Bookcast Episode 127: Bits and Pieces- Reading & Writing Updates

I'm back after the holiday break!  

I share my latest reading updates (126 of 175 books - seven ahead of schedule!), streaming favorites including Night Agent and disaster movies, and writing progress on Potter Lake 4. I talk about my new holiday short story "Layover" (a response to the "only one bed" trope), gearing up for Glocktober crime fiction month, and updates on publishing strategy changes including putting books into Kindle Unlimited.

Recently Read:

• Capone Season One by Jaquel J.
• Out of the Woods by Kate Wiley

Currently Reading:

• Wildflowers and Bullets by Keith Karim Williams
• T and E: The Teachers of Hardwood High by Nina High

Upcoming:

• Black Book Bash, October 3-7 in Jacksonville, Florida
• Poptober fanfiction challenge celebrating Chris Kirkpatrick's birthday

Find full show notes, transcript, and all links at: booksbydlwhite.com/bookcast127

Transcript

DL White [00:00:00]:
Foreign. Hello, hello, hello and welcome back to the Bookcast. This is episode 127,127 of my podcast where I talk about reading and writing, black love and real life as a self published author. I also on occasion, but I haven't in a while, share short fiction on this podcast. I'm gonna. I'm gonna do something about that. Not soon, but I'm gonna do something. I am your host.

DL White [00:00:40]:
I'm DL White. I'm an Atlanta based author, reader and storyteller. And if you like this podcast and podcasts like it, the best way to support me and them is to buy the books. You can buy my books@booksbydlwhite.com shop. You can also find print editions on my bookshop.org shelf. So you're supporting indie bookstores and me at the same time. And that's sort of my favorite thing. I skipped last week because it was a holiday and I forgot it was Sunday, but it felt like Saturday so I thought I still had an extra day.

DL White [00:01:17]:
Then I was like, no, it's Sunday, it's podcast day. But it was like 8 o' clock by then. And then on Monday I had the day off but I did not feel like recording a podcast and so I didn't. My cousins came by to see my house. We had a grand old time, but I decided to just take the wake and I'm back now. Today is Sunday, September 7th. I'm in Atlanta with a mic, something to drink and way too many thoughts. So let's get into it.

DL White [00:02:26]:
All right? All right. All right, friends, I hope your break was refreshing. Mine was. Today I'm sipping on Fruit2O protein water, which is pretty good. I think it's the berry flavor. I don't remember what flavor. And little Sprite zero over ice. You know how I do.

DL White [00:02:44]:
Let's begin with the book report, because if I'm going to do anything, I'm going to do what? Read a book. So I am at 126 of 175 books of my. I know I mess this up every week. I mess this up every single week because I don't script this part out. I just put the numbers. And so then I'm like, what do I say here? I don't know what to do with my hands. My goal is to read 175 books in 2025 and I am at 126 of 175 books read. I am 72% toward my goal.

DL White [00:03:16]:
I am seven books ahead of schedule so I can chill out for a minute. Am I going to do that? No, absolutely not. This week I got in two books. I started Jaquel J. Who is a big, big deal in black fiction right now, but I had never read any of her work. So I snapped this up. Capone Season one, Delgado Family. It was pretty good.

DL White [00:03:45]:
You know, I'm a big fan of. Hey, I'm gonna need you to, like, you know, you don't have to go to work anymore. Let me get you a car. You can move into my house. I say I'm not because I feel like relationships these days are transactional. And I always feel like he's going to be looking at me for like, some kind of, you owe me because I did nice things for you. But that's a real world, like, real life type of thing. In the books, you know, in the fantasy of it, he just wants to take care of his woman.

DL White [00:04:18]:
And so Capone meets this woman that she drives a bus. She's raising her little brother. He's mad, attracted, and he's like, hey, basically, I feel like you're my woman, and so I'm going to start acting like you're mine. That little, like, little possessive alpha male type thing doesn't really do much for me, but I can take it in small doses anyhow. Capone is the man. He is the man. I cannot say I will read all of this series. I'm not.

DL White [00:04:54]:
This isn't a genre that I'm majorly into, but I do want to know what the girl is be talking about when they talk about Jaquel J. So she's got some new stuff coming out. She's a busy, busy, busy gal. So I enjoy Capone. And then I read out of the Woods, Detective Margot Phelan, series number five by Kate Wiley. I had an audio arc of this from Netgalley, and I don't like to. I don't like to DNF audio arcs because there are so few of them and I want to keep getting them. So I do try to take a listen if I get one.

