Aug. 26, 2025

From Reader to Writer: Lakisha Burkett's Creative Evolution

Louisiana author Lakisha Burkett shares her journey from avid reader to published writer, revealing how personal experiences and her grandmother's stories shape her emotionally charged novels.

• Writing journey began with husband's support, who bought her first book cover
• Draws story inspiration from real-life experiences and family stories
• "Dear Diary" inspired by grandmother's stories, written in just one month
• Creates realistic endings that don't always resolve happily
• Book "Everybody Ain't Your Friend" based on a real toxic friendship
• Balances motherhood, working from home, and writing at her own pace
• Upcoming book "Let You Down" explores difficult choices when dreams clash with family obligations
• Writes part-time but aspires to potentially become a full-time author
• Husband is also writing a book series

Find Lakisha Burkett on Instagram at there_go_keisha, on TikTok as Arthur Lakisha Burkett, and on Facebook as LaKeisha Burton.

outro

00:00 - Meet LaKeisha Burkett

09:50 - 'Dear Diary': A Heartbreaking Tale

18:30 - Crafting Realistic Character Stories

27:00 - Real-Life Inspiration Behind 'Everybody Ain't Your Friend'

35:00 - Future Projects and Writing Process

42:00 - Balancing Motherhood and Indie Authorship

WEBVTT

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Hey y'all.

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Hey, you are watching and listening to Licks Between the Lines and I am your host, licks, and I am going to let the author introduce herself.

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I'm so excited because she is one of my faves and she is actually from Louisiana.

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For the most part, I'm going to stay in between the lines and I will not cross them.

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Today, I'm going to be on my best behavior for one of my faves.

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Go ahead and introduce yourself.

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Well, hello everyone.

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My name is LaKeisha Burkett, arthur LaKeisha Burkett, and I classify myself still as an upcoming Arthur because I've only put out about three books.

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But I'm from Louisiana, a meet to be specific, and I've always enjoyed reading.

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Before anything, I I would read a lot of books and one day I said you know what, maybe I could, you know, write my own stories.

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And that's kind of how it started.

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Um, and to be honest, like you know, my husband actually was the one who truly motivated me to write.

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Um, he brought my first cover for me.

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Like when I said that I wanted to start writing books, he really like said, okay, well, we gonna make sure you do that.

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So, um, shout out to him as well, and he also has a book coming out himself soon.

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But back to me, back to me, back to me because, look, when you said that, my mind went to like start, start asking questions, but I want to reel it in focus, I gotta focus.

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So when you said that you told him that you wanted to start writing and he went and bought you a cover, like what was that process like to be?

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Like, okay, I want to write my first book.

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What was the first step?

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well, the first step was I had to do a lot of research.

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Um, you know, I wanted to and it's not a lot of YouTube for, like, black authors, there's just not a lot of background research for that, but I did manage to come across a few videos that kind of, you know, broke down the process of what type of books do you want to write, what is your style of writing, the publication part, like where do you want to upload your book?

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You know things like that.

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So that was like the first step.

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Then, of course, the second step was okay, well, what am I going to write about?

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And the reason my books flow so well, if anyone's ever read them, is because most of the things I write about in my book are things that truly happen, you know, to me, or something I've experienced.

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So it's just easier to write.

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And then, thirdly, it was just, you know, getting my laptop, you know finding a little quiet space and just, you know, writing, and honestly, it takes me a good year to probably write one book, and that's because I truly take my time.

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I try not to rush the process.

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Um, and once I was finished, you know he offered to, you know, get the cover for me.

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So where did you guys get the cover from?

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it was a girl that we found on Instagram.

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I don't remember her name, but, uh, she still.

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We still follow each other to this day, but she, um, she does cover designs has she made any of your other covers um?

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No, she only made that one.

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And then my girl Deandra, who's also an author from Louisiana.

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She put me on ways to kind of make different designs myself, because it's all about trying to be self-evident for the most part.

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That was going to be one of my other questions.

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How did you meet anybody in the industry to help along the way or the editing part of it?

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Did you guys edit it yourself or did you have to send off to someone?

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no, I actually did the editing myself, which, once again, I did a lot of research on that to make sure that I was doing everything correctly.

