The nights are cool enough for a thick blanket. But warm enough to keep a window cracked. The crickets are on duty 24/7, singing their back-to-school song.

Late summer/early fall evokes feelings of nostalgia/dread. Plenty of you out there are getting ready to haul your kids (or yourselves) back to class. Some of you have already started!

This weather shouts at me: BUCKLE DOWN! GET IN GEAR! BUY A TRAPPER-KEEPER! A NEW SEASON IS INCOMING! THERE’S LOTS TO DO!

I feel motivated. Refreshed. Time to move up a grade!

My “back-to-school” creative homework

Bolstered by the crisp air, I’ve identified some administrative drudgery I need to do, to set myself up for creative success the rest of the year.

No need to wait for New Year’s to get my shit together! THE FUTURE IS NOW

1. Celebrate my accomplishments

Some good things happened in 2026. But it’s August, so I’ve already forgotten them.

Gotta take a minute to look back and appreciate the year so far.

Celebrate all of it. Not just wins. Not just publications. Honor all my work behind the scenes.

The promises I made to myself, which I kept. The writing I submitted, even though it was rejected. The opportunities I tried for, even when they failed.

The challenges I met. The things I learned about myself.

2. Revisit my goals

There’s plenty of 2026 still to come. I dig through dusty piles to find the list of goals I made for myself at the beginning of the year, and ask:

• What goals did I start out with?

• Have my goals shifted? What feels right, or wrong?

• What are my new goals, if any?

• What obstacles do I need to push out of my way, to move forward?

• What loose ends do I want to tie up over the next four months?

3. Take stock of my works-in-progress

I made a list of all my creative projects in a Google doc and went through it, one by one.

• What’s their current status?

• What’s the next step or milestone?

• When do I plan to do it?

• Which projects take priority?

• Which ones can I put on the back burner, to help focus my energy?

4. Check my open writing submissions

I’m already obsessively checking my writing submissions spreadsheet, thirty times a day. I don’t need to check it again.

In addition to the incessant checking, I’m asking:

• Are there any submissions I should actively follow up on (especially if it’s been over a year)?

• What do I want to do with pieces that I’ve been submitting for 3+ years with no success?

• Is it time to pull the plug, revise them, self-publish, or relegate them to the proverbial “drawer”?

5. Identify places to submit my writing

Many literary mags and journals are opening up—or getting ready to open up—their fall submissions period.

I’ll revisit Chill Subs, Poets & Writers, and my own secret list of “places I’d love to publish.” I also look at publications that have “positively rejected” me, encouraging me to apply again.

In a new wrinkle, Instagram has started targeting me with ads for journals announcing their open submission dates. (Thanks, Meta, for spying on my every move.)

I’ve been taking screenshots of those announcements, but not doing anything about it. Time to scroll through my screenshots and see if any of these publications pique my interest. Add them to the list!

6. Update my residency spreadsheet

Many artist/writer residencies are opening up—or getting ready to open up—their fall application periods.

I’ll do a bit of Googling and look for opportunities that meet my criteria:

• 2-4 week stays

• Fully funded

• Within a 5-hour drive

• If it’s located in New York State, even better. I <3 NY

I drop the key info into a Google Sheet, in order of deadline. Then, I block out time on my calendar to work on those applications, in order of priority.

7. Evaluate my writing resume

Applying to residencies reminds me: I am overdue for a resume update.

Good thing I already did Step #1, “Celebrate my accomplishments.” Now I can easily remember all the new stuff to add to my resume.

I review the entire document to make sure everything is up to date:

• Contact info

• Summary of what I write

• Short story publications

• Humor & cartoon publications

• Books

• Honors & fellowships

• Community involvement

• Education

8. Evaluate my freelance resume

Ugh. I guess if I’m updating my writing resume, I ought to update my freelance copywriting/brand strategy resume, too.

I find it useful to have two distinct documents, because they speak to two entirely different audiences.

Plus, having both resumes mashed together, it gets overwhelming, confusing, and way too long.

Here’s what I review on my freelance resume:

• Contact info

• Professional summary

• Top 5 recent interesting freelance projects

• Related work experience

• My list of services

• A joke about having no professional awards or honors to speak of

• Education

9. Pumpkin spice something-or-other

And finally: an industrial pumpkin spice-flavored beverage gives me the magical powers necessary to complete the above administrative tomfoolery.

However, I am a one-and-done pumpkin spice person. It’s a seasonal chemical I can only tolerate once per year, like marshmallow Peeps.

Creative folks, have any other “back to school” admin tasks to suggest? Leave a comment! I’m always adding to my homework list.

Bizzy’s Curmudgeon Corner

It occurs to me that my newsletters are generally pretty positive and upbeat.

But there is so much more to Bizzy than that.

I thought I’d start this new segment to reveal to you the persnickety, joyless, and all-around frustrating human lady behind BIZZY IN YOUR BOX.

To start us off, here are a few “fun” things I don’t find very fun:

• Staying up late

• Board games

• Card games

• Texting

• Live music

• Drinking

• Drugs

• Going to the beach

• Camping

• Riding a horse

• Driving in a convertible with the top down

• Somebody else pumping my gas, like in New Jersey. (I don’t trust you)

WOW! Now I feel exposed and vulnerable! That’s the emotional power of Bizzy’s Curmudgeon Corner.

Feel free to drop your own persnickety, joyless opinions in the comments.

New episode of Cartoon House!

My co-cartoonist Lia Strasser and I are back at it again, with another episode of the #1 show in the world: Cartoon House.

If you’re not following us both on Instagram, you’re only getting half the story!

The truth about the Yarnslingers book launch

I know some of you have been waiting for me to make an official statement about what went down at the Yarnslingers book launch.

Here’s the truth, and I won’t sugarcoat it:

It was a big success.

Thanks to all who came to support 15 years of our community storytelling group, and our very first anthology featuring personal essays from 25 writers across the Upper Delaware River Valley.

Thanks especially to Greg Triggs, the director of Yarnslingers, who spearheaded the book project, obtained grant funding, compiled and edited the manuscript, worked with the designer and publisher, started a dang podcast, and drove everything to the finish line.

Buy the book! I have a few copies left

Bizzy in the Wild: Upcoming Events

NONE!

On no-day, at never o’clock, located at the intersection of Not At This Time Boulevard and Sorry to Disappoint You Avenue

I’m taking a break from events for the next couple of months. If you’re looking for a future podcast guest, event speaker, or Adult Acne Hall of Fame honoree, please give me a shout.

How are you? What’s new? Would love to hear from you.

Until next time, my pretties,

Bizzy

I don’t like how it pits “work” and “life” against each other. My life and my work are entwined, and I like it that way.

I don’t like how “balance” suggests the need for equilibrium.

As a writer, a freelancer, and a human, my priorities are always shifting, often lopsided, and that isn’t always a bad thing.

But yet — how to keep it all together, without falling apart?

My new framework: “A Day at the Beach”

A Day at the Beach is a bloated metaphor I have invented (as bloated as a beached whale).

It works for me, and may or may not work for you. I will explain in a longwinded fashion, henceforth!

What is a day at the beach?

A day at the beach is an old idiom that means a stress-free and enjoyable experience.

That’s what I want my days to feel like, generally. Don’t you?

Imagine every day is a new trip to the beach. In this (messy and definitely not fully thought out) metaphor:

The ocean is active creation: creative writing, freelance client work. Paid, unpaid, doesn’t matter — the projects I love to do. The place where I splash around in my imagination.

The sand is time away from active creation: rest, self-care, practical realities, non-creative work, relationships, travel, entertainment, the dentist, etc.

For me, a good day has both the sand and the sea. Both present, both joyfully interwoven, often flowing seamlessly from one to the other, the way the ocean laps onto the shore.

Checking the emotional weather

A day at the beach starts the night before. Around 8pm I sit at my computer and make a plan.

The literal weather affects what you do at the literal beach. My emotional weather affects what I do at my metaphorical beach.

I start with a weather report. How am I feeling in general? Good mood? Bad mood? Depressed? Anxious? Trending up or down? What’s the forecast for tomorrow?

I check in on my creative headspace. Is there a project I’m buzzing about, or dreading? Am I excited about my personal creative work? Or my paid client work? Both, neither? Are there deadlines looming, real or imagined?

What am I most excited to get started on the next day: A short story, a cartoon, a newsletter, a video, a freelance copywriting project, a branding project?

Or, am I feeling completely uninspired and creatively dead? Do I want to do nothing at all?

The more I can observe my mental/emotional state, the better I can plan for the next day.

Setting up camp on the beach

With all of that in mind, I write out a short schedule for myself. What I want to do, at what time, and where.

The schedule is where I will lay out my towel and put up my sun umbrella and my folding chair.

But this camp/set-up is not permanent! I can pick everything up and move to a new location if it ends up not feeling right.

But wherever I go, I can see the beacon of my umbrella, and I can find my way back to my schedule if I need it. It provides just enough structure to keep me from wandering off and getting lost forever.

A good day at the beach doesn’t need to be scheduled to death. On some days, I have one or two things I want to get done. On other days, I schedule out every hour from 6am until bedtime. It depends!

Template beach schedules

I keep a few schedules in my back pocket so I don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

Sometimes I start the day with one schedule, then flip to another. No worries!

Schedule 1: Highly focused beach day

I am all-in on one project, either because I’m super motivated, or because by necessity I must get it moving.

I clear my calendar as much as possible so I can dive into the ocean first thing in the morning, and spend as much time in the water as I want.

I force myself to take breaks to come up for air, because there’s a tipping point where an obsessive work day threatens to drown me. I might dabble with other things to clear my head.

But in general, I allow myself the fun of being consumed by one project.

This is an intense but often very rewarding day, but not one I can sustain more than a few days at a time.

Schedule 2: Normal beach day

This is a varied and active day at my beach, where I start with an hour of my personal creative writing, followed by paid client work.

There might be a meeting, an errand, and chores to do, too.

This day is the equivalent of: go for a dip, sit in the sun, collect some seashells, go for another dip, build a sandcastle, etc.

I’m making small but meaningful progress on multiple fronts. This is most days for me.

Schedule 3: Rest/recover beach day

This is a day I need to relax. I might be struggling emotionally. Or maybe yesterday was an intense “highly focused day.” I’m going to stay mostly on land.

I might aim for 30 minutes of “write anything, anything at all,” which could mean journaling or dabbling half-heartedly at a short story.

I might need to lounge under my beach umbrella and read a book.

I try to prioritize self-care stuff, because it’s more important than ever to refill my cup, so to speak.

I’m never far from the ocean of my creativity. I gaze out at it longingly. I may even be inspired to tickle my toes in the water. It will be there when I’m ready.

This day pops up every so often. Usually on Fridays.

Packing list for the beach

You gotta pack smart for a good day at the beach!

My packing list is like my self-care checklist. Every day has its different needs, but in general, I’m packing the same basics.

Cooler: Stay hydrated at the beach! I make sure to drink water and plan out nourishing meals the night before. If needed, I’ll schedule in a trip to the store or some time to cook.

Physical movement: Every day needs a walk down the beach, which is really just a walk with my dog on a nearby path, where I can see the river and some trees, and absorb the calm awe of nature. Nature is a must for me.

Sunscreen: Protect my boundaries! Honoring the commitments I’ve made to myself. Honoring the importance of the work I want to do. Saying no to things when I need to. SPF 50. Reapply as needed.

Healthy human connection: My tendency is to be alone on the beach — I like being by myself, what can I say? So I have to remember to connect with people once in awhile. After all, you can’t play beach volleyball alone.

Sleep: Gotta get to bed on time if you’re gonna get a prime spot on the sand in the morning.

Enjoy the water in all its forms

Sometimes I easily ride my creativity, surfing, floating, buoyant, joyful.

Sometimes the water is murky and dark, too dense and heavy to swim through.

Sometimes the ocean is very flat and still and clear. Under the water, I notice little details — how the sunlight refracts, how tiny particles dance. How the sand feels between my toes. A jellyfish pulses by, a flutter of minnows.

Sometimes the ocean waves are powerful, buffeting me with big ideas.

Sometimes a riptide of manic energy pulls me farther and farther away from shore, until my fingers are prune-y and I gasp for air.

Sometimes the ocean spits me out onto the sand again and again, as if to say, “You thought you were going to make creative progress today? Ha! The God of the Sea laughs at you, silly human!”

Listen to the lifeguard!

Beach day is not without its hazards.

The ocean of creativity is a fickle mistress. She has many ways to drag me under.

Fortunately, the lifeguard on my beach (she needs a name, any suggestions?) has some rules to keep me afloat:

• Start my day for me. 99% of the time, I give my first hour of the day to my own personally fulfilling creative projects.

• No bullying. If I am annoyed at myself, my productivity, my emotional state, I am not allowed to beat myself up about it.

• When the beach is at capacity, NO NEW PROJECTS ALLOWED. This keeps me from overdoing it, as I am wont to do.

• The beach closes at 8pm. (Yet, here I am at midnight, still typing away. Oh, the hypocrisy!!) The lifeguard blows a whistle to remind me: No project is worth losing sleep.

• Don’t feed the seagulls (self-explanatory)

MY BEACH, MY RULES!!

Thanks for coming to Bizzy Beach

Remember to clean the sand off your feet before you get back in the car, or there will be HELL TO PAY.

What bloated metaphor(s) help you organize your creative life?

How do you define your “work stuff” and your “life stuff”? Do they overlap, or are they separate?

How do you define balance, and how do you get there?

What would you name your beach? Can I come visit?

Bizzy in the Wild: Upcoming Events

Yarnslingers Book Launch Party

FREE! Sun. August 2, 12:30–1:30pm

Blue Fox Motel and Restaurant, 5670 Route 97, Narrowsburg, NY 12764

The local storytelling group in which I have participated for TEN YEARS has officially published its first anthology of personal essays / short memoir!

This Happened is a meaty tome with true stories by 25 Upper Delaware Valley writers from the past 15 years of the Yarnslingers organization.

Buy "This Happened" from Bizzy

Two of my favorite pieces (of mine) are included: “Windshield Wipers” and “General Spring.” Along with dozens of other pieces that will touch your heart and your funny bone.

Edited by Greg Triggs, cover art and design by Jorge Colombo, supporting our local memoir scene — what’s not to love?

Come to our launch party to pick up your copy, hear a few stories read out loud, and get signatures from any and all Yarnslingers in attendance.

Welcome to “Cartoon House”

My friend Lia Strasser and I debuted our new video series CARTOON HOUSE. It follows the dramatic love-hate relationship of a cartoon duo, not unlike our own dynamic!

Some are saying it’s “an Emmy Awards shoe-in” with a “confusing yet titillating vibe.”

We’re thrilled! More episodes to come!

If you need even more “Strasser & Coy” to get you through the day, peep our new “film noir” cartoon. You can also find two book-themed cartoon prints in-store at One Grand Books in Narrowsburg, NY ($40 each).

Folks, once again, I thank you for taking a peek inside the Bizzyverse.

How are YOU doing? What’s new? What’s good?

Until next time,

Bizzy

Welcome to BIZZY IN YOUR BOX: the pre-eminent AND post-eminent self-promotional newsletter about writer Bizzy Coy.

I wonder why we use the term “writer”? “Writer” sounds like “biter.” “Fighter.” “Smiter.” “All-nighter.” Tense, antagonistic rhymes, if you ask me.

I hereby declare I am no longer a writer. I am now a “Worder.”

“Worder” evokes “herder,” as I gently herd words across the vast field of the page.

Like a “birder,” I obsessively watch and listen to words.

And like a “girder,” words are the backbone of my writing.

Worder also rhymes with “murder,” but I’ll ignore that one.

But enough about my bold plans to rebrand myself and the entire writing profession.

May and June have been bursting with events. I even wrote a Post-it note to myself: “NO NEW EVENTS!!” Will I live up to this flimsy directive? Only time (and my fading boundaries) will tell.

On with the fun & games!

