Cody Cook-Parrott's Blog
October 22, 2025
Weaving Worlds on the Web with Kening Zhu
Kening Zhu is an artist, writer, teacher, and creator building worlds on the internet.
Her approach to business is a stunning integration of creative practice, intuition, and artistic clarity.
I’m thrilled to bring you this conversation where we talk about:
Minimalist business ecosystems
Websites as archives outside of time
Allowing ourselves to be multifaceted
How Kening runs her business without platforms
The pros & cons of paid newsletters
Seasonal memberships that support inner rhythms
The labyrinth as an artist’s path
How to quit compartmentalizing business and art
Letting your artist child grow up
Mentioned in the episode:
October 20, 2025
Tuning in to Objects, Essays, and Ideas
“Deep Listening is listening to everything all the time, and reminding yourself when you’re not. But going below the surface too, it’s an active process. It’s not passive. I mean hearing is passive in that sound waves hinge upon the eardrum. You can do both. You can focus and be receptive to your surroundings. If you’re tuned out, then you’re not in contact with your surroundings. You have to process what you hear. Hearing and listening are not the same thing.”
Pauline Oliveros
Dear Reader,
I am starting to believe I have compiled enough ideas, materials, and objects for my next projects, essays, books, and workshops. I feel filled to the brim, having gathered all Summer and finding myself moving into Fall with my ingredients indexed, my thoughts simmering like soup, my bookshelves overflowing with texts.
It is no mystery to me that I love to accumulate. A bookstore feels like a place where I find my kin and my ancestors, wanting to take them home with me. I love fashion and dressing a certain way so I love to thrift and shop at vintage stores and find treasures. I love to read and listen to podcasts to bring in new knowledge. I am a hungry ghost, looking to fill the spiritual hole that lives inside of me - and in this time of life I am parsing out which parts of this process are beautiful and which fall into addictive spending and consumption.
I feel full right now, meandering through life knowing that to bring in more books I would need another bookshelf. To bring in more clothes I would need another closet. To bring in more ideas I would need another brain.
What if the work now isn’t to gather more, but to tend to what has already been gathered. To alter the clothes, gift the books I have read or will never open, bring things to the Women’s Resource Center to donate. Perhaps it is time for a clothing swap or a tiny garage sale. I feel the projects that already exist - like my 366 day prayer book Look About You - want to be recorded as an audio book. Some of my favorite essays want to be rearranged into workshops. My old sheets turned into quilts.
The archive holds so much, yet I can only hold what is in front of me. Instead of hunting for new material, I feel called to weave together the existing fragments. World building not as bringing in new possibility, but as working with the fractured pieces that have been waiting for me. I want to let things settle, digest, and integrate.
I turn not to composting but to pollination. I am not asking what wants to be turned over back into soil, I feel like I am swift to this action. Instead I ask - what projects want to inform new ones. An example I keep coming back to is a poem I wrote in grad school last semester, The Quilt As Archive. This became the title of my solo art show and I self published the poem in the catalogue with the show. I didn’t need to come up with new material for the catalogue or the show, it was already right in front of me. The series of quilts I finished were ones I had worked on at the Gee’s Bend Quilt Retreat a year before, courting me to be finished.
I always have something waiting in the wings, ready to be changed, or to become new again. Within and without. Projects not as separate entities, but as opportunities to cross feed each other. The poem feeds the quilt, the class feeds the essay. Everything I’ve collected, already in conversation with each other.
Papers all over my desk, scraps of fabric on the floor, podcast episode ideas in my notes app — the soft shuffle of things asking to be chosen. They all start to hum together as one, everything living simultaneously.
This same abundance shows up in my material life, and I begin to be more skeptical of how I am advertised to, what my values are in fighting against it, and how to be in greater alignment with my spending. The same discipline that guides my creative practice — to finish, to revise, to listen — might also guide how I consume. What are the objects telling me — the quality, the source, the way they came into my home. The way they exit the home.
I consider the great stillness, a spending interlude, of not acquiring new things and to see what the offerings in front of me have to say. I want to spend November in observation, not accumulation — studying the objects that already hold my attention.
It all comes back to metabolizing, and the older I get, the slower this process becomes in body, mind, and spirit.
What if every unfinished idea was already enough?
What if attention itself was the practice?
For now I will invest in the deep listening of what is already here.
→ Donate to Land Back in Detroit : Noojimo’waning- A Place for Healing
→ This episode of The Money with Katie Show with Tressie McMillan Cottom
→ Early Bird Registration is open for Pollinating Through Projects Nov 1 + 2 : Use code POLLINATING for 20% off for the next 48 hrs
→ Thank you to everyone’s support on the announcement of buying my books back from my former publisher to trigger a reprint without my dead name on the cover
I’d love to invite you to check out the fundraising workshop on Nov 9 and contribute or share with your communities. Over $1200 has already come in to meet my $8820 goal to buy back 980 books and print stickers for the covers.
