C.m. Mayo's Podcast (marfa Mondays & More)

Mary Baxter came to Marfa years ago for the horses and cattle business and stayed to paint the sky-haunted landscapes in a Sorolla-like play of light: mountains, plains, horses huddling beneath a cliff, a canyon bruised purple with twilight, gold grass, the visual Haiku of a red water tank. Recently returned to Marfa after a decade in (relatively nearby) Marathon, Texas, Mary Baxter talked to C.M. Mayo in her sun-filled studio in October 2012.> View some of Mary Baxter's works at www.baxtergallery.com > Read her biography and view more works at Hunt Gallery> Transcript> MARFA MONDAYS PODCASTING PROJECT (ALL PODCASTS) > World Waiting for a Dream: A Turn in Far West Texas> C.M. Mayo's home page (books, articles, and more)

C.M. Mayo introduces her new ebook, Podcasting for Writers & Other Creative Entrepreneurs (Dancing Chiva, 2012). "Naples Dave" and others from fiverr.com are the big voices, along with music clips from istockaudio.com, uniquetracks.com, plus silly sound effects, and more. C.M. Mayo recorded her portion at ye olde writing desk desk (any snoring sounds are from the dog) and edited the whole shebang on her laptop using Apple's GarageBand. As Mayo says, "If I can podcast, so can you." About the ebook: Based on award-winning writer and avid podcaster C.M. Mayo’s one day workshop at the Writer’s Center, Podcasting for Writers & Other Literary Entrepreneurs provides an introduction and overview of podcasting for writers, from basic concepts to nuts-and-bolts tips. In 10 “easy peasy” steps (along with some “fancy schmancy” for those so inclined), Mayo shows you how to generate and publish your unique podcast—and yes, get that puppy onto iTunes. Read more about this ebook at www.dancingchiva.com C. M. Mayo

Elvis. The private art gallery. Lithium. And even better: no email. C.M. Mayo recounts a visit to this remote Chihuahuan Desert oasis in May of 2012. C.M. Mayo is the author of the novel,The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire, which was named a Library Journal Best Book 2009, and the collection Sky Over El Nido, which won the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction. She is also author of a travel memoir, Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico. She is at work on a book about the Big Bend region of far West Texas, apropos of which she hosts "Marfa Mondays," a series of 24 podcasts exploring Marfa, Texas and environs. For more about these and other books and podcasts by C.M. Mayo, visit www.cmmayo.com > Transcript> MARFA MONDAYS PODCASTING PROJECT (ALL PODCASTS) > World Waiting for a Dream: A Turn in Far West Texas> C.M. Mayo's home page (books, articles, and more)

As part of the series of occasional conversations with other writers, C.M. Mayo talks with Sergio Troncoso, author of the novel From This Wicked Patch of Dust. He is also the author of the novel The Nature of Truth; the short story collection The Last Tortilla, which won the Premio Aztlan; and the collection Crossing Borders: Personal Essays. Recorded on Skype, summer 2012. His website is www.sergiotroncoso.comC.M. Mayo is the author of the novel,The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire, which was named a Library Journal Best Book 2009, and the collection Sky Over El Nido, which won the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction. She is also author of a travel memoir, Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico. She is at work on a book about the Big Bend region of far West Texas, apropos of which she hosts Marfa Mondays, a series of 24 podcasts exploring Marfa, Texas and environs. For more about these and other books and podcasts by C.M. Mayo, www.cmmayo.com  >>Rea

C.M. Mayo recounts her experiences with the bizarre and mysterious phenomena of the Marfa Lights, comments on some of the literature and research, and interviews other witnesses. > Transcript> MARFA MONDAYS PODCASTING PROJECT (ALL PODCASTS) > World Waiting for a Dream: A Turn in Far West Texas> C.M. Mayo's home page (books, articles, and more)

An interview with Paul Graybeal, owner of Marfa's Moonlight Gemstones. It was no exaggeration for historian Walter Prescott Webb to describe the Big Bend region as "an earthwreck in which a great section of country was shaken down, turned over, blown up, and set on fire." In short, there is ample evidence of millions of years of dramatic geological activity, with the craggiest of mountains to rocks of all kinds, from mammoth piles of boulders to pebbles. In this interview with Paul Graybeal, learn about agates, thundereggs, and more. Visit Paul Graybeal's Moonlight Gemstones at www.moonlightgemstones ; and watch the etsy.com video, "There's No Place Like Here: Marfa, Texas" in which Graybeal makes a brief but amusing appearance.  For more about C.M. Mayo's Marfa Mondays Podcasting Projects, visit www.cmmayo.com/marfa> Transcript> MARFA MONDAYS PODCASTING PROJECT (ALL PODCASTS) > World Waiting for a Dream: A Turn in Far West Texas> C.M. Mayo's home page (books, articles, and more)

