Bookcast 53: Back Like I Left But Came Right Back

I am back from a brief break! Apologies for the sound quality. I am going to try out a new microphone before my next episode or maybe try to record on a different machine. Bear with me this one time!
 
I had a total blast in Chicago! if you are ever in the area, visit the American Writers Museum! It was a good time.

Today is a ramble-fest to do an itty bitty Q&A to lead into my pre-release thoughts for ELYSIUM. 

This book will be on sale at Booksbydlwhite.com/elysium- while you wait for the release, grab a sample or add the book to your goodreads/storygraph TBR.

A few of my audiobooks are on sale through September 30th- booksbydlwhite.com/audiosale has the links! 

Get ready for the next STUFF YOUR EREADER event coming September 2023. 

Transcript

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Speaker A [00:00:00]:

Alright. I think I am in this piece. If someone could please alert my good friend, Audra Russell. Also known as the host of between the Read's podcast and the staying on code podcast. Also, the person who will literally send me an Instagram DM at, like, 5:39 AM, like, I'm awake. if you would just please tell her that there is a new episode of the book cast by D. L. White? that is on and popping.

Speaker A [00:00:33]:

Do you guys know if I don't release an episode? Audra gets very upset because I'm part of her routine, and, we don't we don't wanna throw Adra of her routine at all. She listens to my podcast while she does certain things around the house. So it throws her off when I don't record an episode. And for that, I deeply apologize. I apologize. I'm not sorry because I like taking time off, but I do apologize for throwing her off her game. But we're back and we're bad. I took a couple of weeks off, 1 week I took off because I was in The great city of Chicago visiting, my friends that I'd call the Guncles, Michael, and Greg, Michael is always in my text message inbox asking when I am coming back to Chicago.

Speaker A [00:01:26]:

And, my answer is always, I don't know. I don't I don't I don't know. Like, every time I go to a beach, I get a text. Like, you can come to Chicago. So I was like, you know what? I'm coming to Chicago. Let me just book a flight I am coming to Chicago. So I went and I had a fantastic time. if you wanna be spoiled, go visit your guncles in Chicago.

Speaker A [00:01:48]:

I didn't have to make my own coffee. They cook very well, made all the meals. We ate at delightful places. We had drinks. We did some walking around the city. We went to the American Writers Museum, which I did not realized was in Chicago. It is had a wonderful time. It is a great, great place.

Speaker A [00:02:11]:

Actually, really fantastic. And, Michael is somewhat of a of a museum expert unconnoisseur. He could not stop talking about how well done it was. It was interactive. It was beautifully done. It was just big enough to spend, like, a couple hours in there just, like, walking around, looking at things, talking about our nation's greatest writers I'm I'm interested in going back, actually. So, really well done. I always go to a museum when I go to Chicago.

Speaker A [00:02:41]:

Last time, I think we went to, like, the Museum of Science And Industry or something like that. And then, the time before, I don't remember what museum we went to, but we always go to a museum. We always go dinner at a wonderful spot. We always have drinks either at the Lancham or Where did we go this time? It was not was it 4 seasons? Something. No. It wasn't at 4 seasons, but it was near the 4 seasons. Anyway, Travell. Is that where it went? I don't remember.

Speaker A [00:03:09]:

My brain is Swiss cheese. Anyhow, so that's where I was. And then last weekend, I came back and I tried to record and the recording was just corrupted. It sounded horrible. I was like, you know what? I am gonna get back in bed and read books. I did not feel like rerecording. The episode was kind of trash anyway because, yeah, like, my reading has slowed down quite a bit. And I've just been so burnt and, just really tired from, like, writing this book and going through the edit process and try and get the book out.

Speaker A [00:03:40]:

So, I said, you know what? I'm just gonna take another week off, but I did not wanna take off a 3rd week I'm still a little burnt. I'm still very tired. I'm still in, like, mental break time, but I figured this week, I would do a little teeny weeny q and a. And then I would do my pre release thoughts for Elysium. I am currently recording on Friday. August 25th, 2023, it is 1:28 PM. yes, doing a little, wage theft here. by noon on Fridays at the beverage giant, it's pretty much, it's a tumble weeds.

Speaker A [00:04:17]:

Just Nothing going on over here. busy work wrapping things up, and, I pretty much go gray after 12 o'clock. I will be very surprised if my phone rings, especially since my boss is on an airplane. So, so I'm gonna record today And it'll go up still at the same time. it'll be up Saturday morning. I anticipate spending most of my day inside the book, in Bellum completing the final read through of this book. I am stalking my email right now. because my editor is supposed to be sending back her last pass, pages.

