C. M. MAYO
Author of The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire, etc.

C.M. Mayo < Digital Media < Podcasts < Marfa Mondays <



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This Project + C.M. Mayo + Marfa & Far West Texas + Maps + The Book


World Waiting for a Dream: A Turn in Far West Texas is a work-in-progress of creative nonfiction about my journeys in the Trans-Pecos, enriched with history and interviews.

As I proceed, I am posting many of the interviews in the "Marfa Mondays" podcast series. For people who live in Far West Texas, my using the town of Marfa as a flag for that wider region may seem a strange choice. I'll have a lot to say about it in the book.

A few other preliminary things I can say are that I'm especially interested in exploring the contrasts and comparisons with the subject of
my previous travel book, Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico (geography, flora and fauna, history); Marfa's (and the Trans-Pecos') iconic status in the American imagination; how the vast spaces and the quality of the light inspire various artists; and the way so many of us, all over the world, are connected on the Internet, and how this fundamentally changes a travel writer's approach to a place, and interaction with the people there.

I imagine that some or perhaps many people who live in Marfa and the region, at some point, may find this webpage via a google search or a hashtag on Twitter [@marfamondays]. So the writer's relative anonymity as he or she travels has evaporated. Similarly, far more of a writer's research, before, during and after travels, will be on-line. With Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, TripAdvisor, YouTube, webpages of all kinds, we are experiencing a hyper-accelerating social transparency—or, the sometimes very misleading appearance of transparency. I find this very interesting.

At this point it is not possible to say more for, if I've learned one thing, it is that any journey, and that includes the journey of writing a book, is strewn with surprises.

Thank you for your interest in my work. I invite you to join my mailing list for occasional updates and also, follow my Marfa Mondays podcasts on Podomatic or iTunes. You'll hear about all these if you subscribe to my blog, Madam Mayo, as well.

Update: I read from the work-in-progress, "A Visit to Swan House" and talked about some of the peculiarities of literary travel writing in the digital age in my lecture for PEN in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Listen to that as a podcast here.

Sample a few articles apropos of this work in-progress:

A Visit to Swan House
Over Burro Mesa
We Have Seen the Lights: The Marfa Ghost Lights Phenomenon
On the Trail of the Rock Art of the Lower Pecos
Blood Over Salt in Borderlands Texas: Q & A with Paul Cool about Salt Warriors
Book Review; Pekka Hämäläinen's The Comanche Empire
Book Review: James McWilliams's The Pecan
Book Review: Patrick Dearen's Bitter Waters
The Sierra Madera Astrobleme (What's an Astrobleme?)


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Listen in any time to all the "Marfa Mondays" podcasts, which include some material that will be in the book. And if you'd like to be notified when this title is available, I welcome you to sign up for my free every other monthly-ish newsletter.


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PRAISE FOR OTHER WORKS BY C.M. MAYO
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METAPHYSICAL ODYSSEY INTO THE MEXICAN REVOLUTION:
Francisco I. Madero and His Secret Book, Spiritist Manual
BY C.M. MAYO
WINNER, NATIONAL INDIE EXCELLENCE AWARD FOR HISTORY

"In my fifteen years of researching the life of President Francisco I. Madero, I have never read a more complete book as the one just written by C.M. Mayo. It will simply surprise any reader. The research is impeccable and the narrative well-rounded."
Manuel Guerra de Luna, author of Los Madero: La Saga Liberal

"Mayo does a brilliant job combining the known facts of the Mexican Revolution and Madero's role within it, and creates an intellectual bridge to the president's spiritist belief structure...
Heribert von Feilitzsch, author of In Plain Sight: Felix Sommerfeld, Spymaster in Mexico

THE LAST PRINCE OF THE MEXICAN EMPIRE
BY C.M. MAYO
A LIBRARY JOURNAL BEST BOOK, 2009

"I have read a few sweeping historical novels that have remain inside of me forever. Tolstoy's War and Peace is one of those, Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities is another, Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago is another, and now The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire is another."
James Tipton, Mexico Connect

"a swashbuckling, riotous good time, befitting the fairy-tale promise of the opening sentence."
Austin American-Statesman

MIRACULOUS AIR:
Journey of a Thousand Miles
through Baja California, the Other Mexico
BY C.M. MAYO

"With elegant prose and an artist's eye for detail, Mayo may just have written one of the best books ever about Baja California. Highly recommended"
Library Journal

"A breathtaking vision of the past, present, and future of [Baja California]... Meticulously researched... a valuable combination of historical and social study"
El Paso Times


SKY OVER EL NIDO
BY C.M. MAYO
WINNER, FLANNERY O'CONNOR AWARD FOR SHORT FICTION

"A remarkable literary debut... tautly fashioned prose, alive with myriad turns of phrase as on-target as they are idiosyncratic."
Publisher's Weekly (starred review)

"C.M. Mayo writes some of the most exquisitely fashioned, perfectly measured prose alive in the world today. Her stories glitter with delicious odd details. They feel electrically charged, richly mysterious, and rhythmic. I love her layering of cultures, her offbeat humor, her potent instinct for voices. Bravo! Captivating! Yes, yes, yes!"
Naomi Shihab Nye


MEXICO: A Traveler's Literary Companion
EDITED BY C.M. MAYO


"This is a book to throw in a suitcase or mochila (backpack) on the way to Mexico or just settling into a favorite patio chair. It will open your eyes, fill you with pleasure and render our perennial vecinos a little less distante."
Los Angeles Times Book Review