DL White [00:05:29]:
This was just okay. I mean, it was book five in series that I'd never heard of, so who knows if I was just not really feeling it because I didn't know the ins and outs of books one through four or who Detective Margot Phelan is. But this was a pretty good book. It was a little slow until the last few chapters, and the ending was very satisfying. I would say the ending kind of sailed this book for me, so it was all right. I'm currently reading two books. I just picked them up, haven't even started them yet. Wildflowers and Bullets by Keith Karim Williams.

DL White [00:06:03]:
I saw this on Threads and said, hey, let's try it. And then T and E. The Teachers of Hardwood High by Nina High Y' all know I love me some Nina High. She's one of my new favorite authors, so if she has a release out, I try to snag it. I think I've read everything in the Teachers of Hardwood High series. Even though I haven't reviewed it, I probably have read it and so I'm excited to get into T and E. I also have a bunch saved up in my Kindle Unlimited library, and I know I have some everand favorites that are sitting out there. I have a plethora of books I need to be reading, but you know, I'm a mood reader.

DL White [00:06:43]:
Nothing sounds good until I'm reading it and then I'm like, oh, this is good. I am gearing up for Glocktober. So October is a month in which we as a community, as a family, as fans of crime fiction, read cozy slash mystery slash suspense thriller crime novels. So I'm starting to round up some books that I want to read, like my new obsession, Steve Kavanaugh, my new bae. Yeah, I'm going to be reading a lot of Steve Cavanaugh next month. I also joined a Book Funnel promo this month featuring new crime a few crime novels. So I'll add the link to the show notes in case you want to pick up a free copy of Baking Bad, which is my first foray in into crime fiction. It's a shorty.

DL White [00:07:26]:
It's like five chapters. And I mean, I like it. It's very short. It's, you know, it's a book. So these books will be free for a limited time, so be sure to hop right in as soon as you get that link this week in the streams what I'm streaming because y' all know I do a lot of TV and movies to keep from doom scrolling and watching the news, which doesn't always work. But I'm entertained at the very least. You know, if society is going to fall, at least I can talk about what I watched recently while it's falling anyway, into the storm. I love me a disaster movie.

DL White [00:08:11]:
This was on Roku has a new channel called Howdy which is like it's 299 right now. You know it's going to go up just 299, but it's like, it's like tubi without commercials, which I really love, because the tubi commercials be driving me mad. Anyway, so I found this movie. It's called into the Storm. Is about. It is about. It's a tornado movie. I love a natural disaster movie.

DL White [00:08:39]:
It doesn't matter how terrible it is. If it's in English, I'm going to watch it because there's a couple of them like Geostorm that aren't in English and I can't watch them because I can't watch the movie. If I have to read it, I don't want to read a movie. I want to watch it. So it was really good. It was a tad unrealistic, but really good. And then I watched the Emma and Bruce Willis documentary, I think it was on abc, the Unexpected Journey about Bruce and his frontotemporal dementia. This is really.

DL White [00:09:11]:
Man, just. I'm sad. I miss Bruce Willis. I'm sad. But, you know, he is doing as well as can be done. And I applaud his wife, Emma for how well she is caring for him and just doing the best that she can and also advocating for other caregivers in her situation. Like she can afford to do so much for Bruce. But, you know, some of us are out here doing things with, you know, our own money and our, you know, our own time and uplifting each other.

DL White [00:09:44]:
And there were so many caregivers that I follow a lot in the dementia space that I recognized. So it's nice to see people be, I guess, not recognized, but supported in what they are doing for their, their loved ones. And then I started on Netflix. Netflix, this series called Night Agent. And it's. It's pretty good. As usual, I'm behind. I think this is.

DL White [00:10:13]:
They're on season three. And I. I binged all of season one in the last couple days. And I started season two last night. I'm probably going to finish season two today. I don't know how many series or how many seasons are on Netflix. I can't talk today. I can never talk when I get in this booth.

DL White [00:10:33]:
But anyway, I don't know how many seasons are on Netflix, but as many as of them are. I will be watching them. It's a very good season. I'm like really into like FBI, CIA type stuff. And this is about, you know, a guy who's. His job is basically to sit in the basement of the White House and answer this phone and the Night Action phone. And so there's the. The Night Action crew is like a bunch of like FBI agents that operate like sort of under the line.

