Bookcast Episode 123: Words Complete

I am BACK with another Sunday catch-up! Big updates on my writing, house news, and what I've been reading during all the chaos of my mom's visit, Indie love and work travel!

Reading Update Current Progress: 88 of 175 books (50% complete)- 2 books ahead! 

Books Read (June 15-29)

• Good Neighbors (Alibis Collection) by Chad Zunker
• False Note (Alibis Collection #3) by David Lagercrantz
• The Ex-Wives Club (Alibis Collection #2) by Sally Hepworth
• We are All Guilty Here (North Falls #1) by Karen Slaughter (5 stars)

Currently Reading

• August Lane by Regina Black
• Fog and Fury (Haven Thriller #1) by Rachel Howzell Hall
• Loving Ashley by Rain Coleman
• Listening to the Girls Who Grew Big by Layla Motley

Writing Update MISSING PERSONS IS COMPLETE! 64,414 words, currently with beta readers. Goal: August release.

Life Updates

• Indie Love event was amazing
• House closing date is set
• Podcast break starting after this episode
• Will return first weekend in August with new book and new home!

Support the Show Books: booksbydlwhite.com/shop Buy Me a Coffee: buymeacoffee.com/booksbydlwhite

Full show notes at: booksbydlwhite.com/bookcast/123

Transcript

DL White [00:00:16]:
Hello everyone. Happy Sunday to my bookish friends, my booze and bow. Boos and bows, booze and bros of the book. I'm not even going to correct that because I don't feel like it. I'm tired. Welcome back to the Bookcast, my platform where I talk about reading and writing, black love and real life as a self published author of black romantic fiction. I guess I probably have to stop saying black romantic fiction if I'm also going to write mystery fiction. But we'll figure that out later.

DL White [00:00:47]:
No, we'll fix it in post. You know what I'm saying? I am D.L. white. I'm her. I'm an Atlanta based author, reader, storyteller. If you like this podcast and the things I do here, the best way to support me and the things I do here is to buy the books. You can buy them direct from booksbydlwhite.com shop. You can also find merch at that website.

DL White [00:01:07]:
You'll find print editions on my bookshop.org shelf. So you're supporting indie bookstores and me at the same time, which is a thing I find I enjoy. I actually did get a report from a bookshop that says I made a little bit of money that last month. So cool. Somebody went to mybookshop shelf and bought a book. And I really like that. Thank you so much. Today is Sunday, June 29, 2025.

DL White [00:01:34]:
I am in Atlanta. I have a microphone, I have a drink. It is about to rain here and I welcome that because I'm hot. I have entirely way too many thoughts and what I think will be a short episode. But I am ready to talk. So let's get into it. Won't you join me for a quick beverage break? Foreign lovers, welcome back. Welcome back.

DL White [00:02:26]:
We begin, as always with the Book report because I'm gonna. If I'm gonna do anything, I'm gonna do what? Read a book. I am at 88 of 175 books read. And my goal for 2025, I'm 50% toward my goal. Two books ahead, right on schedule. Book reading has been difficult this last couple of weeks. My mom was in town, which was a really. I had indie love, which was a really good time.

DL White [00:02:53]:
And then I went immediately into a work trip Monday through Wednesday out in the Napa Valley, which was a really good time. Although I worked the entire time from the time I landed until the time I got on the plane. But it was great. So let's talk about what I did get read in the last couple of weeks. I wasn't Here last week due to indie love. Did I mention that was a really good time? It was a really good time. A couple of these may be overlaps from the last report, but this is basically everything I read from June 15 through today. So I got in Good Neighbors, which is in the Alibis collection.

DL White [00:03:32]:
It's a Audible originals collection by Chad Zunker. False Note, which is number three in the Alibis collection by David Logocrantz. Hope I'm saying that right. And then the Ex Wives Club, which is in the Alibis collection. Number two by Sally Hepworth. Can I just tell you that I don't remember any of those books? I know I listened to them. I feel like I listened to them either on the plane or as I was on my way. It's a two hour drive from the San Francisco airport to Napa Valley.