→ For the month of November I am hosting OBJECT STUDY for paid subscribers of this newsletter. More information on this experiment soon but if you want to think more deeply about the objects you acquire, purchase, and get rid of : this is for you
We’ll have a Discord group to track our progress each day, a spreadsheet template, videos guiding you through how to set up a spending pause, and more!
→ I got an early copy of next book Making Art and Making a Living and I already dug in and am loving it. Mason’s book Daily Rituals totally changed my life a decade ago and is a huge reason why I try to do certain things every day. PRE ORDER his new book! HIS NEWSLETTER IS ALSO VERY GOOD :
→ 2025 Parole Prep Holiday Raffle : (from the website) This fundraiser will support Parole Prep’s mission of providing community, care, and advocacy for people rebuilding their lives after decades in prison. From weekend getaways to signed collections of books, we hope you find something special to share with a loved one this holiday season.
Parole Preparation Project works to bring incarcerated people home, reunite families, and strengthen communities. To learn more about the work, visit Parole Prep.
The newest episode of Common Shapes is about how I decided to end one of my favorite places to be : my writing group Landscapes
I also announce yet ANOTHER NEW PROJECT - listen to find out what it is!
A Class Traitor’s Guide to Solidarity Under Fascism 11/6, 7-8:30 ET For any young person who has more than they need ($, housing) and wants to share it but doesn’t yet know how. Find community, make a plan!
Stop procrastinating. Focused Space is an online co-working app & community for writers, artists, entrepreneurs & anyone who is sick of working alone.
Fog Chaser: A new original instrumental song sent to you monthly, skipping algorithms entirely. For creatives seeking calm focus (+ free download)
Meditate & Create Open House, Sun Oct 26, 10am ET. Bring a journal, a sketchbook, some knitting, and let’s meditate, make stuff, & connect! Free, ticketed event online. ALL welcome!
Sex and the City fans rejoice: Night of 1000 Boyfriends brings 14 drag artists together for a show celebrating (and roasting) the series’ most iconic boyfriends. 11/6 in NYC
Expressive Unshaming: Work with body symptoms, emotions, and patterns to move toward ease, self-trust, and authentic expression
Want to include a classified ad for next week? Click here to read more
→ Website
→ Are.na
→ info@codycookparrott.com
Want access to my digital garden of pollinated projects? Become a paid subscriber to access Cody’s World : my Notion based universe of projects, archives, dance videos, writing, and more - $5/mo or $35/year
Liking and sharing this post is a great way to support my writing. Thanks for reading.
October 17, 2025
A Fundraising Workshop for Cody’s Books
Dear Readers,
Yesterday I wrote about wanting to buy back the remaining 980 copies of How to Not Always Be Working and Getting To Center that still say my deadname on them - doing this will trigger a reprint!
I took the paywall off so you can read it here :
With all of your amazing advice and help I landed on the following fundraising event and I’d love for you to be there or contribute!
This investment of buying back the books costs $8820. In order to raise this much money I am hosting this fundraising event and workshop. Can’t attend live? The workshop will be recorded.
Or you can simply contribute in solidarity — every dollar helps. Anything raised over $8820 will go toward printing stickers to place on the cover and spines of the books, shipping costs, and managing inventory.
The workshop is valued at $55 but you can contribute as little as $27 (that helps me buy back 3 books!) - You are encouraged and welcome to contribute more if you are able - $111, $222, $500, $1000!
WHAT WE WILL DO IN THE WORKSHOP :
This workshop is about reclaiming and re-animating your own archive — as an artist, writer, or small business owner.
Together we’ll explore:
How to organize, revisit, and repurpose old projects.
How to transform past work into new stories.
How to reclaim creative lineage as a living practice.
Expect journaling prompts, guided reflection, and live conversation.
I will read from How to Not Always Be Working and Getting to Center, share what this reclamation means, and talk with special guests about the practice of renaming, lineage, and attention.
There will also be book giveaways, prizes, and small surprises throughout the session
WHY IT MATTERS :
This is more than a fundraiser — it’s a collective act of creative sovereignty.
Every registration helps bring my early works home under my true name — aligning the archive with the artist before The Practice of Attention arrives.
Thank you for reading! Thank you for trusting me! Please share widely!
→ Want to include a classified ad for next week? Click here to read more→ Website
→ Pollinating Through Projects Waitlist : A Two-Day Workshop on Writing Across Mediums - a study in bringing together all your many forms to make what seems like a jumbled mess finally make perfect sense. Live on Zoom Nov 1 + 2 :)
→ Are.na
→ info@codycookparrott.com
October 16, 2025
Books With a Dead Name
EDIT : YOU CAN NOW JOIN
Reclaim the Archive: A Fundraising Workshop for Cody’s Books
on Sunday November 9 Dear Reader,
Today in Behind the Scenes of Business I come to you with a request for advice that is sensitive. I feel stumped, and so do many of my peers. So I thought I would bring you into the fold. I have so few examples of trans authors who have changed their name after a book has already been in print, I am coming up short for for resources.
