Bookcast Episode 56: Let's Just Chat

No rundown today. I don't even know what I said in today's episode. I didn't mention any books and only one short that I wrote for the fanfic site... today's just a rambly chat about last week, this upcoming week and giving my brain the rest it deserves.

Warning, I dip into my fangirl era a bit in here... but it's fun. We're going with it!

00:00:02    Book Cast

00:16:10  Fandom Obsessions

00:31:18 Recent Updates and Thank Yous

00:38:56 Upcoming Episode Schedule and Weekend Plans

Chapters

• 0:16 Book Cast
• 16:24 NSYNC Reunion and Fandom Obsessions
• 31:32 Recent Updates and Thank Yous
• 39:10 Upcoming Episode Schedule and Weekend Plans

Transcript

DL White [00:00:01]:

Well, hello. I've been talking all morning, and I choose the moment I turned on my mic to actually have, well, frog in my throat, but, hi. Hello. We're here. It is Saturday, which means it is podcast recording day. I wish I could get my crap together enough to do this on Friday, but I just can't. So here we are. I'm not gonna do all the normal stuff I usually do.

DL White [00:00:33]:

I don't have a rundown. I I didn't even open the document. I know enough to know it's episode 56. Let's just have a chat. I've got my coffee here. I'm not gonna do the usual stuff I usually do because I just wanna talk. Today. It was a full week.

DL White [00:00:51]:

And, I wanna chat a little bit about the week and a little bit about book stuff and kind of emote, get down in the feelings. You know what I'm saying? So welcome back to the book cast. This is my platform for sharing, the short fiction I haven't shared in months and updates on what I'm reading and writing I'm currently not writing a darn thing, for Realsies. I did actually write, something short last week, and I'll talk about that in a second. But if you are new here, we talk about books and writing. I am Atlanta based author of several 12 at last count, Southern Black fiction romance novels featuring black men and women. I don't know. I messed that all up.

DL White [00:01:40]:

I don't have my rundown, so I don't know what I'm talking about currently. I write books with people that, kiss in them and fall in love and, It's a love hate relationship. Some some some days I love to hate it. Some days I hate to love it. Can find them at books by dlwhite.com. Thanks for joining. If this is a thing you like authors talking about writing and books and all that kind of stuff. I'm happy that you're here.

DL White [00:02:10]:

I am excited to be on this mic and talk about things. Like I mentioned, books by dlwhite.com has all of the good stuff. All of my books are listed there, ebook, print, audio, if those formats are available. If you -- care. And I'm not meaning that in a snarky way, but some readers, like, actually care about where they buy their books and how that affects the author. It does my heart good when you buy books direct from me. All of the links from books by dealwhite.com slash books. Each book has a landing page.

DL White [00:02:42]:

There are options to buy that book in whatever format it's available. You can also add it to your good reads or story graph if I have room for choregraph, there's also a sample there. If you're just not sure, you get, like, a good 3 to 5 chapters to dip your toe in, books by DIY.com/books. You can buy the books direct from me, or if you don't particularly care. And I'm serious. I don't mean that in a snarky way. My books are not for sale anywhere. I don't want them g on on sale.

DL White [00:03:11]:

If you wanna buy them retail, you are more than welcome to. That's why I uploaded them there. You can buy them anywhere ebooks are sold. And if there's a place you buy ebooks and my books are not there, shout me out a holler. I'll get them there if I can. Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Cobo, Google Play. I'm all up in that by my books wherever you so desire. If you're looking for a ebook, if you're looking for print, you can get them at resist booksellers or bookshop.org.

DL White [00:03:41]:

I do have a small inventory here at the house, but I am honestly thinking about selling off my inventory and not really keeping books, on hand. They don't move as fast as I would like them to. I've changed a lot of covers. And so, I'm actually gonna probably try to get rid of what I have here, and and only keep, like, a personal inventory on hand and then do, like, a quarterly paperback sale where I just order a grip of books and and ship them out. So that's a thought for the future, because I just I don't have room for a large inventory of paperbacks, and I try to keep some on hand in case I get orders, but, I just I just don't have room for that. I don't I don't run that kind of operation here. It's not the kind of business. If you are looking for audio, I have 4 books in audio.