DL White [00:04:01]:
We actually stayed in Calistoga. Beautiful. Gorgeous. Did I mention it was a good time? It was a good time. I don't remember any of those books, but I know I read them and then I got in. We are all guilty here. North Falls book number one by Karen Slaughter. And I am a slaughter.

DL White [00:04:18]:
Stan. This book is standard Karen Slaughter. I mean, she pulls no punches. She's the SA Cosby of thriller writers. She pulls no punches. She doesn't half say anything. So please mind all of the trigger warnings available for that book. It's rough, but that's kind of, kind of why I really like her.

DL White [00:04:43]:
That one and King of Ashes and Plus Size Player are like my three five star reads of the year. Excellent work. Currently still working on August Lane by Regina Black. That book comes out in November. I'm just gonna wait on the audio for it. I've just got it so I don't forget. Fog and Haven Thriller number one by Rachel Howzell Hall. I am reading the ebook of this, but again I'm gonna wait for the audio because it's just such a different experience for me.

DL White [00:05:08]:
I take it in better. And if I have to read and stop and read and stop, I will forget. But in audio I can just, literally I can just keep going and then. Still working on Loving Ashley by Rain Coleman. I'm like 60% in. It's a good book so far. I just have had so much travel and so much interrupting me. I can't just can't get it in.

DL White [00:05:29]:
So I think what I'm gonna do tonight is like get my dinner together and dig into that book and get it finished. I'm also reading Listening to the Girls who Grew Big by Layla Motley. I loved her debut and I was like, yeah, I'm all in for a Layla book. I think I'm about 60 in. I will wait until I finish to offer my thoughts on it. But I'll say I'm pissed at a particular subsection of society and there's one character I just don't want to hear about anymore. I am. I'm done.

DL White [00:06:05]:
I'm done with that person. So hopefully I'll get that finished today or tomorrow. So that's where I am with reading again. I'm at 88 of 175. My reading goal, to read 175 books in the month of June. No, not in the month of June, in the year 2025. I promise I'm awake. I'm just very tired.

DL White [00:06:29]:
On the writing and the publishing update, I'm so excited to report that Missing Persons is words complete. It typically for me, that's like, I had. So I had a draft zero, which is like me telling myself the story. It's shooting everything onto the page, blah, blah, blah. This happened, that happened, this other thing happened. I might skip the sex. I might not. I might move a sex scene to other chapters, which I did.

DL White [00:06:58]:
Then I'll go back after a bit and do my revision, which is like my deep. My deep revision, my deep rewrite. So I'm just going through noting what's working, what's not working, changing literal words, deleting entire paragraphs, moving around entire chapters. That's my major, major rework. So I got that done probably a few weeks ago. And then I just went back recently and just went through, like, layer by layer, fine tuning, going chapter by chapter. Do I like this intro? Do I like how it starts? Do I like how it ends? I like for a chapter to end a little bit on a cliffhanger, to make the reader turn the page. What happens next? And so there's a couple chapters that I really wanted to end on a cliffy.

DL White [00:07:47]:
I want them to turn the page to find out what happened. So I had to, like. I want to go through and like, evaluate each chapter. Do it. Is it cinematic? Is it, like. Does it play out in your head? Is the setting vivid? I think I said in the last episode that this is a very Atlanta book. I hope people recognize neighborhoods and restaurants and, you know, throughways and thoroughfares. I'm open to putting more of those in there.

DL White [00:08:17]:
And like, if you're not Atlanta, I want you to, you know, still enjoy the story. But this book is very Atlanta and so I have a lot of like real life locations in this book. And so I need it to be realistic. Does this actually exist in this location? Can you get from here to here in 25, 35, 45 minutes? I always figure everything is about a half hour away from something else, but sometimes it's not. Sometimes it's 45. It's literally 45 minutes for me to get from here to like, you know, the JW Marriott and Buckhead. But if you ask me how far away from that I am away from that, I will say I'm about a half hour. I'm slightly longer than a half hour away.