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And hold on, because I lost my train of thought because my, I hold him, so that's fine with you yep, and so what I'm just gonna do is I'm just gonna time stamp this so that when, um, the guy goes in to edit it, I'll tell him like what parts, like what timestamps to go in and cut out.

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Okay.

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So I'll do this up some to where he's not really showing at all, because I want to continue.

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I'm going to be able to, as if I'm holding him.

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That's fine, hold on, let me adjust my stuff real quick go ahead all right.

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Yeah, he is three months, about to be four he about to be four.

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Like that's crazy.

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You were just pregnant with him and then now he's about to be four months yep, all right, this is better.

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Yep, okay, that way he starts crying or whatever I'm, which he shouldn't, but all right, what are we talking about?

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now.

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Okay, I'm gonna put it on there for him to do.

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I'm going to wait till it hits six minutes and so that way I can tell him to, um, just cut that part out from three, 56 to six minutes.

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We were talking about, uh, finding people in the industry to help of, like, put your editing, like, how did you go about your editing?

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So when it pick back up at 6.0, then we'll start.

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You can tell us about how you pick your editor or how do you edit your books.

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Okay, so, with the editing process, I definitely did some research on that as well and, like I said, youtube truly was like my best friend and I've gotten a few support from some authors.

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Like I said once again, deandra, we talk all the time.

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She gives me constructive criticism and I take it.

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You know, I'm not the type of person that can't take constructive criticism.

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I feel like if it helps me.

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I feel like if it helps me.

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What other authors I don't want to say right now, because I think one of your questions is you know who are my favorite, two of my, some of my favorite authors?

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So we have those, say, for your favorite authors, yeah, because they really are, but they also, like when I did reach out to start my journey, they kind of, you know, helped me out as well.

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But as far as the editing part of it, I pretty much do that myself.

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I read over my books a lot.

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I try to make sure that I try to make sure that I hit, you know, all the marks and everything.

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So so we are here to talk about Dear Diary and let me just say this I did not expect this book to eat me up the way that it did.

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Like I was like I don't know, because I always go into into books blind and I never read like.

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First of all it was just like the cover of the book and then it was by you, so it was like an auto read one because it was by you.

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And then when I seen the cover of a little girl, I was like, okay, well, maybe she's gonna take us through like a childhood.

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You know, I don't, I don't know, I was not expecting.

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And then when you were like your, it was inspired by, um, some of the things that your grandmother told you or you guys talked about.

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So I thought maybe we would be getting like some of your grandmother's upbringing.

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But then, as I was reading and stuff and I said, oh my goodness, it was almost like a cautionary tale.

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How like is like one of my favorites.

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Um, I truly love that book and I'm gonna be honest with you now.

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That book.

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I wrote that book in probably probably a month, like it's weird how my grandmother would tell me stories all the time, but that book it's like, it's like an ancestor or something like spoke to me the entire time, like telling me, like write this, write this, write that, and I don't know, it's not like a literal voice or nothing told me like, but it it felt like something just wanted me to get that story out.

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And, once again, you know, some of the things I put in that story were based on the things that my grandmother witnessed, you know, growing up as a girl, you know herself and if you read the book and you're from like a community where, like you know, adores, it doesn't have to be from 1940.

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It could be 2025.

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There's always Adores somewhere, a girl somewhere that's, you know, being taken advantage of or don't know how to like say anything.

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And the thing with Adores' story is that she wanted, or she tried her best, to at least tell her mom, but her mom was just like always busy until she finally figured out what was going on.

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But it took me literally a month to write that story because, like I said, it's like something just was just like hey, this is what you need to write.

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Like it took me a month to write it.

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Now my other books took me like a whole year, but that story just came I can't believe you said it took a month, because it seemed like this was like thought out for a while, like the character developments and like it seemed like it would like it.

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I just can't believe, I can't wrap my mind that you said it took you a month yeah, probably less than that, but I'm gonna give it at you a month.

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Yeah, probably less than that, but I'm going to give it at least a month, because it's like when it came, it just came.

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How was the process of writing Young Doris?

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Well, when I thought about her, I wanted to.

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You know, for one, back in those times there was a lot going on Like that book touched on so many different things, like you know, essay, if you see how some some of the kids in her class you know the boys had to drop out to go help their father in the field and stuff like that.

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Or how the mother had to endure racism just to make a dime to, you know, take care of her family.

