Bookcast Episode 60

DL White [00:00:15]:

Hello out there. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, and welcome back to the BookCast. This is my platform for sharing short fiction and updates on what I'm reading and writing. This is episode 60. I am so happy to have you here. I'm actually Tired as heck. I cannot wait to get back in the bed but I woke up this morning and I said, You have to get out of bed to record your podcast. So get up.

DL White [00:00:44]:

So I'm up, I got my coffee, I did my rundown. I'm a little late this morning, but I'm here. I am D. L. White, of course. I'm your host and author of contemporary, Southern, and romantic fiction novels featuring Black men and women. I'm also a big fan of books. If I'm a do anything, I will read a book.

DL White [00:01:06]:

So we usually begin with a book report and then we talk about writing. I am currently working on a little dessert project. That's a project I'm doing just for fun, for the love of writing, and it is doing my soul So well, for me a dessert project is fan fiction and I'm working on a piece for our current writing challenge called Poptober. It's very catchy. I came up with it myself. Thank you very much. It runs October 17th through November 17th. And, so yes, it did begin this week.

DL White [00:01:39]:

I was super, super nervous to post, but I did and we'll talk about it in the writing update. Thank you so much for your support of this podcast whether it's a message in my inbox, a tweet, a retweet, a comment on my YouTube channel, harassment in my Instagram DMs. Tie. Thank you so much for letting me know that you listen for letting me know that you enjoy if our thing if there are things you want me to talk about on this podcast, I welcome the, the input and the suggestions because I honestly I plug in this mic and then I just start talking. So, You know, of course I want to talk about things I want to talk about. Because this is my internet bandwidth that I'm paying for, but also If I have your ears for this time, I want to talk about things that you want to hear about. So, what questions do you have? What do you want me to answer? What do you want me to cover? What do you want me to talk about? I don't promise to talk about it, but if there's something that you're not hearing and you're like, I wonder what Dale thinks about this, Hit a sister up. Y'all got my email address.

DL White [00:02:50]:

It's authordlbooksbydlwhite.com. Y'all know How to get to my Instagram DMs and my Twitter DMs, when you want to go off about something. So use it, use your powers for good now. If you'd like to offer more support I welcome you to go to my support site it's buymeacoffee.com/booksbydlwhite where you can offer a one time For recurring monthly gift I would be most grateful for that. I also have a cute little merch collection, I just collect like, you know, cute little sayings and throw them on a t shirt or sweatshirt design. They do bring me, A little bit of money if you're interested in something kind of cute with books by D. L. White on it, check it out.

DL White [00:03:37]:

I have a spreadshirt shop and my website booksbydlwhite.com has all of the links. All the links you could ever want. The other way you can support is to buy my books. Booksbydlwhite.com/books has all of the good stuff available in ebook, audio, and print. You can also snag print copies of my books from bookshop.org and resist booksellers both online and in store. Thank you so much Demetrius. Love you so much. Purchasing directly from me at my store puts money directly into my pocket with virtually no middleman taking a percentage of the retail and we like money in my pocket.

DL White [00:04:17]:

Yes, we do. If you prefer to buy them retail that is not an issue. My books are not for sale anywhere. I don't want them to be. I just want to make them easier for people to buy them. All my titles are available in ebook wherever they're sold: Amazon, Barnes and Noble Nook, Apple Books, Kobo Books, Google Play, they are also available via subscription sites like Scribd and Kobo Plus, and they're available to request at your local library through Libby or Hoopla, so snatch them up! And if you already have all my books and you've read all my books, Shout a sister out to a friend or to word-of-mouth sells a whole lot of books, like you wouldn't even believe the good Numbers I get from people just shouting me out, so I really appreciate that if you have talked at my books at all, Kaye the reader and Karen the reader and, Summer Reads Romance. And honestly, doctor Raymond are always talking about the books And I so appreciate that, you guys warm my cold dead heart. Cannot forget Audra.

DL White [00:05:25]:

Audra She's just my girl. She's just my girl. Every time I start shouting out people, I forget people. So I'm a stop shouting out people because I forget and then people be in my inbox going you didn't shout me out and charge it to my head and not my heart. Let me go ahead and silence my Notifications real quick. Books on sale this month payhip.com/booksbydlwhite is my bookstore. There's a banner at the top of the page that links to a post where I keep links to any books I have on sale. Leslie's Curl and Die is still on sale on audiobook for 99¢.

