you don't like it, fine, there is an ocean of blogs out there, wade in. Why not start your own?

#4. Blogging (and balancing blogging with my other writing, and the ever-roaring cascade of e-mails, etc, etc.) requires increasingly advanced time-management skills.
As I noted in my recent post, Time to Blog & Read Blogs & Everything Else Everywhereallthetime, apropos of writers' blogs, "...it seems to me that, as artists--- artists who live in this world of unimaginable quantities of information 24/ 7--- we need to develop a set of skills we never knew we needed." I've learned a lot about organization and productivity (two of my gurus are Regina Leeds and David Allen) but I know I have yet to learn more than I can probably imagine--- and this would be true whether I were blogging or not. That said, I rarely watch television or use a cell phone, and I've moved this blog to a more regular (if flexible) schedule: posts on Mondays and in-between more often than not; guest-bloggers generally on Wednesdays.

#5. Lists are good. Links are even better. Lists of links, yay!
I love my guest-bloggers. Check 'em out. (Coming up in the next weeks: Leslie Pietrzyk, Graham Mackintosh, Daniel Olivas, and more...) Like I said, it' all about Web 2.0. More anon.

--->For the archive of Madam Mayo's posts on blogging, click here.

On Blogging and Writers's Blogs: Yummy Links

Blogging:
---> From Wired magazine, "The Lifecycle of a Blog Post" This is a treasure--- bloggers, and anyone interested in blogging, be sure to have a look at this.
---> From Copyblogger, "Why Brains Crave Beneficial Copy"

More on Writers Blogs:
--->Apropos of last Saturday's WIW Writers Conference panel on writers's blogs, I asked writer Andrea Cumbo which litblogs she recommends. She said she loves Book Ninja and fruitful by Gayle Brandeis.
--->WIW member and science fiction writer Nancy Jane Moore is a member of the blogging team at Ambling Along the Aqueduct, sponsored by Aqueduct Press, which publishes feminist science fiction, and wanders into interesting territory from time to time. Nancy Jane Moore also blogs on self defense at Taking Care of Ourselves.
--->WIW member Austin Camacho writes, "Of course, I could mention my blog, which I share with my wife: Another Writer's Life (and a writer's spouse). But my favorites are A Writer's Life - Murderati -The Outfit - Acme Authors Link."
---> For the archive of posts on "Gone to the Litblogs," click here.

...And Paula Whyman, "Curious Writer"

Another DC writing amiga has an excellent new webpage: check out Paula Whyman's, which includes a page called "discussion"--- which Madam Mayo dubs a blog, because a blog is not a blog is a blog is... whatever. It's all blogging now, including Edward Tufte's "moderated forum". More anon.

Time to Blog & Read Blogs & Everything Else Everywhereallthetime

Re: Web 2.0--- yes, it's speeding up, it's getting overwhelming, it's crazy crazy kray-zeee--- the torrents of e-mail, everybody on their Crackberries and iPods and BlueTooths & etc--- but is refusing to blog, or even look at a blog, an optimal response? To research my talk for last Saturday's WIW panel on writers's blogs, I sent out an e-mail to my writer friends (the majority age 40 +) asking whether they blog and which writers's blogs they would recommend. Here's a typical response, this from the author of several wonderful books:

"I have a website, but not a blog, and no time to pay attention to one. No time for that matter to spend running around the internet looking at other people's blogs. How does the artist carve out time to produce if all you do is worry about the computer?"

The opposite extreme I happened upon over at marketing guru Seth Godin's blog:

"Someone asked me the other day if posting a blog post every day is intimidating or a grind. I view it as something I get to do. I spend most of my blogging time deciding what not to post."

I would not suggest that all writers keep an on-line journal anymore than I would argue that all writers must write novels or all poets write sonnets. That said, a blog is not a blog, exactly... (see this post on that...) But it seems to me that, as artists--- artists who live in this world of unimaginable quantities of information 24/ 7--- we need to develop a set of skills we never knew we needed.

