Speaker A [00:00:00]:

Hello and welcome back to The Bookcast, my platform for sharing short fiction and updates on what I'm reading and writing. The bookcast is hosted by me, the L. White. I'm an Atlanta based author of romantic fiction featuring black men and women. I'm also a big fan of books and the writing ass writers who write them. So this podcast is usually book heavy unless I'm talking nonstop about something I'm writing or have just written newsflash. I do have a tiny writing update. So yay, I'm excited to share that in a few minutes.

Speaker A [00:00:32]:

If you like this kind of thing and want to support it, you can do that. I won't turn it down at all. I don't have a patreon, but you can buy me a coffee. I'm using air quotes. You can head to my support site, it's Coffee Kofi.com Booksbydlwhite, and make a one time or recurring gift to support me as an author or support this podcast. The Buy Me a Coffee site does not take fees, and I like that a lot. So if you log in there, you can hit the donate button and you can donate one time. A cup of coffee is $3 each.

Speaker A [00:01:08]:

You can buy me 123789 cups of coffee if you'd like, or you can decide that you want to donate monthly and pop that down there. It'll set it all up for you. It's fantastic. So absolutely not necessary. But if you are looking for a way to support and you have already bought all of my ebooks, print books and audiobooks, hey, there's a great way to throw a little extra money my way, because Mama has audiobooks to record. Speaking of money, I pulled together all of my details for my taxes this weekend. Or I did that yesterday. It took hours.

Speaker A [00:01:47]:

My back hurt, I was tired, I was hungry. Because one thing your girl does not do well is keep receipts. But everything goes through. I have a banking account that's just books by Deal White. Everything pretty much either goes through that bank account or PayPal. So I just run a report at PayPal and I keep receipts. Everything's an ercet, so I do have that stuff. But as far as having it all together in one place in time for tax time, that's asking a lot.

Speaker A [00:02:19]:

And I told my CPA, I don't even want to think about my taxes before my birthday. Don't even talk to me about taxes until after March 25. Thank you so much. So I pulled all that together and I sent that over yesterday. Thoughts and prayers to my CPA. At this time, I am doing the Catholic Sign of the Cross. If you are new here or a seasoned listener, a bibliophile, or just looking for a good read, I hope you'll enjoy today's show. I'm honored to have your ears for this time.

Speaker A [00:02:46]:

I'm excited. Excited. I am excited. I sound like Sean Connery. I am not cutting that out. I am excited to share my love of books with you. If you think I'm reading a script, I am. Otherwise, I will ramble for 27 minutes.

Speaker A [00:03:02]:

Today is Saturday. April 8. Is today 8th? Let me check. I always do this, april 8. It's raining, you all. It is so gloomy and rainy and dark and cozy. I'm about to record this podcast, light a candle, pull out Tangy May Kindle, and read my face off because I can. It's a reading day.

Speaker A [00:03:31]:

I almost don't want to change out of my pajamas day. That's the kind of day it is here in Atlanta. I have got coffee. I have got a microphone. I have a shortest show. I think I always say that. And then I talk for 27 minutes. I want to talk about what I read, what I'm reading, what I'm writing.

Speaker A [00:03:48]:

Hell yeah. And I have a shorty, MC short to share with you, because I ran across it this week when I was going through some old stuff and thought, yeah, this would be good to share on the podcast. So yay. But first, coffee. I don't know why I'm surprised that hot coffee is hot, but it's hot. A weird thing. This is an aside. This is why my podcasts are 27 minutes long after I had weight loss surgery, I had vertical sleeve gastrectomy a little over ten years ago, almost ten and a half years ago.

Speaker A [00:04:21]:

It's a little over ten years ago. So it just makes your stomach smaller. There's no rerouting anything. There is no devices. There's no balloons. I just have a smaller stomach. I have very small capacity for food. I just got an email.

Speaker A [00:04:37]:

Let me go ahead and silence things. Nothing is more annoying to me than hearing sounds in a podcast. Anyhow tangent. I have a very small stomach, and after surgery, it's like basically having a whole new organ that acts differently. It feels differently. Your taste buds change. Your physiological makeup of your body changes after surgery. It's not just a smaller stomach.

