A New Chapter

Plus a Q&A with Jami Attenberg

The Landing in Summer, Mary Dawson Elwell, 1930 (Grundy Art Gallery)

“Don’t be afraid to start a new chapter.”

This is what the inside of the chocolate wrapper said and I can take my signs where I want. I am afraid, always a little, but I need a new chapter, a new attitude, some new energy. I think we all do.

Summer has run its course, autumn looms. The year has been a bear so far, with a big lost birthday and the droning crisis of elder care. Kamala says it’s time to turn the page and YES PLEASE let’s put this chapter to bed already.

I’m going to be a grandmother for the first time — BIG new chapter energy. A new generation for some much needed perspective, the inexorable march of time. This pivotal election could be the change we need. Maybe we’ll patch and right the ship a bit. Dare I be so hopeful?

It’s been a season of visiting and reconnection. I didn’t know I needed it until I got it. Covid and bad attitudes scattered us, but it’s finally coming together again. Slowly, sweetly. I’ve got a new bike to chase away some of the old pain.

I want joy in the new chapter. I want us all to be safe and strong, calm and curious. Fewer screaming headlines and crisis calls, more deep breaths and laughter. I want to finally hang curtains and pictures. I want to paint the bathroom purple.

I cry so easily these days, but it’s the good kind. Something is shifting.

A tiny boy will join our team next month. He’s worth it all. As Nick Cave so beautifully wrote, “A child is born and the world continues wildly upon its way.”

Let’s go wildly on our way, into our new chapter.

🥹 Lisa

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3 Questions with

Jami Attenberg

If you write you probably know Jami and, if you read, you should. She’s the happy genius behind

CRAFT TALK

and the 1000 words community (I wrote about it here in a previous timeline). If you care about words, join the project. It’s fun, inspirational, and productive. Jami makes me want to write, read, and find my people.

Her 10th(!) book, A Reason to See You Again, comes out next week and I can’t wait to read it. She’s generously offered to answer questions for some Substackers.

Here’s our Q & A:

LR: Does writing fiction allow you to imagine yourself into new chapters of your own? I'm thinking about new chapters in our lives, specifically (for me) with aging. Does creating fictional characters and placing them in imagined circumstances ever push you in directions or give you ideas in your own life? I guess rather than the common "are you writing from your life" question, it's more like, "do you ever write INTO your life." Do you ever act on your characters' impulses?

JA: I like this question a lot, I think it's pretty fun, though I can't think of any specific examples at the moment. I would say it's more like I learn things through doing research for a book, and those details end up inspiring me or informing decisions, rather than acting on a character's impulses or examples. In fact, often my characters show me how not to behave. 

Perhaps the only character that has sort of generally influenced me in a positive way is Saint Mazie, who was inspired by a real life amazing human being who helped those who were struggling during the Great Depression on the streets of New York. A truly charitable and generous human (though certainly flawed in her way) that I could only aspire to be like in my life.

LR: How has aging changed or informed your creative life?

JA: Oh I suppose there's this sense of knowing what I know more, but also knowing what I don't know, and accepting that, and even leaning into that. Writing into the mysteries of life. And also identifying and understanding various patterns in my work that I keep repeating and need to learn how to move beyond. 

I also definitely have a sense that I am running out of time--not soon, but eventually--and so I think about what stories I want to make sure I get out into the world. "How many books do I have left in me?" is definitely a question I have asked myself.

LR: Best peri/meno tips?

JA: My best tips I learned from reading books by other people. I found Hot and Bothered by Jance Dunn extremely helpful in so many ways. But I guess I'd say this year in particular I've had to reevaluate my fitness goals and needs, and have had to ask for help when I am someone who is used to just figuring shit out on my own. So I think it's OK to realize when you need to slow it down, do a little reading and thinking, in order to plan for the long haul.

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Thanks so much, Jami, for sharing your time and wisdom!

Jami’s bio:

Jami Attenberg is the New York Times bestselling author of nine books, including The Middlesteins, All Grown Up and a memoir, I Came All This Way to Meet You: Writing Myself Home. She is also the creator of the annual online group writing accountability project #1000wordsofsummer, which inspired the recently published USA Today bestseller 1000 Words:A Writer’s Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round. Her tenth book, publishing September 24, 2024, is A Reason to See You Again. She lives in New Orleans. You can find her online regularly at Craft Talk.

So long summer, hello new chapters! 🤞
Lisa