Bookcast Episode 81: This is 50

Episode 81 of the Book Cast is now distributing to your local podcast app!  I celebrate my 50th birthday in New Orleans, so I'm sharing the shenanigans I got into all weekend as well as the usual updates from  the writing desk and reading chair. 
.Pick up today's episode on your favorite podcast app.

Transcript

DL White [00:00:14]:
Alright. Friends and family, if all my systems are done being dramatic, we are live and recording. Welcome back to the book cast. This is my platform for sharing short fictions and updates on what I'm reading and writing. This is episode 81, and I am DL White, 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, then we talk about writing and topics of the day. Today, I am celebrating a milestone birthday. So today's episode will be rather light on content, but I am gonna hit the highlights.

DL White [00:00:56]:
And then, just wanna basically yammer about what I've been doing for the past week. I'm currently writing The Pearl at Black Diamond Black Diamond Romance number 3, and I don't have much of a writing, a pro progress update to share, but I will talk about where I am with writing that book in the writing update. As I'm recording this, I just remembered that I normally edit on Audacity, and I am not on my home system, so editing this is going to be fun. We go on. 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'd be most grateful. The best way to support me as an author or this podcast is to buy the books. Share the good word about the show and drop a few coins if you can at bookcast.bussprout.com.

DL White [00:01:45]:
I recently hit 25 100 downloads, and I'm ever so excited about hitting that milestone. The other milestone I hit is 9 years as a published author. Brunch at Rubies, my debut novel, the book of my heart, turned 9 years old on March 24th so many years ago. 9 to be exact. My goal was to lose a £100 and write a book. I accomplished both goals, so it may be time for some new goals. So I gotta I gotta think about that here in my 50th year. Speaking of rubies, my ebook sale is still running, and I have put the audiobook on sale at chirp.

DL White [00:02:21]:
That's chirpbooks.comchirpb0oks.com. If you don't have this title in audio, now is the time to go grab it. It is 99¢. So is the follow-up dinner at at Sam's. That's a normally 12.99 audiobook, so snag it while it's hot. If you are interested in more of my books, just head to books by dlwhite.com/books. My website store has all of the good stuff in ebook or audio. You can find print copies at most online real retailers at resist booksellersorbookshop.org.

DL White [00:02:54]:
As well, all my titles are available wherever ebook, audio, and print are sold, including subscription sites like Everand, which is the new name for script, and Kobo Plus, and they're available to request at your local library through Libby or Hoopla. And I just saw yesterday that Hoopla has added more of my ebooks and audiobooks to their website. So, yay, it's only been 5 years that I have been waiting for them to add my books to the website. So, alright. Today, we will start with the book report as always, then a teensy writing update and a little debrief debrief on my trip to the Big Easy for my 50th birthday. Today is Monday, March 25, 2024. It is my 50th birthday. It is 9:31 AM.

DL White [00:03:36]:
It is 69 degrees and rising in New Orleans, Louisiana. I packed my mic and my headphones. I did not pack Audacity, so I don't know how I'm gonna edit, But we're gonna get it figured out. But first, let's have some regular old hotel coffee. The coffee is cold and unimpressive, and I miss my hot, hot gustello coffee already. Alright. We begin as always with the book report because I am a book head. It is a new year, so a new challenge.

DL White [00:04:21]:
And I have read 40 books of my challenge to read 150 books this year. I am 6 books ahead on my Goodreads challenge. Thanks to some really short audible reads. I read this week, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 books. So good good going there. I read a few books in the never tell collection, which is an audible short story collection. I read Everywhere You Look by Liv Constantine. I read Scorpions, by Rachel Hasel Hall, which I really, really enjoyed.

DL White [00:04:54]:
And I read the bad friend by Caroline Kepnes, which was wow. That was a really, really good story. I also read strictly professional by Christina c Jones. I'm continuing in my run of reading workplace romances just so I can stay in the mood. I am reading the American daughters by Maurice Carlos Ruffin. Yes. It's still on my list. I did actually start it since I am on vacation.

