Top Posts of 2006: Ur Posts from the Dawn of Blogging

To use a Mexican expression, it might sound like I'm putting extra cream on my tacos, but the fact is, because I started when I started, I am one of the pioneers of literary blogging. 

In an effort to grok what it's all been about, both for me and for the genre-- and a way forward--over the past few weeks, I've been posting lists of the top posts for each of the past 10 years. 

As noted in my previous post, "Top Posts of 2007," in its earliest years "Madam Mayo" blog was verily Twitteresque. In other words, posts tended to be frequent and brief, and therefore few were worthy of being plucked out of the archives for any "top posts" list. 

Twitter had only launched, in primitive form, in July of 2006, so it wasn't yet news to me, nor to anyone I knew. Now, in 2016, my posts tend to be longer and crunchier, and as for Twitter, yes, you can follow me @cmmayo1. 

(A guy without the "1" at the end beat me to that particular platform--and to Facebook and Youtube, too. I have no idea who he is, and I do hope he behaves himself. And I wish him very well! But for the record, Mayo is a fairly common name and it is of Irish origin, as in "County Mayo," "Cliffs of Mayo" & etc. And by the way if you google "Catherine Mayo," you'll get a wedding photographer in Alabama.)

As for blogging back at the Dawn of Blogging in 2006, I may have been a writer with several books in-print, but frankly, I had no clue what I was doing. 

Blogging was so new, nobody knew what they were doing-- except maybe Seth Godin. (Whoa, Seth was blogging in January 2002! A shower of cyber lotus-petals upon you, dear Seth!)

Another exception. One of my colleagues in this shiny new bubalicious "blogosphere" was the short story writer Wendi Harris Kaufman. She had started up The Happy Booker, a lively and well-done blog that oftentimes hosted writers with a book to promote. She quickly built up a large following. I am honored to say I guest-blogged for Wendi twice, both times to help promote my anthology of Mexican writing, Mexico: A Traveler's Literary Companion. Suddenly, in 2009, The Happy Booker went silent. Then I learned that Wendi had passed away of cancer in 2014. (See Bethanne Patrick's "Remembering Wendi Harris Kaufman" in The Washingtonian.)

Words matter, so much. 

But back to the humble beginnings of "Madam Mayo," this verily Mezozoic blog. 

My writing career until I started "Madam Mayo" in 2006 had all been in print, nothing digital-- which seems incredible now, but kids, back then, we had to use dial-up! Which took forevvvvvvvvv-eve-ev-rr-r-r and made roboty chirping noises. (And we walked a mile to school in the snow without shoes!) 

What I mean to say is, back in 2006, like most writers I knew, I did not yet feel comfortable posting any significant amount of original material online. And the idea of writing for free, uyy?!  I know, today, in 2016, when everyone Facebooks and Tweets pictures of their breakfast, lunch, dinner and changes in belly flab as captured in a bathroom mirror selfie, such hesitancy seems a mite quaint. And as for writing for free, well... you don't have to get an A+ in Economics 101 to comprehend the consequences of supply, thanks to all the blogs and self-publishing, gushing out like Noah's Flood. 

Here is the final list, top posts from "Madam Mayo's" inaugural year, 2006. 

Top 10 Books Read in 2006

December 13, 2006

Internet Surfari: The King Goa Chair

December 11, 2006

Revision: Take a Chainsaw to Those Little Darlings, 

Prune, Do No Harm, Be an Archaeologist, 
Move the Furniture Onto the Front Lawn, Flip the Gender

May 1, 2006

The Happy Booker Goes South of the Border: 
Top 5 Mexican Music Selections by Yours Truly

April 19, 2006

Madam Mayo's Little Dog Name Poem 
(To the Tin Whistle & Gamelan)

April 2, 2006


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The Happy Booker: Back Blogging

My amiga, DC area writer Wendi Kaufman, one of the pioneers of lit-blogging, is back blogging after a summer hiatus. Check out her excellent blog, The Happy Booker. More anon.

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.

Locavore! Locavore! Locavore! (As Zippy Would Say)

Read all about "locavore" over at the Happy Booker. And God Bless Zippy the Pinhead (a vital reason for retaining one's Washington Post subscription).