My request pertains to How to Not Always Be Working and Getting to Center which both currently are in bookstores worldwide with my deadname on them. It bums me out, hurts my heart, and as a small business owner reads to me as bad and confusing for sales. Combined — these books have sold over 50k copies, been translated into multiple other languages, and are very special to me.
If you want to read more about my name change read along here :
My former publisher has been difficult to work with on changing my name in print and I have been presented with a big decision to make. I’ll tell you the story and lay out the details as best I can, and in the comments you are welcome to share your thoughts. We’ll talk exact numbers, pricing, and transparency as always.
My next book The Practice of Attention : Cultivating Presence in a Distracted World comes out with Sounds True on March 17, 2026.
In a world where things are in alignment - leading up to the sale of this book and DURING the launch of this book, all of my former books would clearly say Cody Cook-Parrott on them, as this is my chosen, legal, and business name for almost two years.
My old publisher has worked with me to get everything ready for a reprint that clearly says Cody Cook-Parrott on the covers, spine, and back as well as change my name and pronouns in the text itself. For this I am grateful.
However, with the remaining books in the warehouse - 214 copies of Getting to Center and 776 copies of How to Not Always Be Working - they will not budge to work with me on putting stickers on these covers or triggering an earlier reprint for the book and their estimate is they won’t sell before The Practice of Attention comes out.
After months of asking, today I was given the total amount it would cost to buy the books back myself and trigger a reprint, which is $8820 with my author price of $9 a copy. This is more money per copy than How to Not Always Be Working is currently listed at on Amazon.
In no particular order here are some facts and considerations :→ In no way do I have an extra $8820 laying around, saved, or in a bank account for me to do this today.
→ If I were to save up and buy back this many copies of my books, what would I do with them?
→ Would I make name plate stickers myself and have a big sticker placing party somewhere and have a blowout sale and sign copies of them and sell them for super sale on my website?
→ Does this then compete with selling the new reprint copies? Or does that not matter?
→ My old publisher is suggesting “I simply wait for the reprint” - am I overreacting in how upsetting it is to see my deadname everywhere?
→ If I don’t do this, what do I do instead?
→ Is it appropriate to fundraise for the $8820 - or do a sort of presale for these copies? I am sensitive to the many needs in the world right now (always)
→ I can’t use Kickstarter because it isn’t a new project and with GoFund Me I couldn’t give the book as a reward for contributing
→ Is there another site or way to do a fundraiser/pre order of sorts with a GOAL to reach and rewards to be given that IS NOT my own website?
→ My understanding is I would have them on a Net30 contract, meaning once they are in my hands I would have thirty days to come up with the money to pay for them
This is where I run out of ideas. Having 980 books on hand feels ultimately overwhelming, but also a bit exciting to think about all the things I could do with them. If I did buy them all back it feels clear I’d need to also order stickers for the covers.
I wish so badly my old publisher would just let me pay for stickers for them to place on the books - but they have said no multiple times. I offered to pay for them, fly to NYC, and put them on myself. They still said no.
When I did my residency at Atland in August I brought my books to put on the merch table and it wasn’t until I got there that I realized how painful it was to see my deadname on the covers. I cut up post it notes to write Cody on and stuck them on the books. My students insisted I push to have a reprint done earlier or stickers made. I am so grateful to be surrounded by advocates and allies in this way.
It was then that I really started to realize how important this was to me. How disorienting and dysphoric it feels to have M@rlee Gr@ce written all over these books when I feel so far from that name.
I also am noticing that some bookstores are confused when I email them, not linking that I am the same person (even though I am clear about it in my email).
One of the reasons I didn’t change my name for so long was the fears that are now coming true. That having my deadname on so many books in the world and in the warehouse would confuse the buyer, the reader, and be painful. These fears have all come true.
I am so glad I changed my name and didn’t wait for the fear to go away. Not only has it persisted, it was real all along. Sometimes we have to do things for ourselves at the detriment of our careers, our bank accounts, and our comfort.
This brings me to you dear readers.
For my trans and non binary readers, have you been through something like this, and how did you handle it?
For my cis readers, how would you advocate for a trans person going through this?
And for all of you - what would you do?To keep it easy, here is a poll. But I’d love for you to elaborate in the comments.
→ Want to include a classified ad for next week? Click here to read more→ Website
→ Pollinating Through Projects Waitlist : A Two-Day Workshop on Writing Across Mediums - a study in bringing together all your many forms to make what seems like a jumbled mess finally make perfect sense. Live on Zoom Nov 1 + 2 :)
→ Are.na
→ info@codycookparrott.com
Liking and sharing this post is a great way to support my writing. Thanks for reading.
October 15, 2025
The Magic of Endings: Why I’m Closing Landscapes
No offering is forever. But how do we sunset the ones that mean a lot to us and others?
In this episode, I share why I’ve decided to close my writing group Landscapes.
