Bookcast Episode 132: November Wrap up, New Releases, Winding Down

In this episode, I run through my full Nonfiction November reading list, talk about my latest holiday releases, share updates on direct sales and writing plans, and chat a bit about what I’ve been watching while I settle into my end-of-year break.

Books Discussed

– A Devil Went Down to Georgia: Race, Power, Privilege, and the Murder of Leta McClinton — Deb Miller Landau
– Forever Kind of Love (Bayou Dreams Book One) — Farrah Rochon
– Black. White.: The Hidden History of an Insurrection, A Family’s Southern Town, and Identity in America — Loretta Malloy Noble
– A Bitter Ending: A Brother’s 30-Year Quest to Uncover the Truth About His Sister’s Death — Thomas James Whitfield
– Systemic: How Racism Is Making Us Sick — Layal Liverpool
– Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup — John Carreyrou
– The Photograph — Brian Freeman
– Booed Up — Nina High
– The Ruination of Michael Sterling — Tasha L. Harrison
– Peaches and Honey: A Small Town Sapphic Romance — Karmen Lee
– No Place for the Working: Homeless in America — Brian Goldstone
– Chilling on Thanksgiving — Jessica Terry
– Layover: An Only One Bed Holiday Novella — D.L. White
– Open for Business: A Riviel Romance — Brit W.
– Q & C: The Teachers of Hardwood High — Nina High
– Cults Like Us: How Doomsday Thinking Drives America — Jane Borden
– Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present — Harriet A. Washington (referenced)

My Releases Mentioned

– Decorative Gourd Season
– Layover
– Home for the Holidays
– A Calculated Risk (audio)
– Drinks at Minx (audio)
– Grumpy Valentine (audio)

Holiday Bundle: All winter holiday novellas — available at booksbydlwhite.com/holiday - $9.99! 

Writing & Publishing Updates

– Newsletter-first release strategy (24-hour exclusives)
 – Website store gets releases before retail
 – Retail distribution: Amazon, Google Play, Draft2Digital
 – Taking December off to rest and refill the creative well
 – Planning next writing cycle for early 2026

What I’m Watching

– CW adaptation of Taj McCoy’s book
 – Matlock
– Elsbeth
– Watson
– Sheriff Country
– Brilliant Minds
– The Beast in Me — Netflix
– Life After MLM — Rebecca Blevins (podcast)

Other Mentions

– Holiday decorating
 – Be Rooted 2026 planner
 – Direct sales goals for 2026
 – Self-narrated audiobooks and distribution updates

Transcript

DL White [00:00:00]:
Foreign. Welcome back book pals. This is episode 132 of the Bookcast, my platform for sharing short fiction and updates on life as a self published author. Author. I am your host, D.L. white. I write, I don't know, kissing books, romantic mysteries, black fiction, all the good stuff, short stuff, long stuff, fanfiction, etc. Etc.

DL White [00:00:43]:
I'mma keep it 100. I don't know what I'm talking about today. I decided I had to record today since I skipped a week again. But y' all know if I don't have anything to say, I don't drag myself down the hall to record. But. But I am here mostly because I have a new release and so I want to talk about it. It's also month end so we have a little wrap up and it's also the end of a theme month so we get to talk about the books that I read. I'm not gonna do a little coffee break here cause I'm trying to get out of this closet by 6 o'.

DL White [00:01:19]:
Clock. So that gives me just a little under 30 minutes. Tonight is the premiere of Savvy She Something or Other. I like. I've been looking at it all day and right when I want to talk about it, I can't remember the name of it. But that's coming on the CW tonight and I'm trying to get my things together so I can sit down and watch it with the crew on threads. Taj McCoy is the author of the book and it's been turned into. Is it a movie or series? I can't remember.

DL White [00:01:52]:
But anyway, it's coming on the CW tonight and I'm very excited about it. So I'm trying to like get all my ducks in a row, all my stuff out the way, get something good to eat and drink and sit down and watch it with the romance girlies. But right now we are here to talk about the books. So it is today's November 30th and normally I would try to wait a day to wrap up the month, but I tried to start a book today to give me one more and I just, I couldn't get into it. My brain is tired. I think I'm at about 17 books for November and it is a theme month. It's Nonfiction November. And I think I said this last week or maybe the week before.

DL White [00:02:39]:
This is the first year I've really, really enjoyed Nonfiction November. And sometimes I'll see a nonfiction book and I'll kind of tag it just so I remember it's there because like I'm gonna. I'm gonna hold that for nonfiction November in case I don't find anything I really want to read. But this year I found some pretty good books. And I also mixed in a bit of romance and I think, like, maybe one thriller in there. So let's talk about the books I read in November. This might be a little bit of a repeat because I think I talked about a few of them last week, but I just like to do one big, like, roundup of all the books I talked about. So started the month off.

