Bookcast Epi 79: Reporting Live from my Writing Retreat

For epi 79 of the Bookcast I am coming at you live from my writing retreat, about an hour away from home. Hoping to get in a good bit of writing, reading (and let's be real, eating), so the notes this week will be sparse until I am back home.  Today I update you all on the books I read and am reading, progress on my Goodreads challenge goal, then in the writing update I discuss the good week I had and my goals for this retreat. I also talked about Gwen Hayes romance craft book- ROMANCING THE BEAT.  It's basically my manual for writing a romance. 
Hope you enjoy today's show- full show notes will be on my website at booksbydlwhite.com/bookcast but likely not until Sunday, March 10th. I'll add the books I discussed and include a link to Romancing the Beat.  
Wish me luck on the writing! 

Transcript

DL White [00:00:14]:
Good morning, lovers and friends, boos and bros, people listening to this podcast at any point in time at any time of day. Hi. Hello. How are you? Welcome back to the book cast. Today's episode may sound a little funny because I am in a hotel room, and, it's very sparse in here so it does sound a bit empty. Many apologies. I am using a microphone. Little weird because that is the situation.

DL White [00:00:48]:
Here we go. Welcome to episode 79. This is the BookCast, my platform for sharing short fiction and updates on what I'm reading and writing. I am DL White, your host. I am an Atlanta based author of contemporary southern and romantic fiction novels that center black love and relationships. I'm also a big fan of books. So we usually begin with a book report where I talk about what I read, what I'm reading, what I put down because I couldn't get to it or didn't like it. And then we talk about writing and topics of the day.

DL White [00:01:21]:
I have concluded my how I write series. I did that through all of February. It was enjoyable and fantastic. You can go back and listen to those episodes. I did, I believe, 4 episodes on how I personally write, backed up by a little bit of research and, you know, some things that you can take away because as I like to say, I am nobody's expert. I'm not a guru. I'm not a guide. I'm not a coach.

DL White [00:01:45]:
I talk about how I do it. I talk about how the experts say you should do it. We meet somewhere in the middle. You know what I'm saying? I'm currently on a short weekend writing retreat where I plan to make a dent in the pearl at Black Diamond. This is Black Diamond romance number 3. I'll talk about my weekend writing and my goals for the weekend in the writing update. The book cast is a production of books by DL White written, edited, produced and supported by me. If you'd love to back me up, I would be most grateful for that.

DL White [00:02:15]:
The best way to do that is to talk about the books, but also buy the books. Booksbydlwhite.com slash books has all of the good stuff in ebook or audio. Again, I have done away with print copies at my house. I'll do like a special signed edition or whatever, but I'm trying not to, ship books from my house anymore. I just don't sell enough to make that worth it for me. You can always get your print copies, by requesting them from resist booksellers@resistbooksellers.com, or you can go to my personal shop or the resist books booksellers shop on bookshop.org. But if you're looking for ebook and audio, I've got all that for you at books by d l white this month. I'm celebrating the debut novel, Brunch at Ruby's, which turns 9 at the end of March.

DL White [00:03:03]:
I put the ebook and the audiobook on sale wherever ebooks are sold. Audiobooks on sale at my store, Spotify, Nook Audio, it should also be on sale at Apple Books, but I honestly have not remembered to check if it's not. Sorry about that. It's supposed to be. And if you talk to me, Nysa, who have a few Spotify audio book codes if you don't wanna go through the hassle, but really wanna listen to the audio. Speaking of audio, Curl and Die is featured this week at indie audiobookdeals.com. If you're a member at Cobalt Plus, you can grab that in ebook or audio as part of your subscription if you have reading and listening. And then as a reminder, if you are a premium subscriber at Spotify, you get 15 free hours there.