Celebrating 10 years of The New Yorker humor

It was a Friday morning in May, 2016, when I received my first acceptance email from The New Yorker.

“Welcome to Our Broadway Theatre; Please Turn On Your Phones,” was published in June 2016. After that, came other stories: “Brunch Recipes for When Your Therapist Is on Vacation,” “Honest Missed-Delivery Slips,” “I’m More than a Mother,” “How to Move Heavy Furniture by Yourself” and more.

I’m forever grateful to humor editor Emma Allen and her team for publishing my work and changing the trajectory of my writing career.

Cartoon duo unleashed at Deep Water Literary Fest

Narrowsburg’s Deep Water Literary Festival continues to raise the bar of what a literary event can be.

This year’s festival, “Time Shift,” featured art installations, readings, idea-driven panels, an independent book market, writing workshops, late-night parties and uncanny literary surprises around every corner.

My cartoon pal Lia Strasser and I launched two new cartoon prints exclusively for sale at One Grand Books. (Still some left! Go grab ’em!)

We also ran a pop-up cartoon experience in the window of Project Weekend.

One at a time, folks sat on the Stool of Destiny and answered questions from the mysterious Time Bowl. Lia sketched their portrait, while I spun our conversation into a caption.

Just a few of the time-themed questions we discussed:

• How old are you, in millennia?

• What is your philosophy of Wednesdays?

• Would you rather live inside an hourglass or a grandfather clock?

• How many days should be in a week?

• How do you visualize the calendar year in your head? Describe in detail.

• What can you do faster than others? What takes you longer?

Conversations got deep, fast. Children and adults both opened their hearts to the prompt questions and followed their trains of thought to unpredictable destinations.

It was fun, hilarious and intense at the same time. We can’t wait to do it again. What a thrill.

Amid the hustle and bustle, I managed to catch thought-provoking talks with Joyce Carol Oates, A.M. Homes, Jad Abumrad, Robert Moor, Jeffrey Marlow and Ilya Marritz. I picked up a few new books, too.

The weekend wrapped with a killer Yarnslingers performance featuring eight local storytellers. I told the true story of the time I picked up a hitchhiker!

Personal Space on an organic farm

Earlier this month, I trekked out to Farm Arts Collective, an award-winning performance venue perched in the middle of Willow Wisp Organic Farm in Damascus, PA.

As part of their literary event series “My Bookish Friends,” I read from my humor collection Personal Space. Author Darcey Steinke read from her latest, This Is the Door: The Body, Pain, and Faith.

The scandals of tooth fairies

Tooth fairies. What do we really know about them? What are their ethics? Can they be bought??

I couldn’t stop laughing while captioning images about unethical tooth fairies with my pal Tracey Berglund. (Maybe you remember our New Yorker piece from last year, making fun of MasterClass.)

Tracey’s whimsical illustrations make life feel wild and fun.

Click through all of our imaginary tooth fairy scandals on this Instagram post:

Bizzy in the Wild: Upcoming Events

Yarnslingers Book Launch Party

FREE! Sun. August 2, 12:30–1:30pm

Blue Fox Motel and Restaurant, 5670 Route 97, Narrowsburg, NY 12764

The local storytelling group in which I participate has published its first anthology of personal essays!

This Happened is a meaty tome with true stories by 25 Upper Delaware Valley writers from the past 15 years of the Yarnslingers organization.

Two of my favorite essays are included: “Windshield Wipers” and “General Spring.”

Edited by Greg Triggs, cover art and design by Jorge Colombo, supporting our local memoir scene — what’s not to love?

Come to our launch party to pick up your copy, hear a few stories read out loud, and get signatures from any and all Yarnslingers in attendance.

More to come.

Love you, miss you, until next time,

Bizzy

’Tis I, Bizzy Coy, proprietress of this cozy, neighborhood newsletter.

Won’t you come inside and rest your weary bones?

Here, have a hot drink and sit for a spell.

The cauldron simmers with the good oily smell of mysterious meats.

I’ll hum you a lullaby of literary self-promotion that will transport you back to the inkspills and papercuts of your Victorian childhood, when you worked exhausting hours as a nib-setter in Old Mister Quilldiggen’s writing factory.

Shhh … remember … remember …!

Bizzy in the Wild: Upcoming Events

My Bookish Friends: A Literary Afternoon

Suggested donation $10. Sun. May 31, 2–4pm

Farm Arts Collective, 38 Hickory Lane, Damascus, PA 18415

“Farm Arts Collective is launching a literary series in 2026 with book readings and signings by authors we admire and love. Meet two authors who will read from their books that embody art, body, intellect and spirit. An afternoon of readings, conversation and food with Darcey Steinke, THIS IS THE DOOR & Bizzy Coy, PERSONAL SPACE. Moderated by Mimi McGurl.”

Yarnslingers @ Deep Water Literary Fest

FREE! Sun. June 21, 4–5pm

Delaware Valley Arts Alliance, 37 Main Street, Narrowsburg, NY 12764

Get ready! The Deep Water Literary Fest seizes Narrowsburg by its literary lapels June 19–21. The 2026 festival is “Time Shift,” with brain-exploding talks, readings and arts happenings around town. The local troupe of storytellers known as Yarnslingers will once again act as the festival’s de facto finale. I may or may not be reading a new, true story on the theme of “Killing Time.” Come find out!

Save the date: Yarnslingers Book Launch

Sun. August 2. More details to come!

Someone allowed me to speak into a microphone!

It was my pleasure to emcee the Delaware Valley Arts Alliance 50th anniversary gala on May 16. A huge team threw this once-in-a-half-century party for a worthy organization.

If you aren’t familiar: DVAA is a nonprofit arts center that keeps my community vibrant with art galleries, live performances, festivals and programs.

Annually, it distributes hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants to local individual artists and arts & cultural organizations. In a rural area like ours, you can imagine how crucial that funding is.

If you feel so inclined, please make a donation in any amount to support DVAA’s “50 Forward” fundraising campaign! Tell ’em Bizzy sent ya!

Donate to DVAA

A rant about commas

Why are there so many rules about commas?

(I think The New Yorker uses too many commas. There, I said it.)

I like a minimalist comma approach, until I don’t.

I like how commas can affect the flow of the writing, by their presence as much as their absence.

I could write a long beautiful convoluted sentence that whistles to the end with super speed much like the freight train that trips through my town every night with its endless empty cars lightened by lack of commas.

Or, I could write a long, beautiful, convoluted sentence that dinks and dunks to the end, slow and sluggish, much like the freight train that slogs through my town every night, its cars divided by clunky, clanking, conniving commas.

Both styles have their place I suppose.

Both styles have their place, I suppose.

I’m curious: What’s your relationship with commas?

New story: “The Un-alivers”

There was a time when all of my published writing was funny. (At the very least, intending to be funny.)

That feels so long ago.

I don’t feel very funny these days. My work keeps getting darker and weirder!

I’m happy to see it evolve in this direction. Thrilled, actually. I like writing funny stuff but I want to cover new ground. I don’t want to limit myself to one style or form.

So meet The Un-alivers, my newest story. This is flash fiction, an itty-bitty piece, only about 700 words.

It was recently selected as the winner of the Flash Flood contest in American Literary Review. Yay! Thank you ALR!!!

(Be duly warned, this story is about suicide, so please don’t read it if that’s not your cup of tea. Did I mention I’m not feeling very funny anymore?!)

Here’s the intro:

There was a deep and narrow gorge in upstate New York where all the millennials came to kill themselves. It started with one man who smashed his car through a wooden safety rail, launching himself into the grinning siltstone gash. Soon there was a twisted line of vehicles eager to do the same. Rules were established: No holding spots in line. No switching spots in line. Leave the line, lose your spot.

This was a challenging piece to write. It first took shape as a longer story that followed a traditional protagonist with a close third-person POV.

But it wasn’t working. It was encumbered with “she did this” and “he did that” and it was, frankly, boring.

So I experimented with a few different approaches. Ultimately, I got rid of the singular protagonist, and treated the gathered millennials as a unified group-protagonist. I zoomed out for more of a third-person sorta-omniscience.

Starting the first line with “There was…” opened the door to the story for me, like how “Once upon a time” opens the door to a fable or fairy tale. The added distance from the characters gave the narration room to breathe. Everything clicked into place.

Curious about my old drafts, I went digging. Here’s one excerpt:

Suicide was not the right word. That was death by your own hand. Alone. This was the death of a generation. By their own hands, by each other’s hands, by their collective failure to solve that which they had not created and could no longer endure. The ancestors had started it — and shouldn’t somebody, mercifully, end it? The descendants were descending. The offspring were springing off. The whole wrong world, crumpled up and tossed off a ledge. Life, a screwy test that nobody passed.

You ever read something you wrote a long time ago, and forget that you wrote it? That’s how I felt when I reread this.

But I like that passage. Too bad it didn’t make the final cut. So much doesn’t! You gotta be ruthless.

Thanks, as always, for coming along with me on my winding, wending writing journey.

Read The Un-alivers

Join me on TikTok

Just when you thought I couldn’t get any weirder…

I’m gobsmacked by the abundance of ticks this spring. I’ve been documenting them on TikTok (or as I’ve redubbed it, TickTok).

Follow me on TikTok for daily tick horrors!

I’ve already posted more than 70 tick videos. THEY ARE SO GROSS AND YET I CANNOT LOOK AWAY!!

I will say, spending so much time close-up with ticks has made me less afraid of them. It’s interesting to observe their individual behaviors and personalities.

Nature is endlessly fascinating.

Well, email-traveler, it looks like I’m all out of mysterious oily-meat stew.

Time for you to get back on the road.

Thanks for stopping in. I always love having you here at BIZZY IN YOUR BOX.

See you next month!

xoxo

Bizzy

Come right in and cozy up to the warm fire that is BIZZY IN YOUR BOX.

A raging inferno of writerly chitchat, creative musings and freelance advice, all fueled by the kindling of my inextinguishable drive to self-promote.

Toss another log on the fire, and let’s go!

Bizzy in the Wild: Upcoming Events

DVAA 50th Anniversary Gala

Ticket prices vary. Sat. May 16, 5pm–11pm

Sullivan County International Airport, 75 Co Rd 183A, Swan Lake, NY 12783

Conan O’Brien was unavailable, so I’ll be your celebrity host for the Delaware Valley Arts Alliance’s 50th anniversary gala. Come support the tradition of nonprofit arts in Sullivan County and the Upper Delaware River Valley.

My Bookish Friends: A Literary Afternoon

Suggested donation $10. Sun. May 31, 2–4pm

Farm Arts Collective, 38 Hickory Lane, Damascus, PA 18415

“Farm Arts Collective is launching a literary series in 2026 with book readings and signings by authors we admire and love. Meet two authors who will read from their books that embody art, body, intellect and spirit. An afternoon of readings, conversation and food with Darcey Steinke, THIS IS THE DOOR & Bizzy Coy, PERSONAL SPACE. Moderated by Mimi McGurl.”

Death of a Salesman

I enjoyed the latest revival starring Nathan Lane and Laurie Metcalf. See any good theater lately? Share your recs!

My new short story!

Welcome to the world: DIAPER CHANGE.

My latest piece of short fiction was published earlier this month in Booth, an excitingly fresh literary journal from Butler University.

A brief excerpt:

Eighteen years ago, they first hooked up in his old apartment on Avenue C in Kensington, Brooklyn.

Mia let him lead the way that time, and the second, and the third, and the fourth. She went along with whatever he suggested, and she seemed happy enough, although he was not convinced he was pleasing her.

After each encounter, Phil hid in the bathroom and catalogued her rhythms in the small notepad he hid in a box of cotton swabs.

The pages were scrawled with observations and conjecture.

Maybe she liked being on top.

Maybe she liked her inner elbow caressed?

She never finished. Twice she complained it went on too long. One time she felt nothing at all.

He asked her, “What do you like?” so many times, she told him to stop, which he did.

Read "Diaper Change"

Crunching the rejection numbers

It’s not easy finding a home for a short story.

I’m sitting here, taking a look back at my short story submission spreadsheet, where I track all the publications to which I submit my work.

Here’s some quick data about my three most recent stories: Diaper Change, Dinosaur Nuggets and Any Man’s Better than No Man at All.

698 days! Holy smokes!

The literary gears do grind slowly. That’s to be expected.

Even crazier — I have an unpublished story in the submissions queue that I’ve been sending out to publications for 973 days.

973 days!

Approximately 32 months!

Over 2.5 YEARS!

Trying to get one little story published!

That.

Is.

Wild.

Still no home for it yet. Maybe there’s something wrong with it. Maybe there’s something wrong with ME?!

But I have faith. It will find its proper place.

What’s your slowest (or quickest) wait time for an acceptance? Commiserate in the comments!

Rant: Please honor your creative impulse

Warning: Rambling thoughts incoming!

Creative folks. I’ve been having some deep creative chats with some of you lately. Thank you for those chats. They mean the world to me.

The same themes emerge again and again:

We’re so hard on ourselves.

We talk ourselves out of making stuff we really want to make.

We talk ourselves out of sharing our stuff with others.

We talk ourselves out of trying for an opportunity, grant, publication, gig, etc.

This happens across the board. People who are just starting out. People who I consider established and successful.

Hesitation. Doubt. Anxiety. Fear.

“I don’t know if it’s worth it.”

“I just can’t get started.”

“I want to, but…”

Creative folks! I feel for you! I feel for US. I’m oftentimes in the same boat.

I find myself repeating this mantra. To myself, and others:

Don’t ignore it. Don’t push it away. Don’t talk down to it.

HONOR IT.

A creative impulse is a beautiful gift. It is one of the good parts about being human. The instinct to create.

I remind myself: Give it some attention. Show it some love. Shine some light on it. Invite it inside the house, and offer it the good chair.

I don’t need to make it “right,” or easily, or fast. In fact it will probably not be right, or easy, or fast. That’s okay! It’s a given!

But that impulse to create — that flame, that voice, that drive, that buzz, that yearning, that inner nagging — it’ll eat me up inside if I don’t honor it.

I debate myself:

“Oh, I already tried to make something like that, and it didn’t work out.”

No, Bizzy. TIME TO TRY AGAIN.

“I don’t have the time, or the talent, or the persistence, to see it through.”

OH WELL. TRY IT ANYWAY.

“It’s not original. This idea has been done before, a million times.”

NOT BY YOU, IT HASN’T.

“It’s small and stupid and silly in comparison with the Big Times we live in. It’s not important. It’s not enough. It doesn’t matter.”

IF IT MATTERS TO YOU, IT MATTERS.

“Someone’s going to be offended, or get angry, or misunderstand, or hate me.”

BIG DEAL. EVERYBODY ALREADY HATES YOU. (This thought actually helps me!)

“I’m feeling judged. Other people might laugh at me. Roll their eyes at what I’m doing.”

NOBODY IS WATCHING OR CARING AT ALL.

“I’m unsure what this idea is about, what it will become, or how to start.”

YOU’LL DISCOVER IT THROUGH THE PROCESS OF MAKING IT.

“Make something? In this economy? In this un-democracy? In this climate? In this end-times capitalist slop pit? In this time zone?”

YES, YES, YES. Find a way to stand the discomfort. And make something, anything, despite it all.

Find a way to honor your creative impulse. Find a way. Find a way.

Forgive the ranting and raving!

I hope you are well and thriving.

Thanks for reading.

Until next time…

xoxo

Bizzy

I am so delighted to see you once again here at BIZZY IN YOUR BOX, my monthly newsletter of writing, freelancing, creative community and Bizzy Propaganda.

I just celebrated a birthday!

Mysteriously, every new trip around the sun boosts my newsletter-writing powers…

Just a few more birthdays, and this newsletter will become dangerously unstoppable.

On with the Bizzy Show!

Bizzy in the Wild: Upcoming Events

No Kings protest

FREE! Sat. March 28, 1-3pm

414 Broadway, Monticello, NY 12701 (on the sidewalk in front of the courthouse)

This isn’t a literary event — but it is a chance for me to bang my tambourine! I’ll be at my local protest on March 28. Find one near you.

