Bookcast 101: Live Anyway: A Raw BookCast Update

On episode 101, I shot straight from the hip, no script in hand, because sometimes you just need to get real. As an Atlanta-based author with 14 full-length novels behind me, I felt it was important not to skip another episode, even though I'm still processing a lot.
The truth is, I'm working through my emotions this week. My focus right now is on figuring out what I need to do to protect my mental health and personal well-being while still finding ways to live and find joy anyway. 

Reading as Refuge
I'm going to have to step back from Non-Fiction November - real life is just too much right now. Instead, I'm diving deep into my comfort genres: women's fiction, literary fiction, and romance, especially holiday romance. I might throw in some non-fiction later, but right now, I need the comfort of fiction.
Despite everything, I'm still ahead on my Goodreads challenge at 177 of 200 books. This week I finished:
- "The Quiet Damage" about QAnon and family impact - sad but hopeful in the final chapters
- "Overseas with a Billionaire" by Stephanie Nicole Norris (snatched this new release right up!)
- "While I Slept" by Lakisha Johnson
- "Holiday Heat" by Beverly Jenkins (so grateful to see her on Bluesky now)

Social Media Shifts
I'm not leaving Twitter, but I'm spending more time on Bluesky . It's peaceful there, with great communities for books (BookSky), Black voices (BlackSky), and romance writers (RomanceLandia). I'll still be on Instagram and Facebook too, but I'm intentionally creating safe spaces for myself online.

 Writing Update
I haven't opened any documents this week, but I did read through "Calculated Risk" because I missed Imani and Desmond. Even in its rough draft form, I really like it and I'm excited for you all to get it in 2025. "The Festival at Evergreen Falls" is still waiting for me. I'm hoping to get some writing done during my business travel this week.

Free Books Alert!
Two upcoming events for your reading pleasure:
1. Black Reader Appreciation Experience (BRAE.website) - running 12th-16th with lots of authors offering free ebooks
2. Stuff Your Earbuds at RomanceAudioBookworms.com - November 15th-16th for free indie audiobooks.

I appreciate all your good thoughts, prayers, and support.  I'm focusing on taking care of myself and finding joy where I can. Books have always been my coping mechanism, and my face is going to be buried in them. 

Transcript

00:00:16 DL White 

Hello everyone and welcome back to the book cast. This is my platform for sharing short fiction and updates on what I'm reading and writing. I am your host, ADL White Atlanta based author of. 

00:00:31 DL White 

14. 

00:00:33 DL White 

Full length novella. 

00:00:36 DL White 

Projects numerous fan fiction works. 

00:00:40 DL White 

And other stuff out there. I'm totally working off script today because I just don't have the wherewithal and the energy to script out what I'm writing this week. I'm going to shoot straight from the hip. 

00:00:53 DL White 

Give you a couple of updates. Talk about a couple of things and then get off this microphone because I have a full day of trying to reset level set. 

00:01:06 DL White 

Get back in the business. So let's just dive into it. Today's episode won't be long. 

00:01:17 DL White 

But I did not want to skip another episode, so I made myself get up out of the bed, plug in the microphone, and here we go. 

00:01:27 DL White 

Obviously, the results of our presidential election were not what I had hoped for during the exact opposite of what I had hoped for. I did not have hope that we would have Congress. 

00:01:43 DL White 

I thought we would at least have the house. It's not looking like that's going to happen, but it is looking like the majority won't be but a few seats so. 

00:01:55 DL White 

Looking at what the nation chose as president. 

00:02:02 DL White 

I am hoping that there will be some method of checks and balances although. 

00:02:10 DL White 

One singular party holds all of the power I am. 

00:02:17 DL White 

Working through my emotions, I was very hopeful and very optimistic, but also very cautious about it because I remember 2016 and I remember everybody being so sure of the results and so cocky and. 

00:02:37 DL White 

I saw that same attitude coming across and I want I wanted to be. 

00:02:43 DL White 

Joyous. And I wanted to be positive about it, but I was very cautious about it and on election night very early on, it just looked like it was going to be a repeat of 2016. 

00:02:58 DL White 

And and it was and I won't get into. 

00:03:02 DL White 

My. 

00:03:04 DL White 

Assumptions about the reasons for a democratic defeat. There's a lot of pundits out there. 

00:03:12 DL White 

Yammering and yammering and talking about why we lost and how we can win again, and if we ever get to vote again. 

00:03:24 DL White 

I. 

00:03:26 DL White 

I feel like I have to protect myself, my mental health, my personal well-being, and put myself in a position to survive. The next to 468-1200 and 19 years. 