DL White [00:04:28]:

I do believe they are on Hoopla, so you can borrow them there. Many of them are on script. I'd say about half of them are on script. I did get a email back from draft to digital. About the whole script situation, and they honestly just swap out what's available and what's not. So at some point, some books will be available and some books won't. To me, I just feel like it's not worth being unscripted if all my books aren't available. You know where all my audio books are available? Audible, if you're an audible girly, libro.fm, if you're a liberal girly or guy, person, human, Okay.

DL White [00:05:07]:

Let's be inclusive on this podcast deal. Humans? Being? Because Sometimes your pets might listen to the book with you. You know what I'm saying? If you're an audiobook being audiblelibro.fm Has them also Cobo Plus? If you are a member at Cobo Plus, all of my ebooks and all of my audio books are uploaded there, you can listen to your heart's content for, I think, it's 1199. You get audio and ebook on Cobble Plus. I just don't know why people aren't just beating down the door over there to be on Cobble Plus. And to, be a member over there. Actually, I do. The the payout is not I mean, the payout on Amazon is really kinda crappy.

DL White [00:05:57]:

The payout on Cobo Plus is worse. It's it's it's worse. And so I do know actually why people aren't quite over there yet, but, you know, we'll see. We'll see how it goes. It sure beats, feeling like Amazon picks on indie authors because they are the only demographic that can, they are the only authors that they can really retaliate against. And so they do. Every time readers think they are helping, they're not. They're they're not because Amazon will make changes, but it will adversely affect independently published off because they those are the only authors that they can control.

DL White [00:06:36]:

This is not an Amazon rant podcast, though, deal. It just isn't. And so Can that. You know what I'm saying? But that's what I'm saying. So I just wanted to chat today because it's been a week. It's been it's been it's been a week. I like to say there's no such thing as work, life balance. It's work or it's life.

DL White [00:06:59]:

And that's what this week was. I, you know, I, I, I work a full time, 8 to 4 day job. It is the greatest thing ever. I really do really enjoy my job. Beverage Giant is a fun place to work. It is a lot of work. It's not hard, but it is challenging and tedious And, there's a lot that goes into what I do. I enjoy it to my bones.

DL White [00:07:31]:

Absolutely love my job, which is a good thing because I need it I love that salary. I love a 401 k. I love a pension. I love, insurance and, retirement and, you know, life insurance, those kinds of things. They are great. So it is a good thing to really like your job. And I do. And what I do in my org is like the support structure.

DL White [00:08:01]:

I I am needed if I could do my own horn. Anything that's happening that involves other people, if it's, if it's a meeting inside the building, if it's an off-site meeting, if it's, any kind of, like, a collaboration, those are the kinds of things that I set up. And one of the divisions in the organization that I work in does a governance meeting 4 to 5 times a year. It is a large 2 to 3 day meeting where we bring in about seventy people and we have, you know, a big room and the table tents and printing out agendas and working with catering and working with meeting services and working with security, top to bottom, getting people into the building, into the meeting, out, all of that good stuff. That's all me. And so four to five times a year that my, that's my show. That's my gig. And I'm like, I don't, I don't mean to make myself sound, super important, but literally if I'm not there, and happen.

DL White [00:09:08]:

So maybe I am super important. I don't know. So, I mean, I'm not the one running the meeting, so I feel like my input is inconsequential. On the other hand, I'm gonna say the meeting lead does not have a single clue. How that room gets set up, how the food comes out on time, how we have happened to have coffee and beverages all day. How the table tents get on the table. He does know how the table tents get on the table because then he comes in and moves them around, all that kind of stuff. I'm support.

DL White [00:09:40]:

I rock at that. I thrive. Like, that's I love it. I love it. However, it's a lot of work. It's 2 months of prep, 3 days on-site, usually one day for set up, and then 2 days, just 7 getting like, getting there at 7 AM, leaving the building at 7 PM type of work. That was my week. Monday was set up a lot of running around, a lot of conversations, a lot of what's happening here.

DL White [00:10:11]:

Nope. That's wrong. Let's do that. Let's move this. Let's put this here. Checking in to make sure everything is scheduled. And then Tuesday is day 1 of a super long day, started. I think I got in the building at 7 I left I left my house before at 7 AM.

