Bookcast S3:E5- COME AT ME, BRO!

DL White [00:00:10]:

Well, hello. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening. Whatever day it is, what time it is when you are listening to the sound of my voice. This is DL. White, Atlanta based author of romantic fiction featuring black men and women. And this is the bookcast. This is my platform for sharing short fiction when I write it and also giving you an update on what's happening over here at Books by Deal White. It's lovely and exciting.

DL White [00:00:37]:

It is Saturday morning, February 18, 2023. It's 09:10 A.m.. I have just made my coffee, so I am very happy. And I learned yesterday that February 18 is Lord Morrison Day because Audrey Lord and Tony Morrison share a birthday. So happy birthday to both of those literary queens. Last year I read the title absolutely escapes me. I read an Audrey Lord book. It was the book that she wrote about her cancer diagnosis and how she was fighting it.

DL White [00:01:10]:

I could look it up, but I'm being lazy. I read that last year during Poetry Month, National Poetry Month. There was very little poetry in the book, but I enjoyed the read. I actually really enjoyed the read. It was in audio. I don't remember who it was voiced by. Really enjoyed it. And then, of course, mother, Tony Morrison.

DL White [00:01:31]:

I have read quite a few of her books. Not all of them, but a few. So we, of course, miss her in the literary landscape. I find her work hard to read. Not impossible, not hard. But my trick is I need Cliff Notes so that I know what they're talking about before I read it, and then I can better understand it. But there's a lot of nuance that I don't understand in some fiction. I'm not all that deep.

DL White [00:02:00]:

So if you don't tell me what to look for, I have no idea. So I've had a couple of things rolling through my head just thinking about what to talk about today. This is actually my third time recording this episode because the first two times I was just ranting and being annoying, and I decided I don't want to be that person this week. There's plenty plenty to be upset about this week. There's a new Bridgerton book coming, and it features two people who are two characters who are not white, but it's being written by a black author in collaboration with a black producer. And I have so many issues with Shonda Rhimes. But I'm not going to complain about that today because there's been so much complaining about it. Like, maybe later I'll have, like, a conversation with somebody about it, but I just decided I don't I don't want to be that person.

DL White [00:02:55]:

There's there's there's so much out there to complain about and so little joy. So I think I'm going to do a short and sweet one today. I'm going to share some joy. Let me share some personal joy. Two awesome things. First of all, the guy next door is book three in the Potter Lake series. That's a series that was not meant to be a series, but is now a series. It's a small town romance series based in the southern or middle Georgia town that I made up called Potter Lake.

DL White [00:03:26]:

Book three in that series is now on Hoopla in Audio. And my authors know that it is difficult to get into Hoopla as a self published author, I have books that have been waiting for years. They have been publishing to Hoopla for years, since 2018 and ain't moved. But I now have two books, two audiobooks on Hoopla. The first book in the Potter Lake series is Leslie's Curl and die. That book is available now on Hoopla. You have to literally look it up by its title. I don't come up by my name for some reason because every time I publish Amazon and Goodreads change how my name is spelled and the spaces are different every time.

DL White [00:04:13]:

The guy next door is now available on Hoopla. I'm very excited about it. So if you have not read that book or have not heard that book in audio, it is really good. It's a cute, cute novel. It's a close proximity landlord tenant, strangers to lovers, romance. Yvonne works at the Curl and Die, which you meet the people from the Curl and I in book one in Leslie's Curland eye, yvonne works at the Curland eye. She is about to turn 30. She need to move out of her mama house.

DL White [00:04:48]:

So she decides to move on out to Potter Lakes to be closer to work. And she's adulting and she's coming into her own. I really like Yvonne. She's just spunky and energetic and just sassy and lovable. She is also a big fan of podcasts, of which I am a big fan of podcasts. There's a little bit of me and every one of my heroines, and the part of me that listens to 30 podcasts a day is Yvonne. She meets Taj, who is super reserved, quiet. He's an RN.

DL White [00:05:20]:

He used to be in a boy band or a black boy band. The black kids never got to be in boy bands. They were like male vocal groups. But I call the guys next door a boy band. It's a black boy band, like New Edition ish. I wrote that after watching the New Edition story a million times. So she meets Taj, who owns this house, and she rents out his guest house. And she previously meets Taj when she falls during a storm outside of the corollan.

