Cyberflanerie: Writers and Writing: Sam Quinones on the Mennonite Mob, the Daily Skimm, Write On!

Debra Eckerling's Write On! August newsletter is out. (Thanks, amiga, for the mention of my "30 Deadly-Effectve Ways to Free Up Bits, Drips & Gimungously Vast Swaths of Time for Writing" and the new gumroad.com edition of From Mexico to Miramar or, Across the Lake of Oblivion.") Lots of useful information in there for writers. Take note, those of you looking for some inspiration, Eckerling is offering Purple Pencil Adventures, her Kindle of writing prompts for free on specific dates. Read the newsletter to find out all about it.

Sam Quinones, who I admire more than I can say, has just posted on his blog about the Mexican Mennonite Mob. Whoa.

Something I find charming, useful and yet totally appalling: The Daily Skimm.

How to Rank Well in Amazon. Uh, for all one's spare time. 

James Somers asserts: You're Probably Using the Wrong Dictionary.

The always elegant and thoughtful Pat Dubrava on Discovering Indians in 1951.

COMMENTS always welcome.

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SURF ON:

Madam Mayo:

>Why Aren't There More Readers? A Note on Curiosity, Creativity and Courage

>Desert America: Boom and Bust in the New Old West by Rubén Martínez

>My Little Gumroad Shop

And on the home page, www.cmmayo.com:

>Review of Sam Quinones' True Tales of Mexico

>Giant Golden Buddha & 364 More Free 5 Minute Writing Exercises: August

>New Workshop: One One Day Writing Workshop at the Writer's Center on Literary Travel Writing, Saturday October 11, 2014.

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Cyberflanerie: Mexico City, Patzcuaro, Tijuana & Tulum Edition

You're Eating Fake Tacos and Diana Kennedy is Pissed About It  by Daniel Hernandez
P.S. Diana Kennedy is a true treasure: teacher, caretaker, visionary. Her name may not be hispanic, but she knows Mexican cuisine better than anyone, including, yes, the Mexicans.

The always excellent and informative Exploring Colonial Mexico, lately on Enrique Luft Pávlata.

Sam Quinones doesn't like Tijuana, he loves it! (Yes, Yours Truly has visited and had quite a bit to say about it, too. But I didn't get to the opera.)

Victor: Artes Populares Mexicanas, now in new digs near the Claustro Sor Juana, upstairs from Librería Madero. I was about to blog about this charming rinconcito, but my amigo, artist and travel writer, Jim Johnston, beat me to it in his blog, Mexico City: An Opinionated Guide for the Curious Traveler. 

Speaking of rinconcitos, Mexico Cooks! has another bodacious post about the new market in Col. Roma. Nicholas Gilman chimes in on his blog, Good Food in Mexico City.

My amiga the ever adventurous DC-based writer Judy Leaver is learning Spanish in Tulum.

David Lida says Federico Gama is the best photojournalist working in Mexico City today.

Burro Hall is still reporting on the usual wackiness. (Hey, karma police, the guy has an elderly pug.)

COMMENTS always welcome.

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Cyberflanerie: Better Books, Books of Note, Decluttering Books, Rare Books

The NYT's Charles M. Blow says, Reading Books is Fundamental.

Making Better Books:

The Book Designer's archive of articles "practical advice to help build better books"

Chronicling America in the Library of Congress (newspaper archives)

Book Aesthete Tumblr

Books of Note:

Sam Quinones' Tell Your True Tale East Los Angeles

The Daily Beast's Ted Gioia says The Smartest Book About the Digital Age Was Published in 1929. (José Ortega y Gasset's The Revolt of the Masses.)

My book! Updated edition in Kindle, Metaphysical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution: Francisco I. Madero and His Secret Book, Spiritist Manual.

>see also recent Madam Mayo posts on Gregory Gibson's Demon of the Waters and Bruce Berger's The End of the Sherry.

>see also lists of recommended reading on Mexico; creative process; craft of  creative writing; literary travel memoir.

Decluttering Books: 

Early Retirement Extreme on How to Get Rid of Books

>see also Madam Mayo's easy-peasy 10 Question Method

Rare Books:

Mexico Desconocido on Mexico City's antiquarian bookstores (en español)

>see also recent blog post,  Una ventana al mundo invisible (A Window to the Invisible World) or, Master Amajur and the Smoking Signatures

COMMENTS always welcome

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Cyberflanerie: The Voynich Manuscript, Books, Used Books, Rare Books, and the Future of Bookstores Edition

Totally huge news: The mysterious circa 15th or 16th century Voynich manusucript might be of Mexican origin: Arthur O. Tucker and Rexford H. Talbert make a very interesting case in, of all places, HerbalGram, the Journal of the American Botanical Council, issue 100, 2013, in their article "A Preliminary Analysis of the Botany, Zoology, and Minerology of the Voynich Manuscript." Could the strange, supposedly cipher, language have been simply a dialect of Nahuatl?

To see the Voynich manuscript on-line, check it out at the website of Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library. 

Sam Quinones, a most original and intrepid journalist, who hosts the Tell Your True Tale website, has just brought out the Tell Your True Tale: East Los Angeles, in both paperback and Kindle.

Novelist and blogger Carmen Amato has asked Yours Truly and other "influential bloggers" to pontificate on the Future of Bookstores. (For some visuals, try this.)

The Rambling Boy of the Big Bend Sentinel, Lonn Taylor, goes browsing for bargains at used bookstores.

Find books with Bibliopolis.

Here's a cool new venue for selling books: Gumroad. Stay tuned on that front.

More anon.

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Cyberflanerie: Nuts Edition

James McWilliams talks about The Pecan: A History of America's Native Nut (University Texas Austin) with podcaster extraordinaire Chris Gondek.

UK newspaper reports Mexico leads the world in death by . . . lightning strikes. (Who knew?)

Sam Quinones on the Mexican Roma
(No, not Colonia Roma. Just when you think you've got Mexico figured out, Sam Q spins it topsyturvy. Who else would watch giant snake movies in the campo?)

Nut Wizard (Boy howdy! This gives me renewed faith in the ingenuity of the human race. I am not kidding.)

Human Sacrifice in Olde St Louis.

And on a rather drastically lighter note, check out Chubbs the Totally Awesome Pug!!

COMMENTS

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