C. M. MAYO
Author of Metaphysical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution, etc.

EXPLORERS . MEXICOPHILES . WRITERS
+ ABOUT + PUBLICATIONS + DIGITAL MEDIA + EVENTS + SHOP

...FOR WRITERS...
WELCOME | SCHEDULE | READING | PODCASTS | RESOURCES | GGB


No workshops are scheduled at the moment; I am finishing up a book on Far West Texas. Apropos of that, I invite you to listen in anytime to the "Marfa Mondays" podcasts.

For updates on my workshop schedule, I invite you to sign up for my news roundup here. And, as ever and always, I post news on my main blog, Madam Mayo, every Monday.

SELECTED WORKSHOPS PAST

Saturday May 27 and Sunday May 28, 2017 Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Texas

Pine Springs Visitor Center
9 am - 10 am (Mountain Time)
As the park's artist-in-residence C.M. Mayo will offer a
free writing workshop:
Travel and Nature Writing for the Vivid Dreamer
Whether writing for your personal journal, your blog, or for publication in a book or magazine, take it to another level: giving the reader the sense of the "vivid dream" of traveling there with you into these mountains, under these skies. For writers young and old, this workshop covers little known but powerful techniques from fiction and poetry than you can apply to your writing for delicious effects.

May 15-30, 2017 Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Texas
As artist-in-residence I will be offering a writing workshop, probably Memorial Day weekend. Details to be announced.




October 15, 2016 Santa Fe, New Mexico
Saturday, 9:40 -10:40 am
Women Writing the West Conference

Podcasting for Writers
Audio podcasts, on-line digital files, not only serve as an important promotional tool for writers, but they can be storytelling vehicles themselves, whether as stand-alone works or complements to text. This workshop provides an introduction and overview of podcasting for writers, from basic concepts to nuts-and-bolts tips. The goal is that by the end of the workshop, you will be able to go home and use your iPhone or digital recorder and computer to generate and then post a simple podcast on-line.
Listen to C.M. Mayo's podcasts here.
View the handout for this workshop: "Podcasting for Writers: To Commit or Not (or Vaguely?)"

April 16, 2016 Bethesda MD
(Saturday, one day only)
The Writer's Center
10 am - 1 pm
Literary Travel Writing
Take your travel writing to another level: the literary, which is to say, giving the reader the novelistic experience of actually traveling there with you. For both beginning and advanced writers, this workshop covers the techniques from fiction and poetry that you can apply to this specialized form of creative nonfiction for deliciously vivid effects.




February 10-14, 2016
San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
San Miguel de Allende Writers Conference



Feb 10
@ 3:30 - 5 PM
C.M. Mayo's "Podcasting for Writers" Workshop

Feb 11
@ 11 AM - 12:30 PM Taller de "Podcasting para escritores"
(en español)

Feb 13
@ 11 AM - 12:30 PM
C.M. Mayo to moderate panel on "Global Migration: People and Their Stories"
With Juan Villoro, Luis Alberto Urrea, Elizabeth Hay and Lisa See.

Feb 14
@ 11 AM - 12:30 PM
C.M. Mayo on Panel on Historical Fiction
with Sandra Gulland, Anne Easter Smith & Mary Novik
"Into the Heart of the Story: Truth & Lies in Historical Fiction"

For updates, subscribe to the San Miguel Writers Conference mailing list
Better yet, subscribe to my newsletter



April 18, 2015 (Saturday, one day only)
Bethesda MD (Near Washington DC)
The Writer's Center
10 am - 1 pm
Literary Travel Writing
Take your travel writing to another level: the literary, which is to say, giving the reader the novelistic experience of actually traveling there with you. For both beginning and advanced writers, this workshop covers the techniques from fiction and poetry that you can apply to this specialized form of creative nonfiction for deliciously vivid effects.
Questions about this workshop? Email me here.



October 11, 2014 Bethesda MD (Near Washington DC)
The Writer's Center
10 am - 1 pm
Literary Travel Writing
Take your travel writing to another level: the literary, which is to say, giving the reader the novelistic experience of actually traveling there with you. For both beginning and advanced writers, this workshop covers the techniques from fiction and poetry that you can apply to this specialized form of creative nonfiction for deliciously vivid effects.

February 27, 2014 Seattle WA
Panel Discussion
"Homesteading on the Digital Frontier: Writers Blogs"
Associated Writing Programs Conference
Room 615/616/617 Washington State Convention Center, Level 6
4:30 pm - 5:45 pm

Writers present strategies on how to start a blog, where to get material, how to publicize a blog and add readers and followers, and how to sustain it over time. Other topics: Is blogging a new genre of literature? Why do blogs matter? To monetize, or not to monetize? What are SEO and tagging, and how do you use them? How do analytics help increase readership? How can blogging improve book sales and reading attendance? Should you react to events or pick your own blog topics?

Zack Rogow, Moderator
Zack Rogow is the author, editor, or translator of nineteen books or plays. His seventh book of poems, My Mother and the Ceiling Dancers, was published by Kattywompus Press. Currently he teaches in the low-residency MFA in writing program at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

Mark Doty
Mark Doty's eight books of poems have received the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. He's also the author of four books of nonfiction prose and a handbook for writers. A new book of poems, Deep Lane, is forthcoming. He teaches at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

C.M. Mayo
C.M. Mayo's books include the novel The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire; Miraculous Air: Journey of 1000 Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico; and Sky Over El Nido, which won the Flannery O'Connor Award. One of the pioneers of lit-blogging, her blog is "Madam Mayo." www.cmmayo.com


October 26, 2013 Bethesda MD
The Writer's Center's second-annual Publish Now!, a seminar on publishing a book or eBook in the new digital age in Bethesda MD (just outside Washington DC). Whether still working on your manuscript or ready to publish, this "how-to" program is designed to give you the information you need to take control of your publishing experience.
9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Early Registration (by Oct. 1): $100; $85 Writer's Center members; $50 students (with valid ID)
To register, visit www.writer.org/publishnow/enroll
The Writer's Center | 4508 Walsh Street | Bethesda, MD 20815 | p 301.654.8664
>I'll be talking about Kindles and interactive iBookstore ebooks.