I talk through reorienting around sustainability, why my tech choices made this shift necessary, losing recurring income, and more.
Tune in for a pep talk to help you find your way toward what’s next. Then join me for Prompts, an analog writing newsletter that begins in 2026.
Mentioned in the episode:
October 13, 2025
Pollinating Through Projects
Dear Reader,
I write to you from the depths of graduate school, where in the last year my studies have found a way to integrate with each other in a new and bountiful way.
What can often feel like a list of unrelated pursuits - quilting, dancing, writing, teaching - has emerged into a quiet hum of one and the same. The through line being my writing, my creative practices being the anchors. It is not a neat process but it is alive, moving, churning through space and time. The boundaries between my efforts have loosened, giving a chance for me, the pollinator, to connect the dots.
From The National Park Service :
A pollinator is anything that helps move pollen from one part of a flower to another. This movement fertilizes a plant, helping make seeds, fruits, and new plants. Some plants can pollinate themselves, and others use wind or water to move their pollen. But many plants need help from insects and animals like bees, butterflies, birds, bats, and even some small mammals.
And from one of my favorite CAConrad poems : #88: SECURITY CAMERAS AND FLOWERS DREAMING THE ELEVATION ALLEGIANCE
“I’M A POLLINATOR, I’M A POLLINATOR!!” I took notes, took many notes, and the notes became a poem titled, “I WANT TO DO EVERY / THING WRONG JUST ONCE”
It isn’t just the final forms that experience a cross pollination, but the formation itself. When I am teaching writing I think of tearing fabric. When I am tearing fabric I think of keeping my feet on the foot bar of the Pilates reformer steady. When I’m walking, sentences drift in to my mind to be sent to the page.
Like my garden, my creative containers feel wild at the moment, unkempt but continuing to make way through the soil. With little contribution from my hands, my flower garden did well this year. The rain came enough, the seeds had spread, the dye garden emerged, and the things I planted last year returned as Bill at the nursery promised me they would.
Every time a new flower would pop up I would be surprised, delighted at its grand entrance toward the sky. In trusting them to return they did, and so I turn toward my own work with this same reverence. That perhaps a lighter hand is needed, less force, less rushing, less square peg in the round hole.
In committing to newsletter writing for over a decade I find that it has become my pollinator headquarters. The place I go to tie it all together. Sometimes with ease and sometimes with hardship, straining beyond my limits when what is called for is rest. To relax into the form instead of trying to shape it into something new and bold.
The essay reminds me to stay.
The quilt reminds me to transform fragments into coherence.
The dance reminds me how to move through resistance.
The teaching reminds me how to fold it all in.
So I help move the pollen, from one flower to the other. Each flower representing a different part of my practice, and I am the bee. Buzzing through my projects, containers, and work. Using my writing and reporting practice to move the resources around.
I invite self pollination in, a skill in transforming the self from the inside. Knowing that not every lesson and every ounce needs to be shared. I ask myself, where does witnessing fall short and must become action. When do I fly to the next garden? And who will fly with me?
With the bones outlined of a whole ecology, I step into the next project. With some fear and trepidation but with gratitude. Pollination becomes just as much about the movement as the attention. To notice the subtle transfer, the moment something unseen becomes generative. The bees paying exquisite attention to what is in bloom, I invite myself to do the same.
Art making is not linear, it is relational. And there is no need for me to separate out the parts to be so distinctly individual. My projects conspire behind my back, needing me less and less, requiring a lighter grip.
Everything I touch carries the trace of what came before it. The zine before the book, the scrap before the quilt, the ache before the push off. I stop trying to name which part belongs to which practice. Each gesture belonging to the same field.
Paying Attention To : → Reading : No New Things by Ashlee Piper
I’m thinking of doing a No New Things November for paid subscribers with a Discord Group and a Live Zoom Component - is there interest in this experiment?
→ Reading : Notes on Craft : Writing in the Hour of Genocide by Fargo Nissim Tbakhi
→ Reading : newsletter
→ Teaching : I am teaching a class of the same name as the above essay live on zoom November 1 + 2 and I would love for you to be there.
Pollinating Through Projects is A Two-Day Workshop on Writing Across Mediums - a study in bringing together all your many forms to make what seems like a jumbled mess finally make perfect sense.
Early Bird Registration opens this week
Classifieds : Procrastinating? Focused Space is an online co-working app & community for writers, artists, entrepreneurs, and anyone who is sick of working alone.
When the world feels uncertain, clarity is power — this 90-minute strategy session helps you ground, refocus, and design what’s next in your work and life.
Meditate & Create Open House, Sun Oct 26, 10am ET. Bring a journal, a sketchbook, some knitting, and let’s meditate, make stuff, & connect! Free, ticketed event online. ALL welcome!
SIERRA: An artist residency for wild-hearted beings in Oaxaca - creative practice as ecological experiment + collective ritual. Join us in November!