An analogy, information as food: we were like cavemen, used to having to work very hard and very smart to catch a rabbit or perhaps a bird, and to gather a few roots and berries. Then, abracadabra, plunk in front of our cave, there's a Whole Foods. You can have lamb, chicken, ground turkey breast, porkchops, sirloin, filet mignon, liver, veal, Italian sausages, low-fat sausages, chorizo, chicken with spinach sausages, grouper, snapper, shrimp, tuna, bass, salmon, smoked salmon, oysters, seafood salad, smoked trout, smoked trout dip, smoked salmon dip, gravlax--- OK, I won't belabor the point with the produce section, the cheese, the wine, the pastas, the olive bar, the ... oh, and seven brands of mayonnaise! Twelve brands of yoghurt, goat, sheep, cow, skim, fat-free, vanilla, strawberry, banana, peach, raspberry, honey and nuts, from Greece, from Iceland, from Australia, from West Virginia, grass-fed this, cage-free that, hormone free, gluten free, etc etc.

So, our caveman could:
---> stand in the first aisle in a slack-jawed daze;
---> grab up more than he can carry, injuring himself (and dropping quite a few things on the floor), and stuff himself until he pukes;
---> say, "this is a scary place" and refuse to ever return;
---> make a grocery list, push his wheeled cart through the store aisle-by-aisle, and then take his groceries home and place his selections, as appropriate, in the fridge, freezer, or pantry.

Well, bone appetite.

--->To view previous "Gone to the Litblogs" posts, click here.

To Blog or Not to Blog? That is Not the Question in the Web 2.0 World

Just back from this morning's Washington Independent Writers Fiction Seminar panel on writers's blogs--- with fiction writer and journalist Wendi Kaufman (The Happy Booker), novelist Leslie Pietrzyk (Work-in-Progress), freelancer and improv artist Shawn Westfall, blogger for Dcist.com, and poet Deborah Ager of 32 Poems. I'd had no idea that Wendi got the idea to start her blog (one of the first and best lit-blogs out there, by the way) after her eight year-old son launched one for Pokemon characters. And wow, Deborah is a wordpress wizard! But to the point:

To blog or not to blog, I repeat, that is not the question. A blog, supposedly, is a web (on-line) log, or diary or journal. I say no, it's anything you want it to be. Call it a newsletter. Or take a newsletter and call that a blog. It could be an on-line magazine column. Updated once a year. Updated eight times a day. Longish personal essays, whole books, pictures with or without commentary, or, say, nothing but lists of links to kitty videos on Youtube. Did I mention videos of people crying while eating? Mustaches of the 19th century! Some blogs invite comments, others (such as this one) do not (though if you want to send me an e-mail, click here). It's the Wild Get Out of Dodge West. So what I'm saying is, if you're on-line in any way, you might as well accept it, it's a Web 2.0 world, morphing at warp speed--- and you might as well consider what you do blogging. For lack of a better word. We do not have an adequate vocabulary for any of this. More anon...specifically:

---->The main misconception about "blogs"
----> Making time for blogging (why and how) and my Bushman (and I do not mean the W) goes to Whole Foods analogy.
---->The perplexing problem with print-outs of blog posts.
---->Then, Maximilian galore, new pix & more.


---->To view the archive of Madam Mayo on blogging, click here

Sarah Boxer's "Blogs" in the New York Review of Books

I mentioned this one in a recent post, but, herewith, a repeat. For anyone interested in blogging as a literary phenomenon, start here.

--->And for Madam Mayo's "Gone to the Litblogs" posts, click here.

Post-AWP Note-oid or, Paper Source: Antidote for Blog Fever

The past couple of weeks I've been thinking about blogging, talking about blogging, and blogging about blogging. Explanation: I've got a writers conference coming up this Saturday at (Washington Independent Writers All-Day Fiction Seminar at American University) for which I'll be chairing the panel on writers's blogs. And, I was just in New York at the AWP mega-powwow, aka bookfair, nonstop yadda yadda yadda, with Sergio Tronocoso, Francisco Aragon, Dawn Marano, Mark Statman, Leslie Pietrzyk, Richard Peabody, Christine Boyka Kluge, John Oliver Simon, to mention only a few, and plenty of the yaddaing about, yep, writers's blogs. Some blog, some don't, some care, some couldn't. Blogging is just a fad--- or it's the biggest thing that's happened to the literary scene since the 15th century. Or---? Well, happily for me, I'm walking distance to Georgetown's Paper Source, which has the most beautiful letterpress business cards, as well as endless racks of silky-looking papers and ribbons and, on the third floor, an Ali Baba's cave worth of doo-dads. Why not make an accordian book? With a cover of sparkly lipstick-red paper! "Do something creative every day" is their trademarked motto. Such wonders we have, yes, even amongst the Starbucks' and the Kinkos'. Yes, even as the book appears to be going, if not the way of the dodo, then, for the most part, into the digital soup. Plop.