Speaker A [00:05:02]:

Your body is different post op. So now when I have coffee, even ten years later, that first splash of hot coffee in my stomach, I can feel it. I feel it hit my stomach like I feel the heat hit the nerve endings in my stomach. And it's like a hug. It's like a warm hug. I do so love it. All right, so today let's talk about books. I had a pretty light reading week.

Speaker A [00:05:34]:

I had already finished vivid. I said last week I was going to sign off and finish Vivid. I had already finished it and totally forgot. Then I moved on to Indigo, which was the next Beverly Jenkins book that was published. Now, Indigo, if you all don't know, is my favorite Beverly Jenkins book. I just absolutely love this book. It's Galen. It's Hester.

Speaker A [00:05:55]:

He calls her Indigo because her hands and her feet are blue from working in a particular crop that turns your hands and feet colors. When I first read this book, there were things I learned about, like the Underground Railroad. I love when I'm reading a historical fiction that's based on actual events because I learn so much. It's like learning our history through fiction. And this is why I so appreciate Ms. Bev, because she always infuses so much real, actual history into her books. They're based on real people. They're based on real stories.

Speaker A [00:06:38]:

So I'm so excited for this unofficial reread of Beverly Jenkins catalog because it's all the stuff that I read, like, years ago when I was just inhaling black fiction. And now I can go through at a slower pace and really dig into these books. Absolutely love indigo. Like Galen forever. Cross my heart, Galen. I also listened to The Soul Mate by Sally Hepworth. This was an audio advanced copy from NetGalley. I am just not liking Sally as much as I used to.

Speaker A [00:07:14]:

And I'm just doing this thing where I'm like, I'm not going to read any more of her books. But then her next book sounds really good and I get it and I'm disappointed. And it was the same way with BA Paris. And I got through four books with BA Paris before I told myself, you are not reading any more of her books. They are a disappointment. Stop it. It's b a Paris. It's Jody Picul.

Speaker A [00:07:39]:

I can't do it. This book seemed like a mess. It was a book about these people that own a house that's near a cliff where people like to go and end their lives. And husband is just this valiant guy that goes out and stands with them and talks to them and tries to talk them off the ledge while the police show up. Except one time he isn't able to talk a person off the ledge. And it turns out like, there's some twists and turns and it ends up that they're being accused of being involved in the death of this person. It's like you see the potential and it could have been good, but it was just a mess and I couldn't get with it. I could not get with it.

Speaker A [00:08:22]:

So that was the disappointment. I also read Spin in the Block by Aubrey Pin. She is an indie author. She is killing the game. This was a pretty good book. Feel like I'm going to make people a little upset. Here's the thing with books about couples where one is rich and the rich person gets to save the poor person and I'm using like, save in air quotes. The story is I'm going to forget names.

Speaker A [00:08:59]:

Of course I'm going to click on it because I'm going to forget names and I don't want to be rude. So Elijah was thrust into a spotlight. He made a promise to always be there for Olivia. They had a really solid friendship, make promises to each other. And then Elijah left something happened, and Bruh had to jump left Olivia back in their hometown. She really struggled. She has an ailing parent, lots of very downtrodden. She is suffering.

Speaker A [00:09:34]:

Elijah's out living the good life. He's making a lot of money. He doesn't keep in touch. He ends up coming back to town, and he's like, hey, I didn't know you were, like, struggling like this. Why you ain't tell nobody? And she's like, you care? Et cetera, and so on. She's real mad at Elijah. And I'm going to be honest, elijah deserves it. Elijah deserves it.

Speaker A [00:09:59]:

So when I write a book and one character has a lot of money and the other character doesn't, it's really hard to write a book where the character throws a lot of money at the character who has less. I feel like that doesn't it's too easy to me. But to me, it is not the character who has more, like, fixing everything with his money. It's the character who has more convincing the other person that, hey, I am not just throwing money at your problem. I really care about you. Please let me help you. And that other character learning to accept help, maybe swallow a little bit of pride, or maybe they can work together on solving the issues. For me, I require a little bit more work.