DL White [00:06:04]:

That's quite a steal because that is a great book it is book 1 in the Pottery Lake Romance series, The Pottery Lake Small Town Romance series I just love that book I want you to love it too. If you haven't heard it, you haven't read it, you have it put it into your face, I sincerely implore you to do so at the low low price of 99¢ for the audiobook. Last week I participated in the Cavalcade of Authors event. I set Hey Lover for free everywhere for that event. It didn't really go well. It didn't go well. Just a comedy of errors. I missed all of the update posts because I had one of the admins blocked so I couldn't see anything, you know in the group I hadn't I've no idea how I had that person blocked but I couldn't see anything.

DL White [00:06:50]:

My link didn't work To my book, so I asked them to fix it and they fixed it and it still didn't work and I gave up. Whatever. But stay tuned because I have more events coming up where my books will be on discount or free. Both e d o e d o? What is that? E book and Audiobook. I think I have a bunch of, things coming up. I honestly can't keep them all straight. I just, I, there's so much going on. I'm also going to be a guest in Delaney Diamond's Reading Lounge.

DL White [00:07:21]:

If you're a member of her reader group, I will be a guest in there on November second, it'll be just a little 7 to 8 pm, written, job y, not recorded, no video, no audio, just Hanging out in the lounge with her readers, totally excited because I love me some Dillian Diamond. So, whatever I can do that involves her I'm all over it, I'll keep you posted, here and, my store, my blog, my my social media, all the good stuff, I will, I'll keep you all abreast of the situation. So today we'll start with the book report as always Then I'll talk about my dessert project which is going very well. I'm really, I'm really excited about it and I'm excited to talk about it. Today is Saturday October 21st. It is 9:46 a. M. It is sunny in ATL.

DL White [00:08:16]:

I have a microphone and I am ready to dig in but 1st, I am ready for coffee. Alright. The coffee is hot today. It is hot and delicious. Let's begin! We begin as always with the book report because I am a book head. I have read 137 on my challenge to read 175 books this year. I am 3 books behind on my Goodreads challenge. I've Got to get it together and I don't know what my pro my problem is actually that when I am writing my reading slows down very slightly, but also my We decided for October instead of spooky books we were gonna read, like, crime fiction, suspense, Mafia urban fiction, I say we as in some Instagram Twitter gals, and I.

DL White [00:09:19]:

And we're calling it Gloctober, and I just Thought that was just like the neatest name or my clocktober has been so lackluster. Very underwhelming. I am not finding anything like really good like gripping like, grab me by the shoulder kind of reads for the month. So I'm searching high and low, I got a recommendation from Doctor. Raymond. And let me just tell you if this book is not good, I'm coming to your home. Yeah, we're gonna have to talk. So Let's talk about what I read this week.

DL White [00:09:57]:

I read I don't know how many books I can't count. I read 2 books by Lisa Gardner. She is a crime suspense author. I like her series on detective Dede Warren, she is a police, police detective, a lead detective, on a Boston police force. I read The Neighbor, which was the first Or actually it's actually the 3rd book in the D. D. Warren series. I wanted it to be good but it wasn't, it was alright, I just, It just it it wasn't it just was not it wasn't put together well.

DL White [00:10:38]:

The story didn't make Since the ending didn't make sense, I believe she started the series a while back and her Current novels are better, but you know when I find a good author I just go back and read through their entire backlist, Hello, Robert Dugoni. So, I read number 3, Didi War number 3, and then Look For Me Didi War number 9, which was I was So not good. I didn't even read it. I just marked it red and moved on with my life. Not good. I just Don't. I just don't like them. She has like a spin off of that series with like it's like with like a missing person's bend, and I don't I Don't so much enjoy it's not suspenseful it's just boring to me, there's no hint of danger at all it's just I also, read A Cross to Bear by Jason Graham.