Speaker A [00:04:59]:

I will go through those changes. I will corporate incorporate any feedback from the beta re not the beta readers, the ARC readers that, I got back and, Hopefully, prayerfully. Fingers crossed. This one will be out Sunday. and I'll kinda go through this little rundown that I came up with to let you know where you can buy it. When you could buy it, how much it'll be, all that stuff. I'm super excited. I wanna start a little bit with the q and a.

Speaker A [00:05:28]:

I did get, you know, when I do questions, I don't really get responses. I don't know why I do them, but I don't really get responses. But Robert Justice, who is a thriller author mystery thriller author did send me a question that I thought was a good question to answer for this particular session. He says I would love to hear about your long term writing goals /hopes/dreams. And then I said, I wanted an easy question, Robert, like, something along the lines of what's your favorite color? My favorite color is red, by the way. And he said, okay. You can align your writing hopes to a color. If your if your writing career was a color, what would it be? I don't know how to answer that question, Robert.

Speaker A [00:06:14]:

Maybe blue because blue is kinda calm. I really like to keep it, like, calm, even keel, like, red would be, like, on fire, chaotic, absolutely unmanageable, and that I can't live my life that way. Blue is a nice calm color, and he said I could liken them to shades of skittles. And, yeah, the blue skittle is good. My favorite skittles is actually the yellow. I do think that they taste different, particularly if you get the tropical skittles, they do taste different. People keep saying they taste the same. Maybe your regular red bag skittles, but that purple bag, tropical flavored skittles, They have bars.

Speaker A [00:06:55]:

The yellow, the orange. Those are my jam. Long term riding holes, holes, That's a combination of goals and hopes. Long term writing goals, hopes, dreams. I don't know that I have long term goals, like I really compartmentalize things in my brain and in in in my life. Like, I like to cut things up into little chunks first this and then this and then this. My initial goal really is to get to 20 books. I want 20 books published.

Speaker A [00:07:27]:

Lord knows when I'm gonna hit that goal, but book 12 is coming. I am gonna start book 13 in September. I might do book 14 as, like, a little holiday short. I don't know how I'm haven't thought about it because I start freaking out about it. If I think about it I mean, short term, 20 books, long term, who knows? Like, I don't I don't I don't have an end goal. Like, you know, I'm gonna retire when I hit 50 books. I don't see retiring from writing. I did try to quit twice, and that did not not work out very well.

Speaker A [00:08:01]:

So I think if I'm thinking in terms of Finances is my goal to write full time and support myself as an author, not really. I can't handle the pressure of knowing that what I write and publish and sell is what puts food on my table. I'm much more like the freedom of having a salary, a full time job that pays the bills. that puts money into a 401 k that makes it possible for me to have insurance, health insurance, car insurance, life insurance so that when I have free time and I sit in this chair, when I sit at that desk or when I sit on my bed with my laptop open, I have the freedom to dream. Like, I cannot dream if I am worried about bills. And I just I am I'm not an author that lives off of their writing income. My writing is at a point where it just barely covers the subscriptions that I have to be a writer, like the The book funnel, annual domain renewal, monthly hosting, Canva, mailer light, all of those. I just barely cover those bills.

Speaker A [00:09:14]:

If I have, you know, a good sale or somebody happens to mention me, I might make more. Some months I make less. Some months I don't clear a $100 overall, either, like, between Amazon wide releases and audio and anything I'm selling, you know, on my website. Some months, I don't clear a $100. and I have to, like, dip into savings or I have to, you know, send money from my personal account over to my business account to make sure things don't bounce. So I mean, I wanna keep writing. Obviously, I wanna keep writing. I wanna keep growing as an author.

Speaker A [00:09:51]:

I wanna keep telling new stories. I don't ever wanna feel like I am just telling the same story. over and over. I wanna give space to the people that live inside my head to the ideas that I've written down that I wanna bring to life that, you know, I wanna have the courage to dream up those stories and feel like I could -- put words in those people's mouths and make the story vivid enough that people not only want to buy it, but buy it and read it and love it and talk about it. I think another long term goal is to be vocally, a favorite author of more people. I have some raving fans. I really, really have some raving fans. And I have been conscious of saying nobody likes that.