Want to include a classified ad for next week? Click here to read more
→ Website
→ Pollinating Through Projects Waitlist : A Two-Day Workshop on Writing Across Mediums - a study in bringing together all your many forms to make what seems like a jumbled mess finally make perfect sense. Live on Zoom Nov 1 + 2 :)
→ Are.na
→ info@codycookparrott.com
Want access to my digital garden of pollinated projects? Become a paid subscriber to access Cody’s World : my Notion based universe of projects, archives, dance videos, writing, and more - $5/mo or $35/year
Liking and sharing this post is a great way to support my writing. Thanks for reading.
October 9, 2025
Turning Toward the Visible
Today’s email is free for all to read. The Behind the Scenes of Business Column and Cody’s World Digest comes out on Thursdays for paid subscribers of Monday Monday. Enjoy this week’s installment with no paywall.
If you’re new here, I’m Cody Cook-Parrott — a writer, artist, and movement practitioner exploring attention, practice, and systems. I’ve sent out Monday Monday since 2017, a weekly newsletter on writing, art, rural living, queer love, and creative business. I am the author of How to Not Always be Working and the forthcoming book The Practice of Attention (Sounds True, March 2026)
Thanks for being here.
Photo by Cody SellsDear Reader,
Part of being a tornado person is the gift of sight. The blessing of knowing with utmost clarity what it is you want more than anything, and being willing to make swift and risky moves to achieve the new outcome. It’s not that I desire chaos and upheaval, it’s that when the wind picks up I don’t resist.
For the last thirteen years I have excelled at the act of the business pivot, changing my mind and following the path that calls to me regardless of what other people think is a “good” idea. This has led to some flops, some failures, some quick steps back toward the original plan, and people slipping away.
I have spent the last few months being completely platform free in search of a liberated experience. My Instagram account completely deleted, sending my newsletter from a platform free service provider, deactivating my YouTube channel I played with for two weeks, and leaning into the hidden nature of being nowhere to be found.
What I found was not liberation, but loneliness.For a short time this felt refreshing, like I’d escaped the wheel of constant presentation. My business was doing well — the paid subscribers of my newsletter had grown with the launch of Cody’s World, Fieldwork (my very cool three month small business cohort) sold out with time to spare, my latest class had almost 100 sign ups : all markers of things going well and a business model that was working with no platforms.
I have never let good strategy run my business, in fact I often am doing the opposite of what any good marketing strategist would suggest. I’ve never once thought about SEO, I deleted (instead of deactivated) my 80k Instagram follower account and left up no archive, I left Substack where I was a bestseller, I once invested in selling thousands of dollars of yarn in a shop that wasn’t a yarn shop and I couldn’t sell it online. Like I said, I do not run my business by strategy.
I also don’t run it by intuition, impulse, or feeling. It’s a different force, unnameable perhaps. It’s a practice, I run my business as a practice. As an experiment. As a humble effort in learning how to make money without compromising all of my values.
Moving from Buttondown Back to Substack Using Buttondown to send this newsletter this year has been a complete delight. And if you run a business where you want to be off platforms and have a simple and analog like structure to email correspondence that also could include paid subscriptions - I cannot recommend it enough. Justin, Steph, and Anita are an amazing team and the customer service is beyond my wildest dreams. They made my vision come true of being able to leave a platform that at the time wasn't working for me.
I left Substack for a handful of reasons, primarily feeling like I was addicted to metrics, uncertainty around how much I wanted to put in to having a paid newsletter, and the desire to be free of algorithms and the social media aspect of Notes. There have also been moments where my values collide with choices that Substack has made, but I also find this to be true with most technology I use. Leaving was an imperfect choice, and so is returning.
Substack does not have a migration team to help anyone move a list which led me to some hurdles that I did indeed overcome. Right now I can’t figure out how to move my full archive from Buttondown back to Substack, but otherwise all paid subscriptions and free subscriptions have seamlessly moved. If you are my friend or family and had a comped subscription before and don’t see it popping up let me know.
The Impulse to ShiftOver the last few weeks I have felt what one of my Human Design mentors and I refer to as “tingle over time” or TOT for short. It is when I get the same impulse / desire multiple times and don’t act on it but see it reappearing. Moving back to Substack had become a TOT - a continued desire to return to the community of writers, to not feel so alone in my writing, to be amongst my peers, and to interact on a deeper level with my readers.
One of my greatest collaborators in decision making is my menstrual cycle, which with the help of my Oura Ring I track religiously. I suffer from debilitating PMDD —shout out to my amazing acupuncturist Dr. Cody Burch who has been supporting me with needles and Chinese herbs, getting the mildest relief is a win. If you’re in Northern Michigan I cannot recommend working with her enough.
Alas - during days 23-25 of my cycle I am a puddle of darkness. Prince of the underworld. Not to be spoken to, messed with, or interacted with. If I am lucky I try to do very little things on these days, but what I am learning about week four of my cycle is my tolerance is so low it actually gives me this precise clarity.