DL White [00:03:25]:
Nonfiction month off with A Devil Went down to Georgia. Race, Power, Privilege, and the murder of Leta McClinton. I really enjoyed this one. I would say every book I read this month, I compared to this one, it was super well done. I would watch a documentary about this story. It was quite good. And then I read Farah Rashaun Forever Kind of Love by youy Dreams, Book one. I told y' all that I've been begging Farah to bring these books back.

DL White [00:03:55]:
So since Kimani gave her her rights back, she just hadn't had time to really get them edited. But she resold them to Honey Blossom Press and they've been putting them out in ebook and audio. And I could not be a happier girl. So Forever Kind of Love came out in November and I believe the next book in this series is coming in December. And I personally can't wait. Then I moved on to Black White the Hidden History of an Insurrection, A Family's Southern Town and Identity in America by Loretta Malloy Noble. This was okay, just a bit dry. Then I moved on to a bitter ending.

DL White [00:04:36]:
A brother's 30 year quest to uncover the truth about his sister's death. By Thomas James Whitfield. This was also really good. Very well done. Not better than A Devil Went down to Georgia, but well done. I think probably because it was about murder. Yeah, this is just basically a man trying to figure out what happened to his sister who they said she committed died by suicide, but her husband was a cop. So, yeah, let's find out what actually happened.

DL White [00:05:08]:
And then I moved on to Systemic How Racism Is Making Us Sick by Lael Liverpool. This was very. This was a lot. This book reminds me why I didn't finish medical apartheid. It was just rough. Just case after case after case of how people just assuming things about races that aren't white and how it is hurting us. Yeah, that was a. That was a rough one.

DL White [00:05:36]:
That was a rough read. I kind of dragged myself through that one, but I recovered with bad blood Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou. This was about Theranos. I feel like I've listened to a bunch of podcasts about Theranos and did not have any idea what it really was about, but went deep into Elizabeth Holmes and all the people that worked for the company and the people that worked with her. I feel like I know a lot about Theranos now. This was, this was very well done. Then I picked up photograph by Brian Freeman, who I really enjoy when he's not writing a Jason Bourne novel. This was okay, kind of, um, I got kind of lost.

DL White [00:06:20]:
I feel like Brian is trying to move into paranormal sci fi and you know, like when I was practicing writing mystery and it was just kind of weak, but you're like, oh, bless you. I feel like, I feel like this is the situation here. It's a Brian Freeman. So it's written well, but sometimes the story just doesn't flow in a way. I understand it. Yeah. So then I read Booed up, a Halloween novella by Nina High, who is one of my favorite new to me authors. I've been kind of gobbling up her catalog and she been putting them out, buddy.

DL White [00:06:56]:
She been putting them out. And then I read the Ruination of Michael Sterling by my fave, Tasha L. Harrison. This was very good. It was, it was more woo woo magic. I carry rocks in my pocket. I do a ritual at sunset. It was a lot more of that than I like.

DL White [00:07:22]:
However, the underlying story was so good that it pulled me through that. Really good. Very well written, very different from her previous offerings. Most of her offerings are, you know, romance, romance, high steam, spicy, if you will, poly, that sort of thing. This one was very different, but very well written. I don't want to say, but very well written and very well written. Then I picked up Peaches and Honey, a small town Sapphic romance by Carmen Lee. This is another Honey Blossom press release.

DL White [00:08:10]:
Really enjoy this one. This one actually, I just keep saying things that I don't mean in a derogatory manner. This one was actually good. I don't mean this one was actually good. I mean this one was actually really, really good. I love a small town romance. Something about a small town just really piques my interest. So I snatched this up the day it came out.

DL White [00:08:33]:
Really enjoyed it. I listened to it on audio. It was very well performed. Then I was watching. I was on TikTok one day and I saw CBS Sunday Morning how to report on the poor, the people who are poor and in poverty. And we're hearing so much about SNAP being cut and how people, most of the recipients of SNAP are people that work. They just don't make enough to, you know, pay for life and food. And so I was really interested in this book that they based their story on because their story was set in Atlanta.