DL White [00:10:28]:

I think I got there around 7:30. Got myself all set up. I actually ran 2 meetings on Tuesday morning, so I'm running back and forth between two rooms. And we use teams, So there's the virtual instance of people that have to attend virtually, and then there's the people in the room and the, Dom, can you do this, and can we get that? And What about this? And can you print this? And can I do this? And do we have a mail room? Can you just run on down to the basement and drop these in the mail box? Yeah. Love to. Love to. So Tuesday was a very long, long day. Day 1 ended around 5:45, and then we have a e evening cocktail reception.

DL White [00:11:06]:

And so there's all of that. I think I left the building at 8 o'clock on Tuesday back in the building around 7:30 on Wednesday morning for too, and that they all day. They just went all day. In fact, they had to have a working lunch because they were behind. So it just worked all through the day. Somebody kicked off a something happened and they and somebody popped a surge protector. And so half of my table didn't have power. Well, half of the room didn't have power, and then, they flipped the breaker and some of the power strips came back on and, like, one section of the table didn't.

DL White [00:11:47]:

So I'm trying to get the power people in to, sneak into the meeting and take a look and just so happened that someone turned the power strip off. Yes. Turn the power strip off. And, like, things like people not using the microphone, the me like, the meeting is recorded. And so if you're not using a microphone, nobody online can hear you. And when we listen back to the recording to get action items and take notes, we can't hear what's happening in the room. And so trying to remind people to use their mics and then they get the mic and they sit 3 business days away from the mic So still nobody can hear you because you're not speaking into the mic. Whoo.

DL White [00:12:29]:

So Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday were full, full days. I did nothing but work. And then Thursday, Friday, it was just basically ketchup. Like to get back into all the other stuff that I do. I have another meeting coming up. So I have a, like, kind of a biweek. I don't watch sports, but I a week, a week when you don't play is a bi week. I don't know.

DL White [00:12:51]:

I'm discussing. So I have this week, and then the last week in September, I fly to Carmel, California for a week long meeting. And that meeting's not my meeting. I don't do most of the setup. We use actually an agency for that, and it's like a 3, a staff of 3 that's full time working for us. But that's an off-site meeting. And, I do a lot of work with that meeting, but thankfully, it's not that's not it's not my show. Phew.

DL White [00:13:23]:

But I do have a show, at the end of October, and then another big 2 to 3 day meeting at the end of December. So that's like that's my life. And, like, in between, then we have our weekly meetings and, you know, a bunch of stuff we're already setting up for 2024. So I have meetings I have to set. In front of the, you know, the big meetings. And so, there's a lot happening over here. It's a lot of work and a little bit of life and the life part is the writing and the reading and the hanging out with friends and the doing laundry and the making sure that I time to relax. And there's so little of that when work is a lot like that.

DL White [00:14:08]:

And so I try not to be back to back with those meetings. Like, I try to take my breaks when I get them because I know there's another work heavy meeting coming up, and so I mean, I'm just kind of in a time right now where I know I have a little bit of a break, and so I need to chill. I need to not put a lot of pressure on myself. I need to not be so busy with life that I'm tired and I can't put my all into work because it does pay my rent. It does put gas in my car and food in my refrigerator. It buys my books, you know. So, so that's where, that's where, at in the middle of all of that, the best pop band of all time. My favorites of favorites in Zinc, decided they were going to reunite.

DL White [00:14:57]:

And so I did happen to catch them on the MTV the May's on Tuesday. Right before I passed out, I saw my dudes on stage. It was epic. It was awesome. There's been a lot of speculation since. So JC's birthday was August 8th. And on that day, Justin Timberlake, who's the the baby of the group had posted something about those 2 in the studio, which sparked a whole thing. There's been a, concentrated campaign ever since then of them just dropping Easter eggs and waiting for the fans to find them.

DL White [00:15:37]:

The the the song that they're about to release on the 29th is in support of the movie Trolls band together, which comes out in, I think, November, but they can't talk about it because 4 of them are SAG members and, they're on strike. And so they can't talk about the movie, but the fans can talk about the movie. And so, they're kind of depending on their fans to spread the word, and we have been. So amid all the work stuff is also this other stuff. So, Dl, are you using the nSync reunion as an excuse to say that you haven't been reading or writing kind of? Kind of. I mean, I've been working. The in between, I've been mostly checking up on what new thing drop new videos, new pictures, appearances, lots of teases, lots of content. Thanks, Lance Mass, or making sure we actually, like, get content.