DL White [00:09:00]:
But, you know, so I can't just say a half hour later if is, if, if Wesley is leaving the Fulton County Courthouse in like downtown Atlanta and he's driving to his home in Cabbagetown, that's. That's not a short drive, you know what I'm saying? So I just, I needed to be realistic with my locations, make sure my setting is vivid, make sure you feel like you are planted in Atlanta, you know, and can you hear the rumble, the percolator in Yvette's El Camino? Can you smell Estelle's cigarette smoke? That, you know, that type of thing? I need it to be vivid and realistic. So that was my kind of my last review and now we are at the next step in my pre publication process which is sending it out to beta readers. So I do have it out to a couple of betas for them to read and offer their feedback. Whether or not I have feedback or not, it goes to the editor on an agreed upon date. I chatted with her yesterday on when it would be good to send and so I can hold it and mess with it. I can flip around with it until then and then it's gone. I can't mess with it because she will have it and I can't make changes while she.

DL White [00:10:13]:
While she has a version and I have a version. So while my betas are reading, my editor gets past one and then by the time I get past one pages back from her, I will have feedback from my betas and I can incorporate their advice changes. This work. This works great. This doesn't work. Cut that. Because what. And one of my betas is really so good about letting me know, like being able to see the story for what I want it to be and helping me get there.

DL White [00:10:47]:
I don't send anything out that I'm not in love with. Like I'm in love with this story. I absolutely love it. I love me Some Wesley. I love me. Some Yvette. I love Estelle. I even love Yancey's ass.

DL White [00:10:58]:
And I hope y' all are going to understand that when you read the book. But I even love Yancey's ass. But there's always, like, a level. You can take it to where it hits me and it's going to hit the reader, and I count on people who are just excited to, like, dig into it and, like, let me know. This could sound better this way. Why don't you move this to that, because then it builds to, you know, to this level, this moment. I'm especially nervous about how the actual crime rolls out because I am not a crime writer. And so it was really difficult actually putting that together.

DL White [00:11:38]:
I cannot. Phew. Y' all, I'm a. I'm a pantser. Like, I plan a little bit and then I just go at it. I cannot pants a mystery novel. So I will say most of the romance, I pantsed. Like, I.

DL White [00:11:53]:
I know what I'm doing, you know what I'm saying? Like, I'll pull out some Gwen Hayes Romancing the Beat and, like, go at it. You know what I'm saying? Go for it. But the mystery part, I just had to pray and read some mysteries and figure out, like, it's this and this and this and this. And then I was just at a point where, like, my brain just doesn't go deep when it comes to crime fiction, no matter how much I read it. Like, my brain doesn't go there. I don't have a criminal mind. I don't know what that says about you people that write crime fiction, but I don't have a criminal mind. So I can only go so deep.

DL White [00:12:30]:
So I'm like, asking people, like, how do I make this, like, a little bit more suspenseful? How do I. How do I need to, like, add some oomph to this? I need to add some danger to this. I need to add some, oh, my God, what's going to happen next to this? And it's probably not as suspenseful and thriller ish as I would like it to be. And that's why I'm not calling it a thriller. I'm calling it a mystery. It's a missing person's novel. The guns do come out. The guns do come out.

DL White [00:12:56]:
There's some. There's some travel, there's some stakeout, there's some danger, there's. There's some firearms being pointed. But I wouldn't say it's a thriller, you know, Like, I don't I don't know, like, I keep calling it a mystery. It's probably like a low level thriller. But I don't. I don't want to stress myself out. So anyway, it's going to the editor on the agreed upon date.

DL White [00:13:22]:
The goal is to have the book out in August. But you know what I say? And if you don't know what I say, I say it's done when it's done and not a moment sooner. I don't stress myself out with an unrealistic deadline. I don't push myself to produce work on a timeline that doesn't actually work for me. I work a full time job and I have a lot going on right now. And I can get it done or I can't. And if I can't, I gotta push it out to when I can get it done. I'm very happy with where we are right now.