More anon.

Writers's Blogs: Madam Mayo's Top 6 Peeves

This Saturday I'll be chairing the panel (with Wendi "The Happy Booker" Kaufman, Leslie "Work-in-Progress" Pietrzyk, Deborah "32 Poems" Ager, and Shawn Westfall, on writers blogs for the Washington Independent Writers All-Day Fiction Seminar at Washington DC's American University. So, I'm thinking a lot about writers's blogs... (here, by the way, is a list of 10 excellent examples of the genre). So, as a reader of writers's blogs, herewith my top 6 peeves--- the things that make me surf on (and rarely, if ever, return):

#1. Black backgrounds.
So sleek, yet such a strain to read. Forget the fancy stuff, make it easy on the eyes for your readers.

#2. "Me, me, me, and mine, blah blah and when I was contemplating the lint in my navel, blah-be-de-blah"
I'm looking for quality content, and that includes good links. Interestingly, a number of well-known literary writers have blogs that are very poor examples of the genre.

#3. Ginormous jpegs which take--- so I am guessing but I'm not going to wait to find out--- anymore than I would watch paint dry--- eleven cen-tu-rie-sssss to dooooooooow-n-n-n-n-load
Many readers have a dial-up connection, sometimes or all the time. But even still, they can surf away, click.

#4. Long strings of even more ginormous jpegs.
Please God, why?

#5. Inconsistent / infrequent posting.
It's a canard that to attract readers, a blog needs to be updated daily. Some excellent and very popular writers's blogs, such as James Howard Kunstler's, are updated once a week; others, such as Jeff Gomez's Print is Dead, frequently, but not necessarily daily. But a writers's blog that appears to have been abandoned, weeks or even months ago, with no explanation... well, it's about as appealing as a grocery cart parked on a front lawn.

#6. Opening a blog post with an apology
"Sorry not to have been posting as I should"--- oh, yecch. (Re: peeve #2). Just blog.

Less peevishly... more anon.

---> Read Madam Mayo's previous "Gone to the Litblogs" posts here.

Blogification

It's a linky - linky world... and so we go, sculpting our very own info-scapes in time & space. Re: the upcoming panel I'll be chairing (Feb 9th) on blogs as new literary genre, and in particular, writers's blogs, for the Washington Independent Writers All-Day Fiction Seminar. My amigo, David Lida, author of Travel Advisory: Stories of Mexico, and a forthcoming and sure-to-be- fascinating book on Mexico City, sends me this link to a New York Review of Books article, "Blogs", by Sara Boxer, editor of the forthcoming anthology, Ultimate Blogs: Masterworks from the Wild Web. But a caveat: there's language in there not for the prim. 'N dikshun drops galore-o-rama.
--->Gracias, also, David, for the link to Luc Sante's delightful Pinakothek.

--->And Alice (pictured above left, channeling Isabella Gardner): Yes, Pabu's is the best dog's blog on the 'Net.

More anon.

What Makes Great Blogging? Madam Mayo's Embryonic List o' Links

As I'm going to be chairing the panel on writers blogs at the February 9th Washington Independent Writers All-Day Fiction Seminar, I'm putting together a list of links to good tips on blog writing. So far:

---> Over at Copyblogger:

"...there’s no doubt in my mind that [Mark Twain] would make an excellent blogger. Actually, he’d likely be a blogging guru..." READ MORE

---> Over at Write to Done:

"Remember, blogwriting isn’t the same as writing fiction, or journalism, or magazine writing. There are similarities, of course, but blogwriting is a literary form in itself..." READ MORE.

