Bookcast Episode 45: I HAVE MADE WORDS!

DL White [00:00:00]:

Welcome back to the book cast, my platform for sharing short fiction and updates on what I'm reading and writing. This is episode 45. I am D.L. White, author of 11 contemporary Southern and romantic fiction novels featuring black men and women. I am also a big fan of books. So we usually begin with the book report and then we talk about writing. I am currently writing Elysium, a black diamond novella. We'll talk about that in a minute.

DL White [00:00:30]:

If you're new here or a seasoned listener, a bibliophile, or just looking for a good read, I hope you'll enjoy today's show. I am so happy to have your ears for this time and I'm excited to share my love of reading and writing books with you. I don't think you guys know how monumental it is for me to be able to say I'm writing books because I was in burnout for such a long time. I physically went 2 years without publishing a book. I forced myself to publish Hey Lover so that I didn't go into 2023 with no books published. It's admittedly not my best work, but it's super cute and I finished it and it's done. If you wanna show your support for this podcast or for me as an author, you are most welcome to do so. Please visit my support site at buymeacoffee.com slash books by D.L.

DL White [00:01:23]:

White. You can offer a 1 time or recurring monthly gift which is currently an at a girl show of support. It does not have rewards tied to it. But I'm thinking on how I can plus up membership and provide maybe a little space to talk about each episode or chat about books, what have you. I did have a group a while back, but it grew so slowly and it was just me talking to people I already talked to all day every day. So I decided I didn't want to put time and effort toward maintaining that and I shut it down. So now I need to think thoughtfully about how to bring something like that back. Do I have the energy? Do I have the bandwidth? Do I have the listeners? Do I have the readers to be able to maintain that? Because it can't be just me talking to myself and for other people every day.

DL White [00:02:17]:

It costs more to maintain that than it would reimburse me. So while I do appreciate the support and that people might want like an in like the inside track It really costs more in energy and time and money than it would benefit anybody. So have to be thoughtful about that. But the other way you can support me is to buy my books. Booksbydlwhite.com slash books has all of the good stuff including Beach Thing by DL White. So if you're gonna read Elysium, you need to catch up on Beach Thing. You won't see a whole lot repeated throughout Elysium from Beach Thing, but you need to be familiar with Black Diamond because I do mention Black Diamond quite a bit. If you are unfamiliar, Beach Thing is the story of Wade and Amina.

DL White [00:03:09]:

What happens on Black Diamond doesn't have to stay on Black Diamond. Wade Marshall, super producer to 1 of hip-hop's brightest stars, becomes consumed by an attractive distraction. His bold, beautiful, sexy neighbor with the glorious hips and a penchant for ice cream. Amina Porter, daughter of successful New York restauranteurs, moves to the beach town of Black Diamond to fulfill her dream of opening a smoothie shop. She doesn't need the distraction of a new man, but her tall, dark, and handsome neighbor makes it irresistible. Amina's days at Tiki's and Cream are spent cooling off her customers with her gourmet smoothie blends. Her nights on the shores of Black Diamond Bay are enchanting and romantic, and soon Wade and Amina find themselves in the middle of a beach thing, a fun, meaningless tryst that will end when the summer is over. Or will it? Is it really a fling or should this beach thing lead to the real thing? Indulge in a fun, steamy, hashtag beachy black romance.

DL White [00:04:15]:

Welcome to Black Diamond Bay. So I did not ever intend for this book to become a series, much like the series I have running. I did not intend for them to be series, but sometimes the people come and sit in my head and they don't go away. And so Davis Scott, who runs a brand new five-star hotel on Black Diamond, came and sat down in my head after I wrote Beach Thing. I tried to write the pearl, it just didn't work. I got stuck around like eight-ish chapters in, maybe 6, 8 chapters, which is where I usually get stuck because I can do act 1 like nobody's business. If you're talking about three-act structure, act 1 writes itself in my head. And then once I get that down, I have to think about act 2, and then our final, the last hurrah, the final act in the book.