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Or the father who suffered, you know, take care of her family.

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Or the father who suffered from, you know, alcoholism.

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Or you know the auntie who's always like I told you.

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I told you.

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But we all know somebody like that.

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We all have a family member that we could probably relate to.

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And when it came to doors, I just thought about well, I wonder if my grandmother, when she was a little girl, some of the things that she told me, maybe I could figure out a way to write about it.

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Now, the Dora story is probably one story that I can honestly say is not me.

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It's not my story necessarily, but it's my grandmother's story in a sense.

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A lot of the things that she told me she went through as a kid, or or endured as a kid.

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Matter of fact, she didn't even finish school.

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I think she said she had to drop out in like the fifth or sixth grade to go like pick cotton or or something like slavery.

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Wasn't, you know, still around when she was a kid?

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but those types of jobs for African Americans were still, you know, out there right, because I can remember my uncle and, uh, my grandfather now I'm saying that they had to leave school and stuff at different times and stuff to go and um, like pick in the fields and then like recently I had an uncle that passed away maybe a couple years ago, but up until then he still went into the fields and like picked strawberries and stuff.

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Yeah, so I definitely can, can see that now.

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I seen that it was based in louisiana, but I don't remember like is there a certain part of louisiana?

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no, for that.

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For that book I didn't really give it a certain city or town or anything like that.

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Um, because I feel like back in those days there wasn't much developed in louisiana anyway.

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It mainly was like just fields and plantations and like slave homes or you know, things like that.

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So I didn't really give it a specific location.

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But I try to.

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I try to rep louisiana in almost every book I write if I can.

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So I just put that it took place in Louisiana.

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Doris.

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The fact that all of this started unfolding around her birthday, when I tell you it, tore my heart into pieces, because this baby just was celebrating her birthday and gained another year and it was like I said, this baby gonna feel like she was being punished for making it another year like, instead of a celebration, it was almost like a punishment yeah, and I chose for things to happen around that time because back in those days, when a girl turned a certain age, even though she was still considered a child, men would start to look at girls in a different way once they reached a certain age.

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So I decided to have it unfold that way for that reason that was, and I'm gonna tell you another part that really got me, because I I was like I'm a revenge dark, like you've seen my videos in the books that I read.

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I'm a revenge dark romance type of girly and like vigilante ism is like if we can't get you the legal way, then at least you are going to get what is due yours.

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And so I was so.

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And, and linda, what is that?

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Her friend name?

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Yeah, okay, linda, you should have hushed she.

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You knew what she was going through.

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But the fact that she had to take matters into her own hand and I almost thought at one point that, because linda knew what she was going through and stuff that Linda, like they would devise a plan, like I had started formulating stuff, like they're going to devise a plan together and they're going to like jump him.

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And when Linda went to go and try and tell Now Linda why, and then fast forward to when I'm thinking that she is about to lay him out and finally get her revenge, oh, when you describe that first swipe and she missed.

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When I tell you the emotions, just, oh, my god yeah.

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So for that particular part I thought about it.

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I said I want that.

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First I was like, well, maybe I have it for where?

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Like he does in fact get her revenge.

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But then I'm like, at the end of the day, though, she is only 12 and this is an adult in a real, you know world, no kid would probably be able to get the upper hand like that.

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Um and plus, I just thought it would have added more to the story, because then that would have made her mom finally have to figure out what's been going on with my daughter, because the mom also was pregnant with another child and that child was going to turn out to be a daughter too.

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So it's like, you know, I wanted her mom to find out what was going on.

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So not only can she get revenge for doors, but she can also protect the daughter that she will have, you know, in the future good, I still, oh, I still got chills from that moment.

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And then he came back and you took this baby necklace that her grandmother gave her, that she wore to remind her of times that were better than what was going on now, and you took this baby, you took this necklace how dare I was like, how dare you put your filthy hands this book just took.

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And then the thing about it was like it wasn't even like a long, it was like a novella yeah, and that's the thing like when I do write I'm a straight to the point type of Arthur.

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I've never wrote a.

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I don't know if I would even be good at trying to remember so much from the first book to carry on to like a series.

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Now I thought about it the other day.

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I was like you know what your diary could have possibly been a series.

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Maybe he survived or something, and now we got Doris's sister probably going through something or anything.

