Guest-Blogging on Dialogue Exercises Over at the Writers Center's Blog, First Person Plural

Today I'm guest-blogging over the Writers Center's blog, First Person Plural, with some dialogue writing exercises. More anon.

Madam Mayo's Guidelines for Guest-Bloggers

Thanks for checking in, but I am not hosting guest blog posts at this time.

I'm delighted to consider guest-blog posts. Please note I am not interested in original essays. With search engines in mind, I use a specific 5-link format and request a maximim of 400 words, and in fact, I prefer 300 words or less.

Here's what works for Madam Mayo:

---> You have a new book, CD, workshop, reading, concert, movie, etc that in some way relates to the subjects this blog covers (books, creative writing, literary translation, Mexico, Washington DC, the world, human potential, soundwork, and pugs);

---> Provide your website adress, and a brief (100 words max) description of what your new book (or etc) is about (this is what I would use to introduce you);

---> Provide Five links that are in some way relevant to your new book (or etc.)
For example, if your new book is about widgets, say, 5 favorite novels about widgets (with links to read more about each);

---> Why you recommend them (just a line will do)

---> Brief is best (blog readers aren't big on having to scroll down);

---> Before sending, please have a look at these examples:

Novelist Nani Power: 5 Interesting Facts About Monarch Butterflies

Novelist Sandra Gulland's Top 5 Research Sites for Historical Novelists

Poet Debora Ager: 5 Fantastic Freebies for Writers

Travel Writer Isabella Tree's 5 Favorite Books About Mexico

Sociologist Clara Rodriguez on 5 Latino Stars of Early Hollywood

Click here to view the complete archive of guest-blog posts.

--->When you do send, please do ****NOT**** I repeat: *NOT* send your blog post as an attachment. Just send what you have to say in an e-mail and be sure--- this is CRUCIAL---to send the links within brackets, so my assistant can paste them into the blogger program.

Thanks and felicitous blogging.

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.