Foster Fail

Welcoming Mario. And a workshop announcement.

Hi friends.

OK, obviously I kept the dog.

He has crazy legs and a snaggletooth and I love him. What else can I say? I’m a sucker. But look at him.

Basically I was running him through the foster process and the minute the first application came in for him my entire body was like ABSOLUTELY NOT HE’S MINE. I mean he walked up to me on the street and said hello. I had to keep him.

And yes, everyone knew it but me, fine. When I told my friends I had finally decided to keep him they were like, “Yeah, we knew that a week ago, obviously.”

Anyway, it all worked out in the end. He’s a cute little guy and we’re happy to have him in the family. For some fun, I’m leaving the comments open today in case you want to share your foster fail story.

And here’s the other thing that’s going on:

Yup, I’m back in the teaching zone! I’m offering a workshop in October on how to use your life in your own work whether it be fiction or non-fiction. I taught a week-long workshop on this subject at the Key West Literary Conference this past January and enjoyed it so much that I culled together some of the highlights for this 1-hour workshop. I found that I loved talking about this topic, loved engaging with these ideas of how much of yourself you should use, how to get comfortable with it, how to know what to keep and what to throw away, how to absorb, process, alter, and adjust the world around us through our words. I wouldn’t put these workshops together if I didn’t think they would be interesting, thoughtful, and fun.

Also I am happy to say it will be moderated once again by the wonderful Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya.

And if you’re new here, I’m the New York Times bestselling author of ten books with an eleventh (The Amnesiac, Ecco) on the way in 2027. Eight of my books are novels but I have also dabbled in non-fiction, publishing essays widely in The New York Times, The Guardian and more. I’ve published a memoir, I Came All This Way to Meet You (excerpted in The New Yorker here), my craft/encouragement book 1000 Words: 1000 Words A Writer’s Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round was a USA Today and national bestseller, and this very letter you are reading now has been a consistent top-20 literary substack for years.

OK, I’m off to tend to this full house of dogs. Also I’m in the midst of copyedits on my novel so I’ll catch up more with you all in a few days with more literary updates. I hope you’re enjoying these last little bits of summer wherever you are. Soon it’ll be time to be focused again, and there will be that little snap of something in the air. I’m ready for it, are you?

Jami

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