DL White [00:13:50]:
I am excited to see this polished. I'll probably do a cover reveal when I send the second pass pages back. Before then it's just sparkling. Hope that I have a viable novel. So that's where we're at with missing persons. It came out at 64,414 words, which is a full novel. This was never a novella, people. This was never a novella.

DL White [00:14:14]:
The story was always too complicated to be a novella. And I'm happy because I had kind of some room to stretch out and to lay Yvette and Wesley out at the pace that I wanted to lay them out. I will tell y' all, this is a slow burn. If you want like the Elysium level of sex on page one, you're not gonna get it on this novel. I don't know that I'll ever do that again because to this day, I'm still warning people. Now look. Now look, Elysium is different. She's.

DL White [00:14:49]:
She's different. She's a different girl. She's built different. But that is what was necessary for that book. I had to open with sex on page one in Elysium because that was the nature of Vance and Athena's relationship. That's what they did. And so I had to. I had.

DL White [00:15:09]:
I felt like I had to do that. I did try to open it kind of tame, but it just didn't kick for me. It had to be on page one. You're not getting sex on page one in Missing Persons. However, you will have sex, I believe, before 50%. I have to look, I have to check. But there is some burning, there's some flirting, there's some relationship Talk. There's plenty of build.

DL White [00:15:35]:
I mean, the key word is burn. And I feel like it's paced really well to build, build, build, build, build to where you're like, begging them, please, God, please, please just get it together. Come on, man. So I feel like I have paced it really well to get to that point to where readers who are looking for the intimacy and looking for the spice will find it. And I'm very happy with how that turned out. I'm excited to see it polished and I'm excited for people to get it. If you are interested and excited as well, please shout me out a holler. Let a sister know, because sometimes I announce books and, and I don't hear anything.

DL White [00:16:18]:
And then I'd be like, well, nobody really gives a crap. And so, you know, it'll be out when it's out. And then I put it out and then I go back to writing whatever it is. I'm going to be, you know, writing next. And I, you know, and I. Oh, it's raining. Yes, it's. It's always raining in Atlanta.

DL White [00:16:37]:
Like every day it rains. I am going to jump right into Potter Lake 4 after this one's out so I can get that out sometime before December. And then I'll think about. I'll think about a holiday short. But I also got to think about another fan fiction story. I got to decide if I'm going to write a story for awesome August in the midst of all the other things I'm going on. We have awesome August coming up at the NSYNC fiction fan fiction website. Speaking of NSYNC fiction, I am drafting a new chapter of Music of My Heart.

DL White [00:17:11]:
This is my JC centered fanfic that I have been updating at NSync Fiction and also at my short fiction substack. This is. This story follows Zoe Chapman, who is a struggling songwriter in her 30s. She gets rejected by RCA Records, ends up at a prestigious songwriting retreat led by the JC Shesse of NSync. At the retreat, she develops a professional and a romantic connection to jc under his mentorship, they begin a relationship that then becomes public fodder. So this chapter I am at is kind of my favorite part of writing celebrities. When you get to. You get to see the seedy underbelly of the industry and you get into like the real life nitty gritty of what it's like being a famous face, a famous name.

DL White [00:18:03]:
This chapter, Zoe's at a crucial decision point. She is getting ready to sign with a label and it's. I'm kind of. I'm trying to highlight the tension of her sort of losing control over her life, over her own narrative. And the industry machine begins to take over and, and pump you out and tell the public what to think. Um, and while she is achieving her dreams, her success is coming at a loss of privacy, a loss of autonomy. She's still really learning to navigate that. And the good thing is that she's got this really famous guy who's been famous since he was like 11 helping her out with that.

DL White [00:18:43]:
Music of My Heart kind of to me, explores the dark side of getting everything you've ever wanted. Through Zoe's eyes, we're seeing the brutal reality of losing anonymity in real time. From going, going from a complete nobody to having strangers sing your lyrics back to you on the street in like six months. Like she literally was, was working at a bar and doing like rideshare and DoorDash. And then RCA said, you're not, you're good, but not good enough, but why don't you go on this retreat? And she goes on the retreat. It's a month long retreat. And then like months later she's on TV with pop stars and like her life has literally changed in a matter of months. But this isn't like a glamorous, poor little rich girl version of celebrity problems.