DL White [00:16:39]:

NSync has not released a song in 23 years. It's been since 2002. So it's it's epic. And, you know, we get it if you don't get it, We don't care if you don't like it. It's a glorious moment for in sync fans. I'm looking at my bobbleheads right now. And the funko's behind them and, like, my little in sync corner back there, back there. And then, Fisher Price has these little, the little people dolls.

DL White [00:17:09]:

I did order a set but they weren't gonna ship till mid October, and some people are getting theirs now. And so I'm trying to figure out when I can how I can get mine earlier. I think if I order them from the Overlord, is what I call Amazon. I think they ship 1st week in October. And so I'm going to reorder them and get them early. I'm excited about that. I got my little in sink mug over here. I have an in sink t shirt somewhere.

DL White [00:17:35]:

I don't I bought it in, like, 2020. I don't know where it's at, but I should probably dig it up or buy a new one. I don't know. So that's been exciting, and it has actually brought me a lot of joy because, it's like, I I'm I'm a little bit of an obsessive personality, and it's just a thing that I obsess over, it brings me together with people, that I've met while I was listening to the music or while I was writing the fan fiction, Speaking of the fan fiction, I wrote a little something last week. It was the, actually, the first, fan fic or fic as we call it, FIC, for short, I wrote my first fix since 2020. Isn't that crazy? That is crazy. It has been I have not written fan fiction in 3 years. It was August of 2020.

DL White [00:18:31]:

I wrote my last fic, So I posted a little something this week. Last week, this week, when did I post that? I did not I don't it was last week ish. I don't remember last Friday, last Saturday, something. The days are all running together. But I did write it. It's a shorty about 25100 words about a woman who meets her teen idol, JC Chassis, in an elevator and the elevator malfunctions, and they get stuck. There's no spice in it. I have the hardest time writing spice in fanfic lately, but I'm gonna get it.

DL White [00:19:08]:

I'm gonna get it together. I'm gonna get it together. So The other thing that I've been doing is really leaning into fandom. I do still own and operate the nsync fiction website where we host all of, I'm not gonna say all, but a lot of in sync fan fiction We have an old archive that is a read only. It's not in operation. So all the old old stuff from, like, the nineties, I think, are hosted there. Or the early 2000s. And then in 2004, they built the new archive, and that is I bought that in 2019.

DL White [00:19:43]:

I didn't buy it. I just took it. They were gonna shut it down, and I just could not bear to see it go away. So I took it and it was just basically there for a minute. And once we started to see rumblings of things happening in in sync land, we decided to try to start bringing writers back to the archive. And so I have been busy with writing stuff, just not anything that pays. So, writers have been coming back. We did.

DL White [00:20:13]:

I think I talked on this podcast about the awesome August challenge where we our challenge is to just write you know, stories around a central theme. We had 10 new stories in that challenge. So 10 new stories at the archive where we hadn't had really more than 1 or 2 a month maybe in a long while. So that was awesome. And the writers just keep writing. We have updates of, like, 2 to 3, 4, 5 stories a week. So it's been great, have found a way to automate on to Twitter. I'm never calling it X ever, ever, to automate from the Phantom website to Twitter for it to pop up when a new story pops up similarly to when I make a blog post, on my blog.

DL White [00:21:02]:

That pops up, like, automatically, I'm doing the same for the archive. So it's fun. It's, you know, it's fun. It's a way to, like, decompress and, like, not think about anything but fun stuff to get into the music and talk to your friends and daydream and think about what's coming in the future. If I'm being honest, I don't think we're getting, a tour I it'll be a miracle if we do. Maybe a performance or 2. I think Justin is going on tour with his album that comes out in 2024. I think the title is GT 6.

DL White [00:21:40]:

I think it's a collaboration with Timberland and a whole bunch of other people. My worst fear is that all of this new song stuff, it's just to push the movie but it's also a vehicle to get Justin attention, which, I don't like. I do not I don't mind Justin. I like Justin in the group. I'm not a big Timberlake Solo fan. I do like some of his songs. I don't mind the man himself, but, I prefer him in the in the group form. So we'll see what happens.

DL White [00:22:24]:

There's lots of hints still Step 2 is the release of the song. So says their manager, and then we'll see, you know, what happens after that. The movie comes out, I think, in November. I do not plan to go see it. I don't really have much interest in Choles. That's why I'm hoping there's more than just the song. On the album, but, also, that song is a bop. It's called Better Place, and the lyrics are pretty awesome.