In Washington DC, Freelance Central: WIW Freelancing Seminar Coming Up October 13th

I highly recommend this one--- another excellent Washington Independent Writers Seminar. Here's the scoop:

FREELANCING FOR FUN AND PROFIT
All-day Seminar on Saturday, October 13, 2007 Jointly sponsored by Johns Hopkins University Masters of Arts in Writing program and Washington Independent Writers. Topics include "Focus the Story: How to take a variety of good ideas and build them into functional and salable stories, what an editor is looking for and how to present your work successfully." "Writing Profiles: every publication from general interest magazines to annual reports and from sales brochures to specialist booklets, have profiles in them and you can write for all of the markets." Plus freelance technical resource people—a tax expert, a rate-setting veteran, a newsletter producer, a freelance journalist and a marketing wizard are all available for one-on-one questions and answers. And! "Electronic markets: web, blogs and more..." Speakers include David Everett, Dale Keiger, and Wendi Kaufman (aka The Happy Booker). Register online at www.washwriter.org, by telephone at (202) 775-5150 or by FAX at (202) 775-5810.

More anon.

Summer Travel Reading: Top 10 Faves

I'm still on vacation... so for now, here's my recent guest-blog post over at The Happy Booker--- with an intro by Wendi Kaufman (aka the Happy Booker):

Guest blogger C.M. Mayo is the author of Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California just released in paperback by Milkweed Editions, and Mexico: A Traveler's Literary Companion, a collection of Mexican fiction and literary prose. Her most recent travel writing, "From Mexico to Miramar or, Across the Lake of Oblivion", an essay in Massachusetts Review about a journey to the Emperor of Mexico's castle in Italy, won the 2007 Washington Writing Prize for Personal Essay.

Around the World with Madam Mayo

Bon voyage, feliz viaje, and how do you say that in Icelandic? Speaking of which, one of my favorite travel memoirs, perfect for whiling away lazy afternoons in a deckchair, is Charles Fergus's Summer at Little Lava: A Season at the Edge of the World, about his mid-life stay at Litla Hraun in western Iceland.

For some reason, though my own writing tends to focus on Mexico, most of my favorite travel books are about the far north--- Farley Mowat's dirge-like Walking on the Land (about Canada's Ilhalmiut people); Gretel Ehrlich's low-altitude, vegetable-free romp, This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland; and for sheer wierdness (wierd to me, anyway), Gontran de Poncins' cult classic, Kabloona. But I certainly do read books on Mexico. My all-time favorite is Frances Calderon de la Barca's 1842 Life in Mexico--- not so much a seamless narrative as a patchwork quilt of vivid, often comic scenes. Two new ones well worth reading: Jeff Biggers's In the Sierra Madre, and Sam Quinones's Antonio's Gun and Delphino's Dream, a rollicking collection which includes chapters about the black velvet paintings, opera in Tijuana, and--- that's right--- Mennonite narcotraffickers.

On Southeast Asia, I've yet to read anything that beats the drama and haunting poetry of war correspondent Jon Swain's River of Time. For Francophiles: Sara Mansfield Taber's Bread of Three Rivers, in which the story of the best loaf of French bread rises to become the story of the whole world. For Italophiles, subspecies Venetophile: Judith Martin's hot-off-the-presses No Vulgar Hotel. Jog a bit around the Adriatic for Jan Morris's Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere, a meditation on this most un-Italian of Italian cities, with denizens as unlikely as Mexico's Emperor, Maximilian, and James Joyce. Oops, that's eleven. Ciao for now. I'm going to California.

Around the World With Madam Mayo

I'm guest-blogging over at the Happy Booker with summer travel reading. Jan Morris, Sara Mansfield Taber, Charles Fergus, Farley Mowat, Judith Martin, and more. More anon.

Gone to the Litblogs: Narrowcasting & More Notes Towards a Taxonomy

Dinner conversation this evening with my amiga K., a DC writer who works in a media organization, about blogging. K. says the successful ones are narrowcasting, i.e., aiming a highly specific blog at a highly specific audience. Indeed: in the litblog world, a good example would be Wendi Kaufman's The Happy Booker, which focuses on news in literary Washington DC and environs. Novelist Leslie Pietrzyk's Work in Progress focuses on, yes, work in progress. In the news world--- for example, for news on Iraq--- a blog I often check in on is Informed Comment, in which University of Michigan Professor of Middle Eastern History Juan Cole offers a daily summary of and commentary on the news in the Middle East. They may not be the end all of the All on this Subject, but between Juan Cole and Col Pat Lang's Sic Semper Tyrannis, I get a better sense of what's going on in Iraq than from reading, say, the Washington Post. For example, last week, when Turkish troops invaded Iraq, to get a sense of what this meant, I skipped the papers and went immediately to these two blogs because (1) both Juan Cole and Col Pat Lang are highly knowledgable about this subject and (2) their blogs often go into far more depth than scant newsprint can. (Though now and again, Col. Pat Lang dips into movie reviewing and showcasing excerpts of his civil war novel...) But back to the litblog world: for literary travel writing, another excellent example of narrowcasting would be World Hum. What of Madam Mayo? I'd put this blog in the category of a Individual Artist Blog. It's about my work and what interests me, as an artist. Some other blogs in said category: David Byrne (musician), Margaret Cho (comedian), Moorish Girl (writer Laila Lalami), Coffee with Ken (Kenneth Ackerman, the writer/ historian/ lawyer). Last thought: It occurs to me that few people over the age of 30 have heard the term "narrowcasting." K. said the under 30s in her office didn't recognize the phrase "Drink the Kool-Aid." Interesting juxtaposition. Possibly meaningless. More anon.