DL White [00:05:14]:

I can do act 1 like nobody's business. Acts 2 and 3 take some time usually to come to fruition and develop in my head. That's usually what I spend my time thinking about. And so I put that away and I don't know where the idea for Elysium came. I think I just wanted to, I always just want to write something like cute, sexy, summery. And then I was like, hey, I could set it up like Diamond, and then I could let it lead into the Pearl. And so that is now where this idea is coming from. Beach Thing is available in ebook, print, and audio.

DL White [00:05:51]:

You can head to payhip.com slash books by DL White to buy that directly from me. All my titles are available in ebook, print, and audio. Well, select titles are available in print and audio. They're all available in ebook at the payhip.com slash books by DL White. That puts the monies directly into my pocket with virtually no middleman taking 30 to 70 percent of the retail price. If you prefer to buy them retail all of my titles are available in ebook wherever they're sold. Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Nook, Apple Books, Kobo Books, Google Play. They're all there.

DL White [00:06:24]:

They're also available via subscription sites like Scribd and Kobo Plus. And they're also available to request at your local library. I love to hear that my books are added to circulation at your library at via Libby or Hoopla, and I love seeing my books on your shelves. So post those pics. Today, we'll start with the book report. As always, then I want to talk about progress on Elysium. I am very excited to talk about it. Today is Saturday, June 3rd.

DL White [00:06:57]:

The time is 8 51 a.m. It is It is a sunny day in Atlanta. I have a mic and I am ready to dig in, but first, coffee. I don't know if y'all know, during that break, I do actually physically drink coffee. Like I take like 3 big gulps for like fortification and like warmth and the shiny happy feeling I get when I drink coffee. I do actually actually drink coffee during that break. So you're welcome to join me. Take a sip of whatever you're drinking.

DL White [00:07:44]:

Have some coffee. So a coffee break. I am so darn proud of how I orchestrate that break, how I bring the music in, fade it in, and then fade it out. Listen, the amount of time that I spend in editing, adding that coffee break. Please appreciate. All right, we begin as always with the book report because I am a book head. I'm getting to the point of the year when I just get really excited about all the good books that are coming. Like I log into Goodreads and I see what everybody's reading.

DL White [00:08:13]:

I'm like oh that looks good, oh that looks good, oh that looks good. So it must be like a particularly good drop month. Like we were talking yesterday in DeeDee's Friday Reads Live that there's certain points of the year when like a lot of books drop and I feel like they save really good ones for the big glut of books like June's big and then it kind of calms down September is huge. September is always huge. And then all the way through the fall, we get all of the holiday themed romances. And those are always really fun. I pile those up for December. And then I like to end my year on like a really good high Sappy note and I remember like years back I wrote unexpected which is a holiday short and there hard weren't hardly any holiday shorts out Particularly from indie Like there's always like holiday romances, but holiday shorts from indie authors weren't really huge.

DL White [00:09:07]:

There were a few people doing them. And I feel like every year, like 900 indie authors release a holiday short. And I just love the heck out of it. I love the heck out of it. So I am I'm gonna try to do 1. I have an idea for a Potter Lake novel. I don't know if I want it to be full length or a short. It feels like there's too much going on for it to be a short, but That's the story of my life.

DL White [00:09:31]:

I cannot write short. We'll talk about that when I talk about Elysium. This week I read 4 books and we'll talk about my Ray May wrap up. I read A Chance at Love by Beverly Jenkins. A stellar novel. It's actually gonna compete with Indigo for my favorite. I really enjoy it. I don't remember reading this book years ago.

DL White [00:09:53]:

I don't think I actually read it but it was good. It was so good. I read Set by Alexandria House. I asked to read books from authors who wrote couples on that have a long distance relationship kind of to get in the mood for Elysium and that 1 was recommended to me. Super enjoyed it. There's a scene in set that I just laugh and laugh at. I had to run it back and listen to it again and listen to it on audio. Set is, he's a big dude and he's kind of rough.