Speaker A [00:10:48]:

And I feel like Olivia rolled over real easy. I mean, he busted through, and he took care of her. I don't want to spoil anything, but he came back and made things right, and then they have to reconnect and rebuild their relationship, et cetera. It was a good read. I just felt like Olivia curled over real easy. Now this is coming from an author that really kind of likes to torture characters. I wrote A Thin Line with Preston and Angie, who broke up in high school, but their best friends are dating, so they never really got away from each other. And Preston just can't help himself, and he's just basically his whole job is to get on Angie's nerves.

Speaker A [00:11:39]:

And it's many years later, and he's still doing the same immature kind of thing, and he's kind of discovering that he still really feels for her, and he's trying to win her over. And Angie is not having it. She is just not into it because she remembers all these years in which Preston has not been nice to her. The reviews, I think even maybe for the first iteration of that book, when Preston wasn't as mean as he is in the second iteration of the book, preston isn't mean. He is petty and immature. I'll say that he's got a little streak. He's got a little mean streak. He's not a mean person.

Speaker A [00:12:19]:

He's arrogant, he is petty, he is immature. But he loves him some Angie. He loves him some angie. And that's kind of what I wanted to bring out in him, and I wanted him to work. I love when a hero has to put in the work to not only went over the heroine, but went over the reader. The reviews for this book were like, angie took too long to accept Preston's apologies. Angie took too long to come over to Preston's side. Angie held a grudge too long.

Speaker A [00:12:53]:

And I disagree. I disagree. I feel like Angie held on until she could not hold on anymore, because when you finally get to that point where you're like, okay, I hear you, there might still be something there. And then when those two characters come together, it's like comfort. It's like coming home. It's like this huge sigh of relief and your shoulders come down and you can relax. And then they have this long, slow revival of their relationship and remembering all of the old times, the good times, and bringing the past forward and like, look at where we are now. Look at us.

Speaker A [00:13:41]:

Look at us. I could never imagine us here. Look at us. That kind of thing. So spinning the block. It has a 4.92 star rating. It has 36 ratings on Goodreads, so the streets loved it. I also really liked it, but I like more work.

Speaker A [00:13:59]:

I really like heroes to do so much more work. Those are all the books that I got through last week. This week I have two advanced reader copies I need to get through before her. Tuesday. They come out tuesday, April 11. Life and other love songs by Anissa Gray. I'm about 50% through and I'll tell you a tiny itty bitty spoiler. There is a sexual assault in this book at 15% in, and it's not graphic, but it is there.

Speaker A [00:14:28]:

And I almost dumped this book. I decided to soldier on, but decided if I came up against anything else that's kind of a no for me, I would just go ahead and DNF it. Thankfully, I'm about 50% in and I have not seen anything else. It's actually getting pretty good. The start of the blurb says a father's sudden disappearance exposes the private fears, dreams, longings and joys of a black American family in the late decades of the 20th century. In this page turning, an intimate new novel from the author of The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls. It's a warm, bright October afternoon and Ozro Armstead walks out of the brilliant sunshine on his 37th birthday. At home, his wife Deborah and daughter Trinity prepare a surprise celebration.

Speaker A [00:15:23]:

Down the street, his brother waves at Oz as he waves as Oz heads back to his office after having a lunch get together. But he won't make it to the party or even to his briefcase. Back at his desk, he's about to disappear. In the days, months and years to follow, deborah and Trinity look backward and forward as they piece together the life of the man they love, but whom they come to realize they might have never truly known. In a gripping narrative that moves from the great migration to 1970s Detroit and 1990s New York. We follow the hopes, triumphs, losses and secrets that build up and tear apart an American family. I do want to say Anissa Gray can write her tail off. That's really what is saving this book for me because I really was about to cut and run.

Speaker A [00:16:10]:

It has a 3.73 star rating on goodreads. It doesn't come out till Tuesday, so we'll see where it ends up. I'm also reading The Time of Your Life by Sandra Kitt. The infamous Sandra Kit. This also comes out on Tuesday. Beloved author of The Color of love, Sandra Kit is back with a heartwarming romance filled with second chances and new beginnings. Beck Dennison doesn't know who the beautiful woman at his stepfather's funeral is, but he's determined to find out more about her, especially exactly what her relationship with Everett Nichols was. Beck wasn't expecting the inheritance that made him a millionaire, but when he realizes that Everett was just as generous to this intriguing stranger, his suspicions get the better of him.