DL White [00:05:19]:
I did go ahead and start it. It's very good so far. I actually met him yesterday. I was over at Baldwin Books with Farah Roshan yesterday, and I, he was there recording a podcast, episode with another emerging writer. I forget her name. Her name completely slips in my eye, but her book comes out, at the beginning of April, like April 4th or something like that. He was recording an episode with her. They have a podcast studio over there at Baldwin, and he came out and he was like, hey.

DL White [00:05:49]:
So I got a chance to meet him. Delightful fellow. Delightful. I'm going to read jack rabbit skin by Ivy Pechora and the other side of the road by Andrea Bartz. Those are, the next in the never tell collection. Those audiobooks are, like, maybe an hour or 2 hours long, so they are great if you have a short attention span and you just wanna get some books in. They're usually, I usually find, you know, at least a couple of books in those collections that will wet my appetite. On the writing update last week, my word count was 43,950 out of a 70 k word goal.

DL White [00:06:26]:
Today, I am at just over 50,000 words. I, cannot begin to tell you how I got in that many words in a week. I don't remember writing, but, apparently, I did. I looked at my outline from last, the last book cast, and it said I was at 40,000. I don't know. Anyway, the update is I am over 50,000 words. I don't know if I can wrap this book up in 25,000 words, but we are gonna see where we end up. My couple have finally come around to the attraction that they have for each other, and this is where things might get a little dicey for them.

DL White [00:07:10]:
Well, for my heroine, anyway, I've got a little personal conflict that's brewing for Kari where she is she's come into this role, and she's like, I'm perfect for this job. Just let me do it. I know what I'm doing, and then she is going to have to choose between her personal life and her professional life. And Davis has the opportunity to be the best, most understanding boss ever. I'm really looking forward to writing that scene, but I am a person that has to write in order. So I'm trying to get there. If I write scenes out of order, I feel like I have scenes, but not a story. They don't they don't tie together well for me.

DL White [00:07:47]:
So I have to I have to go scene by scene, chapter by chapter and tie my stories together. And I don't like doing that inorganically. So, to me, the story flows in a in an organic fashion. And I just feel like I I have a very disjointed story if I write scenes before they come in the book. So I'm very tempted to go ahead and write that, but I'm just gonna continue to think about it. Take some notes, make note of what I wanna include in those scenes. And, I'm just I'm trying to get there. So I'm gonna work on some today.

DL White [00:08:24]:
But again, I didn't bring my personal laptop. It's just too much weight to drag around. And some of the scenes that I want to write are steamy and intimate. And I only have my work laptop and I so I can't really I can't really do that on my work laptop. So I've been using my iPad, which has a blue I have a Bluetooth keyboard, and I can write on it, but it is not the same as using a a laptop. I'm really tired of fighting with the Bluetooth keyboard. The mouse moves all over the page. Suddenly, I'm typing words in a whole different chapter or, like, a whole different page, or the page closes entirely because it's literally just an app.

DL White [00:09:02]:
I frankly, I hate this keyboard case, and I am going over to the ghost of Steve Jobs' website to order a keyboard that is one compatible with my iPad, where the mouse isn't, all that sensitive. Just like no matter where I set my fingers, it just seems to, like, move the cursor around the page, and I I'm so I'm I am just so irritated about it. So I had one, but I broke it, and I was trying to be cheap. You see where that got me? Don't ever ever be cheap. So that's it for the writing update. I did finally get to an intimate scene. I was quite frustrated with, trying to write that yesterday and, like, not be on my work laptop. So I got through that scene, then I switched over to my work laptop to write the rest of it.

DL White [00:09:49]:
That wasn't, you know, the steamy part. I do regret not bringing my personal laptop. I thought my iPad would stand in the gap, but I am I'm really learning my lesson, and maybe I just need a maybe I just need, like, a smaller travel laptop, but I just don't, I don't I don't want another device. I don't I don't I don't need I don't need another device. I need a Bluetooth or Wi Fi keyboard that works, that is portable. I have a Wi Fi keyboard that I use for work, but it is so big, because I need the number pad, then I just leave it there. But I do just need something. I can just set up my iPad and, you know, whip out the keyboard and type away.