DL White [00:03:43]:
So snatch up my audiobooks. I still get paid for them. And you can I think, brunch at Ruby's is like a 14 or 13 hour audiobook so you could practically listen to the whole book for free on Spotify? We have got a lot to cover today so let's get going. Today, we will start with the book report as always, then I will update on the writing, writing, writing, writing, writing. I am hoping to keep this episode short and sweet because I, I broke my nightstand, first of all. And, I wanna get some writing in before my event this morning, and then I'll come back this afternoon and get back to it. Today is Saturday, March 9th. It is 8:44 AM.

DL White [00:04:22]:
It is overcast in the ATL. I have a mic, and I am ready to dig in. But first, no matter where I'm at, I have got coffee. Alright. Here we go. Here we go. We begin as always with the book report because I am a book head. I have read 30 2 books of my challenge to read 150 books this year.

DL White [00:04:56]:
I am 5 books ahead on my Goodreads challenge, which is great. I read this week Mother Charity a big free novel by Martha b Boone. I met doctor Boone probably like 7 years ago or something at, a local author shindig at Foxtail Books up way, way up in, like, Woodstock, Georgia. I bought the big free, read it, really enjoyed it. If you know me, you know I love like a medical drama. I love a medical documentary, books about nurses, doctors, whatever. I'm all over it. So was happy to snatch up her book.

DL White [00:05:31]:
If you like nonfiction about the body, she has a book called the unfettered urologist. Doctor Boone is a retired, urologist. She is a fantastic follow on any platform. She's on Twitter and Facebook. I know her on Facebook. Anyway, Mother Charity is the second big free novel. It centers around the historic Charity Hospital in New Orleans. This book was really good.

DL White [00:05:57]:
You know, it's it's, an account of a doctor who is I believe she's a resident. They keep calling her intern, but I believe it's resident. And she is assigned a rotation with a doctor who is just mean, and she's super dreading it. But, it really takes you through the resident experience, like a firsthand account of the journey from a really timid, resident to a confident and accomplished doctor surgeon rather. Some funny characters in it. If I'm being honest, it's a little thick in the writing. I would have trimmed it down some. Like some of the dialogue is full, but it's not my book.

DL White [00:06:41]:
So, I did finish it and I will be seeing doctor Boone today and hoping to get an autographed copy of Mother Charity. I also read Make You Mind Again, a second chance novella by Sharice Hodges. This was, Sharice is always like a really good, like, hey, I need something to read. Let me snatch this up. Herbert Richardson's 6 sisters story is, quite good. Really love, that entire series. So I snatched this up. It was a birthday release for her, which gives me ideas to write a little something something for my birthday.

DL White [00:07:13]:
I don't know. I don't know if I have time. I don't know if I'll get it out, because I'm also trying to not miss episodes on the podcast. So I do have birthday plans, so I do not have time to record an episode on my birthday weekend, but, Robert Justice sent me a DM on Twitter. He's like, hey, I have an idea on how you can not miss episodes. So some of you people that listen to me every week, I'm goodness gracious. So between writing this book and possibly writing a little short for my birthday and possibly, like, recording an extra episode so I don't miss episodes for my birthday, which no promises. I have no issues missing an episode in the least, but we'll see.

DL White [00:07:59]:
I don't know if I have time. I don't know of time. This week I am reading This Could Be Us, which is skyline number 2 by Kennedy Ryan. I did finally start this. I grabbed it in audio. It's good. It is not it's more like, drama, women's fiction. It's not giving me really lovey dovey vibes that I need to write romance.

DL White [00:08:20]:
So I feel like I need to grab something that's, like, quick, short, sweet, steamy to, like, get me in the mood and the mindset. It is very good, though. Already dislike Edward a great deal. Jacoby Diem narrates, the male heroine male heroine. Wow. The male main character in this book, I feel like this is just my opinion. I feel like Jacoby is a bit much for this book. I don't know.

DL White [00:08:56]:
I just I feel like Jacoby's voice could be used for certain characters. I just I just I feel like Jacobi's a little a little bit much for for this book. But if I'm honest, don't cancel me. Don't hate me. If I'm honest, Jacoby on romances is a lot overdone to me. His he he the way he voices a romance, it's much different than the way he voices a crime fiction or a, like, a genre fiction novel. I know I'm using the word genre fiction wrong, but whatever. You know what I'm talking about? I feel like he is always a little bit too much for me on romance and, I that is not a popular opinion.