DL White [00:05:50]:

Die cuts her hand open, runs on over to the emergency clinic. And Taj is working that night. And they have a little verbal spar, but then kind of make they make nice, they make friends. She thinks she's never going to see this handsome nurse that she met at the clinic ever again. But it turns out that he's her landlord. So it's a romance. So guess what happens. But a storm blows through Potter Lake.

DL White [00:06:20]:

One of these times, I'm going to record an episode and not flub my words. It will not be today, and I'm not editing that out. A storm blows through Potter Lake, and she ends up having to stay in the house with Taj, but he is headed home for the weekend, and he's like, hey, why don't you come with me? So then they have a nice weekend, and I won't tell you the whole story, but it's a cute, cute romance, so I want you to go pick it up. If you have not heard it in audio, it's voiced by Cheryl Palmer. Her voice is like butta. She has a really amazing Southern storyteller voice. She is just the best. I just consider her the voice of those books now on Hoopla and Audio.

DL White [00:07:07]:

That is fantastic news. I wanted to cry salty, hot tears when I saw the email come in, so that's very exciting. The second thing I want to share with you all is I release my audiobooks wide as an independent author through a service called Findaway Voices. So my books are on Audible. I go direct to audible through ACX. The author creator exchange. They're on Audible and itunes through ACX and everywhere else through Findaway, except for Google, which I upload Direct because nobody distributes to Google. So Findaway was purchased by Spotify, and as a result, our books are now available to be listened to on Spotify.

DL White [00:07:56]:

So to push the service, they gave us some codes. We got codes, and every time I say codes, ludicrous area codes pops up in my head. And it's been stuck in there for weeks, just literally weeks. Just between hay lover and area codes, it's a party up in my head. So I have codes to give away to people. I have a finite number of codes, so I have uploaded some of them to a spot where you can pick them up for free. Five finger discount. I've got codes right now, actually, I have codes for all of them, but I'm not giving them all away yet.

DL White [00:08:35]:

I have to tease breadcrumb you all a little bit, but I have codes for brunch at Rubies, and I have codes for dinner at Sam's. Both of those books published in January and February of 2018 in Audio. And so on the month of the anniversary of the book publishing and audio, I'm going to release new codes. So I set up a page on my website. It's not linked anywhere. You just have to know the super secret knock entryway. It's booksbydlwhite. Comcodes.

DL White [00:09:08]:

Tap on the book you want. It's going to take you to a form called Woobox. You fill in your name, your email address, and then it'll display your code, and then it'll tell you where to go to redeem the code. Now, two things on Woobox, I'm not collecting those email addresses. I'm not doing anything with those email addresses. Don't worry about me being all up in your inbox, talking about stuff, random things, trying to sell you things. I'm not collecting that. That is just so you can get your code.

DL White [00:09:36]:

That's just so I know who has a code. I'm not doing anything with that, so no worries about that. I tested the Woo Box app. I get the first code just so I can test it. It worked for me both times, so if you have any issues, please let me know. But it worked for me. The other thing you need to know is you cannot redeem that code on Spotify mobile. You can't do it through your phone.

DL White [00:10:01]:

You can't do it on your iPad. You can't pull it up on your TV and do it. You need to be on a desktop app. Or sometimes I can go to Chrome and ask it to give me the desktop experience, and that will sometimes work, but it's easier if you just hop on a computer, hit that code. It'll ask you to sign into your Spotify account. It will add the book to your account, and then you can listen to that book anywhere. Wherever you have Spotify, you'll be able to listen to it. But you need to be on a desktop app to redeem the code.

DL White [00:10:36]:

You'll probably have to log out of Spotify and then log back in for it to show up. But then it plays perfectly, like amazing magic. And then you will have beautiful ear candy voiced by Cheryl Palmer. So brunch at Rubies and dinner at Sam's. You can listen to those for free on Audible. Let's say you don't want a free code, all right? You don't need charity. You want to buy books. You can also buy those books from me.

DL White [00:11:04]:

Direct it's. Booksbydowite.com, audio. I have five books out in audio right now. Choose which one you want. It'll take you right to my website. You can buy that book. The audio is delivered by Book funnel. It's a fantastic service, super easy to get.