S
eptember 8, 2012
Bethesda MD (Near Washington DC)
The Writer's Center
1 - 5 pm
Literary Travel Writing
Take your travel writing to another level: the literary, which is to say, giving the reader the novelistic experience of actually traveling there with you. For both beginning and advanced writers, this workshop covers the techniques from fiction and poetry that you can apply to this specialized form of creative nonfiction for deliciously vivid effects.
>>Register on-line here.
>>If the website shopping cart isn't working, no worries, call the Writer's Center at 301-654-8664


June 23, 2012 Bethesda MD
"Publish Now! From Manuscript to Book and ebook in the New World of Publishing" at The Writer's Center, 10 am - 5 pm.
$85 members; $100 nonmembers
Lunch included and reception to follow.
C.M. Mayo's presentation:
"The Manuscript is Ready— (Or Is It?)— What's Next?".


May 5, 2012, Bethesda MD
Podcasting (Audio) for Writers

Writer's Center
One day only. 10 am - 12 pm
Audio podcasts, on-line digital files, not only serve as an important promotional tool for writers, but they can be storytelling vehicles themselves, whether as stand-alone works or complements to text. This workshop provides an introduction and overview of podcasting for writers, from basic concepts to nuts-and-bolts tips. The goal is that by the end of the workshop, you will be able to go home and use your iPhone or digital recorder and computer to generate and then post a simple podcast on-line.
>>Listen to C.M. Mayo's podcasts here.
>>REGISTER ON-LINE




May 5, 2012, Bethesda MD
How (and How Not to) Write Dialogue
Writer's Center

One day only. 1 pm- 5 pm
One of the most powerfully vivid ways to show character, relationship, conflict, and/or mood is through the use of dialogue. For both beginning and advanced fiction and nonfiction writers, this workshop focuses on the use and misuse of dialogue, with a series of mini-lectures interspersed with brief exercises. The goal is by the end of the workshop, your dialogue will be of notably higher quality.
>>Read C.M. Mayo's writing, which has plenty of dialogue, here.
>>REGISTER ON-LINE



February 20 and 21, 2012
San Miguel de Allende
San Miguel Writing Intensive
"Techniques of Fiction"
For both beginning and experienced fiction writers, "Techniques of Fiction" focuses on generating new material with exercises addressing specificity, point of view, synesthesia, imagery, image patterning, plot, rhythm, and the use and misuse of dialogue. The goal is that by the end of the workshop, your writing will be of notably higher quality.



>>See a profile on the San Miguel Writers Conference website.


This workshop will be held directly following the San Miguel Writers Conference
Monday and Tuesday, February 20 and 21, 2012
>Click here for more information and to register on-line



For C.M. Mayo events in San Miguel de Allende, please also visit the events page.


Get the Newsletter
Approximately 5 - 6 times a year subscribers receive a free, brief, and informative update by e-mail covering my booksignings, lectures, podcasts, videos, writing workshops, any new publications, plus a compendium of the best from my blogs, "Madam Mayo" and "Maximilian ~ Carlota."





Praise for C.M. Mayo's "Techniques of Fiction" workshop at the Writers Center, Bethesda MD, 6/ 2009:

"I found this workshop extremely helpful to kickstart my writing. It gave me useful tools and exercises to use in a very short space of time."

"Great workshop. Loved the exercises, toolkit approach and focus on technique and structure. Open to questions. Came prepared with many resources. Very accessible, matter-of-fact approach to writing. Ms. Mayo takes the mystery out of writing and makes it real."


Praise for C.M. Mayo's "Dialogue Intensive" workshop at the Writers Center, Bethesda MD, 9/ 2009:

"C.M. Mayo is a fabulous, informative, empathetic, skilled, talented (highly talented) writer and workshop leader"

"Great workshop. Wanted more!"

"Great instructor. Excellent tips re: dialogue and writing in general. Very helpful."

"She has a delightful spirit and offers warm encouragement."


Praise for C.M. Mayo's "Techniques of Fiction" workshop in San Miguel de Allende, 2/ 2009:

"This workshop was jam-packed with practical techniques! I feel I suddenly have the inside secrets that distinguish extraordinary writing— and even I can do them! Imagine. Great writing can be learned.
Susan Page

Wonderful nuts and bolts workshop. Writers of all levels should not miss it!
—Sterling Bennett


>>>Click here for the complete, and frequently updated, schedule of events and workshops.


























































Recent (and to be repeated in 2011):
April 18, 2009 "Literary Travel Writing"
The Writers Center Bethesda MD
A special one day only workshop with C.M. Mayo, 1-5 pm.
Take your travel writing to another level: the literary, which is to say, giving the reader the novelistic experience of actually traveling there with you. For both beginning and advanced writers, this workshop covers the techniques from fiction and poetry that you can apply to this specialized form of creative nonfiction for deliciously vivid effects.
>>
Read an article about this workshop from The Writer's Carousel reprinted on my blog, Madam Mayo.

Mexico City: For the one-day workshops in Mexico City, please visit Dancing Chiva.

San Miguel de Allende and all other venues: please visit the "events" page for the complete schedule.

>>>Want to be notified about new upcoming workshops and events? Click here to join the general mailing list.
Click here to join the Dancing Chiva (Mexico City only) mailing list.