DL White [00:11:08]:
So anyway, it's very good. It's very actiony. It's a teeny, teeny weeny bit of romance in it. So I, I enjoyed it. Season one was a banger. I really enj enjoyed it. So I'm just basically watching stuff, waiting for the Diplomat Season 3 to come back, which starts, I think in October, and then Landman, which is on Paramount. And I don't think that starts until January.

DL White [00:11:30]:
I was hoping November, but I don't think it starts till January. But I'm just waiting for my new shows to come back. I think Matlock is back in October. I don't know when Will Trent is back. I don't know when Elsbeth is back. But I've got to get back into my shows. So I have my regular. I got my regular routine.

DL White [00:11:50]:
I don't think what's the Hospital one? The Pit, I don't think that's back till January. So I'm ready. I'm ready for my fall shows. And then I started Rainmaker on Peacock. It's updating weekly, so I think I'm just gonna let the episodes pile up and then Binge is not too bad. It's a lot like the book by John Grisham, but of course it moves much slower because it is episodic. The book the Rainmaker and the movie the Rainmake were both excellent. This is back when John Grisham was writing really, really great books.

DL White [00:12:26]:
The series is okay so far. I'll probably just like, you know, binge a few episodes at a time, but it's not too bad. I forgot how much Dec Shiflett, who is the quote unquote para lawyer he calls himself, makes me want to hurl him out of a window. He is an ambulance chaser to the max and he's a character I love to hate. Podcast wise it's been a bit dull. Outside of the usual suspects I will list. I'll link my list of faves in the show Notes. I have a list of podcasts I subscribe to, substacks I subscribe to, YouTube channels I subscribe to.

DL White [00:13:07]:
I keep that in a. It's a Google Sheets list and it's linked on my link in bio page. That's booksbydlwhite.com linkinbio. You can get it there. I'll also try to link it here in the show notes. But I did catch a rare update from my writer pal Jason Graham on his Unacceptable Behavior podcast. I'm really looking forward to the release of Salt and Pepper. I think it's going to be a really good one.

DL White [00:13:37]:
I'm really, really looking forward to it. We share an editor and so I know she's going to get him all the way together. On the writing and publishing update my current projects list. I'm still working on Potter Lake 4. Still I rise. I'm working through it. I don't think it will be ready for fall. Just being real with myself.

DL White [00:14:03]:
I'm really stumbling through it right now. I'm gonna take my time with it. I'm really working through transitioning from a complete pantser to someone who at least partially plans. I don't really know what I'm doing with this novel and I can't be the type of person that just rambles around for 40 days and 40 nights that will just drive me. I want to write it. I just think I'm not ready and I know when I'm not ready and I will know when I am ready. I feel really tempted to make this novel real soap opera ish and dramatic and I don't really want to, but I also feel like readers will be bored if it doesn't get hyper dramatic. You know, like it's a small town romance.

DL White [00:14:51]:
I'm not writing Days of Our Lives here. Like I've told you all the story. The premise of the story is that RendaBelle LeBlanc, who is the daughter of Helen and Orlando LeBlanc, they own Helen's restaurant, it's the most prominent restaurant in Potter Lake. Their daughter Rinda returns home to Potter Lake. She hasn't been in town since she left her fiance at the altar when she was 18. She ran away in her wedding dress and she has not been back to Potter Lake since. She's been living at her grandmother's home and a storm in New Orleans has driven her back to Potter Lake as her home is underwater. So I'm very tempted and I keep this keeps niggling at me to have her previous fiance show up.

DL White [00:15:44]:
But I feel like if it's not a second chance romance, there's no reason for him to show up and it's not a second chance romance. And so I'm kind of fighting that the only reason he would show up would be for drama and I don't want manufactured drama. I would rather actually for the storyline to be that she hears that he found someone to be with and that he, you know, is married and is happy and you know, made something of himself. Because the really the storyline with Rinda is that she is kind of a screw up and she just hasn't really found her footing in life though. She's in her 40s and this is something that she butts heads with with her mother quite frequently. And so I think that's the direction that I'm going with this story anyhow. However. However, I did start writing a holiday short that I think will be really fun.

DL White [00:16:47]:
So recently on Threads, a reader was railing about the only one bed trope of romance novels. The only one bed trope is exactly what it sounds like. Two characters end up having to share sleeping accommodations, usually reluctantly. Some readers a forced proximity and the tension, and some people find it overused and contrived. I mean, anyway, girl, whatever I said. Lol. No, we won't be telling writers what to write, but because I am obstinate a little something something started writing itself in my head and I sent a sneak peek of the COVID and a snip to my newsletter last week and I posted it on my sub stack on Friday. So if you are so inclined.