DL White [00:10:36]:
So I know these are very first world first world, writer with disposable income problems. So while I'm here, here being in New Orleans for my birthday, I wanted to give a little rundown of what I have been doing out here. Some of it's nerdy enjoyment. Some of it is author stuff. Some of it is working. I did not, script this part of the episode. So excuse a little bit of rambling and probably some repetition because that is who I am as a person. I, so I came to New Orleans for work.

DL White [00:11:12]:
I had, we had a meeting. Our, chief of operations had a meeting with his people leaders and then with his franchise organization, and our department connects directly with franchise. So the executive assistant for the chief of operations asked if I would come down to help run the meeting, and I was delighted to do so. She's a level above me, and I would like to get experience, running programs and events at that level. It's definitely eye opening. All the things you have to think about, worry about, set up, arrange. So, I I definitely learned a lot this week. So we flew I flew into New Orleans on Monday, immediately started working, packing bags, checking in items, getting things all set, doing name tags and lanyards, checking people in, etcetera.

DL White [00:12:04]:
The meeting began on Tuesday. So Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, it was just basically an all day thing. It's a general session at 8 AM. Work, work, work until, 4 with meals, breaks, etcetera, making sure everybody gets fed. Everybody is, you know, well well fed, well watered. You'll never go hungry at a meeting at beverage giant. We we do we do like to feed you because, we find that people we find that people stress eat. They nervous eat.

DL White [00:12:32]:
And, while they will eat if food is there, we also like to make sure they have some healthy options. So there's, you know, there's yogurt and nuts and kind bars, but there's also like chocolate and beignets and popcorn. So had a great time. The evenings were lots of togetherness and, socializing, and I'm the type of person that I'll show up and make sure everybody got in, make sure everybody got a plate to eat. Everybody is having a great time, and then I disappear. Our evening event started at 7, and I was back in my hotel room by about 9:15. So had a really great time just hanging out in New Orleans, doing some fun things. Evening 1 was at Fulton Alley, which is like a, it's a bowling alley with games, good food.

DL White [00:13:21]:
We had catered food, so that was great. Night 2 was at the New Orleans culinary Hospitality Institute, where they teach people basically how to cook. So we had our evening event there. And then Thursday was basically the last day of the meeting, and I hung out until my boss left. And then I hopped in, a Lyft and headed over to the hotel that I have booked for myself personally. And let me just tell you a funny story about me. I am spoiled. And I don't I don't think I'm bougie.

DL White [00:13:59]:
But sometimes I do bougie things. Sometimes I identify as a bougie person. And I picked out this hotel online didn't really ask anybody about it, but it looked cute from the outside. And I got to the hotel, and I said, you know what? No, no. Then I said, You know what, stop being boojie. Just like check-in. You know, it's just it's just a hotel, you're going to be fine. So I checked in, and the check-in process was not, I mean, it was not my favorite.

DL White [00:14:32]:
But, like, the keys are key fobs, and they have, like, updated payment systems, but there's no elevator in the hotel. So I'm, like, looking at this flight of stairs that actually looks like 2 flights of stairs. I have these heavy suitcases. I got my laptop bag and all that stuff, and I was like, you guys have no you have no elevator? And the clerk was like, mm-mm. No. No elevator. So I drag all myself up to my room. I go ahead and check-in, and the room is fine.

DL White [00:14:59]:
But it's like, it's not rundown, but it is very plain. It is very sparse. It is like a boutique, not a branded hotel. And I probably would have been fine if I was on the ground floor, but I just knew that I was not going to enjoy myself in that hotel. And I said, I don't think this is gonna work for me. So I hop on the Internet, and I go to hilton.com. And my company has a corporate rate at Hilton, and I just did what I should have done in the first place. I booked myself a room.