DL White [00:11:39]:

This was like a spooky Halloween, paranormal romance type of book if you read The Tenant by Katrina Jackson. It's, It reminded me a lot of the Tenet it's along those lines, Jason be doing his thing. Jason, he'd be doing his thing if you are looking for like, if you're looking for like a steamy, sexy, Paranormal romance I don't want to go any further than that because I don't I don't want to spoil it for people who really want to read it. It's a short story so it won't take you long to get through it but I I implore you to go and pick that up it's called A Cross to Bear by Jason Graham, j s I n, Graham. I also read Catch Her Death Bree Taggart number 7 by Melinda Lee and like between Melinda Lee and Kendra Elliott they'd just be shooting these these, crime fiction procedurals out and I just Read them because I like the genre. This one was alright, I kind of sailed through it not, amazing but not Terrible. And then I read The Taken Ones, which I hope looks like it's gonna become a series by Jess Laurie. I read a book by her recently the name absolutely escapes me, but Jess Laurie l o u r e y might be a new one, To grab for me I love a female detective, a female investigator, a female medical examiner, a female sheriff.

DL White [00:13:16]:

The Bree Taggart series is a female sheriff. Love it, love it, love it. Put it into my face. So if If I see those pop up, I do grab them. Really enjoying just Laurie, so I'm probably gonna Read her previous novels? I think I had The Quarry Girls and I don't know why I haven't read it yet, but might be might be on the list, I also read The Getaway by Nicole Falls which is sweet and sexy, short about, a little vacation, it was it was good it was it was there's a lot of sex in this book, but it's super sweet, So, snatch that up it's only available at her website I believe it's called the shopbynicolefalls.com, And I just know Doctor. Raymond is waiting to hear this one he's just drooling at the mouth to hear me talk about This book because he does not understand how I still read every Grisham book ever published. It's a compulsion. I can't help it.

DL White [00:14:30]:

Every book I just hope he is not publishing, a terrible book and every book is just not all that good. He hasn't been good in a in a very long time but his past Books were so good. I just I want him to redeem himself. So I picked up The Exchange after The Firm by John Grisham. This is a follow-up to The Firm. Don't didn't nobody ask what happened to Mitchell McDear? What nobody cares. I just. Sir, who asked for this? Who who asked for this? Who edited this? Who okay ed this? Who sold this? This was even more boring than Boys from Biloxi and Boys from Biloxi was boring, no.

DL White [00:15:17]:

I got to chapter 11 and I was like, what is this book about? And I started, like, skipping around and it's just It's planes, trains, and automobiles and, like, everybody, like, in intricate detail going from one place to another, this is not a legal thriller, John. What is happening with your writing? I am so frustrated because When he- he shot out of the gate with a firm and then shot right up and I haven't seen a good book from him in. He wrote, uh- I don't- I don't remember when he fell off, but the whistler wasn't good. The- I mean, honestly the books after the Whistler have not been my favorite. I did see he has another Camino book coming next year. Of course, I'm gonna pick it up. Come on. Of course.

DL White [00:16:20]:

I don't mind the Camino books, at all. The Camino books are good. They are not legal thrillers. He is not a bad writer, just the story is boring. The story is just not it's it's nothing. It's like he hears a gem of a story and tries to build a legal thriller around it and it doesn't work. It just it just does this like the story in the story just doesn't it doesn't work, John. Call me.

DL White [00:16:46]:

Let's talk about it. So The Exchange by John Grisham did not work for me. I have a work friend, we both read thrillers, and every year John Grisham announces a new book and every year he's like, okay Dom, are we reading it? And I said, Here's what's gonna happen. I can't help myself. I'm gonna read it but I will let you know if you should read it because you can skip a book. He's like, I don't know. I never skip a Grisham. I just don't enjoy them all.

DL White [00:17:15]:

So I messaged him and I said, okay, The Exchange is out and I'm gonna read it I'm gonna let you know and he's like oh god I'm scared because when Boyce from Biloxi came out I said okay Brian I'm gonna read this book and I'll let you know if it's good and I will let you know if you should pick it up. He's like, okay, Dom, I trust you. So I read it and I said it's boring. It's like the beginning is It's good, it gets to about 30% and then it's like a snooze fest. It's not, it's not good. He's like, Okay, yeah. Thanks. Thank you for letting me know.