Speaker A [00:10:42]:

Nobody wants to hear that. Nobody wants to read that. Nobody talks about my because those absolutes don't really work. I absolutely have raving fans. I have people that buy every book and, you know, buy me in print and ebook and audio and talk about my books all the time. I am so grateful and so thankful for them, and it's so disrespectful for me to say nobody would be out here talking about my books. What I would like to have is a little bit more name recognition amongst the general readers out there, the black readers that are talking about the the beloved releases and the, Monica, what is her last name? her name absolutely escaped me. I don't have time to look it up.

Speaker A [00:11:31]:

The Gray Hovington fans. And I know, like, those authors, some of those authors skew a little bit younger Our readership doesn't overlap. I tend to write four people, 30 and up. It's hard for me to write people who are young. But I also know those readers dip a little bit into your seasoned romance, your mature romance, your grown folks, romance. And I do try to write my characters Relatively Relatively mature, like, They're not out here, you know, with with, like, broken hips and canes and walkers and in nursing homes. I mean, they're not, They're not elderly, but they're not 22 either. They don't have thoughts and feelings and make the mistakes that twenty two year old would make.

Speaker A [00:12:19]:

They they make mistakes at a forty six year old would make. You know what I'm saying? So all of this rambling to say, I don't know. But I wanna become more popular. I want to be the favorite author of more people. I Would love to match my full time salary with what I make on books. That's kind of a that's a very lofty goal. And I definitely wanna level up. And I started with this book leveling up my writing process, presenting a more polished product, doing it the professional way, and trying to cater more to readers who are going to meet me where I am.

Speaker A [00:13:02]:

I am I'm not on Kindle unlimited. You're, you know, you're not gonna be able to, like, suck my book up into that war tech where it can, like, you know, get lost in whatever else you're for reading. I'm at a place where I gotta protect my intellectual property and I was watching back on some videos today. Christina C Jones said, I wanna own my masters. I'm a 100% there. I wanna control where my books are, how much I sell them for, all that all that jazz, all that good stuff. I I want control. long term, writing goals, hopes, dreams are to have control, and to be able to direct my career where I want it to go.

Speaker A [00:13:46]:

So, hopefully, I hope that answers your question, Robert. If you guys have other questions, Please feel free to drop into my DMs. shoot me an email. If you know the email address, I don't know to be putting it out there because I do get weirdos that email me. And, I'm, like, being completely transparent. My first book was not a professional effort. It needed heavy editing. And, every time a teacher reads that book, I get an email about the grammar in that book, and I was tired of getting So I took down the contact form on my website, and I don't publish my email address because I Don't blame me, but I don't care what you think of that book.

Speaker A [00:14:29]:

Put it in your review. I don't I don't I don't care. Let me know if you loved it. If you loved it, I wanna know if you didn't put it in your review, honey. I'll find it. I'll find it. So let's talk about Elysium. I'm super excited.

Speaker A [00:14:44]:

And this is the first time that I'm doing pre release thoughts for a book on this podcast. So, again, I had to go back and watch like Stephanie Nicole Norris and Christina C Jones and, you know, anybody who has done pre release thoughts on their because I don't know how this works. I don't know what people will be talking about, but I do wanna pump this book a little bit because, a, I love it. b, I'm super excited about it coming out soon and c, it's different. It's different than what I put out before, and so I want to make sure people No. She's different. She's not like other girls. So the title is officially Elysium, a Black Diamond vacation romance.

Speaker A [00:15:27]:

This book will be available in ebook first. print will be coming, but, you know, y'all know I I do everything myself. So print will be It'll it'll be coming when it comes. I do already have the full wrap cover ready. I am literally just waiting on the final version to be done so that I can format it and have Velum push it out and then like, send it on up to draft to digital. so it can be, for sale. I don't wanna put it up until I have a print copy in my hand so I can see what it looks like because I would hate for it to be out there in the world. And I don't know what it looks like, and it looks So it will be up for sale when I have a copy of it in my hands.

Speaker A [00:16:14]:

So that is just how it has to work. No simultaneous releases for me over here. this book is 254 pages. 62,302 words currently. That could increase or decrease the pace, based on what my final past edit pages look like, but I don't see it growing that much. maybe maybe a few words, maybe a few hundred words, a 22 chapters and a sweet, spicy epilogue, speaking of spice, I don't know how to rate this. I'm gonna say high steam high steam to spicy. ain't nobody swinging from chandeliers.