UPDATE: In Clusterfuck Nation--- a hybrid (as per my defintions) of Narrowcasting (comments on current events as related to his book The Long Emergency) and Individual Artist Blog--- Jim Kunstler writes, that this is "a society of envious slobs deluded into thinking that they could become the next Trump if only the Baby Jeezus would whack them over the head with a sock-full of silver dollars." That's pretty much the tone throughout. Post up, bingo, 193 comments.

The Happy Booker Goes South of the Border with Narco Corridos & Mas

Today on the Happy Booker, author Sam Quinones has put together a list of the top Mexican immigrant corridos by Los Tigres del Norte, the most important bi-national band and the foremost musical chroniclers of the Mexican-immigrant experience. He's reading and signing his new book, Antonio's Gun and Delfino's Dream, tonight in Washington DC at Olsson's Dupont Circle. Madam Mayo is a ginormous fan! Here's my Wilson Quarterly review of his first book, True Tales from Another Mexico.

(My own Mexican music selections for the Happy Booker, apropos of Mexico: A Traveler's Literary Companion and the audio CD "The Essential Francisco Sosa or, Picadou's Mexico City" are here).

Gone to the Litblogs: Kim Roberts's Top 5 Litblogs

While Madam Mayo is on blog vacation, DC poet, author of The Kimnama, and Beltway editor Kim Roberts guestblogs:

The Madam asks me about my top 5 blogs. Many of my favorite blogs are ones I have a personal connection to. I guess that's not uncommon (we all like to read blogs in which there's a possibility we might actually get mentioned). But it makes the first half of my list highly subjective. So here goes:

Three favorite blogs by people I know:

1. Vrzhu Bullets of Love
This blog includes some fascinating entries from Michael Gushue on NatPoWriMo (with links to others who also took on the challenge to write a new poem every single day of April, and his last day's poem, a terrific sestina). Dan Vera offers some great entries on the birthdays and death days of famous writers. These guys are also my publishers, so I have a vested interest. And yes, my name can be found in the blog.

2. The Happy Booker
OK--I'm friends with Wendi Kaufman. But I swear this is true: I was reading her blog regularly before we met. I love the focus on the DC literary community. That is not to say the blog is parochial or narrow. Far from it. The Booker is always informative and stimulating. And, in the spirit of full disclosure, I have been a guest blogger. So my name appears.

3. Bill Knott's Blog
I swear that I do NOT appear anywhere in this blog. But Knott was my teacher. And there's not a quirkier sensibility out there. Read these poems!

The second part of my list is arguably not about literature, but some might argue that EVERYTHING is eventually about literature, and I know that I find these blogs inspiring. I have no connection to these people. But I think I'd like them.

4. The Proceedings of the Athanasius Kircher Society
Debunked scientific and medical theories, extreme architecture, anachronistic cooking, strange collections...you could easily get lost in this site and never re-emerge. Or re-emerge profoundly changed. This blog is packed with wonder and awe.

5. The Daily Render
Manipulated aerial maps made into beautiful quilt-like patterns by Nikolas Schiller. Some are strikingly beautiful, some are rather sinister. There's an entire section of maps of DC. Among other treats.

I should come clean and say that while I love looking at blogs, I have never, not even once, responded to one on the actual blog site. I am a ghost in the machine. I guess this officially makes me a Blurker. Is that blad?