DL White [00:09:42]:
I am a fan of JD Jackson, which is when he is reading a novel that is not a romance. The Jacobi Diem, I gotta space those out because I feel like he really gets into it, and it's just it's it's it's too much for me. I also have the American Daughters by Maurice Carlos Ruffin. I'm going to keep this on my reading list until I actually start it and read it. But here's my deal with this book. It's a historical fiction, and I'm writing a romance. And I feel like it's gonna mess with my romance mojo, so I haven't started it. But I'm keeping it on my list until I start it and finish it.

DL White [00:10:18]:
I also have Watch Where They Hide by Tamron Hall. That actually comes out, I believe, next week, and I have not started it yet. Again, thinking about waiting for it to come out in audio so I can listen to it as opposed to read it with my eyes or have, Kindle, text to speech read it to me. It's just a different experience when I'm listening to it, and also I can listen and do other things like drive, like work. I do a lot of like mindless tasks. I do a lot of work by myself. So it's great for me to have an audio book or like a stack of podcasts, or like a YouTube video that I can listen to while I work. And so I do save, really good books for that kind of work.

DL White [00:11:00]:
So might save it. I did hear that this was, good, not great. But her first book was good, not great. I hope it's better than the first one. Big fan of Tamarind. You like, you know, breaching reach branching out into other things and, doing, you know, doing something else. So I did not put down any books this week mostly because I spent most of my week writing and I ain't got no problems with that. Moving on to the writing update.

DL White [00:11:31]:
Last week's word count was just over 30,000 words and I had cut quite a bit. I cut out, like, almost a whole chapter. And this week, I I I added some words back. I actually wrote a couple of chapters, I think, or like a chapter and a half. I know I wrote at least one whole chapter yesterday. This week, I'm at 36,000. I'm hoping to get in a good 10,000 this weekend. Some authors are out here writing 10 k a day, and that ain't me, child.

DL White [00:11:57]:
That ain't me. I I I ain't got it like that. But if I could get a good if if I can get a good 10,000 over a weekend, I am good. So if I leave this hotel and I am over 40,000, I'll be happy. I'll be happy about that because that's what I would typically get typically get over a week's amount of time. We are heading into 20k in 5 days territory, with the word makers. And I don't I don't think I am doing the challenge, but I may check-in just for the camaraderie. I do have to work this week.

DL White [00:12:29]:
My boss will be back this week. It's going to be a busy one. But we'll we'll see what the evening check ins are hitting for. I might roll into the Zoom just to, write with my friends. So we'll see. No promises. I am getting to the point in my novel where my characters are starting to fall for each other, but realizing that can't happen for one reason or another. Among mother among other methods like goal, motivation, conflict, I find it difficult to get into the romance of a romance.

DL White [00:13:05]:
So I also follow the romancing the beat plot structure, which helps me develop the love between my characters. If you're a romance writer, and you've never had the pleasure of me beating you upside the head with a copy of Romancing the Beat by Gwen Hayes, available at romancing the beat dot com in ebook print and audio. Just saying, it's a really, really short book. It's a great listen. It's a great read. I try to read it right before I write any romance. Didn't do it this time. I wonder why I'm struggling.

DL White [00:13:32]:
It is a popular framework for structuring romance novels. It provides guidance on plotting and pacing, focusing on the development of the romantic relationship between your main character. There's 4 phases and each phase has beats that belong to the phase. So phase 1 is the setup, introducing your love interest and setting the stage for the romance. Phase 2 is falling in love, a period where the love interest get to know each other better, but they're not quite firmly in a relationship. Phase 3 is retreating from love where 1 or both characters begin to doubt the relationship entirely, which can lead to your 3rd act breakup or your relationship dark moment. And then phase 4 is fighting for love where the love interest face their darkest moment realizing they can't live without each other, and then they go on to live happily ever after. Each phase, as I said, includes key beats that your novel, will include to craft craft your swoon worthy love story.