DL White [00:22:55]:

And I can hear my boy JC all the way up and through it. So I'm into it. I'm into it. Getting lots of pictures, lots of videos, lots of chatter, lots of more to come, lots of this is the first step. So we'll see. They aren't going to tell us outright. They love to keep us guessing, but in sync doesn't do anything halfway. So we'll see, you know, what what comes.

DL White [00:23:22]:

I am not the type of person that, you know, oh, whatever, whatever they're offering. Let's just take the scraps. No. No. Do it right or keep it. So, we'll see. Anyhoo. So there's that.

DL White [00:23:39]:

Books. I have sold 85 copies of Elys since release. So we are pushing up on 100, soon. I've I mean, I didn't do hardly any promo this week. I'm surprised if I sold any copies. I didn't even check. I haven't checked, reviews. It's just been It's been a full full week between work and in sync and catching up and so much stuff.

DL White [00:24:03]:

It's been a full week So, I am not surprised. I haven't hit a 100 yet. I did not run any ads. I didn't do hardly any promo. I, Did the best I could. And this is just such a good time to keep reminding myself that I'm not a full time writer. Writing is not my job. These books don't pay any bills.

DL White [00:24:25]:

They just barely support themselves, but, like, I haven't quite covered what I spent in editing yet. So I did editing and I did, I did a full, wrap cover for this book. And so I'm I'm just trying to pay myself back right now is is what that's about. The book hasn't been out a month yet. I don't think we need to come out on the 29th, so a book hasn't been out a month yet. So we're just riding the wave this week is a big week for book sales. It's a big push. So stuff your e reader is coming September 20th through 22nd.

DL White [00:25:05]:

I do have a free book in that giveaway. So, if you're on my email list, I am gonna be sending out a newsletter about stuff your e readers. So be on the lookout. If you are not on my newsletter, get all my newsletter, it's not gonna be anything big fancy, Schmancy Smash, but it will have the website where you can go grab gobs of free books. There are about 24100 free books in the giveaway, and there are some books by Black authors. We have been really pushing to try to get Black authors into this event. And so if you would be so kind as to patronize and, try to, you know, pick up something or everything that you see. Lots of romance and romance adjacent books will be up for grabs for the 20th through 22nd.

DL White [00:25:56]:

I will let you know. Do not worry. I will not be able to shut up about stuff your e reader day. I am also doing what they call stacking. It's a a promo stack. So I'm gonna lead in with a little giveaway at through free booksy, which is a site that promotes of, you know, when you have a free book, you'd sign up and they'd send it out to all of their newsletter people. So we'll do free booksy. And then we have stuff here Kindle, and then I'm gonna close it out with, fussy librarian, which is another, promo site.

DL White [00:26:31]:

So I have a couple other books that I'm putting on sale. I might, put a couple books I'm thinking about putting another couple books on free. I don't know. I need to look at everything I'm doing and not overwhelm myself because I also have some things coming in October. I'm just really trying to keep things straight because again, this isn't my full time job. I cannot wear myself out. I am supposed to be in a, challenge, the 20 k to 5 days challenge. I really should have known I have a 3 day meeting rolling right into this, and I'm not ready.

DL White [00:27:10]:

I'm not ready. I haven't I I prepped a little bit But, I pulled up my document, and I just I don't know where to go from where I left off. Nothing comes to me. The people aren't talking to me. I am not in a head space. To write. I mean, really not while I'm still trying to sell the book I just released at the end of August. So I am I told I told my editor that I had I was gonna start a new book, September 13th.

DL White [00:27:39]:

And she was like, Ma'am, you just released a book August 29th. Are you sure? And I was like, oh, yeah. I've I've written, like, you know, 5 or 6 chapters already. I already have a head start. You know, it should be good. And I'm gonna do, you know, the 20 k and 5 days. She's like, okay. She's like, I really think you should rest, but okay.

DL White [00:28:01]:

Little did I know? She's she's worked with a lot of authors. So she may have known what she was talking about. She's absolutely right. My brain is just not there. It is just it's just not there. I do need to plan though. I do need to plan. I don't really plot, but I do need I need to plan.