DL White [00:15:34]:
I called the hotel I had checked into and I said, I am just gonna be honest, I don't like the hotel, and I'm going to check out how much is the penalty. So they told me, if you check out tonight, it's this. If you check out tomorrow, it's that you have until this time. And I said, I have plans tomorrow. I'm gonna be gone all day. I'm just gonna go ahead and check out tonight. So I grab all my stuff, hike it on downstairs, checked out, scheduled myself another rideshare ride, and hopped it on over to hilton.com, just outside of the French Quarter. It's in CBD, which is the central business district.

DL White [00:16:15]:
And here I am, my little spoiled, boujee self in my hilton.comhotelroom, And I love it. I mean, there was no refrigerator, there was no microwave, there was I mean, the TV didn't work. And the TV doesn't work in this room. I normally I have my iPad. And I you know, like, I connect to my Hulu and my Netflix or whatever. And I watch that, but like, at bare minimum at bare minimum, the TV should work. So here I have been since Thursday night because I am spoiled. I leave tomorrow, and, I have I've had a ball.

DL White [00:16:51]:
So Friday, I got up and, kinda took my time, had some breakfast here at the hotel, and then I headed on over to I forget what area of town it is, but if you know New Orleans, the pickup point is by the Landry's Seafood. There's, like, a ticket booth over there. So I got on a 2 hour tour of the city of New Orleans, which was great. The guide was is a history professor at some university here in New Orleans. I forget which one he said. Super knowledgeable about the history of New Orleans, stem to stern and just super passionate about it. I really appreciate a guy that knows what they're talking about and everything from, hey, where's the best place to have ribs and, what's a good place to have, you know, shrimp and grits. And he we did it was like a 20 minute lecture on the difference between Cajun and Creole, and, like, I'm a nerd, so I was fascinated.

DL White [00:17:54]:
Had a very good time. The midpoint was the Cafe Du Monde in, Park City. So we had, like, a half hour to stop, get some beignets, have some coffee, sit in the park. It was, delightful. Delightful. Hop back on the bus. We did a stop at St. Louis, cemetery number 3, did some, you know, a little bit of history lesson on, how people are are are buried there in the the tombs, above ground, below ground, like how many people you can have in there.

DL White [00:18:27]:
You can have like 900 people in one of those tombs. Like, that's how they kinda solve the issue of, like, where to bury people. So, I love a cemetery tour. I don't go on a whole bunch of them because, I'm not superstitious and I'm not a scared person. But like, I can only hang around the dead so much. You know what I'm saying? It's just not, you know, I'll do I'll do like one cemetery tour, but I'm not I'm not gonna do like a 2 hour full on like ghost tour. That's not that's not really my bag. But as part of the city tour, I thought it was very educational.

DL White [00:19:04]:
I really liked it. I love, like, any kind of information history. Here's how we do this type thing. So I was all over it then headed back into town, and then I came to my room. I did some reading and some writing, like I did things like where I was out and about for a few hours a day. And then I have to come back to my room, like decompress, get some food, you know, like, catch up with things, charge all my things. I ordered dinner. I think I had po'boys that night.

DL White [00:19:36]:
So I just like had a good time. And then the next day I had an early day on Saturday. I got up and I had I arranged for a tour of the Whitney Plantation Museum. They pick you up at your hotel, drive you out to Wallace, Louisiana. We've passed a few plantations along the way. I think I was very surprised that the plantations, it's not like I think I imagine them to be like huge expanses of land, like, miles long. And they're they really weren't. They're just, like, one, like, right after the other.

DL White [00:20:06]:
It's just like a big house with, like, a lot of land behind it and, like, other structures on the property. So we passed, we went to Oak Valley first because we dropped off a few people who were doing a tour of Oak Valley and kind of backtracked. And Joe passed a couple of, a couple of other plantations before we got to Whitney. And Whitney Plantation Museum opened in 2014. It was an active working plantation until 1975. At the end of slavery, the plantation was still in operation, but it transferred transferred over to a sharecropper model, because people really had nowhere to go and no money to go anywhere. And so they continued working the land, but the issue was that the sharecroppers were, of course, always indebted to the landowner, and they had to buy everything now instead of things being provided for them. And so that would have been subtracted from the low pay they were already already receiving.