DL White [00:14:30]:
So in detail, I'm in phase 1. We've had I've introduced my main characters. During the setup, you introduce your 2 main characters and show why they are compelling. We give our readers a look at the characters normalized before they're turned upside down by true love. In the meet cute is where your 2 main characters meet for the first time. My my characters have met. This moment should be memorable, though it doesn't actually have to be cute. Mine is mine's kinda cute.

DL White [00:14:57]:
It's kinda it's kinda cute. Davis is upset because, Kari has been hired by the management company that kind of, like, run not runs the hotel. Davis runs the hotel, but there's a management company that sits over that hired him, that hired, you know, everybody. And that management company is hired by, Harlan Calhoun, who is like a like a oil magnate or something, and he decides to get into resorts. And he's hired Davis to run this hotel, and it's kinda sorta failing. And he's been telling Calhoun, hey, I need some help because I I can't book events. I can't do marketing. I can't do all this because I'm, like, I'm busy, like, running around trying to keep the lights on.

DL White [00:15:40]:
And Harlow's like, Bet, your new marketing manager will be by there shortly. And he's like, hey. I don't I don't get to pick I don't get to pick them out. I don't get to hire them. You brought in somebody who's probably like a leggy blonde that doesn't know anything, and I'm gonna have to lead her around, show her what to do. So Davis is already kind of against Kari coming in. Kari is coming in, like, very, bubbly, fresh faced, really excited about, about a new chapter in her life. She's been, as I've said before, she'd been raising her siblings since they were 10 12.

DL White [00:16:17]:
They are now adults, so to speak. They're out at college, and Kari is basically looking to, like, pick up her life where she left off, establishing a career, getting, you know, a good job, and she's about to move to the beach and run marketing at events for this premier hotel on Black Diamond. Only problem is her boss is a little bit like persnickety. We call him puckered in the book. So that's where I am. I've introduced my main characters. I've had my meet cute. No way number 1 during this beat your one of your main characters explains internally or externally why they most surely will not be falling in love with the love interest they just collided with, and we have done that.

DL White [00:17:01]:
Davis has gone through his ins and outs, and he, he Davis has a type, and his type is a woman that works with him. So Davis is really just trying not to fall in love with a woman that he works with again because it did not work out well the last time. And then phase 4, in, beat 4 in these setup phase is the adhesion of love plot thrust. Your main characters have met. They have sworn they're not falling in love. Fortunately for them and fans of true love, the adhesion beats next in this beat. Something happens to keep your main characters close to each other for the duration of the story. So that is the point that I'm working on right now.

DL White [00:17:43]:
This is the point where we, we see Wade and Amina and Gage come back. That's from Beach Thing which is Black Diamond Romance number 1. We have seen Vance and Athena throughout the book because Vance and Davis are best friends and Kari and Athena have met and so they're like chatty good friends now. So this book now has a lot of characters and there's a big event that I am helping. I'm having Kari set up basically to kick the summer off at the pearl, bring people to the island, bring people to the, bring people to the hotel. And, so it's gonna be fun. It's just a lot of intricate, like, putting things together, and my concern right now is it's a little bit tedious. So I I think I'm just gonna try not to worry about it.

DL White [00:18:32]:
I'm I'm gonna write it out and cut it back later, to the like the pertinent points like punch it up. And so, but I'm really getting to the point where Davis and Kari are realizing that they Not only do they actually like and respect each other, but they have feelings for each other. And so moving on to, phase 2, which is the falling in love phase. During this phase, the writer's job is to show readers why your characters are meant to be together forever. This increases the tension between them, begins to show why they are stronger together than apart. And I feel like this is gonna play really well with this episode because Davis and Kari have to pull off this summer at the pearl. Otherwise, Harlan is gonna, come down and, like, shut it down. So no way number 2 be, despite the fact that your main characters are stuck together, they will want to fight their feelings.