DL White [00:09:06]:
This book is called no Place for Working and Homeless in America by Brian Goldstone. And wow, this book is really sobering. Like it's just story after story after story, but it highlights to me how close you can be. Like, they always say you're like one to two paychecks away from being homeless. And it's never more true than it is in this book. All it takes is one accident or one catastrophe or one missed paycheck or one phenomena or, you know, it just takes one thing to send something crashing through your life and then everything falls like a domino and then you have to get public assistance. And so this was a really eye openening read, especially since much of it is set in Atlanta and it really shows you how a large portion of the city is living and it's. It's not.

DL White [00:10:10]:
It's not good, y'. All. It is not good. Then I picked up Chilling on Thanksgiving by Jessica Terry. This was really good. This was actually. I gotta stop saying actually. Why do I keep.

DL White [00:10:23]:
I can't stop. Stop doing it. This was very good. It's about a mom who's been giving her all and her family is taking advantage of that and so she decides that she is going on strike for Thanksgiving. It was funny. It was relatable. Even though I've never been in this sit, I definitely could feel and relate and put myself in the main character's shoes. I was definitely mumbling at her family and like, I know that's right on every page.

DL White [00:10:54]:
Pick this up if you want, like a fun Thanksgiving read. It's called Chilling on Thanksgiving by Jessica Terry. Then I read this little ditty called Layover in only one bed. Holiday Novella by D.L. white. You might have heard of her. We'll talk about that one later. I read Open for Business.

DL White [00:11:13]:
Riviel Romance by Brit W. That was like a super quick read. Q and C, the teachers of Hardwood High. Another Nina High release this. I think I grabbed this like the day or the day after it dropped. And she still has one more coming, so I'm all over it. If Nina is releasing it, I'm snatching it up. And then yesterday I picked up Cults Like Us.

DL White [00:11:40]:
How Doomsday Thinking Drives America. I heard I'm Sorry by Jane Borden I heard about this book on Rebecca Blevins podcast Life after mlm. You might remember that name from the documentary on Lularoe and how that was a big old Ponzi. Not Ponzi scheme, but multi level marketing scam. Anyway, she has a podcast she's been running for a few years called Life after mlm. It's my Sunday listen. So I heard this author on that podcast and this book is scary. It is very scary.

DL White [00:12:16]:
If you read anything on like QAnon or if you've read anything on how again, multi level marketing and pyramid schemes and cults and systems of belief control a lot of society, nay the world, including government and our politics, this will ring familiar to you. It was very eye opening. It was a bit of a scary read to sort of recognize the patterns that you see and pick them up in things that are happening today, like recently in this current administration. So I would say pick this up. If your nerves aren't bad. If your nerves are bad, you should skip this one. I listened to it in audio. Yeah.

DL White [00:13:07]:
So I wanted to grab something else to sort of cleanse my palette, but I picked up a thriller that just, just wasn't working for me. And I was like, you know what, Nevermind, never mind. I'm gonna, I'm gonna watch Tubi. So what I actually did was I picked up a copy. I picked up Home for the Holidays, which was my 2023 holiday novella. And I started reading that just because I was. I've been in the mood to read it. So that's kind of how I cleansed my palette on the writing front.

DL White [00:13:41]:
So decorative board season came out in early. No. And that one's doing okay. It looks like I have sold 17 copies of that. So, you know, for a holiday short, that's like 15,000 words. It's like, you know, I don't really set an expectation. I just want it to be out and I want it to, you know, it's meant to be evergreen. So every year around the harvest season, I'm going to pop up the link to this book and be like, hey, I wrote a holiday short.

DL White [00:14:16]:
Come snatch it up right here. I get new readers every day. I grab new readers every year. There are a lot of people that have never read my books. And these 99 cent, 199, 299 books are a great introduction to my catalog. And so one of my goals for doing the holiday themed novellas was to start writing short. Just write, you know, put out a bunch of short fiction books so that I'M not writing, you know, 99,000 words, 110,000 word books anymore. But also just to have like these quick bites out that people can get an idea of what I write and how I write and see if they like my style, you know, my voice, my manner of presenting myself to the world.

DL White [00:15:08]:
So decorative board season came out and then I released Layover first to my newsletter. The newsletter from now on is getting the link first, which means I have to strategically plan when I put stuff out because the newsletter has to get it 24 hours before everybody else does. So the newsletter got it Thursday and then I put it out Friday afternoon for the masses and only on my website. So it is exclusive to the books by D.L. white store. And then this week I will start loading it up to the retail sites. That's the rhythm that I want to be striking with everything I put out, the newsletter gets the link first to get a private link that nobody, you can't access unless you have been sent the link. And then it goes live on my store and it is exclusive to my store until I decide that it is time to go up on the retail sites.