00:03:44 DL White 

Because who knows how long this party is going to be in control? You know what I'm saying? So. 

00:03:52 DL White 

Right now my goal is to get my emotions in check, work it all out, but I can't let this affect how I live my life because it's just me. It's my salary and my salary alone supporting me. 

00:04:10 DL White 

I need to do my best to. 

00:04:15 DL White 

Get to a place where I can turn off the emotion and the intrusive thoughts and. 

00:04:22 DL White 

Paying attention to what's going on, like certain things like really stress me out, I get affected by things, particularly things that don't have anything to do with me. You know, I don't have a uterus. 

00:04:36 DL White 

So the abortion issue is not a question for me. I am not an immigrant there, aside from higher prices, there are so many policies that are going to be affected that have nothing to do with me, but I know so many people whose lives are going to change drastically in the negative and I. 

00:04:56 DL White 

I feel for them and. 

00:05:00 DL White 

That feeling for them, and that empathy and that deep sorrow for. 

00:05:06 DL White 

What they wanted out of their life and what they're going to get out of their lives because of the choice of the majority of the nation, really just a few states. 

00:05:17 DL White 

It upsets me. It makes me sick to my stomach. I have dropped pounds this week, which is hard for me. I don't lose weight easily even after having weight loss surgery. I don't lose weight easily. I have dropped pounds this week. That's how. 

00:05:33 DL White 

That's how traumatic this has really been for me. And So what I I really want to spend today focusing on is what do I have to do between now and inauguration and between now and 2026 and now and. 

00:05:47 DL White 

2028 to put myself in a position to live anyway. 

00:05:54 DL White 

Live anyway. Find the joy anyway. Participate in life anyway. Protect myself, but find. 

00:06:05 DL White 

Joy and peace and enjoyment in my life anyway, because I'm not going to be able to take 2 for six years of doom and gloom and dread. 

00:06:20 DL White 

I don't have any answers today, but I do know that that's going to be the goal for me. 

00:06:25 DL White 

I am making a couple of steps. I don't think I'm going to be able to do nonfiction November this month's real life is just way too much for me. 

00:06:35 DL White 

I'm going to have to step back and dive into my comfort genres. Women's fiction, literary fiction, romance, especially holiday romance. I'm going to probably kick that up sooner than I usually do. I might throw in a couple of good looking non fiction books, but I I like I had a I had a rack of non fiction. 

00:06:56 DL White 

Books set to read this month and I I just. I don't think I'm going to be able to do it. Like who? Who knows how I'm going to feel in a couple of weeks. Maybe I'll be more set in a couple of weeks, but I'll tell you I I just really need some comfort and I'm going to seek it out through art, through books and music and literature. 

00:07:18 DL White 

And TV and people, definitely people Speaking of people online people. Anyway, I have curated, you know. 

00:07:33 DL White 

Safe spaces for myself online. Twitter is not one of those places. I am not leaving Twitter, but I'm probably going to spend a lot less time on Twitter. If you are looking for me in a chat space, I'm on Instagram. I'm also on blue sky. I've been on Blue sky since like 20. 

00:07:52 DL White 

22/20/23 something like that. I've been very much more active over there it is. 

00:08:00 DL White 

Not maintained by a billionaire with political leanings who's pushing right wing propaganda at you all day, every day? It is not full of people who are spoiling for a fight. It is actually very peaceful and I am going to need that respite moving into a new. 

00:08:21 DL White 

Administration. I just can't. I can't be in a place that's always focused on what the heck that guy is doing. 

00:08:28 DL White 

So. 

00:08:29 DL White 

I'm going to be spending a lot more time on Blue Sky and really enjoy it so far. Actually, a lot of people from to where are moving over there. There's a black sky fee which is. 

00:08:37 DL White 

Your black Twitter. 

00:08:39 DL White 

Shenanigans, so that's always good for Comic Relief. There's a book Sky Feed, so all people talking about books, then there's your. 

00:08:49 DL White 

There's your, you know, your breakdown. They have feeds for sci-fi, fantasy and feeds for comics and. 

00:08:56 DL White 

You know, feed for knitting anything you might think you are interested in. You get like a little starter pack. Like, here's a bunch of people that talk about this stuff here, all these people that you can follow. Here's a feed that just it's just a column that shows up and can just pop in there and see what people are talking about about this particular subject. So there's there's some books, guy, there's. 

00:09:16 DL White 

Black voices matter, which is the black writers feed. There is romance Landia, which is all of our romance writers, which is going to be a desperate need of solace. 

