Hey, folks! After a little more than two years on the beach and beer beat, Iโll be moving on and producing other media altogether but I wanted to take a second and say thanks and so long.
Before I started writing about Ocean City I never realized how engaged the readership of OceanCity.com was. Readers and Facebook subscribers from all over the country were so engaged and supportive right off the bat it made it hard for me to comprehend.
I remember the first time I did a Facebook live and saw that thousands of you were watching and dozens were engaging by asking questions and making comments. It was, like, 2 p.m. on a Wednesday or something and I was absolutely awestruck and humbled.
Similarly when I started posting stories and digging into the scope and demographics of people who were reading my work, sharing it and responding both on OceanCity.com and on the Facebook page, it was a pleasure. After more than a decade in the newspaper business, knowing precisely how many people were reading my work every day made it so much easier to write. This was true even (and maybe especially) when I wrote something unpopular.
Telling stories is one of my favorite things to do in the world, second only to helping other people tell theirs. Although I have had an absolute blast telling stories about the beach and beer (at ShoreCraftBeer.com) and the people who love the beach and who love beer there are more and other stories for me to look at now. Itโs been a lot of fun getting to know so many of our readers personally and having them participate so enthusiastically both in real life and online.
Last week, however, I got a storytelling opportunity I couldnโt pass up. Iโve been hired by a media company to produce a podcast documenting the combat veteran experience. Thereโs not a lot more I can say about it for now, but just a cursory look at the source material makes me feel like this could be a really fulfilling use of my storytelling abilities.
In the meantime, Iโll still be around. You can find me on Twitter mainly, but I also have a professional Facebook page. If you are a podcast listener and want to check out some of what I do on iTunes my current shows include a writers podcast called So Whatโs Your Story, a beach-themed podcast called The Happy Hour Todcast: Life at the Beach, and (of course) a beer podcast called Beer with Strangers. And as always, my Ocean City stories are still available at OceanCity.com and ShoreCraftBeer.com, respectively.
Once again, the pleasure has been all mine. Thanks so much for reading.