DL White [00:16:15]:
And I know some authors like Alexandria House, have a monetary goal that they said it doesn't go up on retail until they hit a certain amount on their store. I don't really sell like that and so I don't know if I can do that. It would like never hit retail if I. If I had that kind of goal. But, you know, we'll. We'll see. I would like to work towards that kind of thing. I get to a point where I'm selling so well direct that I can hit a monetary goal before it heads over to libraries and retail.

DL White [00:16:51]:
But I do direct to Amazon, Google Play and my store and then Draft 2 Digital serves everybody else. All of the subscription places like Everand, you know, Fable, whatever, and also libraries, which feeds Libby and hoopla, et cetera. So I am you know, really always still refining my sales process and how I do things. Seems to be working, albeit slow, but working. I have, I did break a hundred dollars for the month, so that is very good. It's the last day of the month, so between I'm looking at Scribe count, which for some reason hasn't been picking up drafted digital numbers. So between the numbers I have here and drafted digital numbers, I'm over 200 for the month. So that's a very good month for me.

DL White [00:17:54]:
I'm really. I want to try to kick it up in 2026 and get back to making Good money on my books that will require me to write more books, write better books, put myself out there. So I think I did. I think I did okay for the year, but, you know, can always do better. Can always do better. So layover is out. Decorative gourd season are out. And that marks the end of writing season for author D.L.

DL White [00:18:29]:
white. I like to. A new thing I'm doing is to take December off, get everything all written in the fall so it can release November, December, and then I can promote, promote, promote. But I don't do any writing. I know for me, when I am writing a lot, as I have been this year, I think I put out six projects in 2025. I need a lot of time between projects so that I can reset. There's a concept that I can't really put it into words. I can't repeat it like I heard it, but I know it's from Becca Syme where she talks about letting the ground lay fallow.

DL White [00:19:14]:
And you have to kind of like you sort of. There's this concept where they burn the crops and then they sort of let it grow fallow. And that is then the best foundation for new seed to grow. So I just want to spend December reading, relaxing my brain, like refilling the. Well, you know, I might pick up some craft books. Can't promise I'll read them, but I might pick up some, you know, good craft books. But craft for people who are discovery writers. Craft for people who don't like to plan very intricately.

DL White [00:19:54]:
Because I do like the story to develop in my mind. I do like to tell myself the story over and over again and let it build and let it sort of marinate. So then I add on and add on and add on and flesh out and primp and plump until it's time to turn it over to my editor who makes it shine. So I will be off the pen or off the computer until I'm planning on February. But there's a 20k in five days at the end of January, so we'll see. I have been trying to get the next Potter Lake novel out and it just isn't gelling in my mind. So I might be thinking on how to get that out. And I just also feel like it's just maybe it's just not time to write it.

DL White [00:20:43]:
I've been trying to write still. I rise for three years and it's just not coming like I have, you know, as usual, I have my usual eight chapters and then it kind of falls apart. And like, I don't know how it ends. I don't, you know, so I gotta, I really need to like be thinking on that and how to work on that and also, you know, come up with some new ideas for shorts I want to write. Doing more short fiction also in 2026, trying to share more short fiction and putting some of my books in audio. I experimented this year with recording my own audio. I. I don't think they sound too bad.

DL White [00:21:27]:
I did audio for a calculated risk for Drinks at Minx and Grumpy Valentine and I think they turned out good. I priced them lower because I'm not a professional, but they're out there. They're like $5 5.99 or whatever. And you can get those wherever you get audiobooks. Some of them aren't up at Spotify yet and I'm not worrying about it. But there are on like CH and Everand also they're not on Audible. I pulled my books from Audible cause I'm tired. I'm tired of them.

DL White [00:22:01]:
And I know that people are stuck on Audible, but they're also for sale at my website and so you can always listen to them through Book Funnel. That reminds me, I bought a book on Book Funnel yesterday, an audiobook. So maybe, maybe I can slide that one in for one more book for November. That would give me 18 books, which is an even number, which I know makes Kay very happy. As far as anything else, tomorrow's December 1st, which is wild. Absolutely crazy. Thanksgiving is over, which means it was time to decorate my first house for the holiday. So a friend of mine gave me a generous gift card.

DL White [00:22:46]:
And so I spent that picking up objects here and there. I got a tree, I got different decorations, I got lights, I got little snowflake decals to put on my windows. And so I just spent have spent this Thanksgiving holiday getting my house looking all festive. It's very, very pretty. On my banister upstairs, I have these, I think, I don't know, mulberries or whatever. They look like mulberries. It's like a string of white, white berries. And then I have these three battery powered lights.