DL White [00:10:30]:

Rough. So Karima, his girl, gets a call and it's her ex and he's like not worth the time of day and she's kind of arguing with her ex but her, her ex takes her daughter's phone and calls her and she picks up because she thinks it's her daughter and dude's yelling yelling yelling it's set storms off and he's mad and she goes and finds him and she's like what is your problem he's like all this time I'm thinking you talking to your daughter and you talking to your ex You got your ex saved under your daughter's name in your phone and she looks at him and she's like Have you ever heard me talking to him while I'm talking to you like while I'm with you, are you crazy? Are you serious? Why would I do that? That don't make any sense. I don't like that man so he's he looks at her and she looks at him and he looks at her and he says what do you want to eat and she's like what We're just fighting and now you want to know what I want to eat. And he's like. Yeah, what do you want to eat? I just found that hilarious. I found that very funny. I also read Someone Seeking Someone Else and Fuck Around and Find Out, both by Nicole Falls. Someone Seeking Someone Else was a book recommended because they met through a non-traditional method.

DL White [00:11:57]:

She placed an ad in the newspaper and Rux happened to find it. It's my second time reading that novel. It is seriously cute. And then I read Fuck Around and Find Out because I read Fuck Around and Fall in Love and I needed to read the next in the series. So I had a really good month in May. I read 20 books, 6 of them were ebook, 14 were in audio, which is how I read 20 books. And I wrote 12 of those books were by black women, none by black men. It's a shame.

DL White [00:12:34]:

It's really a shame. But July is going to be better, not July, June is going to be better because I am reading at least 1 book by a Black man. So I am reading Silver Lining, a Vacation Romance by Chaslin Hamilton. I had never heard of this author before, but I happened to be on Goodreads looking for something and it popped up. It is a black romance novel read by a male narrator I've never heard of, but Wesley Chauvin is reading the The Heroine and so I'm kind of a Wesley Stan so I'm gonna pick it up. It is good so far I wanted to read it because it's a vacation romance. I want to read all of the black authored vacation romance novels because I am reading Elysium. I read them for inspiration.

DL White [00:13:22]:

Good so far I'm going to finish that today. I am reading All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby. I actually have an audio arc of that so I've got to get it finished so I can have it read or listened to and reviewed before drop day on Tuesday. I'm also starting The Edge of Dawn by Beverly Jenkins and I was having a fun conversation with her yesterday on Twitter. Side note, the best part about being an author is I get to have regular conversations with people I absolutely stan. I'm such a huge, huge fan of Miss Bev, and I can have a conversation with her every day if I want to on Twitter. So there somebody had the other day mentioned Beverly Jenkins books and I said I'm reading them all in order of publication and she had cop she had replied to me and said, I feel like that's the best way to read them.

DL White [00:14:23]:

When I read them before, I read them in haphazard manner, by mood. And I feel like reading them in order lets you see the series build. You see characters from previous books come up in later books, and you'll see how characters from contemporary novels have ties back to the historical novels. So That's fun. I'm just very excited to like be having regular conversations with a legend like Beverly Jenkins. If I could get Miss Brenda to talk to me online, that would be like the pinnacle. I've replied to her a couple of times, but I don't think she runs her own social media, So whatever. A couple of group reads coming up in June.

DL White [00:15:06]:

I don't know if I'll get to these this week, but I've got Mules and Men that I'm reading with the Black Reader Experience, which is hosted by Dr. Raymond Williams, Kay the Reader, and History with Her, who is also Grace, Grace rich Collins, and we call her the professor. So I'm reading that in June. And then the stacks podcast has a book club and we are reading Oreo by Fran Ross. So excited about those. I don't think that I will start them this week, but I have them on the list to read for June. And Mules and Men and Oreo I got from Hoopla, so I have to get those read in the next 21 days because I have to give them back. Y'all side note, I have to talk about this thing I watched yesterday.