Tusten Social: Sage Sessions

FREE! Thurs. April 2, 1:30–3:30pm

Delaware Valley Arts Alliance, 37 Main Street, Narrowsburg, NY 12764

For ages 60+! I’ll interview wine/travel/real estate reporter Lana Bortolot about her New York Times article about Sullivan County farming. We’ll discover what it takes to cultivate a story as a freelance journalist. Free lunch for seniors at 1:30pm, followed by our conversation at 2:30pm.

My Bookish Friends: A Literary Afternoon

Suggested donation $10. Sun. May 31, 2–4pm

Farm Arts Collective, 38 Hickory Lane, Damascus, PA 18415

“Farm Arts Collective is launching a literary series in 2026 with book readings and signings by authors we admire and love. Meet two authors who will read from their books that embody art, body, intellect and spirit. An afternoon of readings, conversation and food with Darcey Steinke, THIS IS THE DOOR & Bizzy Coy, PERSONAL SPACE. Moderated by Mimi McGurl.”

Are you a writer or freelancer? Are you struggling to “network”?

I’ve met with a couple of freelancers lately who are looking to increase their client base.

One major hurdle seems to be — how to connect with new clients?

Honestly, I don’t have a great answer. I feel a bit out of the loop. The landscape has changed since I started out as a freelance writer in 2013.

Where do people meet these days?

What does it even mean to “network”?

It feels like cold, outdated business jargon. A means to an end:

A new job. A new client. A new sale.

When I’ve been in networking mode in the past, I’ve hyper-focused on finding people with the power to pluck me from obscurity and give me everything I want.

In those days, networking looked like:

• Trying to attract the attention of higher-ups and decision-makers at giant corporations.

• Sending cold emails and DMs that went unanswered.

• All the while, fixating on the golden opportunity I believed they should bestow upon me, if they could only see how much I deserved it!!!

I guess I’m a little older and wiser now.

I see how unlikely it is that a person I’ve never met will magically grant me an opportunity just because I sent an email.

That person doesn’t know me. We have no history. They have more important things to do than be my Career Savior.

As the old infomercial says: There has to be a better way!!!™

Today, networking serves me better when I think of it as another form of community-building.

7 ways to build community while you network

What would happen if I refreshed my approach to networking?

How would it look different than my old approach?

A few ideas:

1. Instead of focusing on who can pull me up the ladder: Build relationships with my peers. Exchange information, share ideas, act as sounding boards and pull each other up the ladder, together.

2. Instead of seeking answers from people “above” me: Volunteer my skills, expertise and connections with others. Be generous with what I already know.

3. Instead of trying to impress a stranger at the top of a distant corporate tower: Get know people in my own community. Dig into the opportunities in my own backyard — don’t diminish their value.

4. Instead of constantly seeking new and “better” connections: Deepen relationships with people I already know, like and respect.

5. Instead of having most of my professional interactions online: Meet and gather in real life, in person.

6. Instead of reducing people to “what can they do for me?”: Ask myself, what can I do for this person — or even better, with them?

7. Instead of praying for an instant career savior: Plant seeds of connection with good people on a path similar to mine. Be patient, knowing that worthwhile things take time to grow.

7 ways to nourish relationships with people you already know

The professional relationships you already have are so underrated!

It has been my experience that 99% of my freelance gigs have come to me through awesome people that I used to work with.

I should do a better job of staying connected with them! They rock!

Here are just a few ideas for me (and you):

1. Send thank-you notes

   To former teachers, coworkers, colleagues, bosses, people who gave you good advice, people who took a chance on you, people who helped you along the way, people who inspire you. Be sincere. Express gratitude and admiration. Don’t ask for anything!

2. Offer a resume swap

   Swap resumes or portfolios with a peer in a similar (or different!) industry. Give constructive feedback to each other.

3. Re-introduce yourself

   Folks can’t help you if they don’t know what you’re working on and what you need. In your next conversation, drop in a sentence or two about your current projects, passions and goals. No need to hide. I am always surprised when someone I know thinks I am still at my ex-job from 20 years ago, or they don’t know I am a writer. But that’s my fault! Gotta get the word out!

4. Host a very specific meetup

   For neighbors with cats, double-jointed copywriters, former colleagues who all got laid off at the same time, freelancers who love Taylor Swift, Taylor Swifts who love freelancers — whatever makes sense for you! Ask your guests to bring along another freelancer or another Taylor Swift. Make sure to introduce everybody.

5. Share a workplace memory

   Re-establish contact with an interesting colleague from your past. Send a message (on LinkedIn?) like: “I was taking a trip down memory lane and remembered that time we [NOT-WEIRD MEMORY]. Hope you’re well!” Once again — don’t ask for anything. Just say hey.

6. Play matchmaker for two colleagues

   Think of two people in your network who should know each other or work together. Offer to make an introduction, and explain why. Even if they say no thanks, you’re building good karma.

7. Meet your freelance clients IRL

   Do you work or freelance from home? Find a way to meet your freelance clients in real life. Ask for a tour of their space. Schedule your next meeting, in-office. Set up a coffee outing.

7 ways to meet new people beyond your current network

1. Go outside

   Spend as much time out of the house as possible. Coffee shops, cafes, volunteer opportunities, dentist offices, running clubs, underground sewer labyrinths, truck stop bathrooms — all great places to meet people or fugitives.

2. Start one conversation with a stranger every day

   Notice something about someone. Throw out a compliment. “I like your hat.” “I’ve never tried that brand of fire extinguisher before, are you enjoying it?” “How do you know the deceased?”

3. Stalk a company happy hour

   This is more of a city idea, though maybe you can make it work in the backwoods. If there’s a company you want to work with — start going to nice bars near their workplace, around 6pm. Hang around. Befriend bartenders, waitstaff and employees who wander in. Listen.

4. Become a regular

   Gym. Library. Art gallery. Dog park adjacent to a swanky apartment building you could never afford. Ideally a place you love to be, so you can meet other people with shared interests.

5. Give away a memorable physical item

   A zany business card. A gumball with your Instagram handle printed on it. A cheap zine that shows off your writing or art. Carry it with you and give away one a day. Make it a game!

6. Go to a random event outside your comfort zone

   Demolition derby. Church service. Birthday party for a horse. Bring a friend! It’s easier to strike up a random conversation if you’re already there with a buddy, or a Triple Crown winner.

7. Invite yourself into the industry

   Imagine the events you might attend if you were already the top of your desired field. Start going to those events now! Trade shows, conferences, festivals, panels, product announcements, mixers, networking breakfasts, award shows, fashion shows, galas, secret cabal rituals. Follow company websites, social media and LinkedIn for event announcements. If tickets are too expensive, volunteer to work the event.

I have enjoyed “networking” with you!

Does this newsletter count as networking?

Let’s just say, yes.

Now’s your turn to network back at me!

Say hi in the comments, or reply by email. How have you met clients & connections? What’s worked, what hasn’t? Share a tip!

Until next time…

xoxo

Bizzy

P.S. Next month — a new short story!

P.P.S. Follow me on Instagram to see it first.

I mean, it’s BUSY season.

That means no time for idle chit chat and newsletter introductions!

On to Bizzy’s writerly self-promotion!

Talking Toons

My cartoon collaborator Lia Strasser and I had a blast doing our presentation, Lia & Bizzy Talk Toons. Thanks to the 108 for hosting us!

(We’d love to do an event at YOUR space! Let us know!)

Gallery Toons

This very same weekend, our cartoon “Couch Wallow” was on display at the Delaware Valley Arts Alliance.

DVAA’s group show, Let It All Out, encouraged member artists to share their true feelings about the current state of the world, and the year ahead. A lot of expressive art was on display.

We’re thrilled a collector has already snatched up this framed print!

Learn more about our collaboration

Lia and I promoted our Talk Toons event far and wide! Here are some recent press hits and interviews about our “origin story” and creative process.

• WJFF “Radio Chatskill” (with Tim Bruno)

• Daniel Paisner’s As Told To podcast

• The Sullivan County Democrat (by Isabel Braverman)

• The Daily Cartoonist

• Michael Maslin’s Ink Spill

How I publish New Yorker cartoons (as a duo)

Speaking of cartoons…

Here’s how Lia Strasser and I make cartoons, send ’em to The New Yorker and — occasionally! — make a sale.

We’ve only been at it a couple of years, so I still feel like a beginner. There’s always more to learn. But I’m happy to share what I know.

If you’re looking to sell cartoons yourself, I encourage you to get the submission information right from the horse’s mouth; this wonderful piece by cartoon editor Emma Allen is the place to start.

1. Coming up with ideas

Lia and I typically kick off our creative week on a Wednesday.

We’ll get together in person at the coffee shop, or over the phone.

Our agenda starts with a life catch-up. What’s new? How are you? What have you been up to since we last talked? Personal drama? Alien abduction?

Over the course of a friendly chat, Lia will say something funny, and I’ll point it out: “Hey, that’s funny.”

If she agrees, we’ll dig deeper to see if there’s a cartoon concept hiding below the surface.

While we talk, I take notes in Google Docs or Google Slides. Lia starts sketching on Procreate on her iPad.

We try to leave our session with a few concrete ideas and clear marching orders: Lia will work on this, Bizzy will work on that.

Will we follow through with aforementioned marching orders?! Only time will tell!

2. Refining our cartoon ideas

In our own separate homes, we’ll noodle with our concepts.

I’ll write a dozen captions or more for each cartoon. Even the most subtle nuance can affect the meaning of a caption.

Word choice is huge — I love to layer in double meanings that might not register at first glance. For example, our very first New Yorker cartoon:

I could have said “when my life goes bonkers” instead of “when my life takes a weird turn” — which would have been funny in its own way.

But the word “turn” alludes to not only a metaphorical change of life direction, but the physical movement of a bike wheel or handlebars.

Punctuation is fun to play with. Is it funnier ending in a splashy exclamation point, or is it more subtly wry with a period?

Word and letter sounds do a lot of heavy lifting. Internal rhymes feel nice to me. Is there a flow, or a rhythm, that feels delicious coming off the tongue?

I make sure the funniest word goes at the end of the sentence. Or, the word that is most surprising, or twists the caption on its head. That’s comedy, baby!

Plosives give a funny pop, when possible (the sound of the letters k, t, p, b, d and g).

I also ask: Could someone interpret this caption wrongly? How can I make it clearer to the reader?

Lia likes a short and pithy caption — I do too, when it works — but I also love to ride the wave of a long, convoluted sentence.

While I’m working on captions, Lia is off drawing on her iPad. I have no idea how this works. It’s all a mystery to me.

3. Curating our batch

Lia and I reunite on Monday the following week.

Now, we work collaboratively in Google Slides.

Lia adds drawings, one per slide. I add captions.

We disagree on which captions we like best.

If I could sum up the usual cause of our disagreement, it might be this:

• Lia prefers captions that are more accurate to her personal experience or self-expression — truth and authenticity are paramount to her.

• Bizzy prefers captions that are either more universally true or more comedic — relatability and comedy are paramount to me.

It is typically during these Monday sessions that the cartoons transform. In an effort to find captions that please us both, we will often discover a new “way in,” as we call it — a wholly different perspective on our original concept.

Otherwise, whoever feels strongest about a particular caption usually wins.

Or, we might agree a cartoon is not ready to hatch yet, and we decide to revisit it later.

4. Sending our batch

We narrow it down to 1–10 cartoons in our “batch.”

We download our Google Slides into a PDF. We name the file with our last names and the date, more for our own record-keeping than at the behest of The New Yorker.

One of us will send an email to the cartoon editors, CCing the other cartoonist. We make sure to submit before the weekly deadline of Tuesday at noon.

We don’t say much.

I hear you asking — “But Bizzy, do I need the editor’s email address to send in my cartoons? How do I find such email address?”

No worries!

The submission process is becoming more and more accessible.

There is an online submission form open to all.

It really works! Try it!

5. Indulging my spreadsheet fantasies

I track every submission on a shared Google Sheet.

We can both see what cartoons we sent in, on what date, to what publication, and what the response was.

I’m always relieved I have this spreadsheet when I want to know if we already sent a particular cartoon to a particular publication, or if they haven’t had a chance to consider it yet.

6. How long does it take to hear back from The New Yorker after submitting a cartoon?

We have been known to text each other:

“I REALLY HOPE THEY BUY [INSERT CARTOON NAME HERE]!!!”

“I KNOW ME TOO!!!!”

Fortunately, the editorial staff takes only a few days to select their cartoons for the week.

Lia and I have plenty to keep ourselves busy during those days. If we’re smart, we’re already hard at work on next week’s cartoons.

Friday is the day we look forward to. That’s the day cartoonists are typically notified that their cartoon has been chosen.

If we get an email that says “O.K.” — that’s good news!

If we hear nothing — that’s a sign they are not interested in our cartoons this week.

7. What happens after you sell a New Yorker cartoon?

If we get a heaven-sent “O.K.” email, the next step is to make any revisions requested by the editors.

Revisions could be art, or copy. The cartoon below came back with approximately ten changes from the copyeditor, to ensure the language matched The New Yorker house style. I found it fascinating.

Cartoons might appear in the magazine fairly quickly, or it might take weeks, months, or even years. Some cartoons get killed altogether, which must be a heart-breaker.

We don’t typically know in advance when our cartoon will run, until a week or even a few days out.

8. How much do you get paid for a New Yorker cartoon?

We get paid $750 for a cartoon that runs in the print magazine.

Lia and I split that $750 in half, so we each get $375.

A daily cartoon (see below) pays $250. We split it 50% and each get $125.

We are paid separately by Condé Nast, so we don’t have to worry about splitting our payment between ourselves.

Shout out to Bizzy In Your Box reader and New Yorker cartoonist LYNN HSU for helping me get my financial ducks in a row! Props to Lynn!!!!! Go follow her on Instagram!!

9. Submitting a daily cartoon

In addition to the weekly batches described above, we submit daily cartoons, also known as dailies.

The process is slightly different:

• Dailies can be submitted at any time

• Dailies are timely — having to do with current (as in, RIGHT NOW) events, news, culture, holidays, seasons, trends, etc.

• Dailies appear on The New Yorker website, not in the pages of the magazine

• As such, they are paid less (see above).

When either one of us has an idea for a daily, we pitch it to each other and decide if we have the interest and the time to bring it to fruition.

Because these are often time-sensitive cartoons, it’s not always possible for us to abandon our other priorities and focus on turning around a daily.

But sometimes, we hit on an idea we both like, AND we both have the capacity to work on it.

10. And the cycle continues

Whether we get rejected or we sell something, we always celebrate our efforts, and encourage each other to try again.

“Trying again” is a catch-all term. For us, trying again could mean:

• Rewriting the caption of a rejected cartoon, and submitting it again

• Tweaking the illustration of a rejected cartoon, and submitting it again

• Meeting for a brainstorm and making brand-new cartoons

• Digging through our archives for old cartoons we can repurpose (alternate versions of the two daily cartoons, above, had previously been submitted and rejected)

Even if we’re not actively working on a cartoon, we continually keep an eye on other cartoonists’ work — for inspiration, for enjoyment and to light a fire under us to keep going!!

11. Special considerations when cartooning as a duo

Unlike a solo cartoonist, duos have extra things to think about.

• How do you split your labor? Ideas, illustrations, captions?

• How do you handle creative disagreement? Who gets the final say?

• What if one of you wants to make or submit cartoons solo?

• What if one of you wants to make or submit cartoons with another partner?

• Who “owns” your ideas? Can one of you decide to pursue an idea that both of you had a hand in creating? What boundaries will you establish?

• Are you okay sharing the publishing rights to your cartoon?

• How will you split your pay? What happens if you have disagreements about money?

• What if one of you does more work on a cartoon than the other? How do you measure labor? Does it matter to you?

• What other expectations do you have for each other? (Say them out loud, don’t assume.)

