Bookcast Episode 82: Barreling toward an HEA

In episode 82 of The Bookcast by DL White, I'm excited to share the latest updates on my writing journey and I offering some fantastic book and podcast recommendations.  I'm determined to meet my writing deadline, but upcoming work travels might throw a wrench into my writing schedule.  I also shared my recent guest spot on the Book Buzz show. 

Find full show notes for today's epi, including the list of books I read the past few weeks and what I'm reading at Booksbydlwhite.com/bookcast. 

Chapters:

0:13  Introduction
3:29  Indie April Celebration
5:16  Book  Report Update
7:49 Book Reviews Recap
12:36 Current Reads Overview
15:49 Writing Progress Check-In

Thanks for joining and don't forget to like, comment, share the podcast if you enjoy it and drop a few coins in the offering plate at Bookcast.Buzzsprout.com.  Have a great week! 

Transcript

[0:00] Music.

[0:14] Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the book cast.
This is my platform for sharing short fiction and updates on what I'm reading and writing. This is episode 82.
And I am DL White. I'm an 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 the book report.
And we talk about writing and topics of the day. my deepest apologies if you hear any beeping in the background um this is not my home we have vaulted ceilings and the man of the house is not here to change the smoke detector battery so it seems to have abated for a few minutes so let's see if i can get through this podcast episode without the infernal thing beeping in the background i promise we do not live in the trailer park so this week i'll update you on my week my week in writing and progress on the pearl A Black Diamond Romance.
I'm very excited to get to it. I know I skipped last week, but a sis was tired.

[1:18] So I took the weekend off. I don't regret it. You guys will be fine.
The Book Cast is a production of Books by D.L. 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 do that is to talk about the books and the podcast, but also buy the books.
Booksbydlwhite.com slash books has all of the good stuff in ebook or audio.
Welcome to Indie April, everyone. I just would like someone to please tell me how it's already April.
And like in my mind, it's honestly almost May.
So goodness, it's gonna be a great month.
As always, I'm celebrating myself because I'm vain about my my work and other independently published authors.
My debut novel brunch at Ruby's is still on sale in ebook and audio.
There's about 15 days left on my sale at chirp books as well as my my store, Spotify and nook audio.
If you're a member at Kobo plus, you can grab all of my ebooks and audiobooks as part of your read and listen subscription.
I believe it's like $11 a month, like come on, y'all. Come on, come on, come on.
And a reminder that if you're a premium subscriber at Spotify.
You get 15 free hours there. So snatch up my audio books. I do get paid for them.

[2:35] Do you have a topic you would like me to cover on the book cast?
Like something you're just wondering how I feel about it?
Shout me out a holler. I am always on Instagram or Twitter at author underscore DL White, or you can visit the show notes of this here episode at booksbydlwhite.com slash book cast.
I welcome your feedback, your ideas, any topics that you would like me to ramble about for 27 to 33 minutes.
So I have a great update today. The The writing has really been good lately.
I'm having so much fun. I'm at the point where it's actually fun to sit down and parse out what these people in my head are saying.
So I'm going to do this real quick podcast update and get back to it.
I've got an aggressive timeline in my head so I can have enough time to review and edit the manuscript before it goes to editing.
I have no time to waste. So let's get going today. We'll start with the book report as always, ways, then I'll update on the writing, writing, writing.

[3:30] Today is Saturday, April 6th. It is 926 a.m. It's sunny in the ATL.
I have a mic and I am ready to dig in. But first, I am back home.
And that means I have my beloved Bustelo coffee. Let's have some.

[3:49] Music.

[3:57] Oh, and it's good. It's good. It's good. Listen, I need to mention, because people have commented on this before, if you are listening to my podcast and you hear random noises, that's my stomach.
I had weight loss surgery in 2012, so more than 10 years ago, and still she makes a lot of noise when I eat or drink.
I don't know what that is. But I do have like a narrowed opening from my esophagus into my stomach.
And it's like a funnel.
I got the sleeve. So my stomach is just like a narrow, I mean, they just call it a sleeve, just literally looks like a sleeve that goes to my lower intestine.
And I believe that food and drink sort of gathers at the top of my esophagus.
And slowly makes its way down into my stomach.
And the sound that you hear is my body working.
It's doing its thing, but she makes a lot of noise whenever I eat or drink.
And so that's what that sound is. Stop asking me.
I'm joking. You can ask me all I want. I love nothing more than to talk about my weight loss surgery and reading and writing books. So.

[5:16] So that's what that sound is. But I have noticed when I'm editing that I try to cut those sounds out, but she likes to speak when I'm speaking.
So sometimes I can't.
Anyhow, let's begin with the book report as always, because I am a book head.
If I'm going to do anything, I'm going to read a book.
I have read 52 books of my challenge to read 150 books this year.
I'm a whopping 13 books ahead on my Goodreads challenge thanks to audiobooks.
I don't see slowing down anytime in in my future, the books be booking.
On my list of books I have read, remember, I missed an episode last week.
So this is like, double the books. I have One Steamy Night by Miss Brenda Jackson.