Speaker A [00:16:52]:

in this book, but there is considerably more sex in this book than there are in other books with the exception of a thin line. There's a lot. I feel like there's a lot of sex in a thin line. There's probably more sex in this book than there is in a thin line, and it's much shorter. A thin line is a 119,000 words. And this book is, like, 62,000 words, and there's a lot of sex in this book. basically because there is the the premise of this book is that these 2 characters meet online and They conduct an online virtual sexual relationship before they meet. So you have to set the scene.

Speaker A [00:17:33]:

I I have to set the scene And I wasn't gonna really, like, skirt over that ease into that. I didn't wanna write 9 months of flirting before they even get to Hey. I kinda like you. I think you're sexy. Take off your clothes. I wasn't really gonna ease into that because this was supposed to be a novella. I just I wanted to jump right right into it. No slow burn here.

Speaker A [00:17:58]:

We are on page 1. This is why I I was worried about the sample. Page 1. People. This is not a slow burn romance. The burning is immediate. So there are several sex scenes. Some virtual sex sessions using toys.

Speaker A [00:18:18]:

There's adult language in books will be warned. So I call it high steam because, there are other authors that write more spicy than I do. like, you know, I feel like there's a couple of opportunities I had to be a little bit more, tempting and tantalizing, but, you know, hindsight is 2020. I didn't do that in this book. It is as spicy as it's gonna be. I don't anticipate having anything dirtier in it. It is It's classy. It's it's it's a classic kinda dirty.

Speaker A [00:18:56]:

It's it's spicy for me. I wouldn't say it's spicy overall, especially if you're used to reading erotica, if you're used to reading like Alexandria house, etcetera, It's high steam. It's very high steam. So I just want I just want y'all to be ready. I don't wanna send this book to my mother. She has already asked me about it, and I don't know what to do. Like, I feel like I wanna send her a copy that doesn't have the first two chapters in it. Can I do that? Can I have, like, a mom version that doesn't have doesn't have the first few chapters in it because Let me tell y'all a secret.

Speaker A [00:19:38]:

If you go to books by delight.com/delysium, there is a sample. and the samples, like, the first five chapters. I can't. I can't. I can't. I she couldn't read brunch out movies, which has half a scene in it. It has, like, 3 paragraphs of a sex scene in it. And she said, nope.

Speaker A [00:19:58]:

That was too much for me. So when she gets the books, I tell her you don't even need to open it. Just put it up in the the the the the bookcase. You know, just make sure it's there. It's available. you don't you don't you don't need to read past the table of contents. Lord. Content warnings for this book.

Speaker A [00:20:18]:

There's aren't too many. Like, I don't I don't really like worn for a whole lot. I don't write a lot of Trauma, drama, that kind of thing that people will usually warn for. One character has a medical emergency, and Athena is a nurse. And so, of course, she is going to feel compelled to jump in and help So there is a little bit of that if you have any sensitivity issues there, but, like, there's no death in this book. There's no Trauma in this book, this is it's a very sweet, spicy story. Not a content warning, but you will not see Wade and Amina in this book. However, there is a very brief referral to something in Beach thing, a 100 gold points.

Speaker A [00:21:03]:

If you find it and point it out, one of my arc readers already mentioned it, So yay. A 100 cool points to her. Let's talk about the blur because I love it. Finding the greatest love requires taking the greatest risks. Athena Wilcox leads a solitary life as a travel nurse committed to her work and her only child. When entrepreneur Vance Griffin sends a flirty private message, she's intrigued, but conflicted. Casual flirtation soon blossoms into late night conversations that bring a yearning from more. An enticing invitation and first meeting sparks hope that the fantasy they've been creating could become reality.

Speaker A [00:21:44]:

Both know this is no casual fling. but could an online relationship translate to a perfect real world love affair? The Emerald Waters and a white sands of Black Diamond will sweep you away with pulse pounding romance, sensuality, and emotional depth as 2 lovers begin the second chapter of their lives while discovering what it means to wander together. Y'all. I just really like this book. I just think it turned out it turned out great. If you want like a like a little rundown, I tried to do like a little spoiler free summary of this book that isn't all blurby. So here we go. 2 single adults in their late forties who meet online and develop a romantic relationship.