--->Over at Inner Diablog:

"For me, the best bloggers − the ones that typify the medium and its unique form of exposition − are more than just 'air guitar journalists'. Two of my own literary heroes, Samuel Pepys (OP) and the more recently late Jean Baudrillard in their own ways both pointed towards to a new style of writing that consciously moves out towards the edge of discussion (or the long tail if you must) often adopting "controlled chaos" as the chosen idiom..." READ MORE

--->Hello out there, any suggestions?

32 Poems Blogger Deborah Ager's 7 Favorite Poets's Blogs

A thoughtful list here.

Madam Mayo's Top 10 Writers's Blogs

Coming up Feb 9th: the Washington Independent Writers (WIW) All-Day Fiction Seminar at American University, Washington DC, for which I'm chairing the panel on writers blogs. So, what makes for a good writer's blog? I'm working on a list; meanwhile, here is a list of 10 that, though not necessarily my personal favorites, are outstanding examples of the genre.

#1. Design expert and author Edward Tufte's Ask E.T.
He calls it a moderated forum. Yeah, I'm calling the page a blog because I want to.

#2. Novelist and journalist James Howard Kunstler's Clusterfuck Nation
Once a week, a zippy op-ed style essay.

#3. Novelist and creative writing teacher Leslie Pietrzyk's Work-in-Progress
Highly focused and meaty with helpful information. Frequently updated and features many guest-bloggers.

#4. Poet and literary magazine editor Deborah Ager's 32 Poems
Wide-ranging, quirky, frequently updated. Big on Web 2.0 tools.

#5. Childrens writer Erica Perl's Pajamazon
Childrens' book recommendations (and a bit more). Part of Offsprung news.

#6. Travel writer Rolf Potts' Vagabonding
Fun, daily updates, multiple bloggers working for him.

#7. Professor of History, Middle East expert and author Juan Cole's Informed Comment
One of the go-to places for news about Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East. Updated daily with multiple links and commentary. (Boy howdy does he sell ads!)

#8. Novelist Laila Lailami's Moorish Girl
She's been around almost from the time blogging began.

#9. Editor, graphic designer, translator and writer Tom Christensen's Right-reading
Eclectic quality links, and he encourages both mail and comments.

#10. A cabal of crime novelists's Naked Authors
Regular posting by Paul Levin, Patricia Smiley, James O. Born, Jacqueline Winspear, and Cornelia Read.

------>Is there a writer's blog you think I should know about?

More anon. And meanwhile, click here for the Gone to the Litblogs archive.

Blogonomics

So, I'm thinking a lot about blogs as a literary genre. First because as a blogger and a writer, this interests me, and second because I'm gearing up for the panel on this very subject at the Washington Independent Writers All-Day Fiction Seminar on February 9th. One inevitable question: Is there money in it? Some blogs, such as Beatrice, Bookslut, and The Millions, sell ads--- in fact, check out the blogad for the new paperback edition of my book, Miraculous Air, on those very blogs. But some bloggers actually get paid to blog--- a salary or a fee, as for an other freelance writing. For example, Shawn Westfall, who will be participating on the WIW panel, blogs on the DC literary scene for DCist. Over at World Hum, an outstanding cornucopia of a travel writing blog, the founding writers sold the whole package to the Travel Channel and now they get paid to blog. Here's a fascinating article on the economics of writing for blogs, in the Columbia Journalism Review. More anon.