--- Kim Roberts, Editor, Beltway Poetry Quarterly

Madam Mayo says: Check out Kim Robert's new book, The Kimnama. Here's her upcoming DC book tour: Tonight, Wednesday May 9th at 7pm, Brookland Reading Series, Vrzhu Press reading with Hiram Larew and Kim Roberts, Brookland Visitors Center, 3420 9th St. NE, DC. (202) 526-1632. Hosted by Michael Gushue and Dan Vera. Free Admission. May 24, 7pm, Hiram Larew and Kim Roberts, Coyote Joe's Cafe, 3401 Hartzdale Drive, Camp Hill, PA. (717) 730-0633. Hosted by Alex Hartman and Marty Essworthy. Free Admission. Friday, June 8 at 6:30 pm, Kim Roberts, Candida's World of Books, 1541 14th St. NW, DC. (202) 667-4811. Hosted by Candida Mannozzi. Free Admission. Sunday, June 10 at 2:00 pm, Vrzhu Press Reading: Hiram Larew and Kim Roberts The Writers Center, 4508 Walsh St., Bethesda, MD. (301) 654-8664. For more information or to order a book, please see www.vrzhu.com

If I Only Had an iPod and Thoughts on Litblogs and Guest-Blogging

Today over at Wendi Kaufman's Happy Booker is an especially fun "If I Only Had an iPod" guest-blog post-- this one by short story writer Ben Greenman. I've been talking about blogs with other writers this week--- I'm in Mexico City, drinking pots of coffee from Coyoacan to Colonia del Valle. Most writers I've talked to either know nothing about or disdain blogs. (Though I am to meet today with Martin Casillas de Alba, whose vibrant and widely read blog is Juego de espejos.) Well, yes, as one writer I talked to the other day said, most of those 70 million + blogs cluttering up cyberspace are unreadable. But there are a number of models for writers--- and Kaufman's Happy Booker is an excellent one. Kaufman, by the way, is accomplished freelancer and short story writer (she's had work in The New Yorker). Her blog's focus is Washington DC area events and writers, and she often--- as with the "If I Only Had an iPod" column--- invites other writers to guest-blog. (Apropos of last year's publication of Mexico: A Traveler's Literary Companion, my anthology of Mexican fiction and literary prose, I did a Mexican music column for her.) Another very different model for an author blog is novelist Leslie Pietrzyk's Work in Progress. Pietrzyk is also a well regarded writing teacher (at the Writers Center and elswhere). She too has been inviting others to guest-blog. Here at Madam Mayo, Beltway editor and poet Kim Roberts has guest-blogged--- most memorably about Book Expo America's stupendous swag. So here's Madam Mayo's resolution for May: more guest-bloggers.

UPDATE: Watch for upcoming columns "Gone to the Litblogs". I am fascinated by this emerging literary form. Here's one of my old posts on litblogs.

The Happy Booker Goes South of the Border-- Top Five Mexican Music Selections by Yours Truly

"If I Only Had an iPod..." This is DC area writer Wendi Kaufman's regular feature on her long-time and widely read litblog, The Happy Booker. And hey, c'est moi-- engaging in shameless promotional efforts apropos of the release of my own audio CD, "The Essential Francisco Sosa or, Picadou's Mexico City." (Yep, what I'm doing here is quoting The Happy Booker quoting myself. If this ain't blogging, what is?)

SOUTH OF THE BORDER, MUSIC SELECTIONS BY C.M. MAYO
Yo quiero Mexican music! It isn't all "para bailar la bamba" and the Jumping Bean song. I prefer certain categories. For instance, La Voz; Suave (Cool); Joyas (Jewels); Fresa (literally, "strawberry"-- the closest translation would be "princess"), and this uncategorizable phenomenon that everybody except the clinically depressed wants to raise their hands and clap to --- and dance to -- and shout out to! I am talking about Juanga. I love Juanga. Little grannies love Juanga. Hairdressers love Juanga. You, too, will love Juanga. "Viva Mexico!" sings Juanga.

Here are my top five, by category:

LA VOZ
Lila Downs: "Tengo Miedo de Quererte." Lila Downs has a voice that could float an elephant.

SUAVE
Santana:"Twisted." Carlos Santana's music is like a slithering snake crossed with a flock of birds crossed with a great big chocolate ice-cream birthday cake.

FRESA
Mecano: Descanso Dominical, "Laika" The disco ode to Laika the space dog. Acually, this group is Spanish. Ni modo. Wierdly mystical.

JOYAS
Chanticleer: Mexican Baroque: Music From New Spain, "Ignacio de Jerúsalem: Mass in D Major" Carved gilded roses of sound.

JUANGA
Juan Gabriel: Viva Mexico. Fiesta to the max. Think Paul McCartney x Elton John x Englebert Humperdink x Salma Hayek. But he doesn't look anything at all like Salma Hayek.

Sombreros off to la Booker Feliz!