Tag Archives: Guest Interview

Popular Posts 2022

More than three years? That’s a fair amount of podcasts / posts / interview / whatever you want to call these things. Which have been most popular? Well, let’s see what the data shows…

As for the podcasts from 2022, give them a year or two to acquire an audience, particularly one that is not subjected to staying indoors during a pandemic.

Thanks for listening; and to our guests, thanks for opening up to the rest of the writing community. PODCAST

Katrina Morse – Adult Services Librarian

Say the word ‘money’ and people either have their ears perk up or their eyes glaze over. How about if it is money for your projects? Sno-Isle Libraries’ Freeland Library has become one of the few homes for a database of grants, a source of people and organizations who want to fund people and organizations who have projects and ideas, but who don’t have the money they need. We were lucky enough to talk with Katrina Morse, an Adult Services Librarian who has the task of showing artists, creatives, and advocates how to use the Foundation Grants to Individuals (GTI) database. This is for individual people. Non-profits can benefit, too with the Foundation Directory Online. There are over 10,000 grantmakers on GTI, which is a good thing, but it is also why its best to have a guide like Katrina.

Believe it or not, if you have an idea there just might be someone out there who wants to fund people willing to work on that idea. Research a region? Organize a community? Develop a facility or resource? There’s no guarantee, but there is a possibility. Why say no to an idea until you’ve found out if someone has already said yes, at least to financing it?

Katrina did a great job of teaching Don and I about some aspect of the database tool then listening to us start playing with ideas. Could there be some way to travel to an area that’s going to be in your next book? Someone might care about that region, wherever it is. We’re hearing about writers seeking writers groups. That might be something to organize on more than a volunteer basis. Do we writers need a coworks or a sound studio or a meeting place? That might be handy, and maybe someone wants to encourage the arts in places that aren’t in ‘The Big City’. And maybe not. But maybe.

It is obvious that Katrina can get introduced to lots of passionate people, and funnel them to a source that is otherwise not readily available. This is something that has to be accessed onsite, a bit old-fashioned in that regard; but imagine what this service was like recently, when lots of it was bound and printed and only available by traveling to central locations like Seattle. To get access on Whidbey is a great improvement.

Listen in to what she has to say, and maybe contact her directly about how she can help. Imagine finding funding for organizing classes – or maybe even a writers conference. We won’t know until we ask.

Guidestar, the nonprofit directory: – https://guidestar.candid.org/profile-best-practices/

Candid (the nonprofit that oversees the Foundation Directory) – https://learning.candid.org/training/.

If you need to incorporate:

https://learning.candid.org/resources/knowledge-base/starting-a-nonprofit/
https://learning.candid.org/training/courses/is-starting-a-nonprofit-right-for-you/
https://learning.candid.org/resources/knowledge-base/pros-and-cons/

One example of a writers group: Third Thursdays Online Writer’s Group through Sno-Isle Libraries: – https://sno-isle.bibliocommons.com/v2/events?q=third%20thursdays%20writers


Writing on Whidbey Island (WOWI) episode 40 – Katrina Morse – Adult Services Librarian, South Whidbey


Katrina Morse – Adult Services Librarian, South Whidbey

360.331.7323 x6205

kmorse@sno-isle.org

www.sno-isle.org

The Show Must Go ON!

200314_quarantineCONTRARY to my recent WOWI blog post saying that Tom and I may need to put a hold on the show, we’re devising an idea how we could go forward during the Cornonavirus quarantine!

This past Monday I rigged-up my gear and met Tom in a video chat — our intention being to record a 1-off WOWI episode — both to see how using this medium might work and to discuss how how being in quarantine affects writers.  Frankly, going into this … I didn’t expect much — and yet, what came out of it was an intriguing show running over an hour long!

“How do the adjustments we are making and disruptions we are dealing with make for opportunities, affect work and art later on, what is yet to come for the world of the day-job worker?”

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The “Yellow Jack” or “Lima” signal flag is flown on ships in harbor to indicate that a vessel is under quarantine.

On Wednesday I e-met with Tom again with two purposes in mind.  One was to test an improved set-up with my gear — which produced technological success.  The other was to further discuss continuing the show from QuarantineVille.  Our aim at this point is to try and host 1 to 2 guests each month over video chat — and we each have a few authors in mind to ask.

If you are Whidbey Island writer/author, editor, bookstore owner, graphic artist or illustrator, marketing guru — or whatever as long as your work is part of the publishing industry — and you think you’d be a fit for a WOWI episode … PLEASE CONTACT US!

We’ll talk with you soon! ~ Don

Did You Wash Your Hands EDIT

WOWI vs COVID-19

Hello — Don here, messaging you from QuarantineVille!  Yes, we are weeks … months(?) … into this Cornonavirus thing.  All of us are seeing some changes in our lives from this crazy deal.  For Tom and myself one of those is we’ve had to put the brakes on WOWI for the time being.  I’m here to tell you — we may be down for the moment, but we’re not out!

Tom and I are each juggling our personal lives with the adjustments; for the time being our schedules, and ‘social distancing’, have precluded us from recording the next WOWI episode.  We have done some brainstorming about how we might hold an interview under the current conditions ….

  • One idea has been to arrange a meeting time and location with an author … each person walking into the location from separate directions (kinda like that Clint Eastwood spaghetti western …. no, the other one), do the interview while keeping our distances, and then safely back out.  Dramatic and amusing!
  • Or, more simply a video-meeting or 3-way phone call.

None of it seems worth the bother right now, and for Tom and myself our priorities have us drawn (if not also quartered) elsewhere.

Our intention is to hold the next WOWI interview when folks can safely shake hands again, without threat of the viral-apocalypse or residential-gulag or whatever.  So please enjoy our current collection of episodes, and keep an eye here for updates.

Take care, Talk soon ~ Don

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The Good, The Bad, and The Dusty (1966)