Speaker A [00:22:38]:

Athena is a traveling nurse, wrapping up an assignment, Advanced owns a successful travel agency based in Houston. He invites Athena on a trip to a luxurious resort. After some initial hesitation, Athena decides to take a chance to meet Vance in person for the first time. There's an instant connection when they meet Dvance has planned a dream vacation. During the trip, he considers a very important Change in his life, and he asks Athena if she would like to join him in this change. After other island getaway, Athena Advanced returned to their regular lives, but they've now got a huge choice to make about what happens now. They face some challenges, but they grow closer And the question remains whether they start to build a future together. This novel explores the development of an intense relationship between 2 mature individuals, learning to take emotional risks, overcome past hurt, and embrace the promise of new beginnings, It highlights themes of trust, commitment, and the excitement of finding love later in life.

Speaker A [00:23:48]:

I do feel like I write this trope a lot. I write this trope of 1 of my betas, not my betas. My ARC readers mentioned that I write the trope of new beginnings and, doing things you've never done. I think like that's recurring, and I don't have an issue with that being recurring as long as the story is due. I love the story. I I love that evolution of the human from one place to another of starting over, of beginning a new chapter of Finding the love of your life when you're not 22. Very excited for people to read this book and to get Vance and Athena in their hands. I started this book in late April, maybe, or May, early May, I can't really remember, but I jumped in with both feet in June with the 20 k 5 days challenge that, we run over at Boardmakers, which is my online writing group.

Speaker A [00:24:49]:

I finished this book July 21st ish. The book cast episode from July 22nd is right after I finished this book. So about 8 weeks. 9, you know, 8 or 9 weeks to write this book. This book, where will it be sold? first, it's gonna be at my website store. You can catch those links at books by dlwhite.com/ Elysium. That's e l y s i u m. If you go to books by dlwhite.com slash books, all of my books are there.

Speaker A [00:25:21]:

There is a landing page for each book that will tell you where you can buy it in ebook or print or audio where it's available. You can also add it to your good reads or a story graph. TBR. And there's a sample available for each book that is hosted at Bookfunnel. Please do dig in if you have any, interest. If you have any questions, Do let me know. I'm pretty much, wide open and almost always available. Okay.

Speaker A [00:25:47]:

We're back. You? The question becomes am I gonna call any of this out? Probably not. You guys always wanted to hear me breathe hard into the microphone. I had to my roommate is out of town, and she is having some done on her car. And so the, inspector was here, and I had to run down through flights of stairs. because I thought I had to let the guy in, but the garage door was already open, so he's fine. So then I had to run back up through flights of stairs. And now I'm trying to plug my phone in.

Speaker A [00:26:28]:

I was talking about how long it took me to write this book and where it will be sold. books by dalewhite.com/delesium is where you will find the links. Those links will take you to my website store. where you'll be able to buy it first. I I'm trying to decide how long I will leave it up at my store before I start rolling it out to retail outlets. My first inclination is to do, like, 10 days at my website and then, do a, like, a pre order so you could pre order it everywhere else. Amazon cobo, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, etcetera. I don't know, but I'm very impatient.

Speaker A [00:27:12]:

Like, this process of having the book edited has taken weeks. And I know some of my traditionally published authors wait months, but It is the most nerve wracking thing waiting for edits to come in, and I have only had to wait 4 weeks. So, Like, I don't I I keep telling my friends. I don't know how y'all do it. I don't know how y'all do it. Like, normally, I write a book. I sent to my beta. I get, like, editor level commentary from her.

Speaker A [00:27:44]:

Any mistakes you see in books are mine. and then I, like, I put it up. So I hope and pray that this new process of hiring a professional editor makes this book absolutely sing. I know it will be worth it, but I'm very impatient. So the idea that I would have a book not in a retail store for 10 days after release is kind of making the itch. I mean, it will be available at my store, so it will be on sale, but I know how the girls, like, their Amazon Links. They like it in Kindle. so because Amazon would probably get it up faster, I will probably have it at my store in Amazon, and I'm gonna roll it out to the other stores after that.

Speaker A [00:28:39]:

It'll, you know, it'll it'll be up. It'll be 4 99. And if you shop at my store. My books are typically, a different price. I'm gonna try to do, like, a little coupon thing so you can buy it at my store for less than you can buy at retail, but that probably won't be effective right away. I don't know. I'm literally talking out of my mind. on the fly.