00:09:28 DL White 

So. 

00:09:30 DL White 

I'm likely going to be found there if you're looking for me, I'm hoping to move a lot of things over there, but a lot of my, like my automated promo, only feeds to Twitter and so I have to manually repost them over to blue sky until all author figures out a way to. 

00:09:50 DL White 

Make. 

00:09:51 DL White 

Some kind of automation for blue sky happened. I was able to add blue sky to buffer so I can schedule things to post and I can. You know I can manually do what's being done automatically through all author and so I'm just I'm going to be straddling the two platforms for a minute. 

00:10:13 DL White 

But mainly, you know, live. I'll be at blue sky. I also have a Facebook and I don't think I'm following anybody who voted on the Republican ticket. But if I did. 

00:10:28 DL White 

I won't be apologizing for my point of view and my stance on anything, and so if that's going to make you uncomfortable, I would suggest that you remove yourself because I'm going to be me there. I'm going to be me on Instagram. I have a personal Instagram and I have a bookish Instagram. 

00:10:46 DL White 

And so. 

00:10:48 DL White 

I'm just going to be building myself a nice big bubble. 

00:10:53 DL White 

I don't intend to live my life with my head in the sand, but I'm also not going to have news in my face 24/7. I'll go look for it when I want to see what's going on, and I have a couple of resources even on Blue Sky. I have a news feed. I could just go look at when I'm interested in what's happening and not have it popping up in my face every. 

00:11:13 DL White 

27 seconds. So I'm hoping to be able to manage things and manage my stress, but also manage my need for information that way. Also going to be really digging hard into books as soon as soon as I feel like writing. 

00:11:29 DL White 

I did not. I didn't open any documents this week. I did read through calculated risk just because I missed India, Imani and Desmond. Weirdly, I missed them, so I did read through that and. 

00:11:46 DL White 

You know, in its rough draft form, I I really like it and I think my audience is also going to really like it and I am. I'm excited for you guys to get that in 2025 and then. 

00:11:58 DL White 

I don't even remember my characters from the festival at Evergreen Falls. I haven't opened it at all this week, but I'm going to be traveling this week for work and I just I hope I can get some time away to like pound out a few 1000 words and that I don't. I don't know that I'm going to finish it before the end of December even, but I just. I need to write. 

00:12:17 DL White 

Something I need to immerse myself in fictional worlds and make believe people and do the best I can to manage my thoughts and my emotions and. 

00:12:31 DL White 

Live my life like who knows what's going to happen in the next couple of years? 

00:12:37 DL White 

In in business I I work for a beverage brand and we I I I'm to be honest, I don't know where we get our materials from, but the high cost of materials drives up the cost of the product and that brings stress between. 

00:12:54 DL White 

The organization and its distributors and its customers, so. 

00:13:00 DL White 

I am just going to be bracing, you know. 

00:13:06 DL White 

So we'll see how we'll see how things shake out, but the new administration is not yet in power. 

00:13:15 DL White 

So while there is a need to prepare and get myself ready. 

00:13:22 DL White 

I. 

00:13:23 DL White 

Should not be wallowing in sorrow quite yet. So I'm. I'm. I'm really just trying to. 

00:13:30 DL White 

I'm really just trying to move through my emotions and get to a steady place. Which. 

00:13:40 DL White 

By the shaking my voice, I know you can tell I'm not quite there yet. Let me give you a couple of updates and then. 

00:13:48 DL White 

And then get on with our day. I am still ahead on my Goodreads challenge. I'm at 177 of 200 books. 

00:13:59 DL White 

My well, my goal is to read 200 books in 2024. 

00:14:04 DL White 

The way my face is going to be in a book at all times, I'm going to exceed that. I read over 200 books the first year of COVID-19, so it's my coping mechanism and I'm anxious to dive back in. But anyway, I'm at 177. 

00:14:24 DL White 

I have. I am at. I'm six books ahead. 

00:14:26 DL White 

Of schedule so. 

00:14:29 DL White 

That's not going to be that's not going to be a problem to maintain that lead this week I read let me pop up my list here. 

00:14:40 DL White 

I did get in. I think a couple of books, but. 

00:14:46 DL White 

My computer is moving slow. I did not take any notes. I didn't prep. I don't have a rundown straight from the hip, and we're hiccuping into the microphone. 

00:14:56 DL White 

This week I did finish. 

00:15:01 DL White 

The quiet damage Q Anon and the the the destruction of an American family. This was good. It was sad, but it was really good. The last few chapters gave me a bit of hope about each of the families affected as their loved ones started to come out of. 