• Very important! Do you each sign the cartoon separately, or does one of you sign the cartoon on both of your behalf? (Lia created a signature that incorporates both of us, because she is not only an artist, she also has better handwriting.)

12. Perspectives on cartooning and submitting, from top-of-the-top New Yorker cartoonists

• Jason Chatfield

• Liza Donnelly

• This hour-long panel at The Art Students League of New York features Asher Perlman, Jeremy Nguyen, Suerynn Lee and Guy Richards Smit

• Tom Toro

• Check out the Netflix documentary The New Yorker at 100

13. Most importantly

If you want to make and submit cartoons, please do!

As Lia and I always say, let’s not reject ourselves — let’s give someone else the amazing opportunity to reject us.

What an honor!!

Bizzy in the Wild: Upcoming Events

Bookslingers

FREE! Sun. March 15, 2–3pm

Roscoe Collective, 57 Stewart Avenue, Roscoe, NY 12776

I’m looking forward to this event: “Bizzy Coy, Bill Fellenberg, and Greg Triggs have a few things in common: they are very talented writers, they are some of the main staples of the eponymous Catskills storytelling group Yarnslingers, and they have each written wonderful books. They will be reading together on Sunday, March 15 from 2-3pm.”

Bizzy interviews NYT reporter Lana Bortolot

FREE! Thurs. April 2, 1:30–3:30pm

Delaware Valley Arts Alliance, 37 Main Street, Narrowsburg, NY 12764

I’m delighted to return to Tusten Social for another one of their famous “Sage Sessions.” I’ll be interviewing freelance wine/travel/real estate reporter Lana Bortolot. We’ll take an inside look at her New York Times article about Sullivan County farming, and discover what it takes to cultivate a story as a freelance journalist.

Catch you on the ’gram

If you want to see me make a fool of myself in video form, make sure you’re following my Instagram — my only “active” social platform at the moment.

Follow Bizzy on Insta

Until next time…

You rock.

I appreciate you.

Thanks for reading!

xoxo

Bizzy

Welcome back to BIZZY IN YOUR BOX, the monthly newsletter of all things Bizzy Coy: Writer. Humorist. Freelancer. Newsletter-sender. Snow-shoveler.

The Bizzy Portal™ has now opened.

BEHOLD, the Epic Bizzyness!!

Bizzy in the Wild: Upcoming Events

Let It All Out - DVAA Members Exhibition

FREE! Sat. Feb. 7, 2026, 3–5pm

Delaware Valley Arts Alliance Loft Gallery, Narrowsburg, NY 12764

This is the FIRST time a cartoon by me and Lia Strasser will be featured in an art gallery!

Our cartoon “Couch Wallow” is part of DVAA’s group show “Let It All Out,” in which local artists, writers and performers explore their hopes, fears and anxieties about the year ahead.

Come see our cartoon in the Loft Gallery (upstairs) at the opening reception on Feb. 7. It will remain on display through March 15. Gallery hours are Thursday–Saturday, 11am–4pm.

Lia + Bizzy Talk Toons

FREE! Sun. Feb. 22, 2026, time TBD

The 108, 108 Main Street, Narrowsburg, NY 12764

I’m headed to 108 Main (the big black barn at the end of Main Street in Narrowsburg) for this talk with Lia Strasser about making New Yorker cartoons.

We’ll chat about our collaboration, our process, our disagreements and more. We’ll also play “Cartoon Caption Contest” and give you a chance to caption some of Lia’s illustrations in real time.

It’ll be fun! No tickets, no RSVP, just come. Thanks to Jorge Colombo for hosting, and designing an amazing event poster — to be revealed!

I said I was going to write 1 page a day

On Oct. 5, 2025, I started a new Google Doc.

I titled it “2025 Book Brainstorm.”

I told myself I’d write 1 page every day — double spaced, of course.

I had some ideas to get started, but I wasn’t quite sure what I was jumping into.

It didn’t matter.

As I said in my last newsletter, I’m trying to focus less on “the project” and more on “the process.” Doing something is more valuable to me than knowing what I’m doing.

It’s been approximately 111 days since I started that Google Doc.

I just checked the page count: 170.

I’m honestly surprised I ended up with more than 1 page per day. Especially because I skipped A LOT of days. Maybe as much as 50%.

Got distracted. Got busy. Worked on other stuff.

But on the days that I did sit down and open the Google Doc, I almost always ended up writing more than 1 page.

A lot of it is pure nonsense. Writing to myself. Writing about writing. Writing out ideas, abandoning them. Writing the same sentence 12 different ways.

I don’t really care what the writing is.

What I care about:

• It was fairly stress-free to get some words on the page, because I set the bar so damn low.

• I didn’t beat myself up when I skipped a day. I got back to it when I could.

• I allowed myself to write whatever I wanted, whether it made sense or not, which yielded some funny ideas and interesting sentences.

• About 125 pages in, I landed on a short story idea I really liked, which yielded about 40 pages of rough draft and experimentation. With time, I hope to turn this into an actual short story.

What started as “Book Brainstorm” has turned into “One Short Story Rough Draft and 130+ Pages of Other Nonsense.”

I like how it feels, though, to allow a project to morph into something else.

In the olden days, I would have been adamant that if I started brainstorming a book, it HAD to turn into a book.

These days? I’m happy to get 1 page of anything. Book, story, poem, rant, rave, limerick, whatever. Who am I to dictate where my ideas want to flow?

Let the process, process.

Enough about me. What about you?

• How is your creativity expressing itself as the year begins?

• Are you finding ways to honor your creative impulses?

• How are you navigating your creative roadblocks?

Let me know what you’re up to in the comments.

$214.76

That’s how much I paid to submit my work to literary magazines and journals in 2025.

Can you tell I’m sitting here doing my taxes?

How ’bout those rejections

Speaking of submissions…

I tallied my 2025 writing rejections.

• 46 generic short story rejections (of 8 different stories)

• 10 encouraging or personalized short story rejections (I started tracking my “encouraging” rejections, and have found this an excellent source of information about which journals vibe with my work and which don’t)

• 8 humor piece rejections (of 6 different humor pieces)

• 2 grant rejections

• 1 grant cancellation (NEA, anyone?)

• 100+ cartoon rejections (it is very annoying to track these; I stopped counting)

Bring on more rejections in 2026! I’d rather have an inbox filled with “no, thanks” than with crickets.

That’s the news from Camp Coy

I’m headed back outside with my shovel.

Pro tip: A cheap yellow broom is fantastic for clearing fluffy, powdery snow off your car! (Much better than a wimpy snow brush.)

Be well, be warm, be powerful.

xoxo

Bizzy

It’s great to see you again!

Thanks to local pal Jane Roth for running into me in the coffee shop just this morning and saying: “Aren’t we due for a newsletter soon???”

Yes, Jane, yes, you are right — and here it is.

This cartoon (made by me and Lia Strasser) was the New Year’s Day daily cartoon on newyorker.com.

It’s a celebration of our foul mood all year. (Hey, at least we were consistent!)

Why I’m changing my creative approach in 2026

I’ve been writing for the past 12 years.

What have I learned about writing?

VERY LITTLE.

No, that’s not true.

One thing I’ve learned — is that I have a lot left to learn.

Which is why I’m always recalibrating my creative approach. Seeing what works. Letting go of what doesn't.

This year is no exception. Throughout December I thought a lot about how I wanted to write in 2026.

Why change things up?

Why not?

I suppose I want to make my writing process easier and more joyful. Easier to start, easier to keep going, easier to finish. Easier to have fun.

My old approach to writing: Planning + Project

In the past, I’ve been consumed with planning and projects.

“Planning” looked like:

• Schedules.

• Deadlines.

• Word counts.

• Page goals.

• To-do lists.

• Beat myself up daily when I don’t meet my goals.

• Get frustrated any time I had to change my plans.

• Overschedule myself, get overwhelmed and abandon the plan altogether.

“Project” looked like:

• Obsess over one idea. One project that will perfectly express all my deepest truths and catapult me into literary stardom!

• Push too hard, ignore any other ideas that come my way, burn myself out.

• Feel devastated when the project isn’t finished, or sold, or even that good.

• Lose motivation. Stall. No other project feels as important as that one failed project. The one that got away…

• Rinse. Repeat. Get nowhere.

My new approach to writing: Practice + Purpose

In 2026, I’m more interested in connecting with practice and purpose.

“Practice” looks like:

• Develop a writing ritual as simple and routine as brushing teeth (with the same amount of drama, i.e. NO DRAMA).

• Show up to the page on a regular basis. Ignore results, goals, objectives, deliverables — and focus on showing up.

• Don’t aim for perfection. Find easy wins and keep stacking ‘em. (Set the bar low: 10 minutes of typing. 1 page of text. Etc.)

• Refill my creative cup regularly. Rest, read, talk; see art, films, plays, etc.

• Trust myself to follow through and show up for myself consistently.

“Purpose” looks like:

• Reconnect with why I am doing this — to give myself a voice, to engage with topics I’m interested in, to explore myself and my world, to connect with others, to grow, to learn, TO HAVE FUN.

• Refuse to pin my hopes and dreams on any one project. The umbrella of my purpose is too big to be defined by one project. There will be many.

• Honor my creative impulse. Write what I want. Don’t worry if it’s “sellable” or “commercial” or “important” or “good” or even “finishable.”

• Refuse to rush. Remember my creative journey is life-long. Start and abandon projects joyfully, switch gears whenever. Give my work room to breathe, evolve, disappear and come back when it’s ready. Follow my curiosity wherever it wants to go.

This approach leaves me with a lot of questions that I’ll unpack in 2026 issues of BIZZY IN YOUR BOX:

How to develop my practice?

How to articulate my purpose?

How to hold myself accountable without self-pressuring?

How to find easy wins?

How to make writing more fun and nourishing?

What’s your creative approach for the New Year? Are you changing it up? Staying the course? How have you figured out what works for you?

I would love to hear your take, in the comments.

Excerpt of my new story “Dinosaur Nuggets”

Salamander Magazine has published my short story, “Dinosaur Nuggets,” in Issue 60. Big thanks to managing editor Katie Sticca for her vital editorial guidance and warm enthusiasm.

Read the whole thing (for a limited time) on the Salamander website.

Here’s an excerpt from page 3:

Coop passes the time on his ElderScreen, clicking through simulated social media apps from a bygone era. It’s fake, but wasn’t it always? He can only half-see the glowing videos and random images, the text captions in huge font. Ding goes a notification from a friend who does not really exist. He has no friends left, though the ElderScreen pretends otherwise in order to keep him “socially engaged,” as they say, to pacify him into passivity. It works. Ding, someone is thinking of you, ding ding ding, you matter. Fake faces, fake names, people he does not know or care about, yet he can’t stop scrolling. It feels like something, though it is nothing. He feels like a hypocrite, recalling how hard he tried to keep his daughter away from screens when she was little. He must look as silly as she did when she was a baby, whacking at her plastic play-gym, grasping for sensation. He scrolls until he nods off on the folding chair.

The washer-dryer jolts him awake with its ominous buzz buzz-buzz buzz, a cadence like a funeral march. He’s not even on his feet when there’s a squeal and a shocking whomp of wings. His ElderScreen clatters to the floor. He squints and blinks, convinced his eyes have failed for good, but no. There it is.

A dactyl. A living dactyl.

Right there on top of the machine. He has seen them in videos, but never in real life. It’s the size of a turkey. Skinny trembling legs, a pale gulping neck. Plump with plumage a dozen shades of pink.

He shoos it away. “Go on. Go.” He claps twice.

See the full story

MaestroClass: Learn Timeless Lessons from Experts of Yore

I published this illustrated humor piece in collaboration with the whimsically wonderful artist Tracey K. Berglund.

It appeared in The New Yorker’s “Daily Shouts” on December 4, 2025.

We riffed on the silly master classes that might be taught by famous historical folks — from Sun Tzu to Socrates.

I love this piece so much!!! Tracey’s illustrations take it to the next level!

See the full story

Thanks to my 2025 freelance clients

I can't remember another freelance year with such a rich mix of clients and projects.

I've done:

• Verbal identity

• Naming

• Audience personas

• Messaging pillars

• Institutional language development

• Some good old-fashioned copywriting: taglines! websites! emails! ads! video scripts! ...and more.

Thanks to my pals at Situation Interactive, Town Hall, NJPAC, FanDuel, Girl Scouts USA, Condé Nast, The New Yorker, One Times Square, CFA Institute, New York Law School and Tusten Social for all the fun times!

This freelance work is vital in supporting the rest of my creative and literary practice. Not to mention — I LOVE DOING IT.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

Cheers to more fun gigs in the new year.

Bizzy in the Wild: Upcoming Events

NONE

Starting at NOPE o’clock PM

Located at NOWHERE

I’m happy to take a break from live events and podcasts in January. If you’re looking to have me appear at your event in 2026, please reach out early! The calendar is already filling up.

That’s all for now.

Thank you for another year of creative tomfoolery with me, Tomfoolerist-in-Chief, Bizzy Coy.

Until next time,

xoxo

Bizzy

Celebrating One Year of PERSONAL SPACE

I can’t believe it’s already been one year since I debuted my humor book!

When I started to compile my collection of humor pieces back in 2024, I noticed a common thread:

Many pieces had an undercurrent of ISOLATION.

I had stories about:

• Struggling with single life until it literally kills you and you become a ghost (“How to Move Heavy Furniture By Yourself”)

• Feeling abandoned by your therapist and being unable to ask others for help even when you burn your house down (“Brunch Recipes for When Your Therapist is on Vacation”)

• Trying to win the affection of your romantic partner who doesn’t even like you (“What Space-Time Is the Super Bowl?”)

And that’s just a few examples to start.

I wrote most of these stories between 2016–2019. At that time, I considered myself to be a fairly isolated person.

While I could be outwardly extroverted and loved to talk, in reality, I kept most people at arm’s length, and never let anybody get too close. (I live in the woods, for goodness’ sakes!)

The theme of alone-ness inspired the book title: PERSONAL SPACE.

But when I finished the book, I knew I couldn’t sell it if I stayed hidden. I had to indulge in the proverbial “putting yourself out there.”

So I did. I participated in local literary events, instigated my own events, promoted my book unabashedly, and got hyperactive on social media.

Now, a year into PERSONAL SPACE, I look back at the person who wrote all those stories of isolation and I think — I have grown a lot.

In many ways I’m just as alone as ever. Still single! Still very private! Still love and need my space.

But promoting this book has adjusted my attitude somewhat. I learned that people want to connect in an authentic way. I learned that I, too, want to connect in an authentic way.

I learned I’m capable of being a little more vulnerable, and a little less self-protected.

I learned how much I care about my creative community, my neighborhood community and my online community.

I learned how refreshing it is to open up once in a while, instead of always hiding behind a punchline.

OH, THE IRONY!!

I think it’s cool that a book about PERSONAL SPACE has helped me find the opposite.

Thank you all for being part of it!

’Tis the Season for Buying Books (even if you don’t read them!)

Y’all. The amount of books I have bought in the past year and STILL not cracked open?? I’m ashamed.

So, hop on board my shame-train. Buy a copy of PERSONAL SPACE, even if you don’t intend to read it!

Who’s gonna know? Your secret’s safe with me.

Buy via email

My dear newsletter readers, because you are special to me, I invite you to place an order via email. Just reply to this email and tell me: Quantity of books you would like, mailing address(es), your email, and name(s) for your personalized signatures. I will give you a total price and send you a payment request via Venmo or PayPal.

DM me

Same as above, find me on Instagram and message me your order.

Buy online

Place your order on my website! Full transparency: I’m have lots of trouble with my website! I am literally in the process of switching it over to a new provider! You can still purchase the book there, but email me if you have any trouble at all: bizzycoy@gmail.com.

Audiobook

Buy it online! You’ll get a download link for an MP3 file (not compatible with Audible). I narrate the book, which is nearly two hours of solid Bizzy. Can you handle it?? (Email me if you have any trouble at all: bizzycoy@gmail.com.)