DL White [00:11:21]:

So take your pick. So those are two good news things that are coming from me. I'm very excited about them. The other thing I want to talk about today is books. Books, books, books. So my number one reason for listening to podcasts is books. I listen to more books and writing podcasts than well, I was going to say I listen to more books and writing podcasts than anything, but I really don't because there aren't a whole lot I stopped listening to a lot of book podcasts because they were talking about books I'm not reading. They're talking about books I don't read, I don't care about, I'm not interested in.

DL White [00:11:59]:

I have unsubscribed from a lot of book podcasts because I don't care about what they'd be talking about. I want to talk about black books. I read books written by black authors. I read books written by mostly authors who are not your standard fair, not your New York Times bestseller, not your person out here with nine books on the New York Times bestsellers list. I'm just not reading most of those. I'm reading a whole lot of indie. And if I'm reading traditionally published, the authors are black, indigenous, Latin, African. I read some African I've been reading some African fiction lately.

DL White [00:12:42]:

Kirutai is awesome. Uwankor can't think of her last name. It escapes me. I could look it up by being lazy. She's great. Nana Prey is awesome. Anyway, Kwaikworti is so good. I've got a book in my TBR that I need to get to.

DL White [00:13:05]:

I am off topic. Roll it in, reign it in, reigning it. Anyway, I love podcasts about black books. I love podcasts that talk about black books, that talk to black authors that write books. And I want so much more of that. It's a huge reason why I love books of pop culture and the stacks and between the reads, they just are consistently talking about books I'm reading or books I want to read and authors that are writing stuff I want to read. So I'm all about it. So I want to talk today about what I'm reading, what I'm not reading.

DL White [00:13:43]:

Okay, let's be real, right? Because I've had a real difficult time concentrating in February. I'm hoping to rein it in this last week or so of February. It's been rough. It's been rough. And then I want to talk about stuff I'm excited about reading, because to know me is to know that I love books so much that I just literally squeal when one pops up and it just looks like I want to read it and I don't even know what it's about. And there's one book I'm going to talk about today that I don't even know what it's about. I just immediately added it to my TBR because it's gorgeous. I am that person.

DL White [00:14:24]:

I am a cover snob to the max. If it's a pretty cover, it's getting my attention. So what I'm reading, I am about 75% into Jane Doe Black by NIA Forrester. And let me tell you, if NIA wrote entries in the phone book, I would probably read it. She's fantastic. One of my favorite authors, she is indie published, and she just writes good books, and they're like so it's like when you're reading and you forget that it's a book, like, it plays out so vividly in your head. You can hear the swish of the sheets, and you can see the character walk through their bedroom or their living room. You can hear the conversation in your ear.

DL White [00:15:13]:

It's so vivid to me. NIA does that for me. Tasha Harrison does that for me. Jacinta Howard does that for me. Delaney diamond is just sublime. I'm getting off course. I just get so excited about books. So I'm reading Jane Doe Black.

DL White [00:15:31]:

This is the first book says NIA, that is in sort of a different vein than her books have been before. Her books have been heavily black romance, black women's fiction, a lot of a little bit of drama, but not too much. So this one is about an assistant district attorney in, I believe, DC. But don't quote me on that. Sometimes I just inhale books and I don't remember details. I have to read a book, like, three or four times to really pick up intricate details. So she's an Ada, and her sister goes missing, and the book is not only about her trying to find out what happened to her sister, but also kind of the trials and tribulations of this on again, off again relationship. And they're trying to figure out what they're doing.

DL White [00:16:29]:

And she's got some issues with her job, and we get a little glimpse into some politics that's happening with the district attorney. And her boss is kind of trying to position things so that things work out a certain way. And I'm at this point in the story where some secrets are coming out, and you're like, OOH, girl. Okay. I didn't know that. So I'm not 75% into it. I'm going to try to finish it today. And there's a couple of parts I want to go back and reread.

DL White [00:17:02]:

But it's excellent as always. NIA is a consummate writer. She is actively fabulous at what she does. So sometimes I go into a book and I'm like, let's see how this goes. And sometimes I go into book like, Yay, here's a great book. I know when I go into a book by NIA that I'm going to be entertained. I am going to experience some sort of literary experience. I'm not really judging it on the writing because I already know her skill level.

