Notes from Florida

Hi friends.

I wanted to send a quick cheerful hello so that you can have one nice piece of mail in your inbox today that is not asking you for a donation or to take a poll. I’m sorry about the world right now. It’s heavy. But hello, I like you, I’m glad you’re here.

Anyway, I made it home from Florida where my cute mother got me a nice cake for the event I did in her town and so I must lead with this photo:

Florida in general was great, beautiful, sunny, though still weary and recovering from the storms. I drove around all weekend with Kristen and Kayla and we gossiped and talked about books and how fucked up the world is and also we ate way too many 7-11 snacks. (I am sorry for all those dill pickle flavored potato chip crumbs I left behind in the backseat.)

Our first stop was Gainesville, at Lauren Groff’s beautiful new bookstore The Lynx, where I taught a 1000 Words workshop. I was so lucky to have two contributors there (Kristen and Lauren) so I asked them to participate and it was delightful. Here’s Lauren reading her contribution to the book to the room with me grinning at her madly:

It was pretty magical! Having the two of them there made me realize that I want to do more events with contributors and maybe I will plan a big tour in a few years around these kinds of events. Also I’ve got more to say about lessons gleaned from that workshop in an upcoming letter. But, as always, just know that doing events surrounding this project is really inspiring to me.

Later we stayed at an airbnb that looked like this on the outside:

Before we left for St. Pete the next day, Lauren told us that she was reading Pilgrim at Tinker Creek in the mornings lately, and Kristen and I both said immediately we would do the same. I started it the next day. Now I’m occupied with natural beauty for that period of time that I’m spending with Annie Dillard. Now I’m wanting to put more beauty in the world. It’s funny how specific books can bend and move your brain to its will.

In St. Pete, Kristen, Kayla and I all had a wonderful conversation about my book at the charming Tombolo Books. (I signed a bunch of books there if you want to support this shop, post-storm.) Kayla dressed to match the cover which is the sign of a superior interlocutor:

Also in St. Pete I went to a dog bar and I only want to go to dog bars now for the rest of my life.

Now I’m home with a head cold. I do not feel that I deserve a head cold but on the other hand I certainly did earn it.

I’ve got four events left before the end of the year. I’ve done close to 50 events since January 1. Could there be any questions left to answer? And yet people are still surprising me. Next year will be much much quieter for me so get your final shots in coming up in NOLA, Chicago, and Austin.

I’ve got a great writing prompt letter coming later this week. For now I’m just hoping you’re all writing well and keeping your spirits as steady as possible. As a therapist once told me, “You can’t help anyone else if you’re a hot mess yourself.”

See you in a few days.

Jami

You are reading Craft Talk, the home of #1000wordsofsummer and also a weekly newsletter about writing from Jami Attenberg. I’m also on twitter and instagram.