Speaker A [00:16:57]:

Mourning the loss of her mentor, eden Marsh is shocked to realize she's attracted to the handsome stranger who tries to comfort her. But that's only the beginning of the misunderstandings, and suddenly Eden isn't sure whether this could be the start of something wonderful or if money and mistrust will tear them apart. Beloved and acclaimed author of The Color of Love, Sandra Kitt is back with a contemporary romance filled with second chances and new beginnings. Now, Sandra Kitt is like one of the founders of black romance, so I'm very excited to see something new from her and probably going to start that. I'm going to finish life and other love songs. Probably going to start time of your life maybe late tonight, early tomorrow and try to get through that. And then I am listening to Topaz by Beverly Jenkins. This is the next book up by publication date.

Speaker A [00:17:46]:

This book is very good. I know I read it before, I just don't remember it. And so I am excited to be reading it again. It's a super good book. I'm listening to it. The narrator is awesome. Kate Love is an ambitious young newspaper reporter on the trail of a railroad stock swindler who has been preying on elderly blacks. Her investigation points to Rupert Samuels, one of the wealthiest and most eligible black men in the east.

Speaker A [00:18:12]:

But her covert efforts to get close enough to uncover the goods on him bring her to the brink of becoming his wife, a promise of pleasure snatched from the altar by Dick's Wild horse. A black Seminole marshall from Oklahoma's Indian country, kate has no choice but to flee with the daring knight her father sent to rescue and wed. Her marriage had never been part of Kate's plans, and she isn't about to abandon her career to become the dutiful wife of a wild west lawman bent on wrapping her in his own protective cocoon, determined to hold on to her independence despite the dark, simmering, fire, dix's, bronzed muscled embrace ignites. She challenges him at every turn. Yet even as their battle of wills intensifies, the heat of their passion blazes with unmatched fury, a wildfire of love that can only be answered in the sweet ecstasy of surrender. One of the things that I am noticing in this novel is Beverly Jenkins has such an art like the turn of phrases that she uses to describe intimacy and love making and the actual act of sex. It's inspiring, it's motivating. It encourages me to really think past the cliched phrases and think hard about how this feels.

Speaker A [00:19:36]:

The anticipation, the sensation, the pleasure. Really dig into the description of this activist, not the old in and out. These are two people who are attracted to each other, and that's something you have to convey through the words, and Ms. Bev just does that so well. It's like an art form. It's a really good book. So I'm like 60% through topaz. I will probably finish that this morning as soon as I finish recording this podcast and then move on to life and other love songs and the Time of Your Life.

Speaker A [00:20:13]:

Very excited about that. I started Lone Women last week, and I just didn't get through it. It's victor Lavelle writes Horror, but it was really leaning towards speculative fiction. I have a very hard time with certain genres like Sci-Fi fantasy, speculative fiction, afro futurism. I can't do it. My brain doesn't grasp it. I read it over and over and over, and I don't get it because the explanation is magic, the explanation is spirits, the explanation is demons. And my brain doesn't really comprehend that.

Speaker A [00:20:56]:

On occasion, I can do a Ya fantasy like The Bells, which isn't it's not I cannot do high fantasy. I don't know what you're talking about. What explain decipher what I can do like a Ya fantasy, because I feel like it's not as intricate as a high fantasy or an adult fantasy book. The Bells, to me, was a beautiful novel, especially in audio. The audio is perfect, but other than that, I just can't dig into it. And I really need to start reading Blurbs when I pick up books, because a lot of books lately seem like one thing, but they're actually another, and it's starting to bite me in the butt. And I agree to read these books that I just can't get into. So then I just remove them from my TBR.

Speaker A [00:21:48]:

I don't even DNF them anymore. They never existed. They don't exist. It never happened. Go. Bye. These days, the only time I DNF a book is if I DNF it for really a reason that I don't like. Like, if I DNF a book for sexual assault multiple times, I'm going to DNF it and I'm going to mark it in the comments.

Speaker A [00:22:12]:

Why I did not finish that book. If it is just bad writing. I feel like people need to know reasons why we don't read a book and talking about the text, not about the author, like not trying to give you a negative review. But here is why I just could not get into it. So those are the books that I got into. I want to share a little short piece of fiction. This is one of those things that I talk a lot about ideas rolling around in my brain and they don't go away until I write them down. And I know that makes me sound a little unwell, but it's just like something that was just rolling and rolling and rolling around in my head and I tried to pull it together for a challenge and it just would not come.