DL White [00:15:53]:

Shiny, I have the hiccups. I think I drank too much coffee and I hiccup when I'm full and I had too many gulps of coffee. Shiny happy people on Amazon Prime. I watched it yesterday. If you are at all interested in the Duggar family, in cults, in weird people doing weird things, Look it up if you have Prime. It'll probably show up on some other network eventually, but oh my goodness. I think it's like 4 hour-long episodes. Wow.

DL White [00:16:27]:

I hadn't really been paying attention. I had like, I used to watch 19 Kids and Counting, and I was like, oh, what a cute family. They're kind of fundamentalist Christian, like very, really, really, very conservative. But I was like, oh, what a cute family. And then after I kind of lost interest in the show and really lost touch. I don't watch TLC hardly ever. Then I heard about Josh Duggar and all the stuff he'd been getting into. And I'm like, what the heck is happening over there with that family? What is going on? But still not really paying attention.

DL White [00:17:02]:

This show kind of digs into the Duggar family, how they got on TLC, like what was, like they don't even watch TV, they don't own TVs, like what was the point of being on that show? Jim Bob, Michelle, the 19 kids, the husbands, the kids, the families, and the organization that they belong to. IBLP, I forget what it stands for. That is a really scary fundamentalist Christian organization. Like I grew up in the church and I considered us pretty conservative. We did not listen to secular music in our house. It was all everybody's mass choir, the Winans, the Clark sisters, Shirley Caesar at all times. I used to get in trouble for listening to the radio. I only ever heard worldly, quote unquote, worldly music outside the house.

DL White [00:17:58]:

And I think that's really like, you know, when I was listening to rock, I was listening to like Bon Jovi and Def Leppard and Poison because that's all I was hearing. We did not have BET. I did not watch video soul. I did not watch like all the black artists and all that stuff. So all I had access to in Rapid City, South Dakota, and Spokane, Washington, was 93 Zoo FM. I was only listening to Top 40 radio because that's all I had access to. So I wasn't in the world. So I understand like conservative religion.

DL White [00:18:41]:

Churchy black people are real conservative. So I kind of got it from that perspective but we were not anywhere near these IBP, IBLP people. It's kind of scary. It's kind of scary. If you're at all interested in that you should look it up. Check it out. It was eye opening, kind of messy. I'm into it I like mess.

DL White [00:19:06]:

I do like mess. I admit to that. I like juice. And it was a really interesting watch. All right, back on track with the writing update. I am 22, 697 words into Elysium. Believe me on word 1, I don't think that I would have imagined I would be here. I hit chapter 9, and I'm really trying to keep the chapters snappy, interesting, you know, but like some of the chapters are I feel a little too long.

DL White [00:19:39]:

I don't know if I have to break them up or whatever. We'll see what happens when I get to the end and I feel like I might need to break some up, but also I just, I need to keep momentum moving. So we'll see. I figure I have approximately 18 to 20 chapters and it'll hit around 50, 000 words, which is not a novella. Not, not a novella. If it hits over 50, 000 words, It is not a novella. It is a novel. It's a short novel, but it's a novel.

DL White [00:20:05]:

But it won't hit my usual word count of like 97, 000 to 110, 120 word count. So a win is a win. You know, I cannot write short. I do not, I don't, I don't like writing short. Like I don't like truncating a story. I want it to be full, I want it to be realistic. I want you to feel it when you open that book. So, and I don't have to, but I also really feel readers when they say they don't want to read a 400 page book.

DL White [00:20:33]:

I promise you my 400 page books are good. Read them. But I feel y'all when you don't want to read a 400 page book. I don't call Beach Thing a novella even though it's about 47, 000 words, I think. Is it 47? I have to look. Something like that. So I'm going to try to keep Elysium around the same length or shorter, give or take. It's really supposed to be a bridge between between Beach Thing and the Pearl, but we'll see.