Ebook

Buy it online! You’ll get a download link for a beautiful PDF, which you can convert to use on your preferred e-reader. (Email me if you have any trouble at all: bizzycoy@gmail.com.)

Buy in person

Support the independent bookshops who support independent writers! Visit One Grand Books in Narrowsburg, NY, or The Hound Books in Roscoe, NY.

Get it free

Local pals, PERSONAL SPACE is available through the Western Sullivan Public Library in Callicoon, NY, and Sunshine Hall Free Library in Eldred, NY. Reserve it online for extra ease.

Cartoons for sale, too

Lia Strasser and I also have New Yorker cartoon prints for sale!

Message Lia on Instagram for the list of available prints, including some never-before-seen, unpublished toons.

She’s also taking orders for pet portraits! I have one of my dog! It makes me so happy! Ask her about it!

Bizzy in the Wild: Upcoming Events

Travels with Triggs

FREE! Sat. Nov. 29, 2025 at 10:30AM

Listen on WJFF 90.5 Radio Catskill, on the air or online

On this radio show, Greg Triggs, Teresa Tulipano and I will read short personal essays on the topic of gratitude. Be sure to tune in for the broadcast. It will be posted as a podcast shortly afterwards and available on the WJFF website. Scroll down to the end of this email for an advance look at the essay I’m going to read: “Between Eagles.”

Yarnslingers: “Secret Santa”

FREE! Sun. Dec. 7, 2025 at 1PM

Blue Fox Motel, 5670 NY Route 97, Narrowsburg, NY 12764

After a too-long absence, I AM BACK at Yarnslingers with a new, true, never-been-told story of epic holiday cheer. With an all-star lineup of storytellers riffing on the theme of “Secret Santa,” this event is sure to be a good time. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll marvel that this spectacular entertainment is FREE!

Quick Schtick

• Thanks to local writers who came out to socialize at the second annual Writers Hobnob, and thanks to The Tusten Cup for hosting.

• I scripted this brand video with Conde Nast / The New Yorker / Autograph Collection Hotels. It played before every event at The New Yorker Festival this fall.

• Copies of Stone Canoe, the literary magazine in which my story “The Beautiful Uncut Hair of Graves” appears, are on sale here.

• Here’s my short story “Any Man’s Better Than No Man at All” at Pithead Chapel.

• If this once-a-month newsletter isn’t enough Bizzy for you, be sure to follow my daily literary comings and goings on Instagram.

New Story! “Between Eagles”

I will read this essay aloud on “Travels with Triggs,” premiering 10:30am on Nov. 29 on WJFF Radio Catskill.

I walk my dog, Henry, on a path near the Delaware River.

The water changes from day to day, sometimes bumping politely against the sides of rocks, other times, flooding over them like thick clear glaze.

The trees ride the rainbow, from buds of reddish pink to leaves of green, yellow and orange.

Ferns wave hello and goodbye like the tails of deer. A groundhog waddles the length of a fallen log. Baby frogs. Bluebirds. A cloud of midges lit by the sun.

There is always something at which to marvel.

I spot a bald eagle in a tree across the river, its white head an exclamation point against the mottled brown branches.

I freeze.

I stare.

My heart sends up something like a prayer, a wave of thanks to the universe, for putting me on this path. Not just the literal path beside the river, but the path of my entire life, with its many twists and turns, bringing me to this moment to encounter this beauty.

Over time, I spot more eagles. I can’t help but compare them. Keeping score, almost. A close-up eagle is exhilarating. A faraway eagle is frustrating.

A short encounter is bad. A long encounter is good.

Two eagles are definitely preferable to one eagle.

A flying eagle is better than a stationary eagle, and an eagle that flaps right over my head is the best.

Mature eagles with their crisp snowy heads rank higher than the juveniles with their patchy coloring.

Every sighting gives me a hit of excitement, but it is always short-lived. Over time, it grows shallower and shallower, pulling away like the edge of the river during the drought.

One day, I don’t see any eagles at all. I feel disappointed.

Another day, another walk, and no eagle.

Many days go by without any eagles. I know the eagles are nearby. I’ve spotted them far in the distance while driving through other towns. More eagles than usual, in fact. They are migrating south from Canada for the winter. But why not right here? Right now?

I say to myself, like a tantrum, WHERE IS MY EAGLE?

My walk is not so fun anymore. What point is there in walking if there is no eagle?

My dog, Henry, doesn’t seem to care.

He is as fascinated as ever with our same little path. He noses from one tree to the next, sniffing weeds and stumps, his white tail flicking like a happy flag.

We barely make any forward progress, he is so consumed with every square inch of ground. Every stalk of grass, every lump of moss. He is fully absorbed with what is right in front of him. I am so focused on the lack of something, I’m missing out on everything.

At the end of the path, we turn around. I try to walk the way back as though it is my first time. To pay attention to all that I have ignored.

The dark steel blue of the November river.

Dead leaves, scattered like copper curls on a barbershop floor.

Tall plants shaking their rusty heads in the breeze.

The naked trunk of a smooth white sycamore, its branches split into endless forks, like lightning.

A bounty of gifts, all around me.

I realize the eagle is a trap. It’s easy to be grateful for an eagle. But real gratitude is what happens between eagles. When I stop anticipating. Expecting. Demanding to be delighted.

I wonder.

What if I enjoy what is, instead of rueing what isn’t?

Instead of looking for something. What if I just look?

See you in December, friends.

xoxo

Bizzy

It’s me, Bizzy Coy, the human person behind this monthly newsletter.

You might think I’ve gotten sick and tired after 10 years of delivering BIZZY IN YOUR BOX.

Not so!

I never tire of talking about writing, freelancing, creative process, humor, cartoons, collaborating, community, my emotional weirdness and what I’m working on at the moment.

I used to feel overwhelmingly cringe-y newslettering about myself.

“Who does she think she is?,” I imagined people muttering. “This woman sure does love to talk about her writing. HOW DARE SHE PROMOTE THE THING SHE LOVES AND SPENDS MOST OF HER TIME DOING?!”

I got over it when I realized Eddie Bauer was promoting his flannel shirts to me via email thirteen times a day, without a pine-scented care in the world. If Eddie B. doesn’t feel awkward, surely I shouldn’t feel awkward about my once-a-month missive.

Yes, it’s embarrassing to talk about myself. But most of life is embarrassing. That’s no reason to hide away.

On with the cozy flannel and self-promotion!

Bizzy in the Wild: Upcoming Event

Writers Hobnob 2

FREE! Sun. Nov. 2, 2025 from 2PM – 4PM

The Tusten Cup, 8 Main Street, Narrowsburg, NY 12764

Come to the second annual social meetup for writers in the Upper Delaware River Valley region! I held my first Hobnob last year as a way to meet new writers and catch up with writers I already knew. We had a lovely time chatting about writing, life and anything at all. No RSVP needed; just show up at the coffee shop and say hi.

A new short story in Pithead Chapel

I published a short story. Yay!

For the past five years I’ve been writing more fiction. Unfunny fiction, I suppose, as opposed to the funny pieces that populate my book. I would call it “literary fiction,” but I don’t know if I’ve passed that high bar yet.

“Any Man’s Better than No Man at All” is set in an Old West town / tourist trap populated with homemade animatronics. I hope you’ll enjoy the antics of the elderly proprietress as much as I do.

This story started to nose its way out of the ground in 2014, when I set a scene from my first novel (unpublished) at an eerie roadside attraction inspired by the real-life 1880 Cowboy Town.

Except the scene didn’t quite work. It didn’t move the story forward or illuminate the themes. Ultimately, I put both the scene and the entire book “in the drawer.”

But I couldn’t stop thinking about it. In 2023, I started writing a short story with the same setting. I kept trying to figure out what this frontier town was trying to say to me. After a year of revision, I finally arrived at the 1,500-word version as it appears in Pithead Chapel.

Sometimes an idea sticks in your craw, ya know? And you’ve gotta try it a few different times before you figure it out. Nothing wrong with that. There’s more than one way to cook an egg.

Here’s the opening:

Any Man’s Better than No Man at All

She couldn’t see the sign. Had it been stolen? Impossible. She pulled her mothy hair into a kerchief and put on her glasses and went outside. The sign was still there, its hinges creaking in the wind, but it was blocked by a towering heap of tumbleweed. Had there ever been a year with more tumbleweed? One tourist had mused, squealing the postcard rack, how he always imagined tumbleweeds were lonesome rollers, but now that he’d come out West he understood they traveled in packs.

It took an hour to wrest the tumbleweeds away from “Welcome to Buckaroo Bluff.” There was too much to do, as always. She tidied the Trading Post and swept the age-warped boardwalk and batted a broom at the dusty doorway of the Saloon. The bar inside was a disaster. Loomis had promised to clean the soda guns in their grimy holsters, the sticky glasses in the cracked bus tub. She could do it herself or she could wait for him. She would resent him either way. It was a high-noon duel, and she was shooting at herself.

Read me, cowboy

Uh oh. I published another short story

It must be short story season or something?!

I’m so pleased to be in issue #19 of Stone Canoe with my story “The Beautiful Uncut Hair of Graves.”

Stone Canoe, based in Syracuse, is the only literary magazine that publishes only upstate New York writers. It was important to me to be a part of this publication as a born-and-raised upstater.

I spent the first 22 years of my life in the Rochester suburbs, and the past 12 years in the Upper Delaware River Valley (in that weird gray area that could be considered upstate OR downstate — a topic guaranteed to inspire spirited debate!).

“The Beautiful Uncut Hair of Graves” was inspired by late 19th century history, and includes nods to my region’s logging industry, Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass and the rise of spiritualism — a movement founded in upstate New York.

This story was previously runner-up in the 2024 Tennessee Williams & New Orleans Literary Festival Fiction Contest. I’m so glad it finally found a home.

Here’s the opening:

The Beautiful Uncut Hair of Graves

The spring brought the thaw and the thaw brought the water and the water brought the lumbermen, steering their timber rafts down the river to Minnie Muttle’s doorstep. Spring was the beginning of the high season and her hair was nearly falling out with all there was to do—and this, her first thaw since Lyman passed. The Charlotte Hotel was already busy with lumbermen. Lumbermen in the lobby, lumbermen in the beds, lumbermen in the dining room, lumbermen very nearly pouring off the balcony. John clerked the front desk, and he knew his job well, but his hands stuttered to find a new rhythm without his father by his side. Minnie watched him flail with a combination of pity and vexation. Any small inconvenience was enough to send a pocket-laden lumberman over to Haverhook Tavern or Anna-Belle’s or The Gildersleeve. That simply would not do. A successful thaw would ensure their comfort for the remainder of the year. A successful thaw was everything.

“No mistakes, John,” Minnie scolded. “There’s no time for mistakes.”

“Yes, Ma.”

The wagons were already lined up behind The Charlotte bearing fresh poultry, fresh meat, fresh milk, fresh produce, clean sheets and tablecloths and napkins and towels. Minnie pointed and shouted at the delivery men, ticking down her list of orders and receipts. The egg boy stood nervously before her with his hat in both hands.

“You only have two cases?” Minnie exclaimed.

“The chickens are moody, Mrs. Muttle,” he apologized.

“How am I supposed to feed the men? Lay the eggs myself?”

He offered to return later that afternoon with the remaining cases. Minnie warned him that if he didn’t, there would be trouble for him and the chickens, both. The egg boy nodded and climbed onto his cart. His horse understood without needing to be commanded that this was an appropriate moment to trot away with great haste.

The rest of the story is not available online. Click to order the print edition.

Buy Stone Canoe

Funny times at the Catskills Comedy Festival

My cartoon collaborator Lia Strasser and I took a two-hour road trip to Catskill, NY to appear at The Catskills Comedy Festival.

We had an absolute blast!

We spoke about selling cartoons to The New Yorker, getting rejected by The New Yorker, creative process, collaboration, disagreements, tenacity and more.

We also played an interactive game of “Cartoon Caption Contest” with the crowd, who invented HILARIOUS captions for Lia’s drawings in 90 seconds or less. They were so funny. I was blown away!

Thanks for the laughs, Catskills Comedy Festival.

Old-timey voice: “Cartoons for sale!”

Speaking of cartoons, Lia is selling limited edition giclee prints of two never-before-seen ’toons!

One toon for dog people:

And one toon for cat people:

For pricing and purchasing, DM Lia on Instagram.

Well, that’s it for this edition of BIZZY IN YOUR BOX.

Thank you once again for riding along on the Promotional BizzyCoaster™, a dangerous ride with faulty gears, notoriously unreliable shoulder restraints and one section of track that’s kinda bent.

I really am grateful to you for being here and tolerating my excessive use of exclamation points!

Until next time,

xoxo

Bizzy

P.S. Thank you all for continuing to buy my book PERSONAL SPACE: Short humor from The New Yorker, McSweeney’s and beyond. I appreciate it immeasurably.

P.P.S. If you want a book, grab it from my website (email me if you have any trouble, sometimes it’s wonky, but I can assist), or in person at One Grand Books and The Hound Books.

P.P.S. Where does upstate/downstate NY actually begin??!! Share your most controversial opinions in the comments.

Welcome to my monthly newsletter — ten years and goin’ strong! — where I talk about writing, creativity, humor and freelancing.

I’m so pleased you’re here!

Otherwise, I’d be sending this missive to the Echo-y Chambers of Nobody.

It’s much nicer having you around.

Bizzy in the Wild: Upcoming Event

The Catskills Comedy Festival: Secrets of New Yorker Cartoonists

FREE! Sun. Oct. 19, 2025 from 2PM – 3PM

Left Bank Ciders, 150 Water Street, Catskill, NY 12414

Come out and meet Lia Strasser (art) and Bizzy Coy (words), New Yorker cartoonists from Sullivan County, New York. They’ll share the unlikely story of their creative partnership, and how they collab effectively despite two different working styles and senses of humor. Plus, you’ll have a chance to test your comedy chops with an interactive game of Cartoon Caption Contest.

All the info

Mental health, why are you always derailing my writing??

Enough about Comedy Festivals!

Time to talk about Mental Health!

Yes, it’s true. I’m locked in a fairly ongoing battle with my overactive brainspace.

I spend a shocking amount of time bashing my head against the proverbial anxiety-wall. Curled up in the proverbial depression-bed. Gulping the not-so-proverbial SSRIs.

Then, there’s all the friends who pop up and get in the way of my writing:

• Little Miss Writer’s Block

• Professor Procrastination

• Dame Judi “Imposter Syndrome” Dench

Trying to write? On top of all that noise? UGHHHH ARE YOU KIDDING???

For this issue of BIZZY IN YOUR BOX, I’ve combed through old journals and compiled some vulnerable musings about these topics. The stuff I tell myself when the writing gets tough and the brain needs a good talking-to.

I offer no solutions! I have no practical advice! I can only share my own experiences and my earnestly imperfect lyrical wanderings, below.

i am sun and shadow

i am darkness and light

writing is easy and hard

life is good and bad

often in the same day

often in the same hour

don’t despair

i am a pendulum

i am moments away from change

That one voice, that one impulse, is desperate for me not to try

The dark noisy scribbly cloud of it, yanking at my sleeve, tugging at me, begging me, don’t do it, don’t write, don’t create, don’t, don’t, dont!!!

Yes, yes. I hear you, cloud, I see you

We have a difference of opinion, you and I

But I respect that you are just doing your very unpleasant job

You can sit here quietly while I do my work, cloud

But don’t interrupt

If you behave yourself, you can take a look at what I have made

Or maybe, by then, you will have floated away

I am allowed to make stuff just like anyone else

I do not have to be perfect

It might not live up to my expectations but it is not about the final outcome

I will learn from the attempt

I will enjoy the process

I embrace failure and foolishness

I deserve to honor my creative impulse

To dance with it, without unhelpful judgmental inner voices, without fearful projections, without portents of doom

Just dance

The comatoseness

When no words will come

Clammed up, jammed up, dammed up

Dragged under by the weight of all that nothing

So much time wasted in beds, on couches

In gray states of zoned out, shut down, half-sleep

Riding wild brain trains of why God and why now, maybe if and if only

Down janky tracks that end nowhere good

I try to outsmart myself with therapy and medication, books and workbooks

Tens of thousands of dollars

Years I’ll never get back

All to fix the unfixable problem of being human

I must remember:

I am not broken!

