Bookcast Episode 128: Man Down! What Had Happened Was...

I know, I know. It's been a minute but I have excuses and a funny story that involves a gas station, a receipt, and my delusion that I am still agile at 51. 

Spoiler: I'm not.

This episode covers my recovery weekend (featuring Church's chicken and naproxen), reading updates including a surprisingly good John Grisham book, writing progress on Layover and a harvest novella, and audio news.

• Reading: The Widow by John Grisham, The Scammer by Tiffany D. Jackson coming up
• Writing: Layover (late November),  a harvest novella (late October/early November)
• Calculated Risk now in KU and on audio everywhere
• Why fiction beats doomscrolling every time

Full show notes: booksbydlwhite.com/bookcast/128

Connect: booksbydlwhite.com/linkinbio

Remember: Watching a dumpster burn doesn't put out the fire. Get a good book and put your face into it.

Transcript

DL White [00:00:19]:
Well, hello there, long time no see. Or here in this case it is DL White, your host of this podcast you might remember. Welcome back. This is the Bookcast, my platform for sharing short fiction, which I haven't shared in a long time, and updates on what I'm reading and writing and life as a self published author. I think this is episode 127. I don't know, I'd have to go back and count. It's been a minute since I was at the mic and I did not intend to take another hiatus. Life just really got in the way.

DL White [00:01:00]:
I did a little bit of work, travel, and then I had a multi day meeting at work. And y' all know that the day job makes it so that I can have the night job. So that's a job that really takes all of my time and concentration. So I just had two really busy weeks in a row and then I was getting ready for a black book bash in Jacksonville, Florida, which was amazing. And so I had even more time off. So I am honestly just getting back to the mic, really, kind of really getting back in the groove. And then on Thursday I was just looking forward to having a long weekend to read and write and just really settle back in, clean my house, take out the garbage, run the dishwasher, all the good stuff. And I stopped to get gas because on Friday I was going to have an early dentist appointment and I didn't want to stop early Friday morning to get gas.

DL White [00:02:07]:
And so while the gas is pumping, I thought, oh, I'll clean up my car while I'm at it. Something I like to do while I'm pumping gas. I get all the garbage out because I'm kind of held hostage anyway. So I grab some stuff out of the cards, just like wrappers and receipts, whatever, and I go to toss it toward the garbage can and a receipt flutters away. And I realize that my plate, my license plate number is on that receipt. It's a parking receipt. And I'm like, well, I don't want somebody to pick that up because then they could look it up and figure out, you know, where I live and come like steal me or whatever. So I am still pumping gas, right? And so I lift my leg to kind of just hop over the gas pump hose because I'm 51.

DL White [00:02:56]:
But in my mind I'm like in my 30s still. I'm still agile and can move with stealth and agility. Yeah, no, I tripped over the hose and then caught myself going down, banged my head against the car and came crashing down. To the pavement. My foot is caught in the hose of. Of the, like, the gas pump hose. Car's still filling up, and I'm kind of, like, just laying there, and my ankle is hurting a lot. My palms are all scratched up.

DL White [00:03:35]:
My glasses are in the middle of the parking lot, and I'm still looking at that dang receipt I gotta pick up, and I'm, like, just laying there, and this dude hoofs it over. Ma', am, ma', am, you all right? You all right? So he helps me up, and I'm, like, limping and hobbling. He's like, I'll finish pumping your gas. You go sit in the car. And I was like, I got, got. Got. I got it. This is done.

DL White [00:03:59]:
I got it. I'm reminded of. Let me be this person and quote my own book. I'm reminded of Neverlist when. Spoiler. In the first chapter, Esme is accosted, and a guy tries to take her purse. And she fights him off until he hits her. And she goes down, and she hears Trey come out of the restaurant and, like, take this dude out.

DL White [00:04:30]:
And she's kind of. And she's kind of woozy or whatever, but she's just ready to get in the car and go. And so she gets in the car, and she, like, stumbles over and grabs her purse and shoves all the stuff back in sight and sits in the car and starts the car. And then she's like, whoa. What? What is. Listen, I just want to get home. And I tell people all the time, there is so much more of me and Esme than any of my other heroines because that is 100% a DL white, Dominique white. Dom White reaction.

DL White [00:05:08]:
I just was like, I. I hung the thing up. Nope, I don't want a receipt. Get me in this car. I turned the car on. Can I press the gas pedal? Yes. Because it is foot. My dominary, primary, dominant driving foot.

DL White [00:05:26]:
I can still drive, so. And I'm, like, five minutes really from my house. So I'm driving. I get in the car. I drive away. I'm shaking because adrenaline, you know? And I'm like, I did. I did make sure I thank the dude for helping me up on my kids, you know, the is done. Thank you so much.

DL White [00:05:50]:
I'm just going home. So I did, though, make sure to grab that receipt, and I put it back in my car so I could rip it up and throw away in my own garbage can anyhow, because that's the kind of person I am. So I get home, and my I feel my ankle swelling up. I just, I feel it swelling up and I'm like, I need to get. I need to get like something cold and like chill out and put it up. And so I limp into the house and I feel it kind of. It's throbbing and. But like, I can walk.