DL White [00:21:00]:

It's just going to be book 2. I'm also trying to tie some details into Elysium that I want to lead into the Pearls, very strategery, very strategery. I am not a series writer, people. We are writing a book in real time and I don't know how to write a series. So here's where we are. I'm doing the best I can. I'm almost to the point where I want to start sharing samples and snips, but I don't want to be teasing for months and months on end. Who knows, like I could get stuck and have to take a month off.

DL White [00:21:34]:

I hope not. I'm at a pretty good clip, and I feel like I will get a lot written during 20K in 5 Days, which is a challenge run by the WordMakers writing group. So I'm kind of I'm holding back. We'll see where I end up after the 20K challenge. I kind of want to share those first with supporters, like people who have provided a monthly or a 1 time gift. I don't know. And I'm thinking through like A1A way to gather and talk about what's coming, like I said earlier, but I also don't want it to be more work than benefit. So we'll see.

DL White [00:22:17]:

But I definitely want to start sharing maybe sometime around July. Maybe start sharing some snips, some Sunday sample Sundays, etc. You know, once a week I could probably do that. We'll see. We'll see how far I get. Appearances. No, I want to go back to talking about Elysium. So I'm writing this novel and I start a chapter with like bare bones.

DL White [00:22:42]:

Things happen in the chapter. And it always ends up like, oh, that's super cute. But I am trying to get away from cute. I want grown and sexy. I want adult. I want sensual. I want, I can't write a book without being a little bit funny. And so I think in my effort to like put my voice and my personality on it, it ends up in cute land.

DL White [00:23:11]:

And I'm really, really trying to get away from people saying, Oh, that book is so cute. I really tried that with Hey Lover and I still ended up with that book is so cute. And I tried my hardest to be like sensual and sexual and steamy in that book. And let me tell you all something. Let me just tell you something. I get a little embarrassed at how forward the language is. Sometimes it's hard to straddle the line between crass and explicit, and I'm really trying to find that line. I want my books to be read by adults, felt by adults.

DL White [00:24:00]:

I want people to be able to relate to the characters. I want the conversations to be realistic. I don't sit with my friends and use formal words. We talk in AAVE. We use slang. We have funny conversations. I want to bring that to the novel, but I also don't like I don't want to be crass for being crass sake. I want to be explicit, but I want to keep it classy.

DL White [00:24:29]:

You know what I'm saying? So I'm kind of straddling that line where I want it to be good, I want it to be relatable, I want it to be sexy, I want it to be grown. But I also want people to read it and be like, girl, that scene, whew, heaven's to that scene. Like that's kind of what I, that's a lot of what writing fan fiction brought me was the ease in writing intimacy between characters, bringing all of the senses in, what are they feeling, what are they hearing, what is the mood, what is the scent, what is the... Bring everything into the scene without overwhelming the reader about what's happening, and guide them through the scene, guide them through what's happening, bring out the emotion. It's like, it's very intricate. I mean, if you think writing is easy, I implore you, try to do it well. It's hard. Writing is hard.

DL White [00:25:38]:

Writing is really hard. That's kind of where I'm at. And like I was reading a couple of books this week and I had to put them down because they were good books but they were cute. I'm not aiming for cute. I am aiming for an adult fiction novel with sexual themes, adult language. I'm 49. I want to write like a grown up, but I don't want to be crass. You know what I'm saying? I don't know if that makes sense.

DL White [00:26:10]:

But that's where I'm at. So I write a scene And I'm like, oh, that's cute. Now we got to punch this up. So I kind of go over and over and over it. And then I close it. And then I open it up the next day. And I'm like, hmm, it needs more work. I need to improve this.

DL White [00:26:28]:

And I go over and over and over it. And Then I move on to the next scene and I close it up and then I open it up like 2 hours later, I'm like, hmm, not quite right. And then I go over and over and over and this is why writing gets on my nerves. Like the people that love writing are probably not going through this level of review. Like they're just banging out of words and then they put it away and then they come back and they're like, oh, I can edit and then they bang out some more and then they're done and how? How? You're single draft writers. How, Sway? It don't come out. Like when you pick up Beach Thing and you read a chapter, it did not come out like that. Those chapters, those words that you really love, that favorite passage in 1 of my books.