DL White [00:21:10]:
So they were in a constant state of, of being in debt to the land owner. So it was still slavery, but by another name. So the the Whitney Plantation, has there are some original structures. There are some reproduced structures. There are some structures from other plantations that are placed on the land for, educational purposes. Like, you know, the the the church that's there is is donated by Antioch Baptist, I believe, which the original name was anti yoke, which was a protest against the yoke, that the enslaved were bound by. It somehow has transformed into Antioch, but there's a church there. The original structure was donated to the museum so that people could tour it.

DL White [00:22:01]:
People have, you know, events and, educational type things, out there. But it's a it's, it's a audio self guided tours. You get headphones and you get a little device and you can, like, pick point 1. It'll direct you to point 1. Here's all the information. Here's, background information on on these people. Here's their stories. Here's what that's about.

DL White [00:22:22]:
Now go to point 2. Now go to point 3, 0.45. There's 14 different stops. It took about 2 hours to go through. It's self guided, so you can take your time, make your way through. It is, very in your face. It is, very straightforward. It can be difficult to go through that, but it is not it's not a tour that tugs at the heartstrings.

DL White [00:22:46]:
It is just a very, realistic and point blank description of what each structure represented, what each structure, meant on the plantation, the the big house, the kitchen house, the overseer's house, the the blacksmith, the jail, the the cabins. And then there's a couple of memorials that are dedicated to the lives that were lost during uprisings, and a few memorials that are there for remembrances. And then, there is it's a museum, of course, so there's a little bit of, like, a timetable, there in the main building. And, you know, you can get trinkets and memorabilia. There's a bookstore with, you know, a lot of books in there, some that are, nonfiction about enslavement, some that are, local, New Orleans authors. And then there are a few, you know, crafts that you could buy, like Wix. NOLA is one of my favorite, candle shops. So they have a few candles out there.

DL White [00:23:55]:
It was a super enjoyable I well, I hesitate to say enjoyable. I don't wanna say when I had a great time out at this plantation. But it was a very educational experience. It was very well done. I would probably do it again in, like, a year or 2 just to, like, okay. I did this before. I wanna really concentrate on these sections of the tour, but I knew I only had a couple of hours. They dropped the dropped us off at 10 and said we'll be back at 12:15.

DL White [00:24:24]:
So I knew I only had a couple of hours, and so I was just really trying to make it through to the end. If I went again, I would concentrate on, like, maybe the big house, like, you know, look through all the rooms and, like, look through the enslaved cabins and, like, like, really get a sense for the reverence of the place. It's a very quiet, very reverent property. And even on the sign outside, it asks people to be mindful of the spirit that you bring to that location because, we wanna show respect to the people that were enslaved there and the people that ended up working there until 1975. Some of the cabins weren't really I mean, they're not updated at all. And so the cabins that are there, at least one of the the cabins are as of, I believe, like, 1976 is the last time that anyone lived in them. They're not updated at at all. They're very sparse.

DL White [00:25:25]:
It is, like a very plain structure. It's just literally a bed, a fireplace. They work from dark to dark, from before sunup to after sundown. Not too much time to spend, you know, in in the in the structure. Very educational, very eye opening. If you're going to tour any plantation, definitely tour the Whitney. It is well worth the time spent to drive out to Wallace, Louisiana. So I did that on Saturday morning, came back to my room, did did a little bit of walking around, but I was kind of tired after a long morning.

DL White [00:26:00]:
I was picked up at 8 AM, and I got back to my room around 1:30 or so. And then Saturday night, I don't remember what I ordered, but it was something it was darn good. And then Saturday night, what did I order? I can't remember. But on Sunday, I had brunch plans with one of my favorite favorite favorite New Orleans based authors, Farah Roshan. We met at Katie's for brunch. I had the trout and grits. It was so delicious, so absolutely delicious. We had a wonderful time catching up.