DL White [00:19:36]:
It's grinding, it's loss of control of your own life. Zoe can't sign a contract, she can't release a song. She can't have a relationship without it becoming like public property without people walking up to her and being like, is this a girl that JC Chasez is screwing? Wow, I thought she would be cuter. That type of stuff to your face. I'm loving that kind of thing because as a fan I recognize that some of us, some of us are not nice, Some of us don't have it all together. And I guess this is my way of sort of exercising my issues with fans because I think recently, like when Justin was on tour, there was an issue with fans, like reaching out to touch him and grabbing his hand and not letting go. And that's so incredibly rude and like, like, like getting into his personal space. And it's a thing that fans talk about in the forums and in like the private chat groups a lot.

DL White [00:20:33]:
And so sometimes a thing happens and this is how I exercise my frustrations with it. Anyway, her successes come with strings, of course, and these are strings that she never agreed to pull, but she has to because it's how the business works. Again, it's Set against the seedy underbelly of the music industry, this story talks about how having a face, every nose, isn't what it's cracked up to be. And then, of course, having jc, having survived the machine himself, serving as a protector and a reality check, he can see what's coming for her in ways that she can't. And so I kind of like having that little. He's like both the angel and the devil on your shoulder because he's like, here's how it's gonna be, but here's how you can work it so it can be the way you want it to be. The contrast that I wanna draw is really stark. An artist who has just achieved her dreams, and instead of being able to celebrate in a fancy restaurant, she's in a dive bar doing damage control, that.

DL White [00:21:35]:
You know, that type of thing. So more of that to come. I don't know what the end is for Zoe or the story. I know I'm just not done writing it yet. And so every week I'm like, how can I ruin her life further? How can I make her happy? But also not. And so that's kind of. It's just fun. It's just fun writing.

DL White [00:21:59]:
That is. That's what I'm doing with that. At the same time, August 1st begins. Awesome August. And so I gotta think of a new story idea, something I could finish before the end of the month to post for our August Challenge. Every August, we do awesome August, which celebrates the birthday of one Joshua Scott Chazay. And then in October, November, we usually do Poptober, which celebrates the birth of Chris, who is the founder of NSync. I have tried to run challenges to celebrate Justin and Joey's birthdays, which is at the end of June, January.

DL White [00:22:41]:
Nobody really posts a story. And then there's too much. There's so much going on around Lance's birthday with the NSA Day, which is in March, and. And then it's going to be May day, which is April 30, and then Lance's birthday is May 4. There's so much going on at that time. We just can never get our act together to do a challenge. But I do think I'm going to just post up the opportunity, you know, maybe do something for the other guys for their birthdays. But.

DL White [00:23:23]:
Sorry, I was pausing my audiobook. It wanted to start playing again. No, I'm. I'm talking, I'm speaking. So I gotta think about what kind of story I wanna write, and I have no idea. I don't have Any story I'm writing, the one idea I have. So I don't know, it's gotta be something short that I can do in four weeks. So I don't know.

DL White [00:23:42]:
That's what, that's what I'll be thinking on. But like, I have to move fast because the challenge begins August 1st. So I have July to write. So no streaming this week. I'm sure I watched things, but I do not remember what any of them were. I just was so busy in the last couple of weeks, I don't know what I've watched. I'll come back later if I think of it. So a couple of quick bullet point updates.

DL White [00:24:06]:
Indie Love was great. I had sold out of a couple of titles. The extra books I ordered to arrive came too late. But that was fine. Honestly, I had enough to almost sell out. I did sell out of a couple titles. I'm signing on to at least one more event for 2025. You'll find out more about it in July.

DL White [00:24:29]:
I was thinking about doing Snellville Book Festival. Just look at the signup sheet and then closed it. I just. I don't know if I want to do that. It's going to be November 8th, if you live in or near Atlanta. November 8th, Snellville Book Festival, I think. I just don't want to be in another festival with a bunch of authors that aren't like me. You know what I'm saying? You're picking up what I'm putting down.

