Yes — sad but true — founding host Tom Trimbath has departed from Writing On Whidbey Island. He helped start something great, and he will be missed — first and foremost by me — and I look forward to seeing what develops for him as he continues his writing and publishing journey!
However, you might be asking yourself …
What is the future of WOWI?
And I might reply … that I don’t have a whole lot of time to go into that right now — but … as the saying goes … The Show Must Go On!
Tom has handed Writing On Whidbey Island over to me. With this, I see an opportunity to bring some new elements to the show — many of which are things Tom and I have wanted to do, but just haven’t had the time to develop. I intend to have guest hosts join me to discuss writing topics and to interview individuals from our island writing community. The suggestion has been given to include unique intro and outro music to the show — something I was already looking into! In time, I plan to move the audio to a podcast platform so that more people may become aware of and benefit from WOWI. How about WOWI merch — stickers, T-shirts, etc? I hope to also create and maintain a few social media profiles — probably Twitter and Facebook.
And the future of WOWI will happen … In The Future!
As you’ve heard in our earlier podcasts — this is the beginning of my annual seasonal work — otherwise known as my Busy Season. Typically, Tom has done most of the heavy-lifting behind the scenes at this time of the year. Right now, I am unable to juggle work and rolling from 50% production of the podcast to 100% management — so I need to take a little break!
My plan is to resume Writing On Whidbey Island later this year — probably around Fall. Meanwhile, I intend to work on my plans above and begin to put these new show elements into place.
Please enjoy the past episodes in the meantime, and I look forward to you rejoining WOWI in the coming months.
~ Don
We also talked about the value of talking to other members of our writing community. Writing does not have to be a solo venture. Fellow writers can provide insights into how readers perceive a book. The author may have one intent, but readers may find something else that is not obvious to someone who wrote, edited, and repeatedly read the book before it was published. Bicycling books may appeal to RV owners. Travel books may appeal to people from countries that weren’t visited or even mentioned. 
This podcast has become an unplanned, informal, yet possibly useful resource built from the contributions and interviews of dozens of members of Whidbey Island’s writing community. Book store owners can bring some reality to expectations. Librarians can point to overlooked resources for research or even funding. Writers from your genre undoubtedly have encountered surprises, the good ones the bad ones and the weird ones. Successful and failed campaigns are useful as long as we learn from them. And, of course, writers can support writers simply by listening to frustrations or understanding otherwise obscure celebrations. (You finally found the right font!)
Writing On Whidbey Island 