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But I'm more of a straight-to-the-point type of author.

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Now, one thing I do say I want to get better at is probably having more length to my books and better development.

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As far as a longer story Because your diary it was really really good.

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It probably could have been longer, but I truly loved how it all flowed.

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I like how it flowed too, and there weren't any like.

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Sometimes I feel like people have fillers, unnecessary fillers, and I didn't get that with this at all.

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I like that.

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It was to the point and it wasn't just words filling in spaces to make it longer.

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Yeah, and that's the reason why, like, if I do start making longer books, I really want to take my time with them, because I don't want that.

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I want every page to be a page turner, but for it to be a little more linear.

00:17:29.867 --> 00:17:38.525
So have you taken, like any writing classes or nope, I have not.

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I just like I used to read, so so much I'm talking about.

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Before Kindle was even a thing, I would go to walk to the library and Amy got me a little library card and I would go there and go to the um African American urban fiction section and just find like some really good books and I would just read and then eventually, you know, I caught on to kindle, of course, and, um, I started to download books and whatnot.

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But I I know the type of books.

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I like stories, I like um.

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I don't read about anything if it has like a good synopsis to it, but um, I'm more so of like a.

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I like realistic stories as well are there any books or any literary works that um have influenced your writing, or anything um?

00:18:26.131 --> 00:18:31.038
well, I'll just say, like as far as my, do you remember um?

00:18:31.038 --> 00:18:34.482
Do you remember the dog series by um?

00:18:34.482 --> 00:18:36.585
I think her name is Rita Clark.

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I don't think I've ever read her.

00:18:40.769 --> 00:18:43.096
Well, she, I used to read her back in the day.

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When I say back in the day, I mean when I was a teenager.

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So she's been around for a while and her books are really, really good.

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I love how she develops her stories, her characters Like each character you're kind of invested in.

00:19:01.645 --> 00:19:08.647
So another one of my favorites is Nicole Martin-Hill.

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I don't know if you've read any of her books before.

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She's a revenge type of person.

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Like you would like her books a lot.

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Look at me trying to write these people names down.

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What's her last name?

00:19:21.059 --> 00:19:29.873
martin hill, nicole martin hill and she was one of the authors who I reached out to via instagram when I, you know, decided I wanted to start writing.

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She was very supportive with my journey, wish me the best of luck.

00:19:34.119 --> 00:19:38.885
And I know you know Octavia Grant is.

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I love her books.

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Like the girl is unhinged, like her books are just, her books are so good, like I truly, truly enjoy her books and I say this a lot.

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But I'm also say my girl, deandra, because her books remind me of my, my writing style as well.

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If you ever read her books I'm sure you have she has more of those realistic type of characters as well and those realistic type of stories.

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I just truly love reading stuff like that.

00:20:12.115 --> 00:20:12.717
Thank you.

00:20:12.717 --> 00:20:19.809
So do we have any upcoming work that we should be on the lookout for?

00:20:20.270 --> 00:20:20.651
we do.

00:20:20.651 --> 00:20:28.385
Um, I have a book coming called uh, let you down, and I'll give you like a little bit of what it's about.

00:20:28.385 --> 00:20:32.258
So it's about a girl which her name is lexi.

00:20:32.258 --> 00:20:35.981
Um, she will be graduating high school.

00:20:35.981 --> 00:20:39.906
She was raised by her grandmother Father's not in the picture.

00:20:39.906 --> 00:20:47.818
Her mom is in the picture, but she pops in the picture Like a deadbeat kind of sort of.

00:20:47.818 --> 00:20:51.284
But anyway, lexi gets accepted into one of her dream medical schools.

00:20:51.284 --> 00:20:54.028
Her and her grandmother, you know they're super excited.

00:21:02.676 --> 00:21:06.694
And right when you know she graduates high school, her grandmother is diagnosed with like cancer.

00:21:06.694 --> 00:21:15.250
Don't know yet if it's going to be like stage three, stage four, but it's going to be pretty aggressive and she's not able to work, the grandmother's not able to work, so bills are just starting to pile up.

00:21:15.250 --> 00:21:18.858
The house is, you know, threatening fore foreclosure.

00:21:18.858 --> 00:21:29.709
Lexi has a choice do I go off to college and just hope for the best, or do I stay behind, put my dreams on hold and try to figure out a way to, you know, financially help out?

