Contact Maya

To email me, send it to m @ mayalassiter . com and put MAYALAND in the subject. That should make it stand out from the garbage in my spamfilter and I can rescue it from the spam-eating monsters. (If you don’t hear back from me it means I missed it, the spamfilters got it, so please try it again.)

Thanks!

18 Responses to Contact Maya

Sean Arthur says:

July 20, 2011 at 10:59 am

Liked your very clear and insightful analysis of Rango’s structure. Prescreening before 5 year old grand daughter watches.

Odd movie. So much effort into a very thin story line. As you observed. it was also quite daring, i’d say. at least not conventional. Lots and lots of references to classic American western films and similar ‘tropes’ .

Your conflict engine idea i loved. reminded me of my own current problem. I am writing the third novel in a trilogy. first two are written. beginners gaff, I didn’t really plot out the series properly, and now I have a third act that is all over the place.

And this is actually the metaphor.

First novel, characters are driven together, like the processes that create addictive substances. This results in a single, dramatic event. Second novel is what happens after. Like when a drug is used, its components come apart with dramatic consequences. This drives the action, where character’s lives continue out of their control, to again other dramatic consequences. Characters literally disperse and their relationships start to fall apart. Third novel is like a huge denouement.

It is the characters making new lives or failing to do that.

But where is the action. Like ripples on a pond, the whole thing is aftermath with the energy dispersing and the characters becoming farther and farther apart. Or dead.

It is sort of sad. The main character battles age, injury and depression. Other younger characters battle poverty and the compromise to personal values they have to face to get out of it, post addiction. Other characters just don’t make it.

I am having trouble writing it not just because its sort of sad all the time, but because the plot is just got no ‘engine’

HUMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

anyway, keep going!

Sorry to hear that your boy had such a difficult / painful accident.

You’ll survive.

Sean.
Sean Arthur says:

July 20, 2011 at 11:02 am

PS can’t email you from this computer i’m on. Only via this type of web form.
alex says:

November 2, 2011 at 4:19 pm

Hi Maya,

Thanks for posting your experiences and knowlege on the web. I currently have 13 adult milk goats and about 20 offspring of various ages from them. I hand milk and am interested to make or buy a hand oerated milker. Do you know where I could buy one that can take a beating withought damaging my goats on the long run ? I am expanding my herd.

I have a professional milking machine for 6 goats but I am reluctant to use it it just seems too much like a factory mechanical affair. I like the closer contact with the goats. Look forward to hearing from you.

Have a great day !

Alex
maya says:

November 6, 2011 at 4:41 pm

Hello Alex, so nice to meet you. The only millker I have any experience with is the one I mention in my “how to milk a goat” post, maggidans.com. I don’t know if it is durable enough for your needs. The thing that goes first is the spring in the handle, so you’d want spares on hand, but it’s a simple and useful device. I use mine daily. Good luck!
Bonnie Taylor says:

November 9, 2011 at 5:30 am

I enjoyed Carroll’s pictures and your early morning conversation with the kids. Have a good day.
April Plummer says:

February 24, 2012 at 10:36 am

I just wanted to let you know that I “bought” Toby Streams the Universe for free the other day and started reading it yesterday. I LOVE it already! What a unique concept, and I’m in love with Toby. I just want to hold him and quiet all those voices. Thank you so much for a great book!
maya says:

February 24, 2012 at 5:42 pm

Hello April,
Thank you so much for your comment! I’m thrilled you’re enjoying it, and delighted to meet you. I hope the ending holds up for you…
Maya
Suzanne Osier says:

March 3, 2012 at 10:13 pm

Hi Maya,
My name is Suzanne Osier. I am a sailor and birder currently living aboard my sailboat, Peregrine, in Panama. I just got hit with the’bomb’. I went online to find out WTH was on me and found your delightful blog. I have put links to your ‘Seed Ticks’ post on both my blogs: The Twitching Sailor and Birding Aboard Peregrine, and also posted a copy of my blog (and therefore, yours) on Bird Forum. Bird Forum is a worldwide site for birders (based in the UK) so if you start getting views from weird places…
Love your blog!
Sue
maya says:

March 4, 2012 at 9:28 am

Hello Suzanne, How delightful to meet you, your life sounds so interesting. Thanks for the links and I hope you survive being bombed, haha.
Susan says:

March 6, 2012 at 3:50 pm

Good afternoon….I’m curious, where do you live? The photos look a lot like my home, on the southern Oregon coast. Are we neighbors?

Anyway, the reason I write today is because your site came up on a Google search for dying fabrics in canning jars. I just gave away my entire dying studio (a collection spanning fifteen years) and wanted to give the recipient the first article I ever read about dying. It was in a quilt magazine and featured a woman dying fabrics in twelve jars. Any chance you have that article on your blog? Couldn’t find it myself but hoped you could help.

Thanks for your assistance, and best regards to you.

Susan
maya says:

March 6, 2012 at 8:53 pm

Hello Susan, Nice to meet you. We are not neighbors except maybe in some cosmic sense, but I have no intel on that. We live in North Carolina. And nope, I have no idea what original article you might have read at some point, in some quilting magazine, fifteen years ago. What, are you kidding? I can’t even remember my own life fifteen years ago! Dyeing in jars is fun though, we’ve been doing it for quite a while (not fifteen years). Sorry to hear you gave away your dying studio, hope you replaced it with something that makes you happy!
James says:

July 6, 2012 at 3:28 pm

Picked up Toby Streams the Universe for free today and featured it on my blog (http://www.freekindledaily.com/) sounds great!
Carol from New Zealand says:

July 8, 2012 at 12:17 am

Hi Maya, Loved your book that I picked up free from Amazon – ‘Toby streams the Universe’. Stayed up late and got up early to finish it. Great job! Hope you continue. I have now purchased ‘Children of the fallen’ and signed up for your email newsletter.
maya says:

July 11, 2012 at 11:05 am

Hi Carol, that is so cool! Thanks so much for writing and telling me: its my goal in life to keep people from sleeping and it sounds like, with you, my evil plan is working! I hope you like Children…
Chris Faranetta says:

September 6, 2012 at 11:13 am

Maya,

Thanks for your post on Seed Ticks it seems to be the only site on the web with decent photos of their actual size.

My son is covered with them and he has just returned from the doctor. Who knew they could be that small and numerous.

C
Abby Goldsmith says:

September 17, 2012 at 6:15 pm

Maya, I’m enjoying your “Conjuring Raine” audiobook. Just so you know, the ep07 mp3 is missing from your website. I had to hunt it down on podiobooks.
maya says:

September 19, 2012 at 9:32 am

Oh no! I’ll see if I can dig up a link to add, it’s been so long, I can’t remember now how I got those on there… Glad you found it!
Ricky Little says:

April 18, 2013 at 10:19 am

Thanks for the article (when goat mamas won’t nurse their kids)
from 2009. I’ve had this problem before and have even tied mom to a gate and restrained one back leg so the kids could eat. After a couple of days mom usually comes around.

Thanks
Ricky Little
Quinlan, Texas