Speaker A [00:29:06]:

I don't I don't know. But typically, when you buy a book through my store, the price is, different. which is something we're not supposed to do, but I do it anyway. Book will not be available via Kindle Unlimited. I haven't been on Kindle Unlimited since 2019. I do not plan to go back, but never say never. You know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying? It will be distributed to script and Cobble Plus if you subscribe to those outlets, and it will also eventually be available to request at your local library. If you have a library card, Please request it and then check it out.

Speaker A [00:29:42]:

You know what? You ain't got to read it, but request it and check it out so the library will stock it. I so appreciate it. So, what is the lowdown on this book? Tell us about writing it well. I mean, I podcasted the entire writing experience. So, like, I think y'all know basically I'm very excited about this book. It is different from my other books. I really have said several times I wanna level up in the product that I'm I'm putting out. I I wanna present a professional front I want a I want all my books to look professionally done.

Speaker A [00:30:24]:

Your eyes do not deceive you. You do see different covers on some of my books. I have redone my covers, and I have engaged someone to do full wrap covers for my books. So If you are buying print, you might see different covers, popping up here and there as they matriculate through the system. So that's something I'm I've been working on while I'm waiting on edits to come back from for this book. I need something to do with my hands. So I am, like, trying to update my covers and make sure my series match and make sure I have Good full wrap covers that look professional just so that I can, you know, I can look good at the retail store next to your Simon and Shuster, your random house, your, you know, forever pub books out there. So You know, they they aren't gonna look, like they were designed by, you know, a big 5 publisher, but they aren't going to look Total trash either.

Speaker A [00:31:28]:

So I like them, and that's what matters. I have a good time writing this book. I really I really had a a good time. It was good to, like, write to people who were ready for something new, something great, who genuinely cared about each other, who had a nice, like, easy, sweet, friendlies, sexy relationship. And I think, like, you know, to me, like Vance and Athena fit, they fit together. They are 2 puzzle pieces. it is great that they happen to find each other and that both were ready for what they were presented with You know, both do still have to make a huge leap in this book, but positioning them in a place where they are ready together really meant a lot to me. This is a vacation romance, so it is very, I don't I won't say it's decadent, but I I had a good time putting in, you know, relaxing experiences and romantic occasions and just finding ways to put them together where they can enjoy themselves -- at a really nice hotel on an island.

Speaker A [00:32:47]:

And that was fun. That was actually a ton of fun. You know, I'm I'm trying to think of what I didn't enjoy writing. And, like, in hindsight, there wasn't anything I didn't enjoy writing The act of writing itself is hard. It's just it's just hard. Like, I just sit down at the computer, and I'm just staring at the blank page, like, okay. Like, now what? So I could go back and I read and, like, in my brain, what immediately comes? What is that next scene? Is it a jump? Is it the same day? Where are they? What are they doing? What are they saying? What are my goals? What am I trying to accomplish with this, you know, next scene, this next Chapter, how how am I pushing this story forward without wasting words? Did I throw stuff away most definitely? Most definitely. I have have a whole scene that I deleted because it just did not it didn't it just didn't have two scenes after I deleted it.

Speaker A [00:33:43]:

They just didn't It just didn't work. Maybe I'll pop those up at some point in the future as just something fun. They're, I mean, they're short. and, I mean, short because they didn't work. I cut them out. so this book did teach me that I definitely need a process, and that process is usually involved around that 20 k to 5 days challenge. I need a running start. I need to know what I'm talking about.

Speaker A [00:34:13]:

I need to, like, have a little something something I before going into that challenge, I need to know where I want to end up. And that 20 k Jump is like a is a big hunk of the book. It's almost always like the middle or like end of the beginning jumping into the middle, but that's the head start that I need to then get to where I call the point of no return, and then I just write until the end. I have also learned, though, I don't really like it that I need to be patient. There's a right way to do things and just tell myself to shut up and do it the right way because that's the way it needs to be done. You know, I also feel like I do a whole lot of watching other people. I do a whole lot of looking at what other people are doing and feeling down on myself because I'm not at that level and I'm not producing at that you know, at at that rate, my books aren't that good. My covers aren't that good.

Speaker A [00:35:17]:

My audio isn't that good. Like, you know, Look how silly mine look compared to those, and I don't know how to stop that. I don't know that I want to. I think that I always want to push myself to perform -- at a level of what I call excellence. In one of my author groups who talk a lot about that saying that was going around for a while that Black authors should have the right to produce mediocre books. Really meaning that you see a lot of just plain blah books out here get a lot of attention and get accolades and people read them. And you're like, but you read it and you put it away and you give it another chance. And black authors don't really get that opportunity.