DL White [00:28:18]:

I need to run it through the goal of motivation conflict. I need to run it through romance the beat. I need I need to know what I'm talking about. So the characters can start talking to me in my head and I like a note where I'm going. I think I may start, early October. I don't know. I hate to throw a date on it because then I like I start tensing up about it and my brain freezes. So I don't really wanna put a date on it, but sometime October I will start writing that will give me a good, you know, few weeks of, like, good writing and, hope hopefully it will have something before the end of the year to push out probably not doing a holiday short unless something just comes to me, and it'll be real short, like, 5000 words short.

DL White [00:29:06]:

Like, I think unexpected is maybe. Is it 8 chapters, maybe? I don't know. The closet brunch is like 8 chapters, 10 chapters. It may that's 12,000 words. That's maybe what we'll get. But we'll see. We'll see what comes to me. I'm trying to just relax.

DL White [00:29:25]:

Free my mind. Open, you know, open open the windows. Open the doors. Etcetera. And see what comes. I I cannot force it. It's not this is not a thing I can force. The best I can do is plan, kinda get the story in line in my head, and then pray for something to come.

DL White [00:29:50]:

It comes or it doesn't. It's not a thing that can force. So we will see what happens between now and the end of the year. But, I did write a little thick. I do have another fan fiction challenge coming up in October. We run our challenges around birthdays of the members of the group. So October 17th is Chris Kirkpatrick's birthday. He's a founder of nSync.

DL White [00:30:13]:

He is our pineapple. We love him to pieces. So we're gonna celebrate Chris beginning October 17th, and so it'll be just like awesome August. We all write stories around a theme. And then, I have a group of writers that I'm writing with or I'm putting air quotes around mentoring. I don't know. Legating. I don't know.

DL White [00:30:36]:

But we have a group and we're already tossing around, challenge ideas for the winter. And then, like, you know, around Valentine's Day, a really fun one coming up for Valentine's Day. I do need I need a challenge at the end of January for Justin and Joey's birthdays, and then we roll right into and sync high holy season, which is like March through May. So lots of stuff happening stuff going on made it in between that. I need to plan and write novels in, like, you know, market book and update websites and write newsletters and slang books out here. So that's what's going on. I didn't read anything if I read anything, I don't remember it. I've I feel like I finished one book.

DL White [00:31:23]:

I did enough to a lot of books because nothing was really keeping my attention. I know I have arcs coming up next week. I haven't I don't even know what they are. I haven't opened Netgalley. I already know Doctor Williams is gonna tell me, don't Don't worry about them folks at Netgalley Deal. I can't do his accent. I really wish I could. He has the best North Carolina accent.

DL White [00:31:48]:

I'm usually really good with accents, but I can't do it. But, anyway, I do call him out every episode because I know him and Audra are listening. He did send me a message last week. Like, why you always called me out? Cause I know you're listening. I also wanted to do another shout out to Jason Graham and Audra Russell who bought a little bit of my dated merch, and they have made some posts on their Instagram about it. I so appreciate that. The stuff looks really good. I'm happy with it.

DL White [00:32:23]:

They're actually my test subjects. So, I I because I can't I mean, I have to pay just like y'all have to pay. I don't get a discount. I pay the same price that you guys pay. So, I think they look really good. The podcast merch looks good. I bought a hoodie, that says, I'm sorry for what I said before I had coffee and books. It's like a dusty rose.

DL White [00:32:46]:

It's really comfy. It's very soft. I should put it on and take a picture in it, maybe tomorrow. Super cute. And then I bought, they have this, really soft stuffed bear with a t shirt that has my logo on it. I bought one of those very cute and I bought a mouse pad that says books by D. L. White.

DL White [00:33:05]:

Because my old books by D. L. White mouse pad is groovy. It's just gross. Everything looks great. It's through spread shirt, spread shop, spread shirt, I think, great quality. I wish I could control the pricing, but I don't. I think I do to an extent, but, like, the pricing is as is the best I can get it and still make any kind of profit off of it.

DL White [00:33:30]:

But I did wanna say thank you. Jason Graham bought the joggers, which look really nice. They look really, really nice. And then Aldra bought a podcast t shirt. It's in a really bright yellow with the, but first, books logo on it. I'm super happy. Super, super happy with them. They look great.