DL White [00:26:33]:
I haven't seen her in a few years. I saw her. The first time I came to New Orleans was when I presented for Essence Fest. I wanna say that's, like, 2018, maybe something 2017 maybe is when I came to New Orleans for Essence Best, and I met her, that time, had a wonderful time catching up. Farah is just a delight. She is busy, busy, busy, busy. Just I'm so grateful that she took time out of her schedule. She has got, like, 2 books coming out within weeks of each other.

DL White [00:27:05]:
She's about to go on tour. She definitely has so much more to do than have brunch with me. But, we had brunch, and then we rode over to Baldwin Books and had a little writing date. So I got out, you know, my laptop, and we sat and wrote, and she worked on page edits, and I worked on the pearl and, just had a great time for a couple hours. I mentioned earlier that I met Maurice Carlos Ruffin. That was a surprise. And another, another debut author. Her book is coming out in a few months.

DL White [00:27:32]:
So if I see it, I'll I'll recognize it, but I don't remember her name. Just had a delightful time. Around 4 or 5 o'clock, we packed it up. I headed on back to my room, and, I just I really enjoyed my Sunday night just here in my room, caught up with some reading. I got in a lot of writing last night. I was just in a mood to write, so, I finished a chapter that I was working on, and then, I just chilled out. I finished I I did not finish my brunch, so I ate what I had left over, for brunch for dinner, and then called it a night. And here we are on Monday 25th.

DL White [00:28:10]:
It is my 50th birthday. I'm here on the mic. I am doing a podcast, and then I don't really know what I'm gonna do today. I was gonna do another tour, but, like, I'm just kind of enjoying what I'm doing. I don't I don't know what I'm doing today, but don't judge me if I just put on the do not disturb sign and lay across this hotel bed because I do love a hotel. I absolutely love a hotel. And I catch up on my reading. I catch up on eating all the leftovers I've been collecting all weekend because I haven't finished a meal yet.

DL White [00:28:40]:
I still have my po'boy from Friday or Saturday, whatever. I think Saturday, I ordered Po' Boys because Friday night no. Thursday night, I ordered in I don't know. Listen. I don't know, people. I don't know. Anyway, I have at least 2 meals in the refrigerator that I need to finish before I leave town. I fly tomorrow.

DL White [00:28:58]:
New Orleans will not owe me a darn thing. I have had, really such a great time. I'm normally on the beach for my birthday. But the way that I travel now is I get to go to such neat places for work that, work will pay for my air. So I just extend my trip through, the weekend. And then I booked my own, personal hotel. And so that is that's how I vacation now since I was already gonna be here, and it was gonna be my birthday. And they were like, hey, you wanna come help out? And I'm like, sure.

DL White [00:29:27]:
And I'll just stay the weekend. So I call me frugal, but I'll take it. If I can get a hotel room, I will go. I've had such a delightful time here. The city is always so vibrant. The people are so, so friendly. Everybody from the wait staff to the the rideshare drivers, to the hotel staff to just people on the street, the, the the guides on the buses, just like people those peep people are just so friendly here. It's that southern hospitality with a little bit of Cajun flavor.

DL White [00:30:01]:
I absolutely love it. This is such a great a great city, and I am here to enjoy it. I will definitely definitely be back. Probably not during Essence Fest because it's just too too many people, but I will definitely be back. And that's all I have to say about that. Do you have a topic you would like me to cover on the book cast? I am happy to Yammer for 27 to 33 minutes about a topic of your choosing. Shout me out a holler. I'm always on Instagram or Twitter, or you can visit the show notes of this episode at books by dlwhite.com/bookcast.

DL White [00:30:37]:
I welcome your feedback. That brings us to the end of today's episode. Thank you so much for joining me for today's chat and for helping me to celebrate a mile stone birthday. 50 years. I will be so interested to see how this decade treats me. If it's anything like the forties, it's gonna be good. I will be back next week with a reading update and a writing update. So please enjoy your week.

DL White [00:31:03]:
Have a superlative one, and we'll chat again soon. Bye bye.