DL White [00:17:33]:
If you are on my newsletter, go look that up. It may have go your spam box. If you're on my substack, go look that up. It may have hit your spam box. Or just log into substack and look me up. It's authordalewhite substack. Com and I did post a little sneak peek. A snip of that.

DL White [00:17:50]:
I think it's gonna be so much fun. My characters get to snip at each other, which I really like. I love a bit of like petty arguing that ramps up to a blowout escapade between two people who claim to dislike each other. So my story follows Taran and Larry Larents, Taryn and Lance, who have been dealt the blow of a long hang hangover. Hi, I'm awake and also sober. My story follows Taran and Lance, who have been dealt the blow of a long layover. Everything is shut down. Hotel rates are sky high because it's a holiday week.

DL White [00:18:30]:
Taran and Lance were seatmates on a diverted, now grounded flight and have been snipping at each other the entire time. When they run into each other at the airport, each try to figure out what they're doing. One has the opportunity to do something amazing for the other and offer the other a place to stay as an olive branch, so to speak. But when they get to their temporary lodging, there's only one bed. Oops. There's no couch. It's a studio Fun. This is going to be great.

DL White [00:18:58]:
I'm aiming to have it out by November. Ish but I'm guessing it'll be ready by late October. I don't typically send the shorts through extensive editing. I save my coins for full length novels. But I am going to do the usual beta arc proofreader junket so keep your eyes and ears out for it. Layover. It's gonna be out at some point in these brrr months probably if you're looking at beta or arc reading late October and then maybe like a mid November release before we hit the Thanksgiving holiday. It feels really good to me to be writing again and to have fun doing it.

DL White [00:19:38]:
It wasn't really wasn't that long that I finished Missing Persons and I don't quote unquote miss writing, but it does feel good to be writing again. Once I jump back into it. This book is probably going into Kindle Unlimited until after the holidays. It won't be in print. It's too short and Calculated Risk when it comes out of the Verve Romance Exclusive program. Note to self, we're not doing that again unless the time it is exclusive can be shorter because this was a struggle halfway through I was like let me just. I want to just pull it because I need to be able to sell it anyway. Yes.

DL White [00:20:16]:
Layover and Calculated Risk. I'm going to put them into Kindle Unlimited for one cycle and I'm going to pull them out when their term ends. I might do a little presale, a little exclusive pre sale on my website before they go into ku. Then I'm put them in and set it and forget it until it's time for them to renew and then I'm going to pull them out. Does a certain demographic I am not reaching by being wide and I need them to know my name. Mama has a mortgage now. So you know I might do some fiddling around with my books. You know, take a couple of books out of wide and put them into ku.

DL White [00:20:55]:
Just you know, so so people know my name. So I don't know if anyone heard but Amazon has updated their terms of service now to allow Kindle Unlimited books to be admitted to libraries. So I'm seeing a lot of self published authors scramble to get their books ready to subm submit to libraries. And if I may offer a tip. Nobody asked me. Ain't nobody asked me. But here's an unsolicited tip. Submit through draft digital draft2digital.com it will allow you to choose Library only if you go through Ingram.

DL White [00:21:27]:
They will distribute it everywhere. And remember we do not distribute ebooks through Ingram ever ever ever. They're terrible at it. They're awful at it. Never distribute your ebooks through Ingram Print only. But if you submit your ebook through Drafted digital, it will allow you to choose library only. The wait will probably be a week or so for Baker and Taylor and whatever database they pull library books out to pick up. Longer for hoopla.

DL White [00:21:55]:
Hoopla has really long wait times because there's a whole lot of books that need to be entered into hoopla and they have a really small staff, they have very long wait times and a watch pot never boils. So submit it. Eventually you'll get an update that it has published. So that is my tip of the day in the fanfiction corner. I'm not writing anything right now. Awesome. August is over as of August 31st, and we have Poptober coming up, which usually runs through October. Having two challenges back to back can be difficult, but fall is literally the only time that people will participate in challenges.

DL White [00:22:40]:
I've tried to run a January Justin and Joey's birthdays. No one posts a story. I've tried to do a May for Lance's birthday. We don't post stories in May. And then we have, you know, our NSYNC High Holy Days, NSA Day in March and you know, all the, all the fun stuff that happens in the spring with NSync fans. And literally awesome August is the biggest. And the next one is Poptober. We used to do a gift exchange for the holidays, but people just started not writing a story to exchange and would stop doing it because it just wasn't fair for some people to write a story and not get one.