[6:00] This is a romance to listen to this in audio. It was I mean, it was it was a Brenda Jackson book, I find a lot of her books to be the same book, different characters.
But also, if I need an easy I go find me a Westmoreland by Brenda Jackson and put it on and like fold some laundry or whatever.
I listened to Hostile Takeover, which is Blackwood Billions number one by Christina C. Jones.
This book really gives me like romantic suspense vibes.
Like it's supposed to be a romance, but it's kind of not because they kind of hate each other through most of this book. It's most most definitely in Enemies to Lovers.
I did not like either of the characters in this book.
I felt like the hero was aggressive, and he was a bully, and very pushy, and decisive, and demanding.
Didn't like him at all. I can't remember his name, and I'm not going to look it up. I found the heroine to be a bit of a pushover. I just, I wasn't really into the romance stuff.
I'm using that in light quotes per se, but I did like the thread of a little bit of darkness and undercurrent of suspense in this book.
It's very, if you've read or listened to her If You Can series.

[7:21] Music.
It's also, it's very like the Rose series and Anti-Up, like along that vein where there's a romance, but there's also more than that.
I'm very interested in other books in the Billions series because there are.

[7:21] Reminiscent of that first romantic suspense series that she wrote.

[7:36] Music.

[7:41] Some elements that were brought out in this book that I hope continue through

[7:45] the following, like the Black group. I'm into it.
Bring it. it. Also did finally finish The American Daughters by Maurice Carlos Ruffin after I met him.
And I was like, I'm reading your book. I was like, yeah, I should probably actually finish that book.
Got it did also American Daughters by Dr. Piper G. Hughley. Got those both in the bag. Both were fine.
They are historical fiction.
I just, after reading so much romance, was not really in the mood for them once I got to them.
I really need to like read books when I'm like, oh my God, this book's coming out, I need to request it, then I'm so happy when I get an advanced copy.
And then I put it aside for a rainy day, or the weekend before the book is due.
And then I don't feel like reading it.
That is not any shade toward either book or author or project.
I just am a mood reader. So I read them because I had an advanced copy of them.

[8:42] Both were perfectly fine books. I read One Night of Fun, A Forbidden Office Romance by Renee Lux.
I'm gonna say here on the podcast, I didn't too much enjoy this.
I read this because it was an office romance, but wasn't the best thing I ever read.
Taking Chances, Macalester Friends, number two by Taye Russ.
This is very early in Taye's series, but kind of really couldn't tell. It was was a good read.
I feel like, of course, Taye's recent work are different and she's definitely leveled up, but she also has a style and a voice that I recognize.
I could tell you this is a Taye Russ book without knowing it was a Taye Russ book.
I finished Unfinished Business by Christina C. Jones. This is in the Strictly Professional duology.
I liked the first book better, her, but this one wasn't bad. Wasn't bad.
I read Working With Her Crush, A Friend's Lover's Romance by Reese Ryan.
Of course, I love me some Reese. Love, love, love me some Reese.
And I needed another workplace romance.

[9:49] Always enjoy her. I listened to Red March Madness by Nicole Falls, simply because it was Nicole Falls.
I don't know nothing about basketball, but this was super well done.
It was a women's basketball coach novella, uh well done uh also listen to jackrabbit skin by ivy pachota and the other side of the road by andrea bartz this was part of the never tell collection uh by audible i just wanted to finish out the collection and then um yesterday last night actually i finished watch where they hide by tamron hall and let me tell you i was really looking forward to this but it was a bit of a a disappointment.
I ended up giving it three stars because I did not expect the ending.
It did kind of ramp up like the last quarter of the book really was the full story.
I feel like this was very jumbled.
It read really first draft kind of level.
There's a lot in this book that we don't really need.

[10:53] And I feel like Tamron was really reaching for something more when this could have really just been a mystery.
It follows Jordan, who is an investigative journalist.
And after her career kind of explodes, if you read the first book, As the Wicked Watch, I felt that was very well done.
And I was hoping she would do so much better in her follow-up novel.
This one just really didn't measure up to the first book, but Jordan's career explodes after the, She solves a case in her first novel and she gets the opportunity to anchor and right as she is supposed to hit the anchor desk, she gets hit with a investigation in progress and the police aren't taking this book seriously. And Jordan doesn't really want to take the case.
It's because it's just it's a missing white woman.
And she doesn't want to like dive into this because she doesn't want it to be missing white woman experience. experience.

[11:52] But she starts to uncover things that don't pan out that don't match up that don't make sense.
And she forgoes her opportunity to sit at the anchor desk to, to investigate this missing woman case did turn out it, you know, the ending was interesting.
It just I felt like we got like 250 pages of what is happening.
Just a lot of phone calls, a lot of driving around a lot of pontificating of what's happening, what's going on here.
I just feel like she had a premise and really stretched it out to 200, 300 pages.
There wasn't enough book there to call it a book.

[12:32] This week, I am reading an advanced copy of Out of Office by A.H.
Cunningham. It's good so far.
And then I'm going to read Office Crush, which was formerly titled Invasion of Privacy by Imani Lonnie J, and a book called Take It on the Clock No.
1 by Shea Sanders, which I think is more of an erotica series, but it's an office romance, and so we are going to read it.