I am all too normal

Maybe you’re stuck because you just don’t like this project right now

Ever thought of that?

Just put it down

Work on something else

Or nothing at all

Geez

Don’t overcomplicate it

Everything that’s good for me, feels like an impediment to my creative work

But they are necessary steppingstones, paving the way for my success

I must: take the walk - make the bed - brush the teeth - FLOSS. c’mon - drink the water - eat the food - wash the dish - take the pills - pay the bills - stay on track

When I neglect the mundane irritations of daily living, I find myself in rugged emotional territory

Lost without a pen

Why do I believe that the only way to jolt myself into action is by stepping on anxieties, like barefoot Legos??

(The pain-to-productivity pipeline)

The more I worry, the more I will work. Right??

Yes, this seems like a healthy approach. Suuuuper healthy…

every impulse to express myself, i must honor as necessary and vital

every impulse to express myself, i must honor in the way i wish i had been honored in my most tender and awful moments

if i want to write i must write

how can i allow myself to stand in my own way?

me, be gentle with me

WRITING IS NOT:

a task on a to do list, a chore to rail against, a punishment from the gods, a horror to dread, a reflection of my inadequacy, a sign of defeat, a rock to push up a mountain

WRITING CAN BE:

an opportunity to speak, a call to be heard, an invitation to participate, an pathway to connect, a moment to play, a window into knowing my own soul, a revolving door to try again, a chance to be imperfectly human

What if it never happens?

What if I never achieve what I want to achieve?

Am I wasting my time?

Is this whole thing pointless?

Am I any better than a hamster on a wheel?

No

I have to believe there is meaning in this

I have to believe the act of creation has inherent value

Don’t worry about outcomes

They are out of my control

Focus on PRACTICE

Focus on PROCESS

Focus on OTHERS

Support and celebrate them

Support and celebrate myself

Ambition claws at my insides like a baby I can’t seem to birth

I want it out of me.

I want so many things

The work is all that matters

Everything else is unimportant

I am too busy trying to deliver my universe in words

This week the writing is too fast, too easy

The euphoric filling of pages and days

It is becoming too urgent, too big

Expanding like starclouds, like the fear of unfulfilled potential

Be careful

Tread slowly

Did you floss? No? Shocker

GO FLOSS

Rest

There are things more important than writing

If you can’t do it, don’t do it. Don’t worry

Rest

Taking a break is a vital part of the process

Your mind needs time to relax, to recuperate

Rest

Your work will be stronger for it

You needn’t beat yourself up over it

Rest

Your best work has taken years to develop

You are not going to solve it today

Rest

You are a person first

And a writer second

Rest

How to create in the face of the world

(Keep going)

I hope I will make something worth all of this struggle

(Maybe I won’t, and that’s okay)

Each of us carry a burden as big as our existence

(Who would I be, what might I create, if I gave mine away?)

All you have ever wanted was for someone to hear you.

To understand. To grapple with the meaning of your words

Now you know it is up to you to write the words. To honor them. To grapple with them yourself

If not you, then who?

If not now, then when?

If not joyfully, then why?

Give in to the FUN of it all

Take the pressure off your shoulders.

No more serious verbs.

No writing.

No crafting.

No creating.

No outlining.

No researching.

No revising.

From here on out it is only fun:

Playing!

Toying!

Puzzling!

Noodling!

Jamming!

Futzing!

Flirting!

Cavorting!

Effervescing!

There is enough suffering in this world

You don’t need to volunteer

make something, make anything at all

embrace the unknowable

do it despite the pain

go easy, easy, easy

I love you Bizzy

You are doing your best

I know you will figure it out

You have come this far

You are safe

You are capable

You are not alone

Whatever happens, you’ll be okay

I am cheering for you

<3

Thanks to New Yorker cartoonist Tracey K. Berglund…

…for creating this illustration/collage of me and Henry, my unofficial emotional support animal. The grand finale of this newsletter, if you will.

Just like all humans — there’s more happening in my heart and mind than what you see on the outside. I love how Tracey imagined the colors, patterns and textures of my inner world.

PLUS, ADORABLE HENRY!!!

You’ll be hearing about Tracey again soon in this very newsletter! Follow her on Instagram, why don’t ya?

Tracey's Instagram

Phew!

Surely, that is enough for this issue of BIZZY IN YOUR BOX.

I’m curious how mental health affects your creative process. How do you work with it, around it, underneath it, alongside it?

Leave a comment, or reply to this email and let me know. Let ALL of us know! We need all the help we can get!!!

Thanks for being here with me on this newsletter journey. See you next month…

xoxo

Biz

Welcome back to BIZZY IN YOUR BOX, the decades-long saga of all things Bizzy.

Delivered to you on a monthly basis with the same unrelenting regularity — and mystery — as the tides. (The tides are still a mystery, right?)

A day in Bizzy’s life

I share this “day in the life” not only to satisfy your basest curiosities about your favorite person, me, but also for the benefit of Future Bizzy.

One day, Future Bizzy will look back upon this schedule and marvel. “What was I thinking?” she’ll say, her voice tinged with nostalgia, and perhaps regret. “What a silly schedule! My life is so much more organized now!”

A woman can dream.

Anyway, here’s a fairly typical weekday at Camp Coy, my creative country compound.

4:30AM

I am awake against my will.

My 14-year-old, 20-pound poodle mix Henry decides it’s time to get up and go outside. I try to explain this is a bad idea, but he whines at me, and here at Camp Coy, whoever whines, wins.

This blurry hour does have a certain magic. The shadows of tall trees, the starry skies already beginning to fade.

I feed Henry, and take a fistful of pills from a comically oversized medication organizer that makes me feel every day of my forty-one years, and then some.

5AM

This is the most pivotal moment of the day. I debate: DO I GO BACK TO BED? OR DO I WRITE?

I would love to get some more sleep, as I am goshdarn exhausted from getting up so early and from grinding my teeth all night.

However, my favorite writing often happens in the wee hours, when I feel free of the expectations (or imagined expectations) of the waking world.

I sit down to write on the sun porch. During the summer, Henry and I basically live on its blue plaid couch.

I prop my feet up and write on my tiny, grimy MacBook Air. I twist myself into an ergonomically inadvisable position that I am sure I will pay for physically the rest of my life.

What am I writing these days? Short fiction. A play. A screenplay. Cartoons.

I dive into whatever project I feel like. I’ve learned over the years there is very little use in forcing or tricking myself into working on something I’m not excited about.

I am also learning that some of my projects take years to unfold, and they require long breaks in between drafts to let my unconscious do some necessary shuffling. It is okay to put them away and come back later.

7AM

It’s cottage cheese time. I am obsessed with cottage cheese and peaches this summer, making me feel like a lady in a diet-plan commercial from the ‘90s.

7:15AM

I crank out my most pressing freelance assignment of the day. Today I’m writing a short event description / “about copy” for a famous comedian.

I write approximately 120+ such blurbs annually for one of my longtime freelance clients, New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC). I love crafting these descriptions. It’s like a puzzle in a paragraph. I get a lot of satisfaction when I figure it out.

8AM

I begrudgingly perform necessary human maintenance, such as tooth-brushing, hair-washing and bra-donning. As a lady who lives alone in a rural area, I have to force myself to not walk around naked and unbathed all the time. (Only most of the time.)

8:30AM

Take a peek at my little garden. Assess the rabbit damage. Water a few things. Spray a few things with deer repellant. Pull a few weeds. Stand there with hands on hips, trying to see if plants have grown since yesterday. Spoiler alert: I have no idea.

8:45AM

Henry and I drive (well, I drive, he doesn’t have his license yet) to a lovely little path that runs along the Delaware River. We take a nature walk. I say hello to my bald eagle friends.

Once a week, we drive to a different trail to walk with our friend Elaine. Walks with Elaine are peppered with treats, making this the verifiable “Henry Highlight of the Week.”

Here’s another recent walking companion:

10:45AM

Early lunch. Watching old reruns of Judge Judy is a must. Television justice is the key to proper digestion.

11:30AM

I am tempted once again to go back to bed. To prevent this, I sojourn to one of our fine local coffee shops.

I get a cold brew and plunk down at a table. I prioritize my most procrastinatory tasks — the annoying stuff I would find an excuse to avoid if I was sitting at home. In public, I feel compelled to get it done. The ambient noise and bustle keep me focused.

Send a client invoice.

Submit a short story to a few literary magazines.

Prep for a community event.

Dip back into my writing from earlier in the morning.

Familiar faces pop in and out. Chit chat is exchanged. Our rural area is a haven for writers and artists, and I love running into them and catching up. They motivate me to keep going.

1PM

Zoom with a remote freelance client. They get me up to speed on a new marketing project and we discuss my part. Sometimes I’m in a creative leadership role, other times I’m there purely to execute the copywriting. I like doing both — they stretch different muscles.

2PM

Take a road trip to the grocery store. My preferred store is (ugh) 35 minutes away. Fortunately, it’s one of my favorite drives — down the Upper Delaware Scenic Byway, a rural highway that hugs the curves of the Delaware River.

I soak up the scenery and keep an eye out for eagles in the pines. I often get good ideas while driving, and try to dictate them on my Voice Memo app before I forget. I am pretty much always talking to myself or singing in the car.

5PM

An early dinner. I get fixated on certain foods and make them over and over. I’ve been on an oven-roasted cauliflower kick for a solid three years. Maybe longer? I can now break down an entire head of cauliflower with my bare hands, a skill that has (thus far) failed to attract me a mate.

7PM

I have a call with my New Yorker cartoon collaborator Lia Strasser. I’m a big phone call person. I often arrive at my best ideas and solutions while talking them out.

Other than Lia, my most-chatted person is probably my brother — comic book artist, writer and musician Evan Coy. We both enjoy philosophizing about the creative process and our ongoing projects.

8PM

This is my multitask moment. I watch some garbage while I noodle around with New York Times Games (correct order of play: Spelling Bee, Strands, Connections, Wordle) and try to write at the same time. This inadvisable attention-torture can be surprisingly pleasurable.

10PM

Double check my to-do list for tomorrow. Preemptively cross off all the household chores I know I won’t do. Take Henry outside for one last pee. Marvel at the stars in the sky and the dew on my toes and the cacophony of the night: crickets, frogs and the neighborhood barred owl echoing across the lake.

10:30PM

I consume approximately 100 hours of TikTok before bed. This is a bad habit I can’t indulge much longer. Someday, it will break me.

Goodnight! See you at 4:30AM!

Hey, what’s your daily schedule?

I’m so curious about other folks’ day-to-day, especially writers, freelancers, artists and creators of all stripes.

• How do you manage your time?

• What’s your favorite day of the week?

• Your favorite hour of the day?

• When do you feel most creatively invigorated (however you define it)?

Please share some tidbits in the comments for me, and others, to enjoy.

Bizzy in the wild: Upcoming event

Tusten Social Happy Hour: Connect the Dots

Free! Tues. August 5, 2025 from 5:30PM – 7:30PM

The Tusten Cup, 8 Main Street, Narrowsburg, NY

Get to know your neighbors! I’m sitting down with one of my favorite local writers — memoirist and storyteller Bill Fellenberg — for a casual convo and community happy hour.

More info

According to my strict schedule, this is the time I stop working on BIZZY IN YOUR BOX.

So it shall be done.

Thank you, as always, for subscribing to this newsletter, opening it, reading it, engaging with it and sharing it. I appreciate you!

xoxo

Bizzy

P.S. Enough about what I want to talk about. What do you want me to talk about? Any suggestions for future newsletters? Questions you’d like answered? Topics upon which you’d like me to opine? Leave a comment or reply to this email. I’m curious what you think.

I’ve talked to three people somewhat recently who said variations on the same thing:

“Bizzy! I applied for a thing, because of what you said!”

That is beautiful music to my hairy ears.

I frequently encourage writers to apply for opportunities (grants, residencies, etc.) or submit their work for publication.

I, myself, love applying to stuff. It’s a nice way to scratch the part of my brain that likes organizing, writing cover letters, making spreadsheets and such. (I truly do enjoy this administrative minutiae.)

And I tell myself, you’ll never know if you don’t try! It’s such a cliche, but it’s true. It’s that classic lottery tagline: “You can’t win if you don’t play.”

But in talking to folks, I realize not everybody likes applying to stuff.

Some say it’s not worth it, because there’s no way they could ever win.

The psychological hurdle is real.

If you think your work isn’t good enough, or that you’re undeserving, or that the odds are stacked against you—it makes sense that you wouldn’t bother applying.

But…

What if you COULD win?

What if you DID win?

What if you DIDN’T win, but it was still worth the effort?

What if there was value in trying, NO MATTER the outcome?

ABS: Always Be Submitting

In the past 12 months, I’ve sent out approximately:

• 64 short story submissions (not 64 different stories, but 64 submissions)

• 44 cartoon submissions (ditto)

• 5 grant applications

(I wish it was more.)

I always want some applications in the pipeline, because it gives me something to look forward to.

“Look forward to what?” I hear you saying. “An inevitable rejection? You look forward to getting disappointed again and again?”

YES.

I love rejection!

Bring on the rejections!

90% of the submissions above were rejected, and there are more rejections to come!

So what?

I already won because I did the work, finished it and sent it off.

That’s the true win. And the rejection doesn’t cancel it out.

Nor is a rejection a personal attack on me or my writing. It’s just one opinion, based on multiple factors over which I have no control.

With a rejection, I don’t lose anything. (Except the time it took to apply, and sometimes a small submission fee.) I come out even. In fact, I come out ahead.

What I get out of applying to stuff (even when I don’t win)

• For writing specifically, it drives me to finish and polish my work

• For grants/residencies specifically, it drives me to articulate my creative projects and goals

• It necessitates keeping my bio and artist statement updated

• It encourages me to make sure my website, social media and other public presence is updated, in case someone goes looking for it

• It gets my name in front of editors, grant-makers and others in the literary community

• It requires me to research and learn about opportunities, organizations and publications, increasing my knowledge of the literary landscape

• It exercises my administrative, form-filling-out, attention-to-detail muscles

• It’s good practice in the delicate art of letting go

• As I said before, it gives me something to look forward to.

There’s a secret benefit in every kind of rejection

• No response/ghosted

  • I learn patience. I learn not to take it personally. I learn to love my work even if others don’t. I learn that perhaps this opportunity is not one I want to try for again, because they don’t respond to submissions.

• Form rejection

  • I learn that my story wasn’t the right fit for this particular publication at this particular time. Or, my project proposal wasn’t the right fit for this particular grant at this particular time.

  • I might take another look at my work and consider whether I’m still confident in its quality. Did I rush to submit it? Or is it truly ready?

  • If I’m still confident, I’ll immediately send out another submission elsewhere. I make a positive out of a potential negative.

• Personalized rejection

  • I learn that this opportunity saw something worth noting in my work. Perhaps we will be a good match in the future. I will very likely apply to this opportunity again!

• Very personalized, highly encouraging rejection or runner-up

  • I feel special! I get a (delicious yet dangerous) taste of external validation! I will DEFINITELY apply for this opportunity again. I will be sure to mention their encouragement in my next cover letter.

  • I learn that this organization might be a great fit for me, and I can look for more ways to get involved with them.

• Acceptance

  • Okay, acceptance isn’t a rejection. But it still has life lessons attached.

  • Importantly, I learn even more patience. Because after an acceptance, comes 3–12 months of waiting for the publication, grant money or residency to actually happen. SO MUCH PATIENCE!!

How do I know what to apply for?

There are a bazillion things to submit to or apply for. Which opportunities are worth spending your valuable time and attention?