00:21:29.709 --> 00:21:32.355
So she chooses the latter.

00:21:32.355 --> 00:21:35.080
Of course she wants to kind of figure out a way to help out.

00:21:35.862 --> 00:21:40.089
Now, the way she goes about it it's a little unorthodox.

00:21:40.089 --> 00:21:50.028
She definitely has to hustle to get this money and I'll let you figure out or ponder on what type of hustle she goes after to get the money.

00:21:50.028 --> 00:22:00.175
But sadly, things take a turn for the left and I don't want to give too much, but it's just not going to look good for Lexi.

00:22:00.175 --> 00:22:21.531
So, um, that'll be coming out, and I don't know if you noticed, but my books don't always have a happy ending like, because, once again, I try to be realistic and sometimes life just don't have that being so, but uh now that you say that?

00:22:25.535 --> 00:22:30.943
now did you say that they really don't, because, like everybody ain't your friend.

00:22:31.104 --> 00:22:37.730
It was like Gigi went to jail and that was like Her brother died.

00:22:37.730 --> 00:22:44.362
Above it all, denise lost her son.

00:22:44.362 --> 00:22:46.480
She lost custody of her son.

00:22:46.480 --> 00:22:49.980
Towards the end it just Because I try to be realistic.

00:22:51.856 --> 00:22:52.580
And that was another.

00:22:52.580 --> 00:22:54.500
I knew I had a question.

00:22:54.500 --> 00:23:02.281
Above it all, that was my first book that I read by you and I said what was his name?

00:23:02.281 --> 00:23:02.903
Malcolm?

00:23:02.903 --> 00:23:05.698
Yeah, I said how.

00:23:05.698 --> 00:23:12.563
She just ended like that and we don't know Malcolm he went on a date with the other girl.

00:23:12.722 --> 00:23:16.922
Yes, yeah, somebody was like you should do a part two.

00:23:16.922 --> 00:23:19.041
I'm like man, I just don't know.

00:23:19.041 --> 00:23:22.442
I'm not a serious type of person, but I'll think about it.

00:23:22.761 --> 00:23:27.922
I'll definitely give it some thought I said we definitely need to know like what is malcolm up to?

00:23:27.922 --> 00:23:28.323
Like?

00:23:28.323 --> 00:23:31.510
Is he about like?

00:23:31.510 --> 00:23:35.319
Is he about to get another female and have her like?

00:23:35.901 --> 00:23:36.402
you.

00:23:36.402 --> 00:23:37.944
You kind of get the gist of it.

00:23:37.944 --> 00:23:41.398
You know he's gonna try his hand at some more craziness.

00:23:41.459 --> 00:23:53.123
Probably that's just how it goes you unleash that craziness into the world and then you just yep, so, um, so, let you down.

00:23:53.163 --> 00:23:55.385
Is coming out before this year's out.

00:23:55.385 --> 00:23:56.346
I'm gonna finish it up.

00:23:56.346 --> 00:24:08.740
Um, now, to be honest, I did put out a book called dangerously in love, but I wound up taking it down because, I'm gonna be honest, I truly wasn't pleased with the work.

00:24:08.740 --> 00:24:20.541
Um, I felt like I did rush it and I was like this I could do better than this, and I know that you know my readers deserve better than this, so I took it down.

00:24:20.541 --> 00:24:24.544
I'm definitely going to work on redeveloping that story.

00:24:26.734 --> 00:24:34.595
And then, because, to be honest, for Dangerously in Love, I had two different plots and I'll share the first one with you.

00:24:34.595 --> 00:24:38.178
The first one was two best friends, two girls.

00:24:38.178 --> 00:24:48.326
They were best friends in high school, friends for a long time, and one of them was kind of picked on a lot because she was overweight, her size, all this and that.

00:24:48.326 --> 00:24:53.211
And then the other girl she was like you know, she had her dress, she was a stud.

00:24:53.211 --> 00:25:02.375
She had like a nice girlfriend, a stud.

00:25:02.375 --> 00:25:03.219
She had like a nice girlfriend.

00:25:03.219 --> 00:25:09.199
Secretly, the best friend was in love with her and she was going to be unleashing all types of craziness on anybody who tried to like get in the way of her and her best friend.