DL White [00:33:51]:

I'm excited to do more merch. I would like to design a little something for each book, like, you know, business names, like, Brunchout Ruby's, dinner at Sam's, Leslie's Curlin die. Like, I have, like, all these fun business names in all of my books. And, I would like to design something for each book. That's like a callback, but That requires brainpower, and I just don't have it. Maybe next spring. Maybe next spring. So, Last last thing I wanted to mention is I was in an issue of Atlanta magazine, the arts and letter edition, if you can get a hold of the, September issue of Atlanta magazine.

DL White [00:34:34]:

I'm in it. I'm on page 70. The article was written by my good good friend, Jacinda Howard, of the prototype fame that Jacinda Howard. She is, a skilled skilled journalist. I just love her to pieces. Any, any opportunity that she has to big up indie authors, black indie authors in particular, She's all about it. So, really love her. Thank her.

DL White [00:35:00]:

I wanna thank her so much for profiling me. I actually have a headshot in the photo, I was very surprised when I got an email that said we wanna take a picture for the magazine. What? Like, my my my hair is a mess, and I don't know how to do makeup and what? But I did my best. So, I have a couple issues that magazine out here. I shipped out a copy to my mom. So that she'll get that on Monday. And then there were a couple of books that I hadn't sent her. I didn't send her a hey, lover, and I hadn't sent her alysium.

DL White [00:35:38]:

I did finally get a print copy of that, and so I sent those out to her. And I put in a little card that told her not to read them, She won't try, but I just want her to know, don't even flip through it. Just don't look at it. Just look at the cover. It's real pretty. Put it in the bookcase. You don't need to be opening it. Then there's nothing in there for you, ma'am.

DL White [00:35:58]:

No. There's nothing in there for you. Just Just put it in the bookcase. Trust me, bro. Trust me. So, she'll get that on Monday. I'm very excited for her to get them. She is my biggest fan.

DL White [00:36:09]:

So I normally give her the first print copy that I get, but I was really jacking my feet on Hey Lover and lazy on because It's a lot going on in those books. And, minister Angela White, don't need to be looking at it. My dad won't even glance at them. So he just asks, how how y'all how y'all books doing? But he won't even look at I'm not worried about him, but my mom loves to read. And so I know it's killing her to not read them, but you don't need to be looking inside the book's mail. And anyone that knows her, tell her. Don't be looking inside them books. So I think I've rambled enough.

DL White [00:36:53]:

I think that's all the talking that I wanted to get out. I don't know what I'm reading. I'm not planning on writing anything. I'm just gonna chill. I'm gonna plan probably. I don't know. I do need to, like, pull out the laptop, the brand new laptop that I had to buy. Because it died right after I published Elysium C.

DL White [00:37:13]:

It it just the book like like fried the laptop is how hot it is. Can I say that? Oh, probably not. I'm not writing anything. I don't know what I'm reading, but I am going to lay in the bed with my Kindle and my Roku remote and relax and drink coffee and eat chisits and chill out because I can. That's what I'm gonna be doing. I'm gonna rest this week because I have to fly to California next week. And that is just I'm gonna hit the ground running and run all week until I get on the plane on Friday. It's it's gonna be a time.

DL White [00:38:00]:

And then the new nsync song comes out on Friday and also Justin's movie comes out on Friday. I'm going to be a very busy girl, fandom wise. Book wise, reading wise, at the end of next week, like 29th. So I'm gonna rest until then. Let's not fall back into burnout. Let's not burn the candle at both ends. We don't have to. We don't have to.

DL White [00:38:29]:

Truth be told ain't nobody looking for the next book, but me and about nine people. So let's just take the pressure off ourselves. Let's get back to, like, making writing fun. Let's have a good time with it. It'll come when it's ready. You know, the people in your head won't shut up when they're ready to come out, and so until then, let's just chill. There's one other thing I wanted to talk about, and I totally forgot what it So I guess we'll talk about it next week. That brings us to the end of today's episode.

DL White [00:39:06]:

I appreciate you being here for this chat. I'm gonna drink my coffee and edit this episode and get it up everywhere. And then enjoy my weekend. I hope you enjoy your weekend and have a superlative week. And, we'll talk again next weekend, but the weekend after that, there will be no episode because I will be recovering from my week in California. So that weekend of September 29th, September 30th, there will be No episode. I'm saying that, but watch me get up and actually record an episode. But I'm just preparing you for no episode because it probably won't be reading.

DL White [00:39:47]:

It definitely won't be writing. But we'll see what happens. Alright. Talk to you soon. Bye bye.