I prefer opportunities that are:

• A fit for my genre, subject matter, style/aesthetic. (Am I speaking the same language as the opportunity, so to speak?)

• A fit for my creative goals. (Do I want to go to a residency? Publish a poem? Get funding for my community literary project?)

• A fit for my values. (Do I want to publicly align myself with this publication/organization and what it represents?)

• A fit for my current skill level or career level. (Is this an opportunity for newbies, mid-career folks, Pulitzer Prize winners?)

• And/or, a meaningful step up from what I have done in the past. (Am I challenging myself to stretch a bit outside my comfort zone?)

• On top of all of that — if I have a personal or professional connection in regards to the opportunity (or have gotten encouraging rejections), it jumps to the top of my list.

What do you think about rejection?

I would love to hear your submission strategies in the comments.

Upcoming Bizzy Events!

Author Talk: Bizzy interviews Lily Barrish Levner

Free! Fri. June 27, 2025 from 5PM - 6PM

Western Sullivan Public Library, Delaware Free Branch, 45 Lower Main Street, Callicoon, NY

Beware! I shall interview Catskills author Lily Barrish Levner about her Borscht Belt mystery, Banquets & Bootleg Bounty and its new sequel.

Info and registration

Knowing Newsies

Free! Thurs. July 17, 2025 @ 7PM

On Zoom or the Arts Nest at Delaware Valley Opera Center, 6692 State Route 52, Lake Huntington, NY

I’m interviewing the screenwriters of the Disney film Newsies, Bob Tzudiker and Noni White, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of The River Reporter newspaper.

Info and registration

Publishing Panel and Writer’s Mixer

Free! Tues. July 22, 2025 from 5–8PM

Western Sullivan Public Library, Delaware Free Branch, 45 Lower Main Street, Callicoon, NY

This panel of local writers will cover journalism, Substack, freedom of the press, traditional and self publishing. Plus a social mixer afterwards!

Info and registration

Surely, this is enough Bizzy news for now!

If you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go (foolishly) cook up a big batch of hot soup in the middle of this heat wave.

xoxo,

Bizzy

But as recently as 18 months ago, I was loathe to collaborate with ANYBODY on a creative writing project.

I had to protect my precious ego!

My singular genius vision!

I couldn’t allow my work to be sullied by another.

(It all sounds very dramatic and self-important, doesn’t it?)

In reality, it was less about The Art™ and more about The Fear™.

I had so many fears!!

What if it’s awkward?

What if I don’t like their ideas?

What if they don’t like my ideas?

What if their process is not the way I like to work?

What if I feel awkward and there is no escape from the discomfort?

What if we disagree about something, but I can’t express myself correctly, and I end up going along with their suggestion, even though I don’t feel good about it, leading to bitterness and resentment?

What if the thing we make together is not quite what I had in mind?

What if the public sees its weaknesses and thinks less of me as a writer?

What if it’s not perfect?

What if—gasp—I’m not perfect?

What if, what if, what if…

I’ve had to counter those unhelpful thoughts with helpful thoughts:

I can handle some awkwardness.

It’s okay if I don’t like their ideas.

It’s okay if they don’t like my ideas.

Maybe I can learn something from their creative process.

I can feel awkwardness and discomfort and still get something positive out of this collaboration.

It’s okay to disagree and it’s okay to communicate badly and I won’t improve that skill until I practice it a bunch of times — hint, hint.

Isn’t it cool that the thing we make together might be different or better than what I had in mind?

The public doesn’t care what I do, and there’s no use trying to please them.

It’s not going to perfect and that’s the point.

I’m not perfect and that’s the point.

Bizzy learns to work together

Being open to collaborating has led me to so many discoveries I wouldn’t have had otherwise.

Here’s just one random example from this month:

I read from my book at a local library open mic. (Yay libraries!)

The emcee of the event was a local teacher working on a poetry project, and she brought along a list of words curated by one of her students. All of us participants were invited to take the list home and write a poem using some or all of those words.

I rarely write poems. I certainly have never written a poem at someone else’s suggestion.

“WHY would I use a list of pre-selected words to make a poem?” Old Scared Bizzy would have whined. “My ‘To Write’ list is already overflowing with projects that need my attention. This sounds like an unnecessary distraction. Who is this student, anyway? What is this project, exactly? What’s the point?”

New Scared (But Willing) Bizzy said: “Hm. I’m curious about this! Some of these words are interesting! It’s just an experiment. Why not give it a try?”

And I wrote a dang poem!

It wasn’t perfect. But perfect isn’t the point.

I had fun. I stretched myself. I got out of my head.

Worth it.

The cartoon monster strikes again

Speaking of collaboration…

If you told me two years ago, or twelve, or twenty, that one day I would be writing cartoon captions?!?!?

…working alongside an artist??!?!

…I’d say… whaaaat?

If you told me those cartoons would end up in The New Yorker, I’d say nice try, ha ha, very funny, you almost got me there.

And if you told me one of those cartoons would be about MATH?! My most cursed school subject?!

I would simply fall down, hit my head, pass out, wake up and fall down again.

And yet, here we are:

Our new toon appears in “New York: A Centenary Issue,” one of four special issues commemorating 100 years of the magazine.

It’s also the one-year publishing anniversary of me and my New Yorker collaboratrix, Lia Strasser. In May of 2024, we saw our first cartoon in print.

(Big ups to Lia for getting me into this whole mess in the first place and forcing me to face my Collaboration Demons.)

Ebook and audiobook now available!

That’s right. The public has clamored, and I have begrudgingly acquiesced.

PERSONAL SPACE: Short humor from The New Yorker, McSweeney’s and beyond is now available as an ebook and audiobook!!

Just in time for long road trips, beach vacations, or — ah, yes — endless subway rides to your dreary in-person office job.

The audiobook is narrated by yours truly. The voice of an angel!

Show me the audiobook & ebook

Want a sneak peek? Preview the ebook and listen to a free chapter of the audiobook.

Bizzy’s upcoming events

Sullivan County Historical Society Book Fair

Free! Sat. June 7, 2025 from 12PM - 4PM

Sullivan County Museum, 265 Main Street, Hurleyville, NY

I'll be one of many local writers at this book fair and author signing. Do stop by to say hello, browse our wares and pick up a few new reads. I’ll have copies of PERSONAL SPACE as well as my writing-and-publishing zine, PUBLISH MY STUFF PLEASE.

All the deets

Author Talk: Bizzy interviews Lily Barrish Levner

Free! Fri. June 27, 2025 from 5PM - 6PM

Western Sullivan Public Library, Delaware Free Branch, 45 Lower Main Street, Callicoon, NY

Beware! I shall interview Catskills author Lily Barrish Levner about her new Borscht Belt mystery, Banquets & Bootleg Bounty.

All the deets

There’s so much more to tell you, but it will have to wait until next month.

Thank you, as always, for reading to the very bottom of this seemingly bottomless newsletter.

xoxo

Bizzy

It’s me, Bizzy Coy: Funny writer. Freelance copywriter. New Yorker cartoon captionista. Sender of monthly newsletters. Insecure, yet determined, self-promoter.

What does self promotion mean, exactly? Promotion of self … to what? What role, exactly, is my self promoted to? Whatever it is, it doesn’t pay very well.

But, seriously. I have been doing more self promotion in the past 5 months than in my whole life.

It started last fall, when I got sick of waiting to be bopped with a magic “Published Author” wand.

I bopped myself instead.

I self-published my book, invited myself to literary events and started taking my writing career as seriously as I always hoped someone else might take it.

On with the self-promotional chicanery!

10 years of “Bizzy In Your Box”

I can’t believe this email newsletter is officially ONE DECADE OLD.

BIZZY IN YOUR BOX started on Mailchimp in 2015. I think. (It might actually be older.)

Then it moved to Tinyletter. And migrated to Substack in 2024.

(I look forward to whatever platform I am forced to switch to next!)

This newsletter, while public, has acted as a creative diary for me. I like to go back and see what I was working on a month ago, a year ago, five years ago. It feels like looking at old photos. Who was that woman? What was she prattling on about?

Along the way, folks have subscribed. There’s about 750 of you now. That you’re interested in my work and my thoughts, is endlessly fascinating to me. I hope I’ve offered you a laugh, an insight, or a story that has been of value to you in some way.

I am grateful to have you all along on the journey.

Bizzy’s latest New Yorker cartoon

Thanks to my cartooning partner, the inimitable artist Lia Strasser, for another fun collab.

Book reading + live drawing = madness?

I celebrated my book, PERSONAL SPACE: Short humor from The New Yorker, McSweeney’s and beyond, with a thrilling event in Barryville, NY.

I was joined by the book’s cover artist, Catherine Chesters, and the book’s illustrator, the aforementioned Lia Strasser, for a book reading combined with live art.

While I read funny stories aloud, Catherine and Lia drew on paper tacked to the wall. When an audience volunteer rang a bell, the two artists switched canvases. (The audience bell-ringing was truly a highlight. They had impeccable timing.)

This 1-minute video recap gives you the vibe. It was a HOOT.

Bizzy writes a story

Thanks to Points in Case for publishing my new humor piece, “Your Subscription to Humor Is About to Expire.” If you find yourself saying “things just aren’t funny anymore,” this might be for you.

Bizzy reads a story

Listen to me read my short story “No Bird She Knows” — complete with bird sound effects! — on WJFF Radio Catskill. This piece was originally published in The Catskiller.

Another story? You’ve gotta be kidding me…

My short story “Buttered Toast” was published in the print edition of Grand Journal last year. It has now made it onto the Grand Journal website for all to see! Ooh la la! Buttered toast for everyone!

Grand Journal is a publication of One Grand Books, a wonderful and whimsical indie bookshop in my neck of the woods. They also host an annual literary festival, Deep Water, every June.

The festival is unlike anything else — a roving performance art experience, the best-kept secret of the literary world, a magical weekend perched on the banks of the Upper Delaware River. Let me know if you’re planning to come!

Bizzy’s upcoming events

Open Mic First Fridays

Free! Fri. May 2, 2025 from 6PM - 8PM

Western Sullivan Public Library, Delaware Free Branch, 45 Lower Main Street, Callicoon, NY

An hour of open mic for poets and writers, followed by an hour of Bizzy. I’ll read selections from my book and a sneak peek at what I’m working on next.

Event info

Yarnslingers: Inspired by Song

Free! Sun. May 18, 2025 from 2PM - 4PM

Bodhi Tree Studio, 214 6th Street, Suite B, Honesdale, PA

In this special edition of Yarnslingers, writers have crafted true stories inspired by songs, which have in turn inspired artists from Wayne County Arts Alliance to create original artworks. Hear me read a true story and check out the art.

Event info

Sullivan County Historical Society

Free! Sat. June 7, 2025 from 12PM - 4PM

Sullivan County Museum, 265 Main Street, Hurleyville, NY

I'll be one of many local writers at this book fair and author signing. Do stop by to say hello, browse our wares and pick up a few new reads.

Event info

Thank you, dear ones. I appreciate you being part of BIZZY IN YOUR BOX. It is, as always, a pleasure to infiltrate the sacred boundaries of your email inbox.

Until next time,

xoxo

Bizzy

Thanks for stopping by the dangerous streetcorner that is BIZZY IN YOUR BOX. On the outskirts of these monthly emails, Bizzy’s troubling thoughts lurk in foggy shadows.

Thoughts about writing and not writing. Thoughts about creativity and the opposite of that. Thoughts crammed with self-doubt. Bushels of shoulds and shouldn’ts, what ifs and why’d-ya-do-thats.

Thoughts like:

• [Insert any of my writing projects here] might be the greatest thing I’ve ever written, or the worst. There’s only one way to find out. *Shows nobody*

• What if another writer has already written something like [insert any of my writing projects here], and, if so, will people accuse me of plagiarism? How will I prove my innocence? Will trying to prove my innocence make me appear guilty? Is it better to simply accept that I am a plagiarist at heart?

• Who do I think I am? Am I delusionally optimistic about my writing, and I need a more critical eye? Or am I too critical, and I need a bit more delusion? Either way, am I not seeing reality? Why is reality so important, anyway? Isn’t reality just perception? Aren’t there a million versions of reality? Can’t I make my own reality? I should watch some reality TV and find out.

• People are sick of hearing about my book. I am sick of hearing about my book. *Runs into a good friend who has never heard of my book* Okay maybe I should talk more about my book.

• Do I need to totally rework [insert any of my rejected pieces here] from scratch, or do I need to submit it to 100 other publications in a rush of black-out desperation? There is no in between. I must take action immediately, because writing has an expiration date and at any moment these words could blow up, grow mold or explode. *Instead takes a nap*

• I should have a more disciplined creative schedule. No, no, I should have a more flexible creative schedule. The word “schedule” feels like pressure. I should come up with a word that has more positive connotations. Program. Process. Playtime. Sandboxing. Sandcastling. Sandstorming. Sandblasting. I hate getting sand in my shoes. Sand is just dirt. Why do people love rolling around in sand? I should have a more disciplined creative schedule.

• If writing is so confusing and confounding, why even do it? And how dare I whine about it? Nobody is forcing me to write. It’s entirely self-inflicted. I guess it’s one of the better things one might inflict upon oneself. At least there’s that.

• When I post about my writing on social media, am I adding to the trashpile of meaningless noise that’s destroying our culture? If I don’t post about my writing on social media, how will I connect with other members of the trashpile? As long as everyone else is in the trashpile, I kind of want to be there, too.

• Is the above list interesting to the BIZZY IN YOUR BOX readership in any way at all, or is it good old-fashioned spoiled-brat complainerism? The fact that I’m even debating this means I have too much time on my hands. I should be working more. I need health insurance.

Enough with the self-flagellatory!

On with the self-congratulatory!

Flash fiction in The Catskiller

I really enjoy being part of a rural literary community. The Catskiller is a free newsprint publication with art and words from kids and adults, all across the Catskills region. They’ve generously included my teeny tiny story “No Bird She Knows” in the Winter 2025 issue.

Read "No Bird She Knows"

Bizzy on The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest Podcast

Co-cartoonist Lia Strasser and I chatted about how we met in a coffee shop two years ago, how we started making cartoons together one year ago, and how our different senses of humor and working styles make our collab delicious. (Our 55-minute interview begins at 22:25).

Listen on Spotify

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Bizzy celebrates The New Yorker “Centoonial”

Have YOU been duped by a misleading Airbnb listing?

New here? Some of my favorite posts.

Bizzy’s upcoming events

Open Mic First Fridays

Free! Fri. May 2, 2025 from 6:15pm-8:30pm

Western Sullivan Public Library - Delaware Free Branch, 45 Lower Main Street, Callicoon, NY

An hour of open mic for local poets and writers, followed by an hour of Bizzy. I’ll read selections from my book and a sneak peek at what I’m working on next.

Event info

Yarnslingers: Inspired by Song

Free! Sun. May 18, 2025 from 2–4pm

Bodhi Tree Studio, 214 6th Street, Suite B, Honesdale, PA

In this special edition of Yarnslingers, writers have crafted true stories inspired by songs, which have in turn inspired artists from Wayne County Arts Alliance to create original artworks. Hear the stories read aloud with the art on display.

Event info

Hey. You rock.

Thanks for reading this mish-mash of mind-splashes.

See you next month to celebrate the 10 Year Anniversary of BIZZY IN YOUR BOX!

xoxo

Bizzy

P.S. My pal Kate translated my short humor piece “How to Move Heavy Furniture By Yourself” into Irish! Here’s us reading it in English and Irish.

P.P.S. Happy birthday to me on March 21!

And welcome back to BIZZY IN YOUR BOX, the seventh-best newsletter dedicated to the writings, the whereabouts and the general whatevers of whimsical wildwoman, Bizzy Coy.

Hellooo to all you new subscribers! It’s so cool to have you onboard. Get ready for a heaping helping of Bizzy’s self-promotional goodness.

Longtime subscribers, WOW! You’re still here? I love ya. Thanks for being the rock-solid foundation of our little newsletter family.

