Dancing Chiva Literary
Arts Newsletter
February
2012
Hola to all on the Dancing Chiva list! A very warm welcome to
those of you who are new on this list.
It's been a busy couple of months, and we are delighted to announce
new workshops, new e-books, and two new podcasts for writers.
Plus some literary link love— links to websites we love
and we think you will, too. Scroll on down for details!
== WORKSHOPS==
C.M.
Mayo will be teaching a 2 day intensive on Techniques of Fiction
for the San Miguel Writers Conference on Monday February 20 and
Tuesday February 21, four hours each day, directly following
the conference.
For both beginning
and experienced fiction writers working in English, "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.
As part of the conference itself, on Saturday February 18, C.M.
Mayo will offer a one hour workshop, also on Techniques of Fiction.Click
here for more information about the conference and 2 day
intensives, and to register on-line.
(When will C.M. Mayo offer another writing workshop in Mexico
City with Dancing Chiva? It's looking like October 2012. Want
to be alerted? Click here to receive
the newsletter.)
Rose Mary Salum: You decided to translate Francisco I.
Madero's Spiritist
Manual 100 years after it first was published. What triggered
your desire to work on this project when, even at the time the
book was released, he was mocked in newspapers as a crazy man who talked until he was blue
on the face?
C.M. Mayo: The decision was not something I thought out—
it was intuitive, sudden, and strangely compelling. Though I'd
been living in Mexico on and off for over two decades, I hadn't
given much thought to Madero
or the Revolution; my interest in recent years has been the French
Intervention (the subject of my novel). What happened was, to
make a long story short, I had the opportunity to view Madero's
archive in Hacienda (Mexican Ministry of Finance), and when I
saw the Manual espírita, I knew it needed to be
translated. Before I could stop myself, I offered to do it. Because
of my previous
research on the French Intervention, I had a keen appreciation
for the need to translate basic works. So much history is badly
misunderstood or not even acnowledged for want of a translation!
And the fact is, Madero was the leader of Mexico's 1910 Revolution
and his Spiritist Manual, completed in that same year,
though published in early 1911, is a statement of his personal
and political philosophy. Ergo, it is a basic document for understanding
both Madero himself and the Revolution. . . .CONTINUE
READING
"Partiendo de una concienzuda
y afortunada búsqueda en archivos públicos y privados,
Mayo logró reunir un caudal de información notable
de la que hace uso con bastante desenvoltura....No me queda sino
celebrar esta novela, que, comenzando lentamente, termina subyugando
por su notable narración." Pablo
Soler Frost, Letras Libres
"En
México se han escrito novelas históricas que recrean
con erudición, maestría y poesía una época,
un episodio, una atmósfera y unos personajes. Pienso,
desde luego, en Noticias del imperio de Fernando del Paso;
también en la obra de Enrique Serna sobre Santa Anna o
la reciente novela de C.M. Mayo: El último príncipe
del Imperio Mexicano, sobre el nieto de Iturbide en la corte
de Maximiliano." Enrique
Krauze
"El
último príncipe del Imperio Mexicano no es
una biografía... O para decirlo más acertadamente,
es mucho más que una biografía. Se trata de una
historia apasionada y original sobre ese experimento trágico,
heroico, cruel, cómico y hasta absurdo que fue el breve
gobierno de Maximiliano de Habsburgo en México. Para escribir
la crónica de esa epopeya, la autora, C.M. Mayo, se involucró
en un esfuerzo de investigación monumental. De no haber
ocurrido de esa manera, el producto editorial habría resultado
muy diferente y, por supuesto, de meor calidad... La perseverencia
en este tipo de indagaciones resulta fundamental. Es la histamina
que impulsa la exploración sin truega y que la autora
nos comparte en esa suerte de confesión intelectual que
es el epílogo de su conmovedor libro." EduardoTurrent, El Economista
Also now available on
Kindle from Dancing
Chiva
is the award-winning long essay about a visit to Maximilian's
castle in Italy, "From Mexico to Miramar or, Across the
Lake of Oblivion" by C.M. Mayo, originally published in
the Massachusetts Review.
== LINKS WE
LOVE (AND WE THINK YOU WILL, TOO) ==
FOR ALL WHO VALUE THE RICH & COMPLEX CULTURAL HERITAGE OF
THE UNITED STATES
Sam
Quinones's True Tales
True tales by others, posted by
veteran LA Times reporter and Mexico expert. Amazing, innovative,
and always a good read.
HISTORY BUFFS
Ken Ackerman's Viral
History Blog
History and more history. Curious
fun. By Ken Ackerman, author of nunerous outstanding works of
19th century and 20th century American history.
CREATIVITY / GENERAL
Sophy Wisdom by Sophy
Burnham
By the best-selling author, literary artist, essayist, and Washington
DC-based mystic.
C.M. Mayo's events in Mexico
City, Washington DC, and elsewhere
(workshops, book signings, conference panels, lectures) http://www.cmmayo.com/events.html
= = = MAXIMILIANA = = =
"Maximilian ~ Carlota"
A blog for researchers,
both serious and armchair, of the Second Empire, the tumultuous
period of Mexican history also known as the French Interevention."
Updated on (most) Tuesdays. http://maximilian-carlota.blogspot.com
Tell a friend!
Please feel free to forward this to anyone who might be interested.
We welcome your referals.
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Also now available on
Kindle from Dancing
Chiva
is the award-winning long essay about a visit to Maximilian's
castle in Italy, "From Mexico to Miramar or, Across the
Lake of Oblivion" by C.M. Mayo, originally published in
the Massachusetts Review.
C.M.
Mayo will be teaching a 2 day intensive on Techniques of Fiction
for the San Miguel Writers Conference on Monday February 20 and
Tuesday February 21, four hours each day, directly following
the conference. 
of Fiction.
