The first time I noticed Maia, was not too long ago, in one of

the many Internet message boards for writers, when I was

scouring the boards for help to review and edit my English

scribble.

She was one of the vital sparks of the AbsoluteWrite board,

offering the many aspiring writers there, her counsel to

master the craft of writing.

I was tempted to contact her and debated for several days

whether to do so, but when I did, she answered at once,

inviting me to forward one of my best stories for her perusal.

That's how a friendship started, bouncing stories, poems and

essays back and forth electronically, in so warm a manner that

all doubts that had arisen at the beginning - such as if I was

interacting with a human or a robot or electronic person -

were surmounted. She was a kind, real bone and flesh woman.

Amazed by her excellent work on reviewing and editing two of

my stories, I asked her for some samples of her own literary

works, and she flooded me with poetry and essays written in

this latest stage of her life - she told me that in the

middle of the 90s, when her seven children were grown, she

abandoned all of her worldly things, (except her laptop),

including her gift to write fictional stories for profit, and

even her real name, to become MAIA, a philosopher and

"a thinker/teacher of the truth," as some call her. 

I read thoroughly her poems/essays and... hey!... I realized I

was before a brave writer and revolutionary, a fighting woman;

one of those solitary warriors, like the "Ingenious Gentleman

of the Sad Figure" who tried to put the world in order.

Respectfully I admit that I snickered at it, but as time

passed by I did understand she was right, the world is getting

upside down.  She was, too, needing help for her solitary

fight - fight against our modern conquerors; modern

exploiters; modern lords of wars; modern political crooks

wearing a cravat and charming smiles to deceive and steal

people's hopes.

Is she in the right lane to achieve her purpose? I don't know,

but I decided to be one of her Sancho Panzas, to assist her in

her long, long journey to "mend the world" as she puts it in

one of her essays.

And here we are, happy to present a small quantity of her vast

literary and journalistic work (of her second life), along

with some other artists and writers of the world who follow

the same line.

You are invited to send your comments to her or any other of

our collaborators.  Also, if you are moved by this dramatic

calling, you are invited, too, to become a new Sancho Panza or

perhaps apostle? Who knows? Try it... help us to mend the

world before it explodes or is convered in deserts or

glaciers. Who knows what fate will be most deserved by us,

thanks to our misuse of it?