Why Blog or, What's in the Inbox

So, apropos of the upcoming WIW conference, for which I'm chairing the panel on writers blogs as a new literary genre, I've been thinking a lot about writers blogs. Why does this writer blog? Let me count the ways... but for now, I'll mention one reason: I get a truckload of e-mail announcements, many of which I delete, but many of which would be, I would think, of genuine interest. Why not filter out the best ones, and share? I don't have the time to do this as often as I'd like, but herewith a selection of this week's batch:
---> On WETA's "Author, Author" Bethanne Patrick interviews Richard Peabody, editor of Gargoyle and the fabulous series of anthologies of work by Washington women writers. (Full disclosure: I'm a big fan of Richard Peabody's, and for more many reasons in addition to the fact that he included one of my stories in his first anthology, Grace and Gravity.) And by the way, his co-editor of Gargoyle, Lucinda Ebersole, is selling these very cool old-fashioned wood cake boxes--- pictured left.
--->Antonette May, who has written New York Times best-sellers, books about Mexico, and historical novels, has founded what looks like a very fun writers conference in California: The Gold Rush Conference.
--->Readers Circle, an elegantly friendly social networking site, is putting together writers and readers, and readers with other readers... bodacious archive surfing in there....
--->From Oaxaca, Mexican composer Arturo Salinas writes that his composition, "Awiroma," will be performed in Berkeley, California on January 29th (from the description, it sounds like this would get any writer's mojo flowing)
---> Beltway editor Kim Roberts announces the new issue, "Split This Rock: Poems of Provocation and Witness" featuring work by Naomi Ayala, Sarah Browning, E. Ethelbert Miller, and many more.
--->Ellen Prentiss Campbell will be reading at Riverby Books
--->John Curry sends a link to a Washington Post piece on "Blogging Japanese Style"
--->Emily Cook Walks the Talk--- she's the marketing director and publicist at Milkweed Editions, which published my travel memoir, Miraculous Air. She was too modest to tell me about this profile of her and her work in (wow!) Publisher's Weekly--- I happened upon it via a link from Bookslut.

But back to the question, why does this writer blog? I'm not blogging to cover book news per se--- that's nicely covered by The Happy Booker, Maud Newton, Beatrice, and Bookslut, among many others. I blog about whatever interests as a writer. It might be another writer, or a remarkable book, but it might be pug-vid, sparklines, the auras of the Mexican presidential candidates, a massive ugly schrub, flash fiction, Maximilian von Habsburg, or Icelandic film. Why? Because no one can stop me! And because blogging makes this world richer and stranger to me--- and, I like to think, to others. More anon.

Guest-Blogger Jeff Sypeck on Other Writers' Blogs

Re: writers blogs. There are more of them everyday--- but which are the ones worth reading, and why? A very good one I've recently begun reading is Jeff Sypeck's, Quid Plura. He's the author of Becoming Charlemagne: Europe, Baghdad, and the Empires of A.D. 800 and he blogs about medievalism, translation, Icelandic literature, Beowulf, Arthuriana, Washington DC--- where he lives--- and more. So, what writers' blogs does Jeff Sypeck read? Here's his answer:

With his "Whatever" blog, science-fiction novelist John Scalzi attracts fans and fellow authors alike to his thriving comments section.

Based in New Jersey, Steven Hart is a nonfiction author who blogs daily about American music, movies, and culture. These days, he's busy promoting The Last Three Miles, a really good book about the building of a really ugly highway.

Lee Goldberg works as a writer and television producer; he also writes media tie-in novels. Pointed and prolific, he offers a Hollywood's-eye view on such subjects as the writers' strike, vanity presses, and fan fiction.

Contemporary Nomad is a lively group blog that features regular postings by Canadian nonfiction author John Nadler; Budapest-based American novelist Olen Steinhauer; British spy-thriller author Kevin Wignall; and journalist Robin Hunt. They blog frequently about writing, publishing, and the expat experience.

--->Check out Madam Mayo's other guest-blog posts here.

What is a Lit-Blog? Further Notes Towards a Taxonomy or, Herewith a Whole Bunch of Fuzzily Overlapping Categories

Re: blogs as a new literary genre: I'm going to be chairing a panel at the Washington Independent Writers conference (held at American University), Washington DC, this February 9th. So, what is a "litblog"? According to Madam Mayo, who is still, after nearly two years of blogging, trying to get her mind around the concept, literary blogs, or "lit-blogs" include:

#1. Writers's & poets's blogs
These focus on the writer or poet's own work, and whatever happens to interest them. Some focus tightly on their own work (ego city); others are more expansive (others do exist...). In my view, the best are not only well written but rich with information and links. Some examples of writer's and poet's blogs:
Madam Mayo (Yours Truly)
E-Notes (E. Ethelbert Miller)
Tod Goldberg
Chicks Dig Poetry (Sandra Beasley)
Moorish Girl (Laila Lailami)
Quid Plura? (Jeff Sypeck)
Composite (Liz Henry)

Already it begins to get fuzzy because we might ask, well, what's "literary"? Does that include just strictly literary writers or all kinds of writers? Nina Planck, for example, is a food writer, with a (very good, I might add) book about "real food." So is hers a "lit-blog" sub-category "writer's blog"? You decide.