An interview with Cynthia McAlister about the bees of West Texas, both imported and native to the northern Chihuahuan Desert. McAlister holds a masters degree in biology from Sul Ross University and is the author of several articles on bees, among them,"Our Native West Texas Bees," which appeared in the winter 2012 issue of Cenizo Journal. Recorded in late January 2012. > Transcript> MARFA MONDAYS PODCASTING PROJECT (ALL PODCASTS) > World Waiting for a Dream: A Turn in Far West Texas> C.M. Mayo's home page (books, articles, and more)

C.M. Mayo interviews Avram Dumitrescu, an artist and illustrator whose paintings have been featured in "Marfans: Art from the Plateau" at the Nancy Fyfe Cardozier Gallery in Odessa, and also showcased in Cenizo Journal. A native of the Channel Islands and raised in Belfast, he earned a bachelor's degree and Masters in Applied Arts from the University of Ulster at Belfast. He is married to journalist Megan Wilde. For more about Dumitrescu, and to view his portfolio, visit www.onlineavram.com. Recorded in late January 2012.> Transcript> MARFA MONDAYS PODCASTING PROJECT (ALL PODCASTS) > World Waiting for a Dream: A Turn in Far West Texas> C.M. Mayo's home page (books, articles, and more)

As part of the series of occasional conversations with other writers, C.M. Mayo talks with Michael K. Schuessler, author of the biographies Guadalupe Amor: La undécisima musa (The Eleventh Muse) and Elena Poniatowska: An Intimate Portrait, and editor of journalist Alma Reed's long-lost autobiography, Peregrina: Love and Death in Mexico. Most recently, Schuessler is co-editor (with Amparo Gómez), of the correspondence between Reed and her fiancé, Yucatan's charismatic first democratically elected governor, Felipe Carrillo Puerto, Tuyo hasta que me muera (Yours Until Death). Recorded in Mexico City on March 8, 2012. (Approx 1 hour and 7 minutes)  C.M. Mayo is the author of the novel,The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire, which was named a Library Journal Best Book 2009, and the collection Sky Over El Nido, which won the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction. She is also author of a travel memoir, Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico. She is at work on a book

C.M. Mayo interviews Mary Bones, curator of the exhibit "The Lost Colony: Texas Regionalist Paintings," in the Museum of the Big Bend, Sul Ross State University, Alpine, Texas. The Lost Colony refers to the summer art colony at Sul Ross which began in 1932 and ended somewhat mysteriously in 1950. Alpine is 30 minutes northeast of Marfa-- right next door. Of the region, as Michael Duty writes in the introduction to the exhibit's catalog, "It... has long called to artists who have been captivated by its natural beauty, its history, and its people. In recent times, the area has also drawn the attention of writers and reporters who have written numerous articles touting the area's prominence as something of a center, albeit a far flung one, for contemporary art. Those articles focus primarily on Marfa and the influence that minimalist sculptor Donald Judd has had on the town..." Later, Duty adds, that Judd "was certainly not the first artist to be so captivated". Mary Bones explains the inspiration for the exhibi

As part of the series of occasional conversations with other writers, C.M. Mayo talks with Edward Swift, author the memoir, My Grandfather's Finger, and several novels, most recently, The Daughter of the Doctor and the Saint. Recorded in Swift's studio in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, on February 22, 2012. For more conversations with other writers, visit www.cmmayo.com C.M. Mayo is the author of the novel,The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire, which was named a Library Journal Best Book 2009, and the collection Sky Over El Nido, which won the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction. She is also author of a travel memoir, Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico. She is at work on a book about the Big Bend region of far West Texas, apropos of which she hosts Marfa Mondays, a series of 24 podcasts exploring Marfa, Texas and environs. For more about these and other books and podcasts by C.M. Mayo, www.cmmayo.com 

Recorded at the PEN / Sol Literary Magazine Reading Series event of February 22, 2012 in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. C.M. Mayo introduces and discusses her translation-- the first into English-- of Francisco I. Madero's secret book of 1911, Spiritist Manual. Madero was the leader of Mexico's 1910 Revolution and President of Mexico from 1911-1913. For more about Madero's Spiritist Manual, including extensive Q & A and resources for researchers, visit www.cmmayo.com/SPIRITISTMANUAL(Note: this is an abbreviated version of the longer podcast, which is available at www.cmmayo.com/podcasts.html , with fellow author Gerard Helferich, who read from his book, Stone of Kings.) 