DL White [00:23:28]:
So might come up with something for the holidays, but might also just let it rest. Anyway, we have Poptober coming up. Poptober celebrates the birthday of the founding father of NSYNC, Mr. Christopher Allen Kirkpatrick. His birthday is October 17th, which is the same day as Eminem birthday. And y' all know I'm a big, big Marshall Mathers fan. Oh, I did not. Note also that I watched his fan documentary called Stans.

DL White [00:23:57]:
It's on Paramount, I believe. Is it Paramount or Peacock? One of those P ones? I think it's Peacock. It was good. It was really good. You know, if you're not an M fan, I, I mean, I get it, but that's my dude and I think it's, it's funny. I think it's just funny money. How I can't state my dislike for a certain Houston based star without getting absolutely lambasted and told that I am less of a human. But all day, every day, people got something to say about Eminem and they're just allowed to say it.

DL White [00:24:38]:
I mean. I mean, I'm allowed to say what I can too, but, you know, I gotta suffer the consequences of that. It just feels like there's not pushback, you know, when it's. When it's other people. You know what I'm saying? Anyway, Stan's was good. If there's one thing about Marshall, about Eminem, my good friend Marsh Marshall, he loves his fans. He really loves his fans. And.

DL White [00:25:05]:
And when he's quiet, he's not doing anything but writing music and raising his kids. And now he has a grandson. It's when he gets loud and disrespectful that people start paying attention to him. And then they're like, see, I don't like this guy. I don't like him. He's so blah, blah, blah. But, you know, when he's quiet and just, you know, releasing music or working on music or whatever, don't nobody pay attention to him. Him.

DL White [00:25:33]:
And so he. It's sort of like he has to be this way to get any attention. Anyway, Stan's was good, so I don't know how I got there, but fan fiction. I realized I haven't posted anything to my short fiction substack in a while, so I might load up a fanfiction story, a little serial. I have a misadventure in Cloudcraft. It was a really fun story about JC crashing out on his new vintage motorcycle, which is a precursor, if you will, to my hero Davis and his Harley in the Pearl at Black Diamond. The best mechanic in town is a woman named Tori and the woman sheriff who I love, love a woman sheriff, in case you can't tell, because I love that. Bree Taggart series by Melinda Lee is plotting to pair them together.

DL White [00:26:25]:
It's inspired by seeing JC on his annual charity motorcycle ride. The Muse does work in mysterious ways. I don't really have a main topic this week. I'm just chilling. But I do want to remind people that Black Book bash is coming October 3rd through the 7th in Jacksonville, Florida. I will add a link to my show notes to grab your tickets and a room at the Hyatt or in neighboring hotel. Pre orders for this event are open. I've only received one so far, so that means I might not order books.

DL White [00:26:56]:
For this event, I'm bringing what I've got and nothing more. And when I get home, I'm selling off the excess because I want to start fresh for 2026. I have a couple of events lined up, but that's another topic for another day. That brings us to the end of today's show and I want to thank you so much for spending time with me today. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it, please rate it, please leave a comment wherever you're listening, Apple, Spotify, subscription, YouTube, all the places. Thank you so much to those who listen, those who comment, those who always post my episodes. Fred Smith, Jessica Terry, Karen K, Tally K. The Reader.

DL White [00:27:38]:
Thank you all so much. There's one person also on Instagram and their name absolutely escapes me. But you know you know who you are. Send me a dm. I'll put your name in next week's show. But they I always listen to the podcast Dr. Raymond Williams as well. Always listen and always hype me up.

DL White [00:27:57]:
I do so appreciate my my my Bookstagram family. I love you all. Full show notes, transcript and links will be at booksbydlwhite.com bookcast127 and on my substack@authordlwhite.substack.com just tap on podcast and there I'll be. You can support support this podcast of course by buying the books@booksbydlwhite.com shop. You can also support this podcast at Buy Me a coffee. It's buymeacoffee.com booksbydl white. You can share this podcast or join my newsletter@booksbydlwhite.com link in bio and that's where you'll find all of the other links that I that I I shouted out today. Thank you so much to my supporters over on Buzzsprout.

DL White [00:28:43]:
You all keep this mic on. I desperately desperately appreciate you. The Bookcast is written, produced and edited by me, D.L. white. Theme music and the sound effects are provided by Pixabay. I will be back next week and then off because I'm traveling for work. So until then be well. Read something good.

DL White [00:29:05]:
I'll talk to you soon. Bye bye SA But.