After a brief hiatus over the spring and summer of 2013 caused by a metaphorical asteroid, the Marfa Mondays podcasts have resumed in September 2013 with podcast #12, an interview with Dallas Baxter. There will be a total of 24 podcasts, now concluding in 2016.

What was that asteroid? I went and wrote a completely different book, Metaphysical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution: Francisco I. Madero and His Secret Book, Spiritist Manual. Suffice it to say that what I imagined to be a modest project of say, two to three weeks, turned into a full-time, seven month-long, hair-on-fire marathon. It's now available in paperback, Kindle and en español. Visit the website for this book by clicking on the banner:

WINNER, NATIONAL INDIE EXCELLENCE AWARD FOR HISTORY

In a blend of biography, personal essay, and a rendition of deeply researched metaphysical and Mexican history that reads like a novel, award-winning writer and noted literary translator C.M. Mayo provides a rich introduction and the first translation of the secret book by Francisco I. Madero, leader of Mexico's 1910 Revolution and President of Mexico from 1911 to 1913.


"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

"C.M. Mayo offers another dazzling work in her own fluid, poetic and highly visual prose... By the time I finished I wished for a Don Francisco Madero to guide us today, a politican who is also a mystic and intellect.
Sophy Burnham, author of A Book of Angels and The President's Angel

"Metaphysical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution paints a complex picture of a curious crossroads in history, where the rise and fall of a regime coincided with a spiritual and social awakening with the potential to rewrite a country's future. Kudos to Mayo for introducing us to both the man and his message."
San Francisco Book Review

"Mayo... provides not only an English translation of Madero's Spiritist Manual, but also a lively intoduction... The author argues effectively that Madero's manual is essential to understanding his revolutionary zeal."
Kirkus Reviews

"In this delightfully engaging book, C.M. Mayo brings to vivid light an aspect of Mexican history astonishingly neglected by most historians: the Spiritist beliefs and practices of Francisco Madero, instigator and first leader of the world-historical event that was the Mexican Revolution of 1910. Fruit of considerable research, this volume includes the first translation into English of Madero's Spiritist Manual, itself an invaluable contribution to the historical record." José Skinner, University of Texas-Pan American

"Mayo does 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...With her translation of the Spiritist Manual, C.M. Mayo opened this incredible window into the metaphysical side of the Mexican Revolution"
Heribert von Feilitzsch, author of In Plain Sight: Felix Sommerfeld, Spymaster in Mexico

"Ever astonishing are the greats whose inner tracks wholly diverge from their renown. Such a case is Francisco I. Madero, first president of Mexico after the 1910 revolution, whose political genius was immersed in mysticism, and equally extraordinary is C. M. Mayo's account of this paradox in Metaphysical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution. Threading the tortuous path of Madero from birth to assassination, and culminating in the first translation into English of the little-known Spiritist Manual of this master of statecraft, Mayo's account brings to life the duality of the singular founder of Mexican democracy."
Bruce Berger, author of The Telling Distance: Conversations with the American Desert

"Absolutely fascinating... the well-crafted outcome of a sharp mind and meticulous research, combined with serendipity."
Tony Burton, author of West Mexico and Geo-Mexico