Example of what I don’t do in Week Four : I am growing my hair out, so if I feel the urge to chop it all off during Week Four I simply do not take action. That action would not be in line with my goals. Week Four = No Scissors.
Example of what I used to not do in Week Four : Make any sudden moves for fear that every move would be the equivalent to giving myself Amélie baby bangs before I could put the scissors down.
What happened this time : The TOT had passed through me a few times in the desire to return to Substack and I felt an overwhelming need to take up positive space in my community that wasn’t so hidden.
I felt so uncomfortable on Day 24 being away from the space that was a home for my writing from 2021-2024 and I knew deep down I would go back but wanted to do it in a way that wasn’t a rush but also didn’t hold me back. I thought - ok I should just wait until I bleed, that is when true clarity comes.
True clarity was in the discomfort this time, not the waiting.
Steps :
I emailed my paid subscribers letting them know I was considering the move and got an overwhelmingly positive response with one person asking to be removed from a values misalignment perspective.
I let Buttondown know I was thinking about the move and they were nothing but kind and supportive, while of course sad to lose me (we had a lot of fun working together!)
The thing you have to always remember about having an email list is that you own it ~ you get to move it to whatever newsletter platform you want and every person has the ability to opt out at anytime.I exported my CSV of subscribers from Buttondown and uploaded them to Substack and the import review was denied. I had to provide some more proof that I didn't randomly come up with 30k email addresses.
I was originally told I would not be able to seamlessly move my paid subs over and that I would have to comp them all and have them re-sign up which is a huge financial risk. Because my Stripe account was formerly connected to Substack I was able to move everyone back with no problems (phewph!)
In the middle of the night I couldn’t sleep so I woke up and emailed my full list off the archive and let them know I had made the move.
And then here we are now with a free installment of Behind The Scenes of Business. Monday Monday will remain free on Mondays with an essay, Paying Attention To link round up, and Classifieds - community ads that are 150 characters and $75.
Support :I turned to two people I deeply respect : and . Amelia validated that what I wasn’t feeling was a resistance to being alone - it was indeed loneliness. And that ahead of my book launch being on a platform is simply good for reaching new and dedicated readers.
Erin, our sacred newsletter whisperer, encouraged me to do the damn thing and put the pieces in place for a return. She helped me see where I could be more consistent in my output, clearer in my delivery, and sharper with my tongue. If you’re looking to grow a paid newsletter I can’t recommend working with Erin enough.
Why the return to Substack : This past week I started working with my publicist and marketing team for my next book —The Practice of Attention, Sounds True (March 2026).
First of all I feel so lucky that NO ONE on the team has ever suggested I use an app that is addictive to me or get back on any platform. This has not always been my experience with a publishing team.
As I think about this book being in the world, wanting people to share it, wanting to witness this sharing, I knew I wanted to be - as The Little Mermaid says so succinctly - where the people are. I wanna see, wanna see ‘em dancing.
I want people to be able to tag me, to restack my newsletters, to be able to be in the comments with paid subscribers, to use Notes myself to point people to my newsletters.
I want my work as an author to reach a culturally relevant mass - not just the secret portal of my business.
The Lie of Discoverability :One of the alluring parts of Substack is the discoverability through recommendations and being on a platform. This is not a sustainable business model if your full income doesn’t come from said newsletter. Most of us are also teaching, doing 1:1 work, writing books, making art, etc. Free readers = readers who read for free. There is no guarantee they will become buyers. What a blessing! So much of the magic of this newsletter is it being free. But that doesn’t pay the bills so we have to look at the business plan.
By business plan I mean scratches on a napkin, half formed Notion documents, and phone notes.
A large audience does not make a business plan. Systems, practices, and strategies do. Even if I don’t lead with strategy, it makes its way into my business once the practices have spoken first.
And yet, I knew I wanted to grow my free list, which has been more or less stagnant since moving to Buttondown with the exception of a few times that someone mentioned or tagged my newsletter - on Substack Notes.
Since migrating less yesterday I have gotten more new free subscribers in less than 24 hrs than I did within weeks using a newsletter system not on a platform. This was part of my reason for moving, to grow the readership I tend to with great reverence.
Social Media Addiction + Features :In my usage of the platform in this moment I don’t feel negatively sparked by the analytics (which you can now hide!) or overly interested in being on Notes. It all feels neutral to me and reminds me more of my relationship to Pinterest or Are.na where I want to dive in for a moment but feels easeful to put down.
In quitting Instagram I never said I would never use social media or a platform for sharing ever again, as much as my usage of that specific app wasn’t working for this sober drunk.
If I’m honest - I feel excited to occasionally use Notes to share my work and connect with peers and readers. I’m excited to use the chat to host conversations (I had a lot of fun with this before I left)
Want to go live? Invite me over I’d love to hang out.
If any of these features start to hit on my addictive nature I know there are changes I can make to the way I interface with the website. Keeping the app off my phone for now feels clear.