DL White [00:17:44]:

And then months later he's like, so I'm reading Voice from Biloxi and you're right, it's not good. I'm like, dude, I told you. Do you not trust me? He's like, I can't help it. We are crazy. So, Yeah. DNF'd the exchange. So by recommendation of doctor Raymond Williams, I am reading The Snowman by Joan Nesbo. I did note is book number 7 in a series.

DL White [00:18:11]:

I, hope it's fine to just jump right in in the middle. I am not one to, like, go back to read book number 1 because sometimes book number 1 is not all that good, sometimes you start with the latest and then you, you know, you start back book number 1 to get the history, but sometimes book number 1 is not the best book to read, So I'm gonna try out the snowman, just on the strength on the strength Of Raymond's word I'm gonna try it and, I'm I'm open mind I didn't even read the blurb I just Got it from Libby and we gone see what we gone see what it do. So, That is the book report, this coming week I have some travel I leave Monday for in New York and I will be there Monday, Tuesday flying back Wednesday. I don't know if I will get much reading done but I'm gonna give it, the old college try and, I probably I don't know if I'll get any writing done. I'm planning to write this weekend so that I can have some in, in the can in case I get back and I just don't feel like writing, but the plan is to travel Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, rest Thursday, maybe right Friday, Saturday or Saturday, Sunday, And, I should be back next weekend, but if I'm not just know I'm tired and I don't feel like it, so there's there's that, But I get so harassed when I don't put up an episode, and I'm a just let y'all know I don't care. So, harass me all you want if I don't feel like getting on the getting on this mic. It is not happening. So, But just to let you know, just a warning shot, there may not be an episode next week but I come back early enough that I should be fine.

DL White [00:20:12]:

The the episode won't be very long. There won't be a whole lot of updates, but I could I could probably Pull an episode out of my behind. So writing update: I am working on what we call a dessert project, What I call a dessert project. It's a project that is just for fun. It's not, it's not work I can sell. It is just writing purely for the joy of writing and for me that is fan fiction as I have said, like, You know, yes, I can drop down and like write something random but if it is not fan fiction I am compelled to sell it and I cannot legally sell fan fiction and so that's why I always bump back to this kind of, writing because I don't, I don't feel, I don't- I don't- it's- it's just a different kind of writing. I don't feel compelled to make it commercial fiction perfect. I'm just trying to tell a story and with this story I am trying to spread my wings and learn about writing a new genre and get some practice in it and Really get back to, serial writing and, spreading out a Story and, grabbing ears and people keeping people's attention and keeping people coming back to the archive.

DL White [00:21:40]:

If you have never seen the archive it's just, it's a website that holds stories that are posted chapter by chapter, so it's serial fiction, it's run on, software platform called e fiction which is built basically specifically for Fan fiction is very old. It needs to be updated. They are working on it, but we do the best we can with what we've got. If you've ever heard of Wattpad or archive of our own or fanfiction.net, it's the same concept. It's just people, or Kindle Vella people write in, serial. It's serial fashion fashion, like episodes instead of chapters. So, At the archive we write stories that, basically, surround our Favorite member of the group or the group as a whole, I almost almost exclusively write JC Chasez Just because it's where I am most comfortable with him as a character, I take the public persona that we know as fans and put that in a story. The project that I'm writing is called The Story of Kate, Which is also the title of JC's sophomore album.

DL White [00:23:00]:

I got this idea probably 10 years and started writing it and hit a wall as I do. And I don't like to leave unfinished stuff on the archive, so I had pulled it off And, I think I said a couple podcasts ago. I was recently thinking about that story and, like, you know, a 1000000 years ago, I started writing this Story that isn't a romance that involved this story that I had started writing, and I kinda wanna pull it out and, like, just do Something new, and I have been telling my writing friends for some time I I love romance, but I'm bored. Like, I feel like I'm writing The same story over and over. I don't I just don't want to keep writing the same story. I want to expand my horizons. I want to think bigger and think differently and I just want I want to be challenged with something new. And Back in the day, I would always practice a new concept, a new like, something I wanted to work on.