DL White [00:24:52]:
You catching my drift? You smell what I'm cooking? Yeah. So I don't think I'm doing that. So my last book event will probably be October 3rd through 5th. You'll find out more about that sometime in July. The house is coming along. I'm really just waiting for final paperwork approval. A closing date has been set. I've started de junking my room so I can pack.

DL White [00:25:15]:
And I have started freaking out. Like, literally I am waking up in the middle of the night like, oh my God. Just like random things that I am freaking out about. The other night I jumped out of bed at 2:37am Because I had to go get the baby. I. I don't have a uterus. I have not ever had a baby. I don't have a baby.

DL White [00:25:38]:
Last night it was something about the garbage. I don't handle the garbage in this house. Roomy in law handles the garbage. I've not been able to touch the garbage since he moved in like three years ago. I don't know. I'm. I don't know What? I'm stressed. I'm stressed out.

DL White [00:25:55]:
It's coming out in my dreams. So anyway, I need one of those junk companies to come get two big piles of stuff so I have room to stack boxes. I have so many clothes. I haven't even been in my closet in months. I just like go in there and like, pull things and like close the door. I. I've gotta, like, dig down and like get to packing. Does anybody want to come pack my room? There's a lot of stuff in here, y' all.

DL White [00:26:24]:
I have an apartment's worth of stuff in this room and I keep saying I don't have much stuff. That's a lie. I have a lot of stuff. So because I live at I link, this is my room, but I also work in here. All my book stuff is in here. So I basically have my bedroom and my office in this one room and a bathroom. So a bedroom, bathroom, office in this room. Oh, you know what? I also have my exercise equipment in here.

DL White [00:26:51]:
So I have four rooms worth of stuff in this one room. I'm going to get it together. So I am going to be a busy gal with work, with packing, with moving, with closing. So the podcast is going to go on a short break so I don't have to worry about also stressing out about updating y' all on what's going on. But I won't be off of social media, so you can follow me at bluesky, on TikTok, on Instagram, on Facebook, on Pinterest, on Substack. I yap nonstop. I will be talking about things there and so catch up with me there. I also will likely still do a newsletter, so also join the newsletter books by glwhite.com newsletter but that's usually mostly book news.

DL White [00:27:39]:
If you want like day to day life updates, best bet is going to be Blue sky or Instagram. Instagram still mostly books. I do have a private account. If you know what that is, you know, welcome to it. And then TikTok is a lot of book stuff, but also general random shenanigans. So find me on social media if you're wondering what's going on. I will be back on the podcast the first weekend in August. When I come back, I will have a book ready to launch.

DL White [00:28:11]:
I will have a brand new home. I will be living a different life and I'm so excited about it. So that brings us to the end of today's episode. Look at me thinking. I had a short podcast that I managed to yap for 27 whole minutes. Thank you so much for spending time with me today. I really enjoyed having you here. If you enjoy this episode, please share it, rate it, Leave a comment wherever you're listening Apple, Spotify, Substack, YouTube, you know, random places wherever you'll find full show notes, a transcript and links@booksbydlwhite.com bookcast123 and on my sub Sabstack Sapstack substack Sad stack.

DL White [00:28:52]:
I'm not cutting that out on my sub stack at author dlwhite substack. Com if you go directly there and tap on the podcast tab you will be golden. You can support this podcast by shopping the books@booksbydlwhite.com shop. You can also buy me a copy@buymeacopy.com booksbydlwhite you can share the podcast or join the newsletter and you can find links to all of Those places at books by dlwhite.com linkinbio Big thanks to my monthly supporters and everyone who has sent a coffee. You all keep this mic turned on and I could not be more grateful. The book cast is written, produced and edited by me, D.L. white. Any theme music and sound effects are provided by Pixabay.

DL White [00:29:39]:
I will be back the first weekend in August. Until then, be well. Pick up something good. Put it in your face. We'll talk soon. Bye bye.