DL White [00:06:33]:
I'm hobbling around, but I, I can walk and I have stairs in my house, which I really tried to get away from. But I didn't like any of the single level condos that I looked at. I didn't want any ran because I don't want to do yard work and I don't want to shovel snow like the, the two times in five years that it snows here in Atlanta. But lately it's been snowing like every year. And no, thank you. I want nothing to do with outside. And so I moved into a managed community and I have a townhome and I'm just kind of still really getting used to the stairs, even though we had stairs in the old house. And I climbed two flights of stairs every day when leaving and coming anyway, hobble my way upstairs.

DL White [00:07:14]:
I put on my house dress. I don't wear real clothes when I'm in the house. I put on a house dress or like some like loose sweats and a long T shirt or whatever. I don't wear clothes or clothes in the house. I don't get dressed, get dressed until it's time to leave. So I put on my house dress and sit on the bed. And I'm looking at my ankle and it's huge. It's huge, you guys, huge.

DL White [00:07:36]:
And I'm thinking, I get on the Internet and I go, how do I know if your ankle is broken? I'm like, I do not want to go to urgent care. And I'm like, like, I'm gonna give it a day or so, let it chill out, take some pain meds, do, you know, rest, ice cold. It's rest, ice, compressed elevation. So got some stuff to wrap it, stuck it in. You know, I had a, you know, a cold bag of ice, whatever, cold, cold pack, compress, whatever. And I kind of chilled out for the night. And by Friday morning, it was very ugly. But honestly, by like midday on Friday, it wasn't doing too bad.

DL White [00:08:26]:
I could stand, I could walk. And here we are. Well, Saturday it started, you know, feeling much better. I can, like, you know, up and down the stairs. I can walk as long as I've got shoes on. I'm doing good. I'm not so good barefoot, but shoes make all the difference. And here we are Sunday afternoon.

DL White [00:08:44]:
It's the swelling has gone down considerably and it is purple, but not a whole lot of pain, let me tell you. You use your ankle muscles getting up and down off the toilet, did you? Are you aware of that? So I've been kind of man down all weekend, which you would would think would be a good opportunity to like get in all the books and get in all the writing, but I've been so preoccupied with is my ankle bro and do I need to go to urgent care? Is it starting to feel better? Can it bear weight? Is the swelling going down? Is the bruising going up my leg? Like these are all the signs of like an actual fracture. Probably still need to get it X rayed, but as of Sunday it's actually, it looks worse than it feels and that could be the pain reliever. But I did get some naproxen for the swelling. And let me tell you, that stuff is, is a miracle drug. And I allowed myself to order Church's chicken. And here's a feel good story. I, I like churches.

DL White [00:09:55]:
I don't like Popeyes. The only thing at Popeyes that I like is the chicken sandwich and on occasion the red beans and rice. But I do not like Popeyes chicken and I do not like Popeyes biscuits. So I order Church's because I love their biscuits. And I order the four piece dark with two sides. And I'm thinking, hey, Friday, Saturday, I'm, I'm good for meals because my, my stomach is a very small being in my body now and I can eat, you know, like a, you know, a couple tablespoons of corn, a couple tablespoons of green beans and a piece of chicken. I'm good for hours and a biscuit and so like that. Honestly, two days of meals that got me lunch and dinner because I rarely eat breakfast.

DL White [00:10:43]:
So I order and I'm thinking I'm getting legs and thighs, which is fine, but Church's likes me because they gave me four crispy thighs and the thigh is my favorite cut of meat. And so you would think it would be the wing. And I do adore wings, but only because they're easy to eat and they're not breaded. But anyway, to make myself feel better, I ordered Church's chicken with two sides and biscuits. And let me tell you, that was some delicious eating. I pulled up the movies channel and I have just been watching movies and documentaries and surfing the Internet and having a good time convalescing. And so that's my excuse. I'M sticking to it.

DL White [00:11:33]:
So I'm very late getting back into the swing of things. I have read like three books in October. I don't remember what they are, but now it is Glocktober and. And I should probably at some point. I have like a list of books that I'm planning to read this month. I have a lot of Steve Kavanaugh I want to get to. I did read the new John Grisham or the upcoming John Grisham. I could say the Widow.

DL White [00:12:01]:
I am a special person and better than everyone. And so I had an advanced listening copy of the Grisham. The Grisham. I am not on any drugs. This is just me, naturally the Widow by John Grisham and not me being surprised. John Grisham wrote a good book, people. It's readable. And that is a delight and surprise from Mr.

DL White [00:12:26]:
John Grisham. So the Widow was good. I had another couple books I tried to get into, but I just could not. So it. They disappeared like it never even happened. Coming up, I have the Scammer by Tiffany D. Jackson. And I have never read a Tiffany D.