DL White [00:17:38]:

I already know that it's going to be great measures of great. The other thing I'm reading is The Roundhouse by Louise Erdrich. Erdrich. I think that's how you pronounce that. I am reading this book with the Stacks Podcast Book Club, and I've got to say, I'm not really enjoying it. This book is Native American or First American fiction. It happens on a I think it's on a reservation. This book involves a sexual assault.

DL White [00:18:21]:

It surrounds a sexual assault and kind of made a commitment to myself that I wasn't going to read books that focus on sexual assault. Like, that's the whole plot of the story. The plot of the story is this kid trying to figure out what happened to his mom. And particularly, I'm not going to read books anymore where the assault is graphic and it's on the page. I'm not doing that to myself anymore. This isn't on the page. It is referred to quite a bit. It is the crux of the story.

DL White [00:18:58]:

That's not really the issue with the book, but it piles on. I'm listening to this book. I'm not a huge fan of the narrator. Let me see who this narrator is. I believe the narrator is Native American. It's narrated by Gary Farmer, and I don't know his heritage, but it just is very flat. There's not much intonation or emotion like the book is being read. It's not being acted.

DL White [00:19:31]:

It's a completely different experience than if I was listening to Sean Kristen or Bonnie Turpin read a book. It's just kind of there. It's flat. I was going to then page read this, but Tracy said, there are no quotation marks in this book. And I said, okay, that is not going to work for me. But what I might do is not print, get the ebook and have Amazon Kindle read it aloud to me. I would rather listen to a mechanical voice read a book than listen to a narrator boringly, blandly, flatly read a book. I cannot get into it because the voice is just not there.

DL White [00:20:18]:

So I'm super close to DNFing this book, but I'm going to try one last thing because I want to finish it because it's a book club pick. But this is why I don't be doing book clubs, because you'll be reading stuff I don't want to read. You know what I'm saying? Anyway, so the roundhouse it's going I don't even know how far I am into that book. I'm not tracking it at all. I'm listening to it on hoopla. So we'll see. I'm going to get the ebook and just maybe try to have my Kindle read it to me. The other book I am not reading is The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

DL White [00:21:00]:

And let me just tell you, reggie Reeds and his Ten Books, Ten Decades Challenge, I decided I was going to be lofty and do the Ten Books, Ten Decades challenge. You pick ten different decades and read a book from that decade. And so I'm 1850, I was like when I was in high school, I was obsessed with The Scarlet Letter, with the Salem Witch trials, absolutely obsessed. And I don't know what I read in high school, but it was not this text. This text is so frigging thick and it's long and it's boring and nothing is happening, and I don't understand. I want to fight Nathaniel Hawthorne in the street. I want to raise him from the dead and call him out to the street and actively punch him in the face. I don't like this book.

DL White [00:21:57]:

DL you're saying, why haven't you DNF this book? Because I don't want to pick another book from 1850. I don't want to start over. It's the first book in the decades. So I'm like, well, I could skip this decade and kind of bounce around. I could do that. I'm like 60% into the Scarlet Letter. I don't want to finish it. I don't care about this book.

DL White [00:22:24]:

I don't know what I'm going to do. But it's been sitting here. I haven't touched it in February. I started it in January. I got to 60% in January. I mean, it's 40%. I really need to just push through. I don't want to, but I also don't want to start over.

DL White [00:22:40]:

Like, if somebody finds me another book in 1850 that I might enjoy better, I would dump The Scarlet Letter instantly and just start over. I mean, I have a whole year to read ten books. Why am I making this so difficult? Why is this such an issue? I don't know. So there were some other books I was going to read this month, but I couldn't get into them. I have no span of attention this week at all. So I added them back to my I might read this might not list. I have, like, a new series that I was reading, a black Pi series by what's that dude's name? I totally forgot. Now.

DL White [00:23:26]:

Ian K. Smith, who is also a doctor. The Ash Kane series. He's a private investigator. I had started book two, but I can't concentrate on it. And so I added it back to my read this pile, and I'll pick it up again later because I have to, because my blackmail author game is just shameful. I want to talk about some books I'm really excited about. The first one is by my girl Danielle Allen.