00:25:09.199 --> 00:25:19.881
So I I may, I may do dangerously in love over and I may just use my original uh storyline for this wasn't the thriller that was released, was it?

00:25:20.122 --> 00:25:20.442
Yeah.

00:25:23.082 --> 00:25:28.901
I read that In this one it was the best friend who was the guy who.

00:25:31.307 --> 00:25:32.355
The one that I released.

00:25:32.355 --> 00:25:35.540
It was about a husband and wife.

00:25:35.540 --> 00:25:42.707
He was, of course, cheating on his wife with his wife's best friend, who happened to be a man.

00:25:42.727 --> 00:25:43.608
Uh-huh.

00:25:45.176 --> 00:25:46.663
Because it was two sisters.

00:25:46.663 --> 00:25:48.883
One of them had some infidelities going on.

00:25:49.575 --> 00:26:20.875
Then the other sister, she had some fertility issues going on and because of that her husband, you know, stepped out, cheated, got someone pregnant I did read this because at first, the way you wrote it, I was like I know her sister is not the one, but her sister was not the one and I was not expecting who it was right and I put that in there because I did want people to probably assume that it was the sister who was sleeping with her sister's husband.

00:26:20.994 --> 00:26:31.887
But then I was like, nah, I'm going to put a little teaser in there, but I'm actually going to make it the gay best friend, I'm going to make Landon be the person who was cheating on with the, with the husband.

00:26:31.887 --> 00:26:34.517
But I really I felt like I didn't develop it enough or well.

00:26:34.517 --> 00:26:36.577
I really I felt like I didn't develop it enough or well.

00:26:36.577 --> 00:26:45.826
And I do know that I kind of rushed it, because sometimes, as an author, you want to try to keep up with other releases and stuff like that.

00:26:45.826 --> 00:26:53.172
And I tell you, you know, keisha, like you're not like that, though you know you don't pay attention to numbers, you don't focus on stuff like that.

00:26:53.172 --> 00:26:56.298
So go at your own pace.

00:26:56.298 --> 00:26:59.208
Now you're going to put a book out that you're not 100% pleased with.

00:26:59.208 --> 00:27:01.603
Gotta take it down and figure it out.

00:27:01.603 --> 00:27:12.068
So I decided to take it down and, like I said, I'm probably going to use the original plot for that book, but the, the um, the actual story that you probably read.

00:27:12.275 --> 00:27:28.963
I'm probably going to redo it in a way, but make it something totally different so the the fact that we talked before earlier and you said that you just write for fun yeah, my mind is blown yeah, I do.

00:27:28.983 --> 00:27:29.345
I.

00:27:29.345 --> 00:27:36.944
I don't know where these what well, I do know where some of my stories come from, but, like, above it all, that's one.

00:27:36.944 --> 00:27:39.355
That's another story that had nothing to do with my life at all.

00:27:39.355 --> 00:27:41.098
It's just something I came up with.

00:27:41.098 --> 00:27:45.887
Um, not above it all, they just laying low.

00:27:45.887 --> 00:27:48.135
That one was just something I came up with.

00:27:48.135 --> 00:27:57.940
Um, everybody ain't your friend, that's based on real life.

00:27:57.940 --> 00:28:07.064
Above it all had a few things in there that were somewhat based on me, but not fully.

00:28:07.064 --> 00:28:13.926
Dear Diary, of course, was based off my grandmother's stories, and then the One Let you Down.

00:28:13.926 --> 00:28:29.173
That one is also going to be not really based off anything for real, but more so of a dedication to my grandmother, because she's going to be one of the main characters in that story, like her support, her love, her encouragement.

00:28:33.900 --> 00:28:34.363
That you know.

00:28:34.363 --> 00:28:36.352
That's how my grandmother is to this day still.

00:28:38.055 --> 00:28:40.038
Look, I'm glad you said to this day still, because I was going to ask she's still with?

00:28:40.038 --> 00:28:40.980
Yeah, I'm gonna say wait a minute.

00:28:41.000 --> 00:29:03.300
Yeah, she is, she's 75, I think oh man yeah, but I still talk to her multiple times a week, um, she loves to see her great grandbabies and oh yeah, she's, she's still around, um, and, like I said, my mom she's in the picture, but we she never raised me like, so we've never been like super close.