DL White [00:24:01]:

I would always Practice that in fan fiction. So I challenged myself to go back to fan fiction and just jump right back in, Pick up this story and see if I could get it going. It is a thriller, again it is called The story of Kate and it is about a fan who is obsessed with a singer, and she thinks that he is in love with her. That is a condition called erotomania, where a person imagines that another person is in love with them, so, my character here, the antagonist really in this story, her name is Melody Melody Catherine, but, she has been going by Kate since she heard about this album called The Story of Kate. Her husband had done a project for character JC Chasez. She's been suffering from Eratomania and borderline personality disorder since she was a teenager and many years ago, broke into the home of Another music artist, and that sort of, started like a series of events. And it's It's years later and she is married and medicated and then she meets JC and she hasn't been keeping up on her meds and she is beginning to Spiral again, and so we we pick up at the story where she is kind of she's beginning to beginning her spiral, caricature JC is kinda like getting his life together. He has, opened a business, and he is married, and, Like, life is good, and the trajectory of this story is writing out The life of a person who is just kinda happy happily living along and the interpretation of that life in Kate's Eyes as she sees things unfolding and as she sees things from the perspective of someone who Thinks this person is in love with her and is asking her to help him get out of his current relationship.

DL White [00:26:21]:

I don't think I'm making any sense in my explanation, but that's sort of where I'm at. So I have gone through and planned how this Story folds, how the story unfolds, not like plot point by plot point planning, but I kind of I know how the Story is going to unfold. I am a pantser by nature. I just, like, sit down and write until I hit a wall, and then I have to, like, kinda back up and assess where I am and where I wanna go and how do I get from where I am across the chasm to where I need to be. I did that beginning work 10 years ago, so, I can come back to this now with Fresh eyes and be like, okay, I originally thought this but that's not gonna work and that's why I hit a wall so let me back it up and start again from this point and go this way. So I have a really good rundown of how I think this story is going to play out. It's going to be fun to write it, I am just not able to pants a new genre, I'm not able to pants A a genre where the clues have to add up, I'm not able to pants, Things that have to interlock and breadcrumbs that you have to drop and hints that you have to leave, like, Since I've planned all this out I now have to go back to the beginning chapters and add, like, you know, little clues and drop crumbs so that I can go throughout the book chapter by chapter and keep Building the clues as to what's going to happen and when it's going to happen. I've also been doing a lot of reading and writing on fans and erotomania, I watched a couple of documentaries on BTS, fans and wow, the K Pop, fans are a lot.

DL White [00:28:27]:

They're a lot, I mean being in a K Pop group is a lot, But the fans are wow. I feel like much worse than US fans, so, It has really opened my eyes a lot and has given me a lot to go on for the character of, Melody aka Kate. So, I am actually I've written up to chapter 8 and I have released the prologue and 2 chapters on the archive. Very good reception so far, I'm so happy to see people, commenting and, asking for the next chapter. So, I'm just excited. My brain is alive again. I am really enjoying writing again. I'm enjoying, Like, pulling this story out and kinda chatting with readers about what could happen and what's going to happen.

DL White [00:29:28]:

It's a good exercise. I'm very glad that I did it. I really needed to find some joy and, get back To writing because I like writing and writing because I like to tell a story and not writing because I need to make money. Not, you know, writing a book and making it commercially perfect so that it appeals to a wide audience. I don't need to appeal To a wide audience here, I only need to entertain the people that log into the archive. So, that's been So great just to narrow the focus and focus on the work that matters, and right now the work that matters is This story, the challenge has been amazing so far, I didn't count how many entries we have I can check Super quick. We actually don't have too many entries, but we have had a lot of people, coming back to the archive after, a long hiatus. Really any anytime the group does things, people pop up And they try to, like, come back and update old stories.

DL White [00:30:42]:

Anytime the boys do stuff, it jogs that fiction Part of the brain, people have, like, a new chapter they pop up with or a short or a visual. And so, NSYNC having a new song out and, for for the Trolls band together movie has, really ignited a lot of people. There's a little bit of drama in the fandom Right now, which I have opted not to comment on, just let people deal with their own business but even that Drama has brought people to the fandom to read stories to update stories to write new stories. So I will take all of it as a byproduct, so things are pretty good on that front right now. I have, like, 8 chapters written. I've posted the prologue in 2 chapters. I'm gonna post, I posted on The 1st day, the 2nd day, and then I updated yesterday I'll probably update tomorrow And then I'm going to probably not update again until next week which is it's hard to wait when it's already written But I don't wanna be, I don't wanna be chasing chapters, I don't I don't I don't want to, I don't want to be writing the next chapter after I post the last chapter. I want to be a little bit ahead, so I want to give myself some time to get ahead in the next plot point and have that written so my beta and I can go over it.