Speaker A [00:23:02]:

It still didn't come out as perfect as I would like, but I did actually end up writing it and I kind of like it. It's very short. It's a glimpse. It's like it's not even a scene. But on this rainy Saturday, it actually fits the mood perfectly. The Nature Show the Rain Dance the day dawns gray with full heavy raindrops that beat against the window pane in steady rhythm. The music of nature calls to him in his sleep, the sound resting him from deep, satisfying slumber. His eyes focus on the droplets that build join cascade down the outside of the patio doors.

Speaker A [00:23:48]:

They pond on the deck and seep through the cracks to the pavement below. He yawns quietly, stretches his arms and the muscles across his back and shoulders. He scissors his legs between crisp sheets before sitting up and swinging his feet to the floor. His toes dig into the carpet and he yawns again, trying to muster the strength to stand. The mood and style of the day is comfort and warmth. It's just going to be that kind of day. He slips on a pair of sweatpants and a T shirt and pads out of the bedroom. He bounds down the stairs, not toward the movement in the kitchen or the scent of coffee, but to the living room, where the sheets of rain and the dark sky have created a cave like atmosphere.

Speaker A [00:24:30]:

He heads for the window and pokes a finger between the curtains to gaze out at the weather. The raindrops splash into the pool and bounce back. A never ending river swirls down the drains in the concrete. He steps away from the window and takes up his favorite spot, a well worn corner of the couch. The cushions have a permanent indentation from where he has sat day in and day out for over ten years. There is mumbling about replacing the couch, or at least the cushion, but he ignores it. He has molded and shaped this corner to his liking. He stretches out, his legs crossed at the ankles, his feet resting on the matching ottoman.

Speaker A [00:25:07]:

He doesn't turn on a lamp or the TV. He is watching the nature show, listening to the rain dance. Hey, you're up early. Her voice is gentle, feminine and melodic, beautifully lilting, with just enough grit underneath to send his heartbeat into a tailspin. He has always loved the sound of her voice. She sits on the edge of the couch and slides an arm around his shoulder. She drops a kiss on the top of his head. She smells like peaches.

Speaker A [00:25:36]:

Rain woke me up, he replies, nodding toward the window. The view is a blur. The house groans as the air kicks on and a breeze wafts through the room. She deserts him in search of the temperature gauge and when she comes back, she doesn't sit next to him. She moves in front of the fireplace and in minutes the room is lit by the dim glow of flames. His eyes never leave her full round backside. As she passes yet again, he grins and taps his appreciation. She giggles and playfully smacks him back.

Speaker A [00:26:07]:

When she returns, she holds a super sized serving of coffee, still so hot that a tendril of steam licks the lip of the ceramic mug. In her other hand is a saucer bearing a single pancake doused with butter and sprinkled with powdered sugar. A candle stands in the middle, lit and glowing and flickering in the air. He smiles and sits up. She loves doing this kind of thing on this kind of day. He closes his eyes and blows out the candle, takes the saucer and the mug from her and gestures for her to sit with him. He savors the bold taste of coffee, the sweet taste of the pancake, and the comfortable feeling of her smashed up against him. Did you make a wish? Didn't have to.

Speaker A [00:26:47]:

They've all come true. He can't see her face, but he feels her smiling. Happy birthday, she whispers. Sorry it's so gloomy. He sets the empty saucer on the end table next to him and drops an arm around her. She curls into him where she fits perfectly. Her arm slides across his belly. Her cheek rests over his heart.

Speaker A [00:27:07]:

It's actually not so bad, he says, sipping his coffee, watching the nature show, listening to the rain dance. Thank you for joining me for another episode of the bookcast. I will be back next week. Oh, I did not do my writing update Lord. I almost got out of here without telling you what I'm writing. Wow, thanks for reminding me all. So I have started on a new project and I am scared to death which lets you know it's going to be good. I don't want to tell the title, I don't want to say what it's about.