Who’s Bizzy?

No, seriously, who am I?

Who are any of us?

What is identity?

Is consciousness real, or a trick played on us by a vengeful God?

For those just joining us, Bizzy is:

A writer (of funny short pieces, cartoon captions, plays, zines and other miscellanea)

An author (of a new book, PERSONAL SPACE: Short humor from The New Yorker, McSweeney’s and beyond)

A wordsmith (freelancing as a copywriter for entertainment and nonprofit clients)

Bizzy’s Book Bonanza Bontinues!

Thanks to everyone who’s buying, reading and sharing PERSONAL SPACE.

I love that it’s now on the shelves in two of our nearby public library systems…

And I love having the opportunity to sell it to folks in person, like at last month’s Yarnslingers storytelling event. (Thanks, John!)

I had a blast talking about all things publishing at my recent workshop at SULLIVAN PUBLIC (below). Thanks to all who listened to my experiences and shared their own projects and publishing goals with the group.

Big thanks to fellow humor writer Julie Vick for featuring me in this issue of her wonderful Substack, HUMOR ME. (Scroll down to “Funny Authors Recommend Funny Books.”)

I also enjoyed speaking with Joselin Linder’s writing group, PROSE PLAYGROUND. They asked for a writing prompt, so here’s what I came up with. Feel free to use it yourself:

WRITING PROMPT:

PART 1: What’s a small annoyance that really gets under your skin, like those awful unavoidable puddles on NYC streetcorners? Write a short rant where you let out all of your true feelings.

PART 2: Write a rant from the POV of the person who causes this annoyance. Perhaps it’s the person you’d least expect. Talk about why they cause it — what they get out of it — the secret benefit they receive from wreaking this havoc in your life.

CONSIDER: What is their name? How do they speak? What are details about their life, upbringing, belief system? Do they have a hench-person? What’s THEIR deal? Is there a larger conspiracy at play here? Go crazy. Be funny. Take it to the wildest extreme you can imagine. At the end, give us a twist if you can.

Bizzy thought she had it all figured out, but change is hard

I’ve always considered myself an organized person.

Even with a lot of irons in the proverbial fire, I rarely forget a deadline, show up late, or have trouble keeping track of my day.

I juggled everything fine… until I didn’t.

With the launch of my book in December, I panicked. I suddenly had way too many moving parts to manage:

• Freelance copywriting clients

• Book events and promotion

• Tracking book sales

• Packing and mailing books

• Making cartoons with Lia Strasser

• Writing a new play

• Applying for grants

• Editing and submitting short stories to literary mags

• Writing short memoir for Yarnslingers storytelling group

• Organizing my tax paperwork

• Making a zine

• Walking the dog

• Many, many naps

My “project management system” was held together with spit and dirt. How was it going to accommodate all of this stuff??

PANIC!

DREAD!

CONFUSION!

Here’s a peek at how my dirty little organizational process worked:

• Use Google calendar ONLY for events where I have to leave the house or do a Zoom or something.

• Write down daily to-do lists and notes in a draft email in a web browser tab, where I keep Gmail open pretty much all day, every day.

• When there are too many things to do relating to one particular project, start a separate Google doc to write it all down.

• Use Google Keep (have you used it? It’s like an online board where you can arrange little post-it notes). About 30 post-it notes at any given time with random lists, ideas, things to keep track of, movies I want to see, etc.

• When I’m away from my computer, add to-do’s in my phone’s Notes app, where they are promptly ignored and never seen again.

I also use other tools. Harvest for invoicing clients. Google docs for brainstorming and writing. Google drive for collabs. Google sheets to track writing submissions and pitches.

I was starting to struggle with keeping myself organized. I was toggling back and forth between all of my various platforms a million times a day, and I still wasn’t certain what my priorities were, and whether all of my projects were moving forward.

I Googled “project management systems.” I clicked around and looked at a few. Acorn. Trello. Monday. Clickup. Notion. I signed up for some free trials. The winner for my needs was Asana. I’ve used it before for freelance clients, but not in much depth.

So I gave myself an afternoon, and set up a bunch of projects and tasks. It wasn’t perfect, but it helped me see the big picture in one place. From there I assigned myself subtasks and deadlines. I liked that I could visualize them in list form or on a calendar.

I said to myself, WOW! I AM AMAZING. I SOLVED MY PROBLEM.

I used Asana for about a month.

But the old ways kept a-callin’…

I found myself opening up my old draft email in Gmail… going back to it like a bad boyfriend.

Making a few notes. A few reminders…

Soon it grew into a to-do list.

It was a total relapse back to my old spit-and-dirt system.

You guys! I haven’t even opened Asana in weeks!!!! I have totally abandoned it already. WHAT AM I DOING??

Look. I’m not perfect.

I was hopeful I could tell you an inspiring story of upgrading my project management system and how it changed my life and now I have 100 extra hours every day to tend to the award-winning native flower garden that I don’t have.

Perhaps a more realistic lesson is: change isn’t easy.

Habits are hard to break. New habits are difficult to maintain. Even when we know it’s good for us.

The important thing is to keep going. Try new ways. Start small. No, even smaller than that. Change is possible. We deserve better. Don’t give up, Bizzy. I believe in you.

(P.S. If I’m late for our next meeting, you will know why.)

Upcoming Bizzy Events

SAGE SESSION

Thursday, March 6, 2025 from 1:30-3:30pm

Delaware Valley Arts Alliance, 37 Main Street, Narrowsburg, NY 12764

PERSONAL SPACE book reading, signing and Q&A for ages 60+ organized by Tusten Social and Growing Older Together.

BIZZY NEEDS MORE EVENTS!

Invite her to chat with your Substack, book club, writing group or underwear model convention.

That’s enough for this month.

See you next time with even more Bizzy tidbits.

Wishing you the very best,

Bizzy

Last month, I announced my first book, PERSONAL SPACE: Short humor from The New Yorker, McSweeney’s and beyond. Thanks to everyone who picked up a copy. It’s been fun bopping around town peddling my funny stories, sharing smiles and connection with my neighbors.

Buy Bizzy's book

Listen to my 8-minute interview on WJFF’s Radio Chatskill with Tim Bruno

Listen to my 30-minute interview on WJFF’s Catskill Character with Donna Fellenberg. This includes a full reading of my story “I’m More than a Mother.”

Scroll down a bit for more upcoming events. See you out there!

Why I self-published my book (without Amazon)

Y’all. I don’t know what to do anymore. Every digital platform for sharing my work is owned by ethically dubious billionaires with aspirations of oligarchy. It’s enough to make a writer log off forever.

When I was figuring out how to publish PERSONAL SPACE, I had to sit down with myself and ask some tough questions.

Will I make my book available for sale on Amazon, a platform I don’t typically use because I don’t like the business practices of Jeff Bezos?

If I don’t put my book on Amazon, will I lose out on sales and profit?

If I do put my book on Amazon, will I compromise my values?

Don’t I already compromise my values every day when I use platforms like Google, Instagram and Facebook? (Even Substack is questionable! Ughhh) Am I a hypocrite? Should I stop writing and existing altogether?

Is there any way to make and sell a book without feeling icky about it?

And on and on and on.

Ultimately, I decided to let COMMUNITY be my guide.

In one of my most-read newsletters, I talked about how I stopped prioritizing far-flung publishing goals and started focusing on my own community.

This mindset drove my book decisions as well.

I researched local resources and chose a nearby family-owned printshop to make the physical book.

I called on the talents of local artists for the cover and interior illustrations.

I put the book up for sale on my own website, and in my local bookstore.

I plan to sell the rest of the copies “by hand” at in-person events. I want to see my readers. Foster conversation and laughter with them.

Which is not to say I won’t ever sell a book on Amazon. Maybe I will someday. Who knows what will happen? I certainly don’t judge anyone else for doing it.

We’ve all got to do what we’ve got to do to get our writing and ideas out into the world in the midst of this capitalist hellscape.

As 1990s infomercials used to say: “There’s got to be a better way!”

Publishing workshop on February 8

Saturday, February 8, 2025 from 1-3pm

Sullivan Public, 16 Proctor Road, Eldred, NY 12732

I’m going to opine even more about publishing at this in-person workshop for writers of all ages and experience levels.

I’ll share my personal experiences publishing nationally (The New Yorker, McSweeney’s) and locally (Grand Journal, Litt Magazine). I’ll also talk about the process of self-publishing my book, and the hundreds of rejections I’ve received over many years of writing.

The bulk of our workshop will center on YOUR publishing goals and how to reach them. We’ll discuss submission strategies, how to make connections in the literary world, ways to fund self-publishing, overcoming psychological barriers to sharing your work, handling rejection and so much more.

You’ll also get a copy of my new mini-zine, PUBLISH MY STUFF PLEASE, filled with encouragement for your journey, as well as a list of 48 ways to get involved in the literary community of Sullivan County.

To make sure everybody gets a lot of personal attention, this will be limited to 14 participants. There’s a $40 fee, and registration is required.

More upcoming Bizzy events

Yes, I would love to appear on your podcast, do an interview in your newsletter, or do a reading at your space. Help me promote my book! Email me at bizzycoy@gmail.com and say hi.

YARNSLINGERS

Sunday, January 26, 2025 at 12pm

Seminary Hill Cidery, 43 Wagner Lane, Callicoon, NY 12723

15 local storytellers reading true, short stories on the theme of “Winter.” I’ll be debuting a story titled “Three Kisses.” This is always a free, fun event. I’ll have copies of PERSONAL SPACE available for sale before and after.

SAGE SESSION

Thursday, March 6, 2025 from 1:30-3:30pm

Delaware Valley Arts Alliance, 37 Main Street, Narrowsburg, NY 12764

PERSONAL SPACE book reading, signing and Q&A for ages 60+ organized by local nonprofit organizations Tusten Social and Growing Older Together. Really looking forward to reading for some of my favorite people in town!

COVERSTORY

This event on January 19 with the artists of PERSONAL SPACE was canceled due to weather. We are undaunted and will reschedule — watch this space!

Pick my brain about writing & publishing

As I mentioned in a previous issue of BIZZY IN YOUR BOX, I’m available once again for creative career chats.

In the past, I’ve spoken over the phone or on Zoom with folks just like you. We’ve talked about:

• Writing

• Freelancing

• Copywriting

• Writer’s block

• The advertising/marketing industry

• Job-hunting frustrations

• Finding freelance clients

• Setting and negotiating rates

• Figuring out what to do about awkward freelance situations

• Gut checks

• Roadblocks within paid or personal writing projects

• Finding a writing process that works for you

• Prepping for job interviews

• Applying for grants and residencies

• Weird career decisions

• Humor writing and publishing

• The kinds of “oh, life!” stuff that pops up when you’re a writer and/or freelancer and/or creative-type person.

Most calls go one of three ways:

1. You talk yourself into the brilliant solution you already had inside you all along

2. You need reassurance you’re doing the right thing, and I tell you yes, you’re doing the right thing

3. You confess you’re secretly a huge Buffalo Bills fan, and I confess that I am, too

If you want to pick my brain, now’s your chance. Rifle through the filing cabinet of my 15 years’ experience as a full-time and freelance copywriter. Who knows what you might find in there?

It’s not free this time around! I’ve offered hundreds of free calls over the years, and I just can’t hack it anymore. (You get it.)

50 bucks will get you 30 minutes (which, I’ve found, is exactly the amount of time most people need).

Shoot me an old-fashioned electronic mail (bizzycoy@gmail.com) and we’ll find a mutually agreeable time to chat. I love doing this, so don’t be shy. It’ll be fun. I look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks to you, my BIZZY IN YOUR BOX community, for reading, liking and sharing my newsletters. It means so much to me. Please reach out anytime and let me know how you’re doing and what you’re up to.

xoxo

Bizzy

P.S. I was thinking the other day how purple is such a weird word. Say it out loud and see just how weird it is! Purple! Purple! Purple!

Where does “purple” come from?

The internet tells me that it starts with the ancient Greek porphura, which described both the color purple and a mollusk which yielded dye used for coloring the fabrics of Phoenician royalty.

So purple = shellfish juice. Nice!

Announcing my first book!

PERSONAL SPACE: Short humor from The New Yorker, McSweeney’s and beyond

Buy Bizzy's Book

PERSONAL SPACE is a compilation of my 20 best short humor pieces, which have been published in The New Yorker, McSweeney’s, Splitsider, Points in Case, The Belladonna and The Establishment. Each piece is introduced with a short peek behind the writing curtain: my inspiration, process and ideas.

This collection is a labor of love, a celebration of my humor writing career, and a way to share my favorite work with all of YOU.

LIMITED AVAILABILITY

This is a strictly limited edition print run for you—my closest friends and colleagues, my newsletter family, my fellow writers and my creative community. There are not many copies available, so act swiftly.

BUY ONLINE NOW

Purchase online at bizzycoy.com. I will personally package your order and ship it with the help of my tiny post office. (How tiny is it? It closes at noon. It doesn’t even deliver mail to my house! I’ve gotta pick it up myself.)

BUY AT A BOOKSTORE

PERSONAL SPACE is available in-person at One Grand Books, 60 Main Street, Narrowsburg, NY.

LOCAL PICKUP

Do we see each other in person regularly? Purchase online and select “local pickup” at checkout, OR pick up a book at my next live event (below).

Secrets of Bizzy’s Book…

COVER ARTWORK

The cover features an original painting/collage by artist and designer Catherine Chesters, who just so happens to have a studio down the road from me. She also did the cover layout and design!

INTERIOR ILLUSTRATIONS

New Yorker cartoonist Lia Strasser has increased the level of whimsy in the book by concocting 8 black-and-white line drawings to surprise and delight you.

LOCALLY PRINTED

PERSONAL SPACE is made with care by my local printshop, Spencer Printing. A family-owned business, they’ve been serving the Upper Delaware River Valley (where I live!) since 1910.

CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENTS?!

The foreword is by James Folta and Luke Burns, esteemed humor writers and co-founders of A Newsletter of Humorous Writing / An Evening of Humorous Readings. They are pillars of the humor writing community and I am jazzed they co-wrote the (obviously hilarious) foreword.

EVEN MORE CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENTS?!

Lucy Huber, famous humor writer & Assistant Editor of McSweeney’s, says:

“Some of these pieces were in McSweeney's so I'm not 100% sure she can legally publish this. Checking with our lawyers. This isn't my blurb. No, stop quoting me, I'm not blurbing, I'm taking legal action.”

Brian Boone, famous humor writer & Editor of Humorist Books, says:

“As I read Bizzy’s curious creations, short bursts of air forced out of my mouth while simultaneously a rush of delight coursed through my brain. With every page, the same reaction! Do not read this book, for I fear these strange sensations will befall you too, reader.”

SIGNED & KISSED

I will sign each and every copy AND give it a little kiss so you know it carries the official Bizzy Seal of Approval™.

Upcoming Book Events in 2025

COVERSTORY

Sunday, January 19, 2025 from 2-4pm

Chesters Creative, 16 Old Brook Road, Barryville, NY 12719

Book reading by Bizzy Coy with live art by book cover designer Catherine Chesters and book illustrator Lia Strasser. Auction of original PERSONAL SPACE cover artwork. Art prints and books for sale.

YARNSLINGERS

Sunday, January 26, 2025 from 12-1:30pm

Seminary Hill Cidery, 43 Wagner Lane, Callicoon, NY 12723

Bizzy is among 10+ live storytellers who will read true tales on the theme of “Winter.” PERSONAL SPACE available for sale before and after.

PUBLISH YOUR WRITING

Saturday, February 8, 2025 from 1-3pm

Sullivan Public, 16 Proctor Road, Eldred, NY 12732

Workshop and discussion about publishing strategies, opportunities and challenges, for writers of all experience levels. PERSONAL SPACE available for sale. Registration required.

Wow, what a long issue!

I’m exhausted. Are you?? Buy my book! See ya next month.

With love and good humor,

Bizzy