DL White [00:32:19]:

And, I have found, of course, that I need to edit and Edit and edit and go over and go over and go over it until it is what I want it to look like. It might just be fan fiction, but I'm I'm still a perfectionist, I'm still sensitive about my stuff, I still want it to read well, I want it to sound good, I don't, you know, I don't, I don't want it to be just me popping onto a fan fiction website and spewing out, you know, a fandom wet dream. So I do still take the writing seriously, even though it is fan fiction so Having a lot of fun, developing the story, writing the story, reacting to comments on the story, so I actually pulled all of the fan fiction and stuff into a completely different persona. It has that MissM is my username on the archive. Miss M has her own Twitter, her own Instagram, her own TikTok. I opened up a substack just so I can keep all that separate from the D. L. White Stuff that's going on.

DL White [00:33:28]:

So, I am a compartmentalizer. I need, like, I need individual I need lanes for all my Stuff I don't like things really to overlap because then it's hard to delineate what what is what, then I'm like I'm working on everything all the time and I really need to divide up my time and my attention, my priorities, my commitments by You know what I'm doing and right now I am focusing on this story. The challenge ends November 17th so I am gonna be writing my little tail off, so that I can finish this by 17th and then I kind of want to hop back into D. L. White and Maybe do a little, holiday short. I don't know. I don't have any ideas. The idea of writing big R romance right now, does not excite me, but I also don't want to write another thriller, so I don't know.

DL White [00:34:26]:

I know writing begets writing. I write I feel like writing more when I am writing regularly And, when I feel good about what I'm putting out and when what I am getting is giving me a really good response So, it definitely feeds the ego it's good for the feels as we say so I will of course keep you updated, whether you care or not because it's what I'm doing and then, up until November 17th Is that movie out on 17th? I think the movie comes out on 17th so that'll also be fun. Until then, I'm a just be reading and writing And that's about all I have energy for, you know, the winter the fall and winter are like slower times for me. I am a hibernator. I just I'm a hibernator anyway, but especially in the fall and winter. Once the leaves and the time Start changing and the sun starts setting you know before 7 o'clock your girl be in the house. I have my nose in a book and earbuds in my ear and I just keep to myself. So I would like to ask for good thoughts for my roommate she is going through some health issues right now so The next few months are going to be a challenge for her.

DL White [00:35:55]:

I am here I you know, I live here I help out, you know, where I can. So I feel like there are gonna be some things coming up that, I'm gonna be involved in regarding her Health and, we just wanna get her healthy. I just covet your good thoughts, your prayers if you pray, your, Well wishes for her. Her name is Johanna. I probably won't do any updates on her because it's her life, but I will go so far as to say she is having some health issues, this is public that she had Battle with breast cancer in 2020 and 2021, she had a mastectomy and, the chemo Did some things. Did some things, and so now she's struggling with residual health issues Because of that, and so I did find the same to be with my dad. He had throat cancer in 2015. And then he had prostate cancer in 2020.

DL White [00:37:03]:

Yeah, both of them at the same time. And then he had prostate surgery in 2022. And, again, really the chemo from, the 2015, chemo and radiation from the 2015 cancer fight, he'll he'll never be the same. Lots of stuff happening, you know, like, you just you never know what people are going through. You never know what's happening behind, you know, behind the scenes. So I I don't think that I've been a person to treat people badly because there are things going on but if I have that would be why, so Keep us all in your good thoughts, your prayers, light a candle, send up a prayer, Shout out a good word. Whatever you do I appreciate it. I think that brings this show to a close.

DL White [00:37:54]:

Thank you for joining me for another episode of the Bookcast I will see you next week for episode 61, I will hopefully have a reading update and a writing update. Please enjoy your weekend. Have a superlative week, and we will chat again soon. Bye bye.