Speaker A [00:27:47]:

I'm just going to have fun with it. I'll talk a little bit about it. I'm only about 2000 words in still just building the story. It's something I've been thinking about for a little bit. Like I said last week, I'm worried. I haven't thought about it enough, but I'm just going to jump in and get lost and find my way out, then back up, get some perspective and figure out where I'm at when I write. I just got to write until I hit a wall and then back up, figure it out, and go forward. Hit a wall, back up, figure it out, go forward.

Speaker A [00:28:20]:

That's swimming through mud is my writing process. I did plan like, a teeny tiny bit. For me, planning makes it boring to me. I'm a discovery writer. I need to discover the story as I go. That's the fun part. I also don't like feeling like I'm writing the same story over and over or like I'm writing the same tired story. So when I get an idea, I will research it, like books that are specifically this trope, this situation.

Speaker A [00:28:51]:

And I did that this week. I rolled through and I looked for books that have the same sort of situation, and I didn't find a whole lot of them. I did find a few, but it starts with my idea and then it goes like, way left, and that's not a direction that I want to go. Sometimes authors be doing too much. What is this? Why is this book so complicated anyway? I really like my books to be kind of simply complicated, complicatedly, simple. My books have a lot in them, but I don't want to do too much. I don't like doing too much. So my idea for this story is two people who are older, seasoned, grown, and sexy, shall we say, who meet online.

Speaker A [00:29:45]:

I haven't decided where they met, but they happen to meet online, and they have had this cute, fun online thing, and a situation comes up where they can meet in person. And now they have to decide if they want to take this temporary, casual, online, long distance thing to an in person, up close and personal offline thing. And of course they do, but how am I going to get there? So I don't want to spoil too much. I will share as I go, but I don't want to jinx myself. But when I know I got the story down and I am at the point of no return, I will certainly share more. And as I get closer to publication date, praying that I get there, cross our fingers and such, I will start sharing samples, et cetera. It's fun so far. I'm a little scared simply because I just feel like I'm going to have to come out of myself.

Speaker A [00:30:54]:

I'm going to have to come out of my comfort zone a little bit here, and that's great for book number twelve. Let's have some growth, let's grow, let's expand. But I'm also afraid I don't do it well. Maybe it sucks. Does it suck? Is it going to suck? I don't know. So the other thing that I really need to get through is I have a print copy of Hey. Lover. And I need to go through that and mark all the things I need to change in it so that I can finally release a print copy and get some author copies here so I can sell them on my website and every retail store where you can buy prints, including Resist Booksellers.

Speaker A [00:31:35]:

I just was thinking like with Hay Lover, I was also afraid with that book because I went way farther than I normally go, intimacy wise. And I haven't read any of my reviews, but the few people that I've talked to said they really enjoyed it. So I'm just going to say the streets liked it. I mean, if the streets didn't like it, what am I going to do? I'm not going to rewrite the book to satisfy opinions of a few people, you know what I'm saying? Anyway, that's where I'm at. The book is tentatively called Elysium that Might change. But I'm debating back and forth on whether I should say this or if I should keep it quiet. I may regret it, but let me just go ahead and rip the Band Aid off. I am trying to position this as another Black Diamond book.

Speaker A [00:32:24]:

The hero in my story, his name is Vance Griffin. He is a travel agent. Some of you all know my housemate is a travel agent. And so I've been watching this woman work for four years, and I'm always intrigued by the kind of stuff she'd be doing. She is, she's always gone. I'm leaving for ten days. I'm going to Cabo, twelve days. I'm going to Greenland.

Speaker A [00:32:47]:

I spend eight nights in Jamaica, going to Brazil for nine days. What do you do? And so it's her job to go look at hotels and look at new hotels, take pictures, and have a first hand experience with these locations so she can tell her clients, hey, I have been to this hotel. Here's what they offer. I'm going to try to get you over in this suite here because that's where I stayed and it's great. Here are the amenities. Here's where you want to go, here's where you don't want to go. She is all about that. So I've been kind of watching that for the last four years and it's been embedded in my brain.