DL White [00:23:22]:
They look like flickering candles, but they're actually lights. I'm still traumatized from the smoke alarm going off, so I don't want to light any candles right now. So. But they're battery powered. So I put those up on my banister because I wanted that to look a little bit festive. And then in my office I have lights around the window. And then I have like a little faux plant that sits behind me. And so I strung some lights through that so that will look very festive while I am on my team's calls for work.

DL White [00:23:55]:
And then downstairs I got a tree. I have an eight foot tree and it's got all manner of bulbs and ornaments on it, different sizes. I went with like gold, cream, silver. So it goes with the rest of, of the motif of my living room. I just mainly went with a lot of gold. And I have the tree skirt. And then I put lights up around the front window and I positioned the tree so you can see it through the front window as you drive past the house. And then I got a wreath.

DL White [00:24:35]:
It's a, like a real live tree wreath to put on the front door. And a festive holiday mat. I feel like I'm the only person in the neighborhood that has decorations up and I'm gonna need the rest of the neighborhood to get on it because I'm in the holiday spirit. So you know what I'm saying? So anyhow, that's what's going on at this house. And any opportunity I have to be at home and stay at home, I will be taking it. So just so I can enjoy my mortgage and all of this festivity and joy I have going on here. So I'm gonna spend December like I'm way behind on TV shows. I haven't watched Matlock in like four weeks.

DL White [00:25:24]:
I don't know Matlock, Elsbeth, although they probably skipped it this week. But I have been keeping up on other, other stuff. Watson has been really good this season. I'm still mad they canceled Equalizer, but Watson's been good. Sheriff Country, I just started watching Brilliant Minds has been really good. What else have I been watching? I watched something on Netflix. Oh, the Beast in her. The Beast in Me with Claire Danes.

DL White [00:25:57]:
Holy, holy moly. Really good. Really, really good. Go watch it. It's. It's a thriller. It's very good. And then a couple other things I've been.

DL White [00:26:12]:
I, I didn't, I didn't know anything down, but I just been, you know, dipping in and out here and there, watching whatever, you know. I love a documentary. I like a thriller. I like it like an action movie. I am not much for a rom com or a drama, but I'm just gonna spend December decompressing and trying to get ready for 2026. Speaking of 2026, I almost always get an always fully booked planner from Little Inklings Design. And this year I was so busy with work that I missed the drop. I missed the drop.

DL White [00:26:50]:
And it's limited time. They won't do another run. They might have some extras that they'll put on sale this week. So I'm gonna try to snag one. But if I don't, I got one from Be Rooted, which is a black woman owned company that I am going to use in 2026. But you know, I am. I feel like I'm gonna miss. I feel like I'm gonna miss my always fully booked.

DL White [00:27:12]:
The thing about that is I don't use any of it except the monthly calendar and the wrap up page. And so spending $60 on a planner to only use 12 pages of it, it's just a lot. I just, I don't use, I don't use all the pages. I just, I think they're neat. I just don't use them. So I got one that will serve the purpose I need. It's dated, which is a must for me. I hate an undated agenda.

DL White [00:27:46]:
I don't want a bullet journal. I don't want to create a journal. I want it created for me. I want it to be ready to use. So I did get that and it's super cute. It's got black women on the front. So I'm excited. I'm excited to use it.

DL White [00:28:02]:
I just know I'm gonna miss my fully booked planner anyhow. So I've got two minutes to wrap this up. So thank you for joining me for today's Rambly Updatey podcast. Go grab Decorative gourd season. It's fun. Go grab layover. It's steamy. I really like layover.

DL White [00:28:23]:
I. I worked on layover much longer than I worked on decorative gourd season. That was just something that popped up in my head and I was like, yeah, we're writing this. We're putting it out. Go boom. I really enjoyed layover. I think it came out very well. Anything else out there? I have a whole bunch of holiday nolas books by dlwhite.com holiday I even have a book bundles.

DL White [00:28:45]:
You can get them all. All the winter holiday novellas. So it doesn't include Grumpy Valentine or Clover. Snatch it up $9.99 for like a whole bunch of winter holiday novellas. You cannot beat that with anything. $5.59. Okay, so thanks for joining me. I have to go because I have a ton of things to do and not really because I like it that way.

DL White [00:29:12]:
Six o'. Clock. Okay, bye. Booksbydailwhite.com bookcast132 is where you will find all the show notes. Booksbydlwhite.com linkinbio is where you will find all of the important links, even links to reach out to me. All of the good stuff, all the important stuff that I think you should be looking at. So have a superlative. Wake up and we'll talk soon.

DL White [00:29:39]:
Bye Bye.