Long Live the Email Newsletter :Another problem I have is Substack’s insistence on getting people to use the app, and as your humble email newsletter facilitator it is my hope that you read this in your email inbox. That it is a slower experience. That it lands in the private contained space and not an app built to hold you in.
And - I want you to have ease. I know for many having one place to read newsletters is helpful, and this was reflected to me when people unsubscribed when I migrated to Buttondown - citing they would only read my newsletter if it was in the app.
All to say - long live the email newsletter.
What’s Next : Tomorrow I head to Boulder for my residency at Naropa for year two of my MFA. I will continue to write and work on my craft in Cody’s World - my digital garden, dance, writing, and research archive available for paid subscribers. When you upgrade you get automatic access.
I will put my whole self into my Monday newsletter, responding to the desires and questions of my readers.
I will stay committed to my job of synthesizing my lived experience into the written word and inviting other to bear witness, now with more pathways to visibility.
I make half of what I once did while on Substack and will work to grow my paid offerings - building back trust with my readers.
I will walk June, relish in Katy’s love, read and write. Writing forever.
Thank you :For reading, for being here, for trusting me in the great tornado process of artistry.
If you liked today’s essay - consider liking it, sharing it, or texting it to a friend.
Paid subscribers are invited to chime in in the comments.
Celebrating being back and looking forward to what is revealed.
→ Website
→ Pollinating Through Projects Waitlist : A Two-Day Workshop on Writing Across Mediums - a study in bringing together all your many forms to make what seems like a jumbled mess finally make perfect sense. Live on Zoom Nov 1 + 2 :)
→ Are.na
→ info@codycookparrott.com
Monday Monday is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
October 8, 2025
The Dance of Self-Employment with Jamila Reddy
Jamila Reddy is a writer, meditation guide, ex-entrepreneur, and dear friend.
In this episode, we talk about:
What it means to be a writer
The capacity it takes to self-publish
Stepping away from entrepreneurship
Self-promotion vs self-expression
The marketing work required to keep a business afloat
The joys (and horrors) of working for others
Paywalls as a way of gathering community
Healthy distraction and self-care that doesn’t feel like labor
New definitions of success
Mentioned in the episode:
Thanks to Softer Sounds, Saltbreaker, and Jess Herrera for their help making this podcast. If you'd like to support the show, please become a paying subscriber of my newsletter, Cody's World.
October 6, 2025
The Magic of Quilt Camp
All photos by Ellen RuttDear Reader,
Last month I hosted a weekend beyond my wildest dreams, Quilt Camp. With the support of Green Door Folk School and Cedar North we invited ten eager quilters to experiment with fabric in the gallery, in the hoop house, and in the great outdoors.
Land as studio, land as reverence, land as hope field.
Outdoor studiosIn the months leading up to it, I’d been dreaming about what it means to bring people here—to this particular stretch of Northern Michigan where the lake is never far, and the light seems to hold you accountable for paying attention. Quilt Camp began as a vision of radical hospitality: a space where artists could arrive as they are, not a retreat from life, but a practice of entering it more fully.
Each morning the fog from the rain the day before lingered, a sort of invitation to autumn’s beginning and for us to enter into creative rigor and delight.
What surprised me most was how quickly community formed. Within hours, the group moved like an ecosystem: Miriam cooking us the most amazing food, someone pinning, someone pressing fabric on the iron, someone ripping cotton into strips. The camp became less about what we made and more about the rhythm of making together. Quilting, at its heart, is a practice of devotion—it requires presence, repetition, and the willingness to stay with something, even when it feels imperfect.
The chorus of the machines, the slow choreography of care, every stitch a commitment to the liberation of ourselves in service to the whole.
With our crooked seams and brave entry points we took a break to hike one my favorite trails that ends on a bluff that overlooks the lake, June leading the way. Some of the students had never seen Lake Michigan before and it is always a delight to surprise newcomers.
The empty hoop house, never really emptyMe and Ellen brought small generators and long extension cords that allowed for a pop up studio in the old hoop house as it trickled down rain all day. The next day the rest of the team was excited to join the hoop house crew outside and almost everyone had turned an outdoor table into their portable studio. A quilt is something human, a quilt is something a part of the land. A quilt is something a part of the everything.
The space held us in its own pattern. Within our four walls and our sharing circles there was profound grief, fear, sadness, and joy. Every quilt was a collaboration. With a friend who is a poet in Palestine, with the places we are from, with our children, with our fences, with our self doubt, and always with our fabric.
saylem, Anja, and Lauren work togetherHaving saylem celeste as my co-teacher was a lesson in not doing things alone. Watching them tell their story, teach, and share their wisdom made me remember why collaboration is key. Why doing things alone limits the story telling the people need to receive. saylem is skilled at hand quilting and teaching the technique and as I sat in my chair I thought - I’m so glad someone else is teaching this part. What luck to have co-teachers who excel at what you don’t, and have a story and history so different.
Finished QuiltsI am so grateful Ellen captured the weekend on film, because in many ways I feel lost for words. The weekend transformed me, as a teacher and a facilitator.