DL White [00:27:20]:

I didn't wake up like that. It don't come out like that. It is like polishing, revision, like it's, you know that, that sound that it's like bus, club, another club, another club, another club, no sleep. That is writing a novel. Every single chapter. Every single chapter. So, yeah, I just I have to get to a point where it's good. I have to give it to betas so they can read it and give their thoughts and recommendations.

DL White [00:28:03]:

But after I give it to betas, I can't touch it anymore because then the changes that I get are gonna be different than the changes I have in my draft. So I use that as an opportunity to like step away. Read some books, touch some grass, feel some air, watch a show, relax my brain, give me some distance and some objectivity. So when I get the draft back from the betas, I can step outside of myself as the writer and say, okay, I see what you're saying there. This could improve. That could improve. I don't need this whole entire scene. I don't need these characters that I dreamed up just to have this to say.

DL White [00:28:50]:

That's kind of where the process has to lead me to. So I put everything I have into the draft, save that draft, because that's the draft I love, But then I'm looking for it to improve. I need it to shine bright like a diamond When it's ready for publication But until I get there it is Bus club another club another club every single chapter Writing So we are about 2 weeks away from the Resist Booksellers Grand Opening. It's June 17th, which is Juneteenth weekend. I am very, very, very excited to be hitting Richmond. It's a Richmond area, it's Petersburg, actually Virginia. Some authors that I absolutely love are going to be there. I am so excited.

DL White [00:29:40]:

So let me give you the real quick rundown. So authors that are going to be there, Tamice Spencer Helms, I'm going to be there of course. Signing books at 01:00. I'll be slinging books, signing. Author Lamar Giles will be there. C.M. Lockhart will be there. Romance author Danielle Allen will be there.

DL White [00:30:02]:

I'm so excited. I hope she has her hugging arms on. I just got mine out the shop. They'd be ready. They'd be ready to hug. Rob Youngblood, Jamila Minix, who is author of the book Moonrise Over New Jessup. Zelda Lockhart will be there. We are gonna have so much fun.

DL White [00:30:25]:

I'm very, very excited to be in the building. Some people that I know and love will also be there. So I'm just really excited to like be out the house and in the atmosphere with the people hugging, it's gonna be a really good time. There's a friend of mine that I've known since like the late 1900s, like 1991, maybe 2001. I don't remember when I met Angie, but we have been friends forever and I have seen her maybe once in my life, for real. We've been friends online forever. We talk every day, but I think I have seen Angie maybe once a couple of years ago. I saw Angie and she lives in the area, so I'm going to see her.

DL White [00:31:13]:

I'm wildly excited. Wildly excited. This morning I was shopping for cute outfits to wear. So I'm gonna be there if you are in the area or anywhere within driving distance. You should come. It's gonna be a good time. Resist is the only Black-owned bookstore in Petersburg. So we're very excited.

DL White [00:31:37]:

And of course, they stock my books, which you don't hardly hear from for like an indie with sales, like, you know, small, small, small list indie authors. Kind of unheard of. So I'm very excited to be in the building. Really looking forward to it. I don't know if you can tell. Well I've been talking for a long time, so I'm going to drink my coffee and listen to my books and get ready for all of my Saturday activities. I will be writing later, I think, at least tomorrow. So I need to get the book to the point.

DL White [00:32:16]:

I have my book to the point where my characters have met in person and it is it is a great scene. I'm I'm very excited about it. I'm excited to go in and punch it up and then I need to get them to the island for a very romantic few days. I do have in mind how that's gonna go. So I'm just excited to get to it. I just need to think like how, think through the execution, think through how that happens. So In order to do that, I have to get off this mic. So that brings us to the end of today's episode.

DL White [00:32:52]:

Thank you so much for joining me for another episode of the book cast. I will be back next week with a reading update and a writing update. Please enjoy this weekend. Have a superlative week. We'll chat again next weekend. Bye-bye.