DL White [00:23:59]:

It is called insta love. And it's in, I think, the universe of the One, which, if you read that one, it was about two people who meet on a dating reality game show. I think it's in that same world, but maybe not a follow up to the one. So this book is called Instalove by Danielle Allen. It releases February 28. I'm very excited about it. I've already preordered, so the blurb says, from the producers of the One. Instalove is taking reality TV dating shows to the next level.

DL White [00:24:35]:

It's been three years since being betrayed by my best friend and my boyfriend. And while I was over them, I was still triggered by the pain they'd caused. I was leery of people I found it hard to trust and open up. Meaningless flings filled the void and quelled any loneliness. But what I truly wanted was love. Wine. Drunk and fresh off the heels of a bad first date, I applied to be part of the relationship social experiment and hit TV show Insta Love. It wasn't until I was accepted to be a part of the show that it hit me.

DL White [00:25:04]:

I'm engaged to a man I've never met. So that is insta love. It comes out from Danielle Allen on February 28. I'm very excited already. And there's a box that goes with it that you can order. Just hit up Danielle on her site or any of her social media sites she's got links to. It all over, but the box is about $100. So you get a signed copy of the book, and I think a T shirt.

DL White [00:25:27]:

They ask your T shirt size. So must be the Insta Love box is a promotional box that comes directly from the studio that brought you the hit reality TV dating show, the one featuring surprise items from the Insta Love fan favorite couple. You'll be able to set the mood, feel the love and enjoy the vibe while you read the signed paperback. The Instalove box is the perfect purchase for those who want an Immersive reading experience. You need to be 18 or older to purchase the Insta Love box, so it might be some fun stuff in there. So look that up. I'm excited about that. I love a Danielle Allen book.

DL White [00:26:03]:

I mostly love to get in her DMs while I'm reading her books because CIS be going out. Time for coffee break, right? I'm back. The next one is a three book series from different authors. It's another installment in the Irresistible Husband collaboration between Sharon C, cooper, Delaney Diamond and Cheryl Lister. People that I mean, Delaney is an auto buy. I don't know what this book is about, but I've already bought it. So Kiss Me by Sharon C. Cooper.

DL White [00:26:40]:

Choose Me by Cheryl Lister and Marry Me by Delaney Diamond All release on March 17. I'm quite excited about these. The covers are really pretty. They just look like really interesting books. I won't go into the blurb for each of them, but you can look up those authors. They all have blurbs for all of the books on their websites and on their social media sites, on Facebook especially. Look into those. Get your pre orders up.

DL White [00:27:10]:

The buy links are not quite up yet, but look out for those. I'm super excited about that series. The last book I want to talk about is by my good friend Sanithia Williams. Every time I read a Cynithia book, I think I just don't read enough Snythia. Williams and so she's got another book coming out in August and I have already preordered it. I am quite excited about it. It's called the secret to a Southern wedding. You should see this cover if you haven't seen it already.

DL White [00:27:43]:

The COVID reveal was yesterday on Twitter and I audibly gasped. It's gorgeous. It's an illustrated cover. And I keep saying I don't like illustrated covers, except for a precious few. And this is one of the precious few. It's a gorgeous, dark skinned black woman on the COVID She's wearing like, a very fancy silky pink gown. The back is like a pinkish purpleish. She has got a bouquet of flowers in her hand, like she just caught the bouquet at a wedding.

DL White [00:28:14]:

It's absolutely gorgeous. It is an absolutely gorgeous, gorgeous book. It's coming August 2023. It's called the secret to a Southern wedding. I'm going to her website right now because the blurb is everything says it's been years since Dr. Imani Kemp has returned home to Peachtree Cove, Georgia. As Tallahassee's most sought after OBGYN, she doesn't have much time for anything else. But when her mom announces she's marrying a man she just met on a dating app, imani knows she has to put a stop to it immediately, let her mom be hurt again after the disastrous way her last marriage ended.

DL White [00:28:46]:

Absolutely not. Always her protector, Imani won't rest until her mom sees reason. She just never expected sparks to fly with the groom's son. After his mother's tragic death, cyril Dash and his father relocated to Peachtree Cove to escape the gossip and speculation. Now, in this quirky small town, they've made a new life for themselves. And after years of grief, his dad has finally found happiness again. And Cyril refuses to let Imani threaten that. The more determined he is to prove the strength of his dad's love, the more drawn he is to this beautiful, complicated woman who's determined to call off the wedding.