Recorded in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, February 22, 2012. Gerard Helferich reads from and discusses his new book, Stone of Kings: In Search of the Lost Jade of the Maya, and C.M. Mayo discusses her translation-- the first into English-- of Francisco I. Madero's secret book of 1911, Spiritist Manual. Madero was the leader of Mexico's 1910 Revolution and President of Mexico 1911-1913. Introduced by Eva Hunter, editor of Sol Literary Magazine.

Interview with Charles Angell, owner of Angell Expeditions, on the Big Bend: how he got here, the rivers, the birds, geology, archaeology, rock art, movies, and much more. > Transcript> MARFA MONDAYS PODCASTING PROJECT (ALL PODCASTS) > World Waiting for a Dream: A Turn in Far West Texas> C.M. Mayo's home page (books, articles, and more)

Ever since I first heard about Marfa and the remote mountain ranges of West Texas, I yearned to go there. About a decade ago, on a brief visit, I drank in the majesty of the vast spaces, the bluer than blue skies, and at night, stars beyond stars, and— yes, they're real—the Marfa Lights. But the people? Breezing through, I didn't have a chance to talk to many, for I was deep into writing another book, Miraculous Air, about Baja California, Mexico's nearly 1,000 mile long peninsula. Once that wrapped up, I wanted to come back to explore Marfa but first, what I imagined would be a lickety-split project: researching and writing a novel based on the strange but true story of, as the title says, The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire. It seems a pattern with me, that writing a book always takes about seven times longer than I had planned, but never mind, finally, I am returning to Marfa and West Texas. No, not to live: I'm based in Mexico City, but over the next two years, in a series of journeys, I'll be writing a

As part of the series of occasional conversations with other writers, C.M. Mayo talks with Sara Mansfield Taber, author of the memoir Born Under an Assumed Name: The Memoir of a Cold War Spy's Daughter. For Taber, growing up in Taiwan, Japan, Washington DC, the Netherlands, and Borneo was tough as well as exotic, and she found the experience even more unsettling because, as she learned at fifteen, she was the daughter of a covert CIA agent. In this lyrical memoir, Taber captures the painful journey as she ― and her adored father ― struggle to understand who they are and what it means to be an American. The conversation ranges from her father's work in Asia, including his daring rescue of over a thousand Vietnamese after the fall of Vietnam to the Vietcong, and his disenchantment with the agency while working in Germany; Taber's childhood in Taiwan, highschool years in Washington DC during the Vietnam War; her previous books, including, Bread of Three Rivers and Dusk on the Campo; other travel writers, reading

C.M. Mayo, author of several works of fiction and creative nonfiction, long-time workshop leader at the Writers Center and the San Miguel Workshops, and a veteran herself of uncounted workshops (Bread Loaf, Sewanee, Bennington, and more), offers her top ten tips for you to get the most out of your writing workshop. For more resources for writers, and C.M. Mayo's updated writing workshop schedule, visit www.cmmayo.com and click on "workshop."

As part of the series of occasional conversations with other writers, C.M. Mayo talks with Solveig Eggerz, author of the fiercely poetic novel Seal Woman. Inspired by the Icelandic fairytale of the seal woman and the true story of some 300 German war widows brought to Iceland to marry and work on the remote farms, Seal Woman has been widely praised and translated into both Hebrew and Icelandic. The conversation ranges from the author's unusual background (from Iceland to England to Germany to Alexandria, Virginia), Iceland's book culture, fairytales, advice for writers, and more. Visit Solveig Eggerz at www.solveigeggerz.com C.M. Mayo is the author of the novel,The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire, which was named a Library Journal Best Book 2009, and the collection Sky Over El Nido, which won the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction. She is also author of a travel memoir, Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico. She is at work on a book about the Big Bend r

Award-winning writer and workshop leader C.M. Mayo explains the power of the 5 minute writing exercise. The end of the podcast includes an exercise-- so if you're listening, get out your pen and paper. For more exercises, visit "Giant Golden Buddha & 364 More 5 Minute Writing Exercises," all free at www.cmmayo.com (click on 'workshop"). 

From C.M. Mayo's "Techniques of Fiction" workshop: the number one technique. An explanation with examples-- plus a nugget of advice from Chekhov. For C.M. Mayo's upcoming workshops, and for many more resources for writers, visit www.cmmayo.com