#2. Blogs that are more generally about literature and the literary community / literary book business (note, many of these can also be considered "writers's and poets's blogs")

(a) Writing workshops / creativity
Examples:
Work in Progress (Leslie Pietrzyk)
The Daily 5 Minute Writing Exercise (by Yours Truly--- no longer updated, but archives available on-line)

(b) book news, reviews, and literary community blogs
Examples:
Arts & Letters Daily
La Bloga
The Happy Booker (Wendi Kaufman)
Maud Newton
Conversational Reading (Scott Esposito)
Critical Mass (National Book Critics Circle blog)
The Millions
The Old Hag
Pajamazon
Paper Cuts (New York Times book blog)

(Herein are an infinity of possible subcategories--- Chicano, Latino, African-American, childrens, sci- fi, historical novel, magical realism, etc.)

(c) by literary agents
Example:
Miss Snark (Discontinued--- alas! Oh, it was snarky...)

(d) by literary translators
ALTALK (American Literary Translation Association blog)
Poet in New York (Mark Statman)

(e) by librarians
Tiny Little Librarian
Hebdomeros
Judge a Book by Its Cover
Library Bitch
Naked in the Public Library

(f) by book PR / marketing specialists
Buzz, Balls & Hype (M.J. Rose)
Rejection is My Middle Name (Peter Handel)

(g) by publishers
Examples:
Right Reading (Thomas Christensen)
Unbridled Books News Blog (Fred Ramey)
Bullets of Love (Vrzhu)
Home Schooled by a Cackling Jackal (Reb Livington)
32 Poems (Deborah Ager)

More anon...

--->For an archive of my previous posts on litblogs, click here.

Gone to the Litblogs: Archive

Gone to the Litblogs is a regular "column" in Madam Mayo. Here--to be frequently updated--- is a list of these columns.

---> On Writers's Blogs: Guest-blogger Leslie Pietrzyk's 3 Dos and 3 Don'ts or, Learning to Promote Yourself Shamelessly in a Discreet Way

--->On Writers's Blogs: Guest-blogger "Right-reading" Blogger Tom Christensen on Writers's Blogs: 3 Dos and 3 Don'ts or, the Karma of Blogging

--->On the 2nd Anniversary of Madam Mayo: Five Lessons Learned About Blogging (So Far)

--->On Blogging and Writers's Blogs: Yummy Links

--->Time to Blog & Read Blogs & Everything Everywhere All the Time

--->To Blog or Not to Blog? That is Not the Question in the Web 2.0 World

--->Sarah Boxer's "Blogs" in the New York Review of Books

--->Tamara Kaye Sellman on Why Writers Should Blog

--->Tip o' the Turban to a Few More Writers's Blogs

--->Writers's Blogs: Madam Mayo's Top 6 Peeves

--->Blogification

--->Madam Mayo's Top 10 Writers's Blogs

--->Blogonomics

--->Why Blog or, What's in the Inbox

--->What is a Lit-Blog? Further Notes...

--->Guest-Blogger Jeff Sypeck on Other Writers' Blogs

--->Madam Mayo's Blogroll-o-rama

--->Back from ALA, Notes on Writers's Blogs

--->Madam Mayo's Top 10 Blog Title Picks

--->Alberto Ruy Sanchez's Cuaderno Abierto

--->Narrowcasting & More Notes Towards a Taxonomy

--->Chekhov's Mistress on BEA Blog Panel

--->Jim Benning on World Hum's Representative 5

--->Kim Roberts's Top 5 Litblogs

--->If I Only Had an iPod & Thoughts on Litbogs & Guest-blogging

--->Squeeze Out the Time You Need

--->Beltway's List of Blogs in DC and Environs

--->Dan Wickett Recommends

--->Scott Esposito's Conversational Reading

--->Madam Mayo, Who (Alas) Did Not Get Carded...

--->Nation Editor Katrina vanden Heuvel's Hit List

--->What's Tops on Novelist Leslie Pietrzyk's Hit List

--->Madam Mayo Questions Daniel Olivas

--->Deborah Ager Champions the Epistle of Our Age