DL White [00:29:22]:

But when Cyril's heartbreaking past comes to light, destiny won't be denied, because the secret to the Southern wedding is you never know how far you'll go in the name of love. It sounds fantastic. It is. Coming out from Harlequin, August 28, I think. I am looking on the website August 15. So very excited about that. Got my preorder in. But of course I am as always going to try to get an advanced copy because I don't like waiting.

DL White [00:29:52]:

So those are three books I am super excited about. Of course, there are always tons, tons, tons of books coming out all the time. We were just talking last night on the Black Reader Experience on Instagram, how we get stressed out about all these books that are coming out. Like, they all look good and I want to read them all and I don't have time and I'm very stressed out about it and there are so many people here. I'm going to gripe. I'm going to gripe for like a quick second. There are so many people who are so worried about what other people are reading and how much other people are reading and how they're reading it that make it kind of not fun to be part of a reading community. It doesn't matter what I read and how I read and how fast I read that.

DL White [00:30:41]:

It's got nothing to do with you. There's not a National Council on Reading where we all report our reading stats and we're all rated by best reader and worst reader and slowest reader and fastest reader. It literally doesn't matter. If you don't count audiobooks as books, that's good for you. But you don't get to dictate that for other people. If you don't count an audiobook listened to at 1.8 times speed as reading, that's great for you. So you operate based on how you read because we all read differently. We all have different levels of comprehension.

DL White [00:31:23]:

That's good for you. But you don't get to dictate your rules for me and my reading. I am mostly an audio girl because I like to hear it. I am able to work and listen to an audiobook. I am able. To scrub the floor and listen to an audiobook. I am able to do laundry and drive and do whatever while I'm listening to an audiobook. My hands have to be busy though while I listen to an audiobook.

DL White [00:31:47]:

I can't lay in my bed and listen to audio because then I drift off if my hands are busy. I've got that audiobook to focus on. That is what my attention is hanging off of. I have a very short span of attention. It takes a lot to grab it, but once I've got it, it's there. I can do that. I understand that other people can't and that's cool. But nobody asked you.

DL White [00:32:10]:

I'm talking about me and what I do. I'm talking about me and what I do in this house. On my goodreads challenge in my book Reading life, we like audiobooks at between 1.25 to 1.8 x because I need it conversationally fast. One x unless that person talks fast in the original recording is going to lose me. I can't hang on to words when they are speaking slowly. I can't do that. I can't do it. I got to speed it up.

DL White [00:32:48]:

I need it faster. My brain needs to process that text at a more rapid pace because it's almost like it needs to be almost too fast. That's how I hang on to that. I can't do one x. There are other people that can't listen to books faster. I don't know what happens in your brain when the book speeds up, but it's not my business. I don't care. I didn't ask and I don't care.

DL White [00:33:12]:

I'm going to do what I'm going to do. But if you go and get on Keith Lee's Internet, yeah, I'm calling it Keith Lee's Internet now. Did you all hear him on Kevin stage? It's two and a half hours of the best podcast interview you've ever heard. Keith is so personable. Just as an aside, go look him up on the Kevin stage. Here's the thing. Podcast. It's on YouTube.

DL White [00:33:34]:

You need to watch it because Keith is amazing. It is a really good interview. It tells his whole life story and you get it from start to finish. You get it. The time when Keith almost went to college, I was crying hysterical. Like tears coming out of my eyes. Actually, literally crying. Anyhow, if you go and get on Keith Lee's Internet and start complaining about how people can read 100 to 150 books a year because they're quote cheating by listening faster or reading short books or however like you my business.

DL White [00:34:12]:

Don't do that. Why are you my business? Why are you watching me? You could be using this time to read more books because if you read slow, you need all the time you can get. And so why are you wasting time in my business worrying about me and how I read when you could be over there reading your print books and smelling them and turning the pages and holding the heft in your hands and being fake reverent about paper. Yes, I said fake reverent about paper. Come at me. Come at me, bro. Come at me. It's paper.

DL White [00:34:45]:

Come on, y'all. Unless it's signed, it's paper. I know I'm a get it. I know I'm a get it in the comments about that one from one Demetrius Fraser. But anyway, buy your books that resist booksellers. I'm trying to suck up now. So I forgot why I went on that tangent. But this is how I be reading books.