Speaker A [00:33:31]:

So Vance is going to live that kind of life. And I have been trying to build on the Black Diamond series, which is where a beach thing is set. So I'm hoping Elysium is going to be a Black Diamond novel and Vance gets invited to come tour a new hotel on Black Diamond or I don't know. So I started a Black Diamond novel called The Pearl, which would be like a new luxury. It's like half hotel, half condominiums on the beach on Black Diamond. I hit a wall, as you do, and I didn't know really where to take it. I do want to put that book out and I'm thinking like, Elysium will kind of lead into that. I'm thinking Elysium could be a wing of the Pearl.

Speaker A [00:34:21]:

Elysium could be a suite at the hotel. I don't want to call the Hotel Elysium, but it could be like Elysium at the Pearl. I don't know. I haven't really put that all together yet. But this is where my brain is going. I got to put this all together. But the idea is that Vance gets invited to tour Elysium, which is either a suite or a wing or a building or something at the Pearl Hotel on Black Diamond. And he invites my heroine, whose her name is Athena.

Speaker A [00:34:52]:

I have already forgotten the last name that I gave her. Pardon me while I consult my notes because my notebook is right here. Athena. Her name is Athena Wilcox. She is a contract nurse, a travel nurse. I also have a friend who is a nurse, and I told her I am mining her life and her experiences for my book. She's very excited, I'm sure. Hey, Tony.

Speaker A [00:35:12]:

Athena is a travel nurse. She is doing an assignment in a cold, snowy climate, and she is just in desperate need of a vacation. And she's been having this little online fun thing with this cutie that she met. And they've been talking, chatting and whatnot for the past, I don't know, 910 months. Vance would really like to take things offline. Athena is like, I don't know about that. So that's kind of where I am in putting the story together. I think as your imagination rolls, you can see where this is going to go.

Speaker A [00:35:53]:

But I'll stop right there before I tell you all my whole book, before I have even written it. And then I get bored, and then I don't want to write it. But that's where I'm at. I am excited. I think it's going to be good. I want it to be grown and sexy, but also a little cute, a little escape, a little relaxation. Beach Thing like Black Diamond is really all about a luxury escape. So those books are always going to be like a little getaway a little vacation ship in your mind, if you will.

Speaker A [00:36:26]:

So that's where I'm trying to go with beach thing. I have started so many, like the next book in series. I have a Potter Lake book that I started that's hopefully the next book in series. Maybe that'll be out in December. I'm really trying to work on that. That one's called still I rise. It is like a breakfast lunch type of shop on the gentrified side of Potter Lake. I have a private investigator novel that I started that I wanted to be like a romantic suspense, but I need to work on the suspense part of the romantic suspense because it's not very suspenseful.

Speaker A [00:37:08]:

Got to work on that. But this one, I am hoping that I can just write and get all the way through and have it out. This summer. I tried to have Beach Thing out by the summer and it ended up not coming out until September. But it's fine. It's fine because now every year I start promoting it in April and then I promote that all the way through, like October. Speaking of beach thing, I have audiobook codes. I have Spotify audiobook codes for that book.

Speaker A [00:37:35]:

If you head to my website, it's booksbygallwhite. Comcodes. You can pick up any codes that I have left for my books. These are for Spotify. They are not audible codes. They are for Spotify. You can use them with a Free or a Premium account. You cannot redeem these on your mobile.

Speaker A [00:37:52]:

You need to be on a desktop computer. But go to booksbydlwhite. Comcodes. Tap on the book that you want. It's going to take you to a site called Audio freebies where I have codes. There is no cost for these. There is no ask for these. If you want to listen to them, grab them while they are available.

Speaker A [00:38:10]:

Because once they're gone, they're gone. By the way, only gave us a finite amount of codes to give away and once they're gone, they're gone. So grab those. If you haven't heard Beach Thing brunch at Rubies, dinner at Sam's, leslie Scarlet and Die, the guy next door. Yesterday I checked, there were only two codes left for the guy next door. So you might want to check it out. If you miss it and you just desperately need to hear the guy next door. It's available on script.

Speaker A [00:38:37]:

It's also available on hoopla. It's available on Audible and every audiobook website out there. It's also available on Sharp. If you would like to just grab it to have forever and ever and hold it near and dear to your heart. So now I am done. Now I'm done. Thank you for joining me for another episode of the podcast. I will be back next week of the reading update, I hope a writing update.

Speaker A [00:39:07]:

Please enjoy this weekend. Have a superlative week. We will chat again next weekend. Bye.