00:15:21 DL White 

Being just buried in conspiracy and. 

00:15:28 DL White 

That sort of thing. 

00:15:31 DL White 

It was a good read and then I read overseas with a billionaire by Stephanie Nicole Norris. This is a brand new release and I snatched it right up soon as I saw it pop up. This is book 2 in her billionaire series one night with the billionaire was really, really good, so I snatched. 

00:15:49 DL White 

This one up. Uh, it was great. I read while I slept by Lakisha Johnson. This is just a person I randomly saw on Twitter and decided to pop up a book. It was it was pretty good. It was more. It leaned more toward urban fiction, closer to urban fiction than I really liked, but hey. 

00:16:07 DL White 

It was a book. 

00:16:08 DL White 

And I needed to be reading something so and it was in kennel Unlimited, so I snatched it and then holiday heat by Miss Beverly Jenkins, who I am so happy has joined us over at Blue Sky, so I don't have to do without seeing her lovely face and her words of encouragement. 

00:16:26 DL White 

Honestly, so grateful for her. We're also friends on Facebook, but I just like seeing her in my spaces. That's what I got read this week. I do not know what I'm reading this week. It's going to be a mix, probably of romance and crime fiction. That's just my happy place. That's where I like to be. And so I'm going to dive right in. 

00:16:46 DL White 

Day I think I might watch like a holiday movie and then, like, read a little. And I I would like to get some words in, but I'm not going to force it, you know. 

00:16:57 DL White 

What I'm saying? 

00:16:59 DL White 

This week there are two online events if you are interested in free books. 

00:17:06 DL White 

The first is the black reader appreciation experience. BR AE dot website from the 12th through the 16th. There are a grip a like 3 pages 3 to 4 pages of authors. 

00:17:21 DL White 

That are participating in this event, they have all offered up free books for your faces. So umm, beginning the 12th dip into Brae dot website and ****** you up some books. This user books for black readers and I have. 

00:17:40 DL White 

A I have a book I don't even remember what book I put in here. If you are, if you're a reader of mine, you probably already have my book. But spread the word to your friends, your family, random strangers and let them know that this is happening. You'll see lots of stuff on my. 

00:17:58 DL White 

Social media about this. Send them all over to the website and tell them to grab some books and then you know, check around and buy some other stuff. The other event is November 15th and 16th I believe, and that is the indie author deals stuff. Your earbuds, which is it's like it's like. 

00:18:17 DL White 

Of your candle, but for audiobooks. And I also have a free audiobook in. 

00:18:24 DL White 

I have a free audio book in that giveaway. So. 

00:18:31 DL White 

That will be at. 

00:18:34 DL White 

Romance audio bookworms.com and again this will be on my website. 

00:18:41 DL White 

Not on my website, probably be on my sub stack and my blue sky, my Twitter, my Facebook, my Instagram. It'll be everywhere so you'll be able to find it. So indie authors have offered up free audio books for your ears. 

00:18:58 DL White 

And there don't tend to be a whole lot of black romance in this giveaway, but I do know, like Stephanie joins it usually on occasion, a couple of others. So take a look November 15th. So that reminds me that I do need to make sure I have my books. 

00:19:19 DL White 

Set everywhere for free, so I'm going to I'm going to check that out. That is it for announcements. That is it for ruminations and talking things about. 

00:19:32 DL White 

The. 

00:19:34 DL White 

2024 presidential election. Like I said, we're still waiting on the House, but I don't believe we are going to. I don't believe we're going to get the house. So if we do, the majority won't be large. It'll be like a couple of seats. 

00:19:53 DL White 

Which isn't fine, but we can make it work. So that's it for announcements. 

00:20:01 DL White 

If you know me, I appreciate your good thoughts and prayers and support. I am OK. I'm probably not going to be very talkative, but I do appreciate those who have reached out for chitchatting and whatnot. 

00:20:19 DL White 

That's it. 

00:20:20 DL White 

That's all I got for today. Thank you for joining me for this episode. I hope to have more energy and more optimism and more light next week. But like I said, I did not want to skip this week. I appreciate everyone who is listening to this podcast and those who offer comments and let me know in Instagram lives and whatnot. 

00:20:41 DL White 

That they listen to my podcast. I do so appreciate it. And I do really enjoy bringing it to you. 

00:20:51 DL White 

I'm going to skip all the. 

00:20:52 DL White 

Usuals. 

00:20:53 DL White 

So thanks for joining me. Take care of yourself this week and. 

00:20:59 DL White 

We'll talk soon. Bye bye.