DL White [00:35:09]:

This is how I get in 110, 150 books. This year I decided I'm only going to read 100 books. I mean, I'm going to go over, but last year I was struggling to hit 150. I mean, I was reading every second of the day to hit 150. And I decided I'm just going to do 100. I'm probably going to go over, but I probably won't hit 150. I just want to take it easy. I want to enjoy reading the books, but I do read a lot and I read fast.

DL White [00:35:39]:

I read an audio so that I can work while I read. And it's basically like 8 hours of reading time. Am I cheating? According to you, maybe. According to me. Now I'm reading, this is how I read, this is how I do, this is how I've been doing. And it's not any of your business. Why are you over here in my business? Mind your business. Get some business to mind.

DL White [00:36:03]:

Coffee break, right? I'm back. So I did do a little bit of griping, but not about the things I wanted to gripe about earlier because I'm tired of talking, but I don't have anything else to gripe about. It's Saturday morning. I have books to read. I am going to update my no, I'm going to update my planner tomorrow. But I do have books to read. I'm going to finish that nora, hi. I'm going to finish that Neophorester book this morning and not going to read The Scarlet Letter.

DL White [00:36:41]:

I don't feel like it. And then later on this afternoon I'm planning to go out to this bookshop in Marietta because there are some black historical writers that are doing a panel at 03:00 that I'm super excited about. It is Denny s bryce, who I've not met yet. Kaya Alderson who wrote Sisters in Arms. I'm very excited to get my book signed. I'm taking it. Hope she can sign it. Wanda Morris, who wrote anywhere you run and all her little secrets.

DL White [00:37:14]:

Totally excited because I haven't met her yet. Vanessa Riley, who I've met before. Maybe no, I haven't met Vanessa. So I'm excited. I got a copy of what is this book? Sister Woman. I'm totally messing up the title of that book. Let me just look it up because that's just rude. And then Vanessa.

DL White [00:37:39]:

Not Vanessa. Piper hugley is on the panel. She's listed on the panel. I don't think she is actually going to be there. Sadly, her sister passed away this week and I believe she is going to be busy with her family. If she is there, plan to give her a great big hug. I do have a copy of her recent release, why can't I remember anything? Sister Mother Warrior is the Vanessa Riley book that I have and then, yes, I am looking it up. It's across the room, but I can't see the title by her own design is the book that I have.

DL White [00:38:19]:

I'm going to bring it just in case she's there, but I don't think she's going to be. So that's going to be later today. I am fantastically excited about it because authors are rock stars to me. So I'm really excited to hear what they have to say about black historical fiction. Hopefully get some books signed if they have any books on sale. I need to buy a Denny s Bryce book. I was going to buy in the Face of the sun, but it wasn't going to be here in time for me to get it signed. So I'm going to buy a cop, be at the bookstore if they have it and ask her to sign it.

DL White [00:38:48]:

I'm very excited. So that's all I have for today. Yeah, I got an episode out. This has been the bookcast by Dlwhite. You can buy all of my [email protected], books or at your favorite ebook retailer. I do have also print and audio available. Select titles are available in print and audio. You can find me at author dlwhite at just about well, I won't say just about any social media site because I'm not posting on TikTok anymore.

DL White [00:39:17]:

I am there, like looking at cat videos, but I'm not posting on TikTok anymore. I am an Instagram facebook. Pinterest twitter while it lasts. I'm going to tell you all, I'm going to ride Twitter until the very end. I'm going to ride Twitter until the website stops working. I am not going to join 104 social media sites to try to be with everybody. If you're leaving, go and go. We will miss you.

DL White [00:39:43]:

I do not plan to join a whole bunch of other sites. I did join Spoutable mostly just to see how that develops. It needs an app. I want to support Christopher Bowsey. He's a cool dude, but I'm just not joining a whole bunch of sites to be found everywhere. Twitter is where I'm going to be. I'm on Twitter. I'm on Facebook.

DL White [00:40:04]:

I'm on Instagram. I am here and there on Pinterest. So come at me. Come at me, bro. Especially if you want to talk about how precious paper is when there's words printed on it. I thought I'd close the page. Have a great day, have a great weekend. We'll talk next week.

DL White [00:40:24]:

Bye.