[12:57] This week, I had the opportunity to be a guest on the Book Buzz show, which is a video interview series.
It's a video interview show hosted by Cheryl Brooks, and she usually has a guest from the book industry.
It's a pretty new show, but they're very well run.
I took the the opportunity to watch past interviews with some of my favorite writers like Sharon C. Cooper, Joan Vassar, Reese Ryan.
I'll link to my episode in the show notes, or you can search for the Book Buzz show on YouTube or Facebook.
It's a really great conversation about Hey Lover, which is a book I don't get to talk about much.
We also talked about my writing journey, my reading habits, the ultimate romance for me, and the challenges of being a self-published author and how I engage in self-care while I am writing.

[13:45] I have a recommendation for you. I think I've recommended this before, but this particular episode is a need to listen.
The Wordmakers podcast, Making Words, hosted by one of my absolute favorite people, a writing-ass writer, that is Tasha L.
Harrison, who is also the ring leader of the Wordmakers gang.
There's a recent episode on settling the debate about H-E-A, a also known as the happily ever after which is a mainstay in the romance genre i just retweeted the link on my twitter and facebook timelines and some of us need to tattoo this episode on our foreheads this is a really great great great episode that talks about what i call capital r romance then romantic fiction and what the difference between the two is as well as our favorite romance tropes and subgenres these episodes are the ones that i like to listen to more than once to soak it all in.
It's a great podcast if you are interested in tips and theories about writing, about editing, and in general, being a writing-ass writer.
You can subscribe to this podcast at wordmakers.org. I cannot speak today.
Perhaps I've not had enough coffee.
You can subscribe to this podcast at wordmakers.org.
On the writing update, date.

[15:02] My last reported word count was just over 50,000 words.
And my word count goal is 70,000 at the outset is probably going to creep to like 75, 80, but I'm going to do my best to cut it down.
I'm currently at 63,523 words, y'all.
I'm positive I'll go over 70,000 words. I still have some story to tell it.
I don't think I can tell it in the word count I have left.
I might have to cut a bit from this when I'm done, but I'll give it a really good read through before it hits the editor.
That's why I want to finish as soon as possible so that I have some time to go through it and call what I don't really need.
But right now I feel like I need everything I have for the story flow and for completing a full story arc.

[15:45] This week, the plan will be to write when I can, as often as I can.
I have reached the point that I call the point of no return, where I know the book is going to happen.
I see the light at the end of the tunnel, also I write every chance I get.
I have some work travel coming up, not this coming week, but next week, like the 14th through the 17th.
So that always makes it hard for me to write because I'm working from about 7am to typically 8 or 9pm.
And the week after that, I have that large in-person quarterly meeting in which I am the point person.
So it's another few long like 7am to like 6 or 7pm days.
So I lose a lot of writing time in April, something I didn't really consider when I set up my writing schedule.
So I need to be on my Zoom. I need to stand on business.

[16:31] I don't know what either of those terms mean, but I feel I used them correctly.

[16:37] The good news is that I'm nearing the end of this story, so it won't take much to wrap it up.
I'm hopeful that I can finish by around April 21st, mostly because I want to tell my quarterly author check-in group that I finished another book.
But I also want to take about 10 days to really drill into the book, polish, polish, polish, go through it front to back, then back to front.
I know today's April 6th, but like I said earlier, the way my calendar is set up, It's almost May in my mind and my deadline loometh.

[17:04] Story-wise, Kari and Davis are so much fun right now.
They're both kind of petty, sarcastic with each other.
Kari is just such a breath of fresh air in Davis's life.
Davis is worried about his job and he's worried about the hotel so he's very like stuffy and uh formal um there's a guy on uh tiktok and instagram that does like a lot of corporate speak funny uh videos and i made a joke on my instagram stories that this is how davis talks in real life and vance says man i hope that you don't climax in full sentences uh so that's kind of like where i'm going with that and carrie is just kind of really chipping away at Davis's really stiff exterior.
They're really getting to know each other very well. They're getting opportunities to go to bat for each other, which ramps up the affection they have for each other.
And the added conflict and the stressor is that the staff at the resort can't know they're dating.
As Davis says, any advancements she makes would be seen as something she earned on her back.
So their relationship has to remain a secret for now.

[18:18] I just wrote the beginning of chapter 21 and the resort receives a visitor that they really don't want and things are about to change for Kari in a big way.
She's going to have to make what seems like an obvious but unpopular choice given her job. And when Davis backs her, it's going to have a ripple effect.
I'm really excited to write this part of the book.
So I'm going to end the podcast here and get to it.

[18:44] Thank you so much for joining me for today's chat.
I know it was a bit of a short one, but I really needed to just like get into it.
Don't forget to share the podcast if you enjoyed this episode.
And if you listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, give a girl a rating.
I'd really appreciate it. Do not forget that you can support this podcast with your book purchases and by spreading the good word or by throwing some coins in the hat at bookcast.buzzsprout.com.
Every little bit does really help. I will be back next week to debrief my reading and writing week. Please enjoy this weekend.
Have a superlative week and we'll chat again soon. Bye-bye.

[19:29] Music.