DL White [00:19:27]:
The no way beat offers an opportunity to reiterate why risk this relationship simply won't work. Then you get to the inkling where your character start to realize that they might fall in love. They might get a, a a look at a different side of each other or have an inexplicably romantic moment. This is typically what we call your grand gesture. And I have a really, really great idea for the grand gesture, but I'm kinda I'm building to it. I'm bread crumbing, dropping in comments so it's not a surprise when it happens. Then there's deepening desire, there's no denying it anymore, your characters are falling for each other, then the maybe this could work. Your character start to believe that love could work.

DL White [00:20:08]:
There's something different about their connection than what they've experienced before, then the midpoint of love, the sparks are flying between your 2 main characters, the tension culminates in an expression of their affection, usually, you know, through, I don't know, something something big, something small, but, you you you you get it. They're they they in there. So I am ending phase 1, moving into phase 2. I'm very excited about that. My issue is that I am at chapter 11, and I am I'm still in phase 1, so it makes me feel like this book is going to be long. But, you know, I got a story to tell. So this might be like a full length, like 70, 75 k word novel. It's not a novella.

DL White [00:20:54]:
It's definitely not a novella. I have have a lot of story that I wanna tell. So, so that's where I'm at. That's the writing update. I feel like I feel like I'm on a good tack. I just I'm I'm I'm just again, I'm at the point where I feel like it's getting long, and I don't have as much story for Davis as I have for Kari, and that concerns me. But, you know, we're gonna work it out. I I wanna I I need to, like, not talk myself out of the progress that I'm making and, you know, what I'm doing.

DL White [00:21:35]:
Get the words on the page and then spruce them up. You know? I I always write and then edit and add more, take away more, fluff it up, layer it up. So I you know? But, also, I write I worry while I'm writing that it's not gonna be enough. It's not good enough. It's not moving enough. It's not there's not enough magic. There's not enough romance. There's not enough love.

DL White [00:21:59]:
But I have never published a book that I don't like. I have never published a book that does not have a sufficient amount of romantic connection and sparks and desire between my characters. So, DL, just stop worrying about it. I have to talk to myself and talk myself through it. Right now while I'm writing, it's very ugly. But before it hits my editor, I am gonna love it. I am gonna be happy with it. And then I send it over to a.k who makes it look very pretty and makes it sound very pretty and makes it flow better and make sure I don't have any typos, make sure I don't start sentences with the same word over and over.

DL White [00:22:43]:
So I also have this thing where I echo where, like, I I write I use a word and then I use the same word in the same paragraph because as I write and I layer, I like I get in a groove and I just I find certain words that I really like and then I want to use it a lot. So she finds those little pitfalls. I drop words all the time. She finds, you know, those little mistakes. So I am, it's 904. I am going to end this podcast. I'm gonna edit it, schedule it, get it up. The social media is gonna be real short and sweet for today.

DL White [00:23:23]:
I'm probably gonna catch up on that tomorrow after I check out and I get home. I'm happy with what I have. It's not perfect, but it gives me a foundation. And I, you know, I just need to pound out the words. You know what I'm saying? So that brings us to, the end of today's episode. Thank you so much for joining me for today's chat. Follow me on the socials. I'm author d l y in most places.

DL White [00:23:46]:
Shout me out a holler. Don't forget to like, comment, share, subscribe, especially if you are listening to this on YouTube or you listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, give a girl a rating. I'd really, really appreciate it. Don't forget that you can support this podcast with your book purchases by spreading the good work or throwing some coins in the hat at bookcast.busprout.com. Every little bit helps. I'll be back next week with a reading update and a writing update, and I will be at home. It's it's much easier to record the podcast at home, so, I will be happy to be back at my desk with all my things and my extra screen. And, hopefully, I will get a mic stand that works.

DL White [00:24:25]:
You should see like, I'll take a picture and post with the contraption that I have set up so so that I can use this microphone. My goodness. Alright. That is it for me. I'll be back next week. Like I said, reading, writing update. Please enjoy your weekend. Have a superlative week.

DL White [00:24:41]:
We'll chat again soon. Bye bye.