Speaker A [00:36:04]:

We'd have to be on top of our game all the time. And while I get that saying and I get what they're trying to say, I don't ever step out here. Even if I say, you know what? This is just a fun thing I wanted to publish. Hey, Lover was just a fun book I wanted to publish because I needed to publish something in 2022. But I wouldn't say it's a blah book. I wouldn't say it's a low effort. Book, I wouldn't say I didn't put my foot in it. I heard recently on the staying on code podcast.

Speaker A [00:36:42]:

Reggie Reed's, who is one of my most favorite people on the planet said mediocrity is not a a, something that is afforded to black people, to black writers, to black authors. -- mediocrity is not something that's ever afforded to us. We don't get to be mediocre. We always have to come out here on our best on top. And It is not just readers who aren't black saying that. It be your own people. It be your own people. The standards are high.

Speaker A [00:37:15]:

The stakes are high. And when my book is next to Christina C Jones and Nicole Falls and Delaney Dimon and Sharon C Cooper and Frickin, Stephanie Nicole Norris who I'd swears, like, publishing a book. every week. I already told her I cannot keep up what what is happening. What are you doing over there? I want my books to look good next to theirs. I want them to sound good next to theirs. I want my book descriptions to be as good as theirs. And If I feel like I am as good as the people I'm standing next to, I'm happy.

Speaker A [00:37:52]:

The second I feel like I am not as good as the people I'm standing next to. We have a problem, and I am working on my product. I am working on myself. I am working on my descriptions. I am working on my covers. am working on my links. I am working on my promo. I am doing the best I can to get these books out here into the people that I want to read them.

Speaker A [00:38:15]:

I just I hope that this books this book finds the hands that want it that finds the eyes that need it. The people that would be delighted to put it into their faces, If it doesn't cool, once it leaves your computer, it's out there. The public owns it. It's above me now. But, you know, as long as it's inside my computer and I can't control its destiny for the moment, I really want it to find people that love it. I want it to find a lot of people that love it, that will hype it up, that will talk about it, that will send the link to their friends and, you know, help me make this book a raging success. because I think it's a really good book. So this is, it's book 2 in the Black Diamond Romance series.

Speaker A [00:39:13]:

which is now a series. I just don't know how many times I'd tell you people. I am not a series writer even though I did just plan out a whole other series to write in 2024. So also in 2024, I want to write book 3 In the Black Diamond romance series in which we will see Wade and Amina. I did already start that one. there is a character in Elysium that will be the hero in, the next Black Diamond book. It's tentatively called the Pearl. So I'm excited about things that are coming up.

Speaker A [00:39:51]:

You know, even if this book was a flop, I've already started, like, the next two, three books. So can't stop won't stop. I'm gonna stop rambling because My dinner is on the way. I'm gonna, like, enjoy, chill out, watch something on YouTube, listen to my podcast, I'm waiting for my edits to come in. And then once those come in, I am gonna be head down plowing through it so that I can put this book up and it can be ready to sell, then format the print option so I can send that out. I am heavily considering a redacted version. For my mother, I'm not even joking. Like, I'm so glad I came up with that idea.

Speaker A [00:40:37]:

I'm not even joking. so That brings us to the end of this episode of the book cast. This very special episode of the book cast. I thank you so much for joining me for these rambles. Please join me next week where, hopefully, I will have some week one thoughts. about this book. We'll talk about, you know, release week stuff. Maybe I'll have some numbers.

Speaker A [00:41:07]:

I don't know. I will also be back with a reading update. I need I'm trying to I'm trying to get back on my Zoom. I'm trying to get back on the horse, but honestly, I've just been, like, chilling. I hit a 100 books, and then I'm, like, 18 books ahead on my Goodreads challenge. I already need to increase my my goal again I am fine. As far as books go, I will tell you that I read the new Karen slaughter after that night, Chow, all of the trigger warnings, all of them. Every trigger warning that exists All of them, but it was it was it's classic Karen's Slaughter.

Speaker A [00:41:46]:

If you like Karen's Slaughter, You will love this book. It is classic Karen Slager, but it's rough. It was a rough, rough read. All of the trigger warnings. So I'll talk about that book And anything else I managed to put into my face this week, please enjoy your weekend. Have a superlative week. We'll chat again next again. Alright.