DL White [00:12:46]:
Jackson before because she writes for young adults and I am not a young adult. But I did hear that the Scammer was good. And so I also have. I have an audio copy of that. I don't remember if I bought it or if I got. I think I got an advanced copy of it because special. And so I'm gonna cue that up and get that down the gul it and then I'm going to dig into some Steve Kavanaugh. And I know I have some books by black thriller authors that I want to get into this month.

DL White [00:13:18]:
But, you know, October is a fun one. I am also writing. You know, I came up with the idea for Layover just like random out of the blue because someone on Threads was railing against only one bed tropes and they were like, stop using writing this trope. And I said no. And so a story started writing itself in my head. And that one is pretty much just ready like it's written. But I like to go over it and go over it and go over and go over it. And so that one won't be coming probably until late November.

DL White [00:13:50]:
But I got an idea for another one that should be coming out like late October, perhaps early November. It is not. It's not Halloween themed. It's a harvest novella so that I don't have to pressure myself by getting it. Getting it out by October 31st. But I did at Black Book Bash I saw my good, good girlfriend, D. Danielle Allen. I told her how I was so inspired by the hot holiday hookups and what keeps me from watching the news and having an absolute crash out is putting my head in a book, watching movies, writing stories.

DL White [00:14:29]:
And so that's what I've been doing. That's where Grumpy Valentine came from. That's where Clover and Baking Bad came from. That's where missing persons came from. Calculated Risk was last year, but that's also out. I stuck that in Kindle Unlimited just to park it somewhere until the new year and then I'm probably going to do a new cover and do a wide release. But for right now I just want it somewhere. I just parked it in Kindle Unlimited.

DL White [00:14:55]:
So if you have a membership, go snatch up Calculated Risk if you haven't read it. It is a really good one. I saw, I accidentally saw a review that said it was a heartwarming story and thank you so much random reviewer person for that. I also was in the booth for a little bit in early October and I recorded Calculated Risk on audio. Now, am I Wesley Siobhan? No. Am I Sean Krisden? Absolutely not. Am I a Denver Le Ojo? Bonnie Tarpon? No. That's why the audiobook is only $5.

DL White [00:15:30]:
You're getting. That's you're getting what you get. But it's in audio and I'm happy with how it turned out. I think it turned out great. I also don't forget recorded Grumpy Valentine in audio and drinks that min audio. And so they are available. All of them, I believe, are wide. None of them are exclusive to my website.

DL White [00:15:52]:
So you could go to say, Libro fm, snag yourself a copy of that. I believe they should also be available to your local library. Calculated Risk should also be available to your local library to request. If it's not, it will be soon because new rules say that books that are in Kindle Unlimited can now be at your local library. And so that is a fun thing. So I loaded that up at Draft two Digital and distributed it to Libby and Hoopla. Fun times. So the audio is also available there.

DL White [00:16:29]:
So you know, Nook Kobo, Kobo Plus. All of my books except for anything exclusive I. E. Kindle Unlimited and stuff that's exclusive to my website would be available at Kobo plus and that includes audio. So if you are a member at Kobo plus at like for like $11.99 you get ebook and audio. I just don't know why. I just don't know Why y' all haven't snatched up that deal. It's incredible.

DL White [00:16:54]:
I'm not a salesperson, but my right leg is asleep, which means I'm leaning a lot on the. No, my left leg is asleep, which means I'm leaning a lot on my right foot, which is hurting. So I need to bring this little chit chat session to an end. But I just wanted to, like, pop in and say hello. I. I live, I breathe, I am here. I reading, I am watching, I am writing. Keep those eyes and ears open for new stuff coming from DL White.

DL White [00:17:26]:
And, you know, if. If the situation keeps getting bad, I'm just gonna keep writing because it's. It's all I know how to do. Yeah. So thanks for joining me for this madcap, zany update in which I told you nothing but be encouraged and laugh at my stories. Yeah. All the good stuff that I usually put at the end. All of it.

DL White [00:17:53]:
Yes. The booksbydlwhite.com linkinbio has all of the links. I did update my links page this week, so that should all be current. Check out everything everywhere. Follow me at all the places. Author DL White or author underscore DLWhite, including substack. I have updated my short fiction substack with more chapters of A Misadventure in Cloudcroft, which is like one of the most fun fan fiction stories I've ever written in life. I really, really enjoy.

DL White [00:18:22]:
I think I did a great, great job on that one. So that's been going up on my short fiction substack. You can find all the links to everything at books by dlwhite.com linkinbio and lastly, if you're on threads, I've been on there a lot on threads, Blue Sky, Instagram, a tiny, tiny bit of TikTok. But it's mostly just reposting what I'm putting on Instagram. So there we are. I will try to be back in full, my full form. Fingers crossed. No promises, but that is the plan.

DL White [00:18:57]:
You all have yourselves a superlative, superlative week. Have an excellent time, get a good book and put your face into it. Because watching a dumpster burn doesn't put out the fire. You know what I'm saying? All right, we'll talk soon. Bye bye. But.