00:29:03.300 --> 00:29:11.605
If you notice a lot of the times the mom do my books, you know they kind of be a little iffy, they don't, you know.

00:29:12.007 --> 00:29:28.577
But like the mom from above it all yeah, yeah, no, but um, but yeah and we were talking earlier about everybody, ain't your friend, how I was telling you how that was kind of based on, so the breakdown of that in that book.

00:29:28.577 --> 00:29:32.088
My character, like I was telling you earlier, I'm aisha.

00:29:32.088 --> 00:29:40.127
Like I said, when I graduated from amy high 18, a friend of mine she went straight to doing a CNA.

00:29:40.127 --> 00:29:42.621
I always wanted to be a nurse.

00:29:42.621 --> 00:29:45.844
So I asked her like you know, hey, how did you become this?

00:29:45.844 --> 00:29:51.063
And she was like well, my mom kind of been in the business for a while, so she kind of helped me get my foot in the door.

00:29:51.063 --> 00:29:55.886
She said, well, you should just look for like, some hospitals or something that may be hiring for CNA.

00:29:58.515 --> 00:30:03.646
Back in those days, which was probably 15 years ago, because I'm 35 now, what a lot of places.

00:30:03.646 --> 00:30:04.489
Yeah, I'm 35.

00:30:04.489 --> 00:30:12.227
So, and a lot of places, um, they didn't require much of a cna license, they would just train you on the job.

00:30:12.227 --> 00:30:13.355
So that's kind of what it was.

00:30:13.355 --> 00:30:15.960
So I was hired at a local hospital.

00:30:15.960 --> 00:30:23.676
Um met with a girl who they her nickname was gigi and we were friends.

00:30:23.676 --> 00:30:52.807
But every chance that gigi got she, she did try to put down on me she, um, everything that said about gigi in that book was literally her to the teeth, down to how she took care of her kids, down to the way she lived down, like everything was to the teeth, even her introducing me to her brother, even down to her brother having a mental illness that I found out about.

00:30:52.807 --> 00:30:59.664
Everything was everything, was like something I truly went through.

00:31:00.086 --> 00:31:24.277
Now, of course, I changed some things up, but yeah it was that was based off of real life I'm clutching my pearls to know that that was really a g, like there is really a person who was that low down and dirty yeah, yep, it was the fact that you had to actually go through something like that.

00:31:24.277 --> 00:31:25.940
Is she in jail?

00:31:25.940 --> 00:31:27.040
Is that part is?

00:31:27.040 --> 00:31:28.663
No, that part was exaggerated.

00:31:28.663 --> 00:31:36.444
That part was definitely exaggerated look at my nose and tail.

00:31:36.444 --> 00:31:37.949
Like, like I want to be.

00:31:37.949 --> 00:31:39.894
Like did she go to jail?

00:31:39.894 --> 00:31:41.958
Was she really like a scammer stealing people?

00:31:43.181 --> 00:31:45.003
um, she was not a scammer.

00:31:45.003 --> 00:31:56.923
But the part that I wrote where, like she would get her paid, like when we get our paycheck, she would go out and blow it on like designer stuff meanwhile her lights would probably be off or.

00:31:56.923 --> 00:32:01.878
But in that part, all that part was you know, that stuff, was you know?

00:32:01.878 --> 00:32:04.163
True, that part was true.

00:32:04.163 --> 00:32:06.106
Her mom did get her kids.

00:32:06.106 --> 00:32:13.105
Um, her dad, he, he had money, but he just was, he had to cut.

00:32:13.105 --> 00:32:28.743
He cut them off in real life, um, after a while, because they would just he would build them out of situations, but then they would just put themselves back in another situation he basically was upholding them and then he finally cut them off to let them figure it out.

00:32:29.224 --> 00:32:36.365
Yeah, so so all that part about her and her brother, all that stuff was real.

00:32:36.365 --> 00:32:51.076
He, he suffered from um, paranoia, paranoia, schizophrenia, um, he didn't want to take medicine like his medicine, for so when he didn't take his medicine he would have like many, what is it called manic episodes.

00:32:51.076 --> 00:32:54.118
A lot of that stuff was true.

00:32:54.118 --> 00:32:55.798
Did you actually date him?

00:32:55.798 --> 00:33:19.828
I did, I did, but I didn't know that he had, because when she