Tag Archives: Island

Tom’s Farewell to WOWI

April 24, 2023 BiscottiDon

Nearly four years ago, Tom and I took action on a somewhat thought out semi-crazy idea. We met at a park in Coupeville, WA, and hiked down a winding dirt path to the beach below. We sat down on some rocks, and I fired up my recording unit. What followed — in addition to the sounds of waves, seagulls, and local jets — was our first two Writing On Whidbey Island podcast episodes.
(Episodes One & Two)

Tom Don bagpipe presentation Scotland speaking — Playing Scottish smallpipes before Tom presented his book “Walking, Thinking, Drinking Across Scotland”.

Our recording sessions have taken us all over our beloved island, and we’ve had the pleasure of spending time with several magnificent people from our local writing community. During this time our show has grown in meaning and listeners — even gaining recognition beyond the greater literary community here on the island.

A little over a week ago, Tom and I met at the Coupeville Library for a special show — moreover, one that was bittersweet for me. For personal reasons, Tom announced his departure from Writing On Whidbey Island — chiefly, it’s because he’s a busy guy!

It was great to spend time with Tom, discussing our earlier episodes, what the show has developed into and contributed to the community, and getting to talk about the future of Writing On Whidbey Island. I couldn’t have started this podcast without Tom, and as a founding member of WOWI he has set the show on its unique path. With any luck, Tom will rejoin the show as a future guest with one of his next book releases.

Tom, my friend, Thank You and Good Journeys!

~ Don

Writing on Whidbey Island (WOWI) episode 45 – Tom Trimbath, – Author, WOWI co-founder emeritus

https://trimbathcreative.files.wordpress.com/2023/04/2023-04-15-toms-farewell-to-wowi.mp3

The Show Must Go ON!

April 18, 2020 BiscottiDon

CONTRARY 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?”

ce0ba7e2e67ce08adf162de05c2f03bb — 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

Don, In-Person, Tom, WOWI Session

Writing On Whidbey Island (WOWI) Episode 2 – Self-Publishing and E-books

Audio October 22, 2019 Tom Trimbath

Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies recipe book Don Scoby — Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies recipe book by Don Scoby

Now that the introductions are done (see episode 1), time to get into some details. Co-host Don Scoby recently self-published his inaugural cookbook, “Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies“. That’s a story and worth a celebration as authors know; but his experience was particularly educational because it happened as CreateSpace and Kindle became one. Yet again, the self-publishing industry changes.

Thanks to Don’s experience as a musician and an entrepreneurial baker, he understands the practical aspects of production, presentation, sales, and basically running a business based on a creative product. The transition from writer to author is also the transition from introvert to extrovert, which he describes and balances well. Within the publishing world, he also describes why and how not to rely solely on Amazon, and the value of making personal contacts. “You’re an artist” also becomes “You’re a small business.” (And remember to keep that day job.)

Amidst the rest, we also talked about coffee rings, jets again, writers groups gathering around intersections, and if you closely you’ll hear sea gulls making dinner by dropping clams onto rocks. It’s Whidbey!

Writing On Whidbey Island (WOWI) Episode 2
Self-Publishing and E-books

Guest Interview, Upcoming WOWI Session

October 2019 Podcast Topics

October 5, 2019 BiscottiDon

Want to know a secret? … PODCAST

Okay — we’ve been keeping this kind of quiet, but here it is … PODCAST

Tom Trimbath and I have started a PODCAST!

It’s TRUE — Tom and I have started a PODCAST. Take 1-part portable recording gear and add 2 guys energetic about writing, and mix with a look at all-things-writing as it pertains to Whidbey … and you get “Writing On Whidbey Island“* — or WOWI!
(*Present web location, subject to change)

Our show is new — presently we have about half-a-dozen recordings, each around 40 minutes long. Three of these have been interviews with Whidbey Island authors. Our show is not a hard Q&A, it’s a conversation about the topic we pick — a guest talking about their book, a bookstore owner discussing their approach to the book business, online marketing, you name it! This month Tom and I have 2 recordings tentatively scheduled — here’s what’s coming up! PODCAST

October 12th — Maribeth Crandell’s Latest Book

The 14Sep2019 copy of the Whidbey News-Times presented an article on Maribeth Crandell and her second book “Hiking Close to Home“. In her latest book, Maribeth presents all the hikes here on Whidbey Island. Her approach has included not only features of the hikes, which ones are wheelchair accessible, and also which ones you get reach using the local bus service — which is free by the way! That Saturday she was presenting her book at the Coupeville library — she and her book sounded interesting so I attended! Maribeth was passionate about her topic and full of character — and at the end of the presentation I invited her on WOWI. She will be holding another release party a few weeks following in Anacortes — if you’re local, don’t miss it! PODCAST

October 28th — 1st Year Publishing Lessons Learned

Our guest for our October 28th recording will be ….. ME! A week ago Tom pointed out that my first book “Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies” was published one year ago on Amazon. Since then I’ve presented my book, published the Amazon and Smashwords e-book versions, started my next book projects, and learned more than a few things I didn’t know before. Tom suggested that we discuss the experiences, lessons, and tips of a writer (me) the first year into being a self-published author. *Stammer*Stammer* … uh … now that I think about it, YEAH, there are things that I can share. I’m looking forward to talking with Tom about it and sharing with our listeners! PODCAST

Now, a few more things about WOWI

Tom and I live on opposite ends of Whidbey Island. For our WOWI podcast this is a blessing and a curse. The ‘curse‘ is that it is inconvenient to get together, so our recordings don’t take place on a regular schedule. The ‘blessing‘ is that we have to coordinate our schedules when we are going to be at the same end of the island. This helps us to meet with myriad authors, writers groups, bookstore owners, ETC here on Whidbey Island. We’ve worked this into the character of the show — recording in different places, featuring some of the audioscape of our beloved island in the background. So far we have recorded outdoors, and the weather is beginning to turn on us. We will soon be looking for indoor locations that will host us. If you are a business this may work to your favour because we always say where we are recording from — for the use of a warm room, a little bit of electricity, and perhaps a few other comforts, we will GLADLY plug your Whidbey Island business! PODCAST

Blog Post

Coming Soon … Whidbey Island Writing Podcast? – !

September 30, 2019 Tom Trimbath

From Whidbey Island Baking Company‘s June 20, 2019 blog;

You will of course remember my friend, Tom Trimbath — the gent who helped coach me through getting my first recipe book published on Amazon. Tom is a great guy and we have continued to talk about various creative ideas to produce together. One of these is a collaborative writing project, another is to present a series of self-publishing workshops, and we’ve talked about starting a podcast!

A podcast — that’s neat! What’s the plan, Don?

Our plan so far is to keep things fairly open — we want to talk about all-things-writing as it relates to Whidbey Island. Self-publishing, marketing, writing groups on Whidbey, local authors, visiting authors, you name it. I have portable recording gear, so one of our ideas too is to produce our podcast recordings at different locations on Whidbey including local business who would be interested in hosting us and in turn receive a plug on our show.

COOL! When can I tune-in?

Last month Tom and I set a goal — to record 1-2 podcast episodes by the end of June. As summer has switched on, this has been a bit of a juggle — and if you look at the calendar … yeah … time is drawing near. We are currently working to schedule our first recording tomorrow morning OR during next week. With launching our show we also have the recordings from the how-to self-publish workshops we have presented — so we should have a decent collection to start with out of the gate.

Stay Tuned!
~ Don

Writing On Whidbey Island