I’d love to bring this workshop weekend to other spaces, as well as teach it again here in Northern Michigan. Enter your info here if you’re interested in attending or hosting.
Joan quiltingWhat felt so special to me were all the quiet unseen moments. Someone’s face lighting up when they finally figured out the next step. Taping our squares to the wall so we could somehow make sense of them. Seeing the goats and the baby cow and steadily watching life emerge that led us into our own lives emerging. Quilting as emergence.
No matter what I teach - quilting, dance, writing, creative business - it is always through the lens of anti perfectionism. I am deeply devoted to understanding how to resist the supremacy of being perfect. Unraveling this concept that is directly related to whiteness, straightness, and the patriarchy.
Quilting as an act of refusal. A refusal to measure perfectly, to be inside the lines, to know what we’re doing before we take the next step.
Gina and Sarah in the hoop houseI sit today in endless gratitude to my co facilitators Ellen Rutt and saylem m. celeste. To Lauren, Libby, and Kristina at Green Door Folk School. To Miriam for our beautiful food. And to James and Julie for making a space for us to inhabit. I couldn’t have witnessed this much magic without this team.
Little ole me in the lightA few days later I went back to the gallery to clean up and felt the call and response of the threads, the space, the quilts on the wall, the piles of fabric. I felt the lingering presence of each body of work, each body and mind, each body of attention.
I felt lucky that this is what I am called to do, to hold the space. To shape the container. To call in bewilderment and curiosity and togetherness.
Quilt Camp reminded me that creation is never solitary, it is a symphony of sounds brought together by practice. It is an endless vortex of trying, even when we don’t think we can. It is the secret house that appears in the patchwork. It is the greatest mystery, to sit at the sewing machine and let yourself be witnessed. Quilt Camp Forever.
In my Creative Business EcosystemIf you want to experience the magic of quilt camp in a digital sphere - me and Christi Johnson are teaching Quilt in a Weekend live on zoom November 15 + 16 - registration is open and limited to 40 participants - BIPOC scholarships available and payment plans for all
The waitlist is also open for a writing class I am teaching Nov 1 + 2 : Pollinating Your Projects : A Two-Day Workshop on Writing Across Mediums - a study in bringing together all your many forms to make what seems like a jumbled mess finally make perfect sense.
Today is the last day to apply for The Practice of Attention Field Team - a group of people selected to help me promote my next book in exchange for an Advance Copy, a special Attention Audit Workshop, 20% your next class, and more
The newest episode of my podcast Common Shapes - Into The Broadcast : From Fragments to Finishing
New in Cody’s World : The September Digest, new dance videos, and behind the scenes of Katy working on the small shed to be the future Pilates Studio
To access Cody's World become a paid subscriber for $5/mo or $35/year : upgrade here Paying Attention To:My friend Amelia Hruby is the host of my favorite podcast Off The Grid, editor and producer of Common Shapes, and has just published a BRAND NEW BOOK
Grab a copy or buy a bundle to get access to the Off The Grid retreat she’s hosting Nov 5-7
I was lucky enough to get an early copy of the book and it’s so inspiring, especially for those of us who have made the jump off social media or are longing for more creative attention to be restored in our lives. Don’t walk - run to get a copy of this amazing book!
Huge fan of kening zhu’s podcast botanical studies of internet magic and love this episode on digital silence as practice
The latest newsletter from Tamara Santibañez, always touching in on so much, including this poem from Assata Shakur
CLASSIFIEDS : Looking to reconnect to your inner artist? The Hikers Way is a pod-class to get neurodiverse folks in tune to rituals that support their blooming. ART x CARE is an event exploring how caregiving contributes to and complicates artistic practice. Join us in NYC 10/25 - save 15% with FRIEND15, or PWYCLet’s take a soft sabbatical. Get the free Field Guide—listening explorations for everyday practice. Attune attention; return to aliveness. Looking to transform your creative process? The Artist Rebirth Cycle is a self-paced video course designed to support artists gestating new creative processes and projectsWant to include a classified ad for next week? Click here to read more
Are.na
Email : info@codycookparrott.com
Website : https://www.codycookparrott.com
October 1, 2025
Into the Broadcast: Taking Ideas from Fragment to Finished
Today’s episode is about the long journey of cultivating consistency in our creative practices.
I talk about: the magic of giving up, how to find the right pace, minimum viable actions, tools for building momentum, and places to share your work.
This one’s for you if you’ve been circling something important that wants to be released into the world. Or if you’re excited about integrating daily or weekly practices, so they can support your long-term projects.
Tune in then get the Into the Broadcast Map, and join me in The Long Arc this weekend.
Mentioned in the episode:
Sign up for The Long Arc on 10/4
Thanks to Softer Sounds, Saltbreaker, and Jess Herrera for their help making this podcast. If you'd like to support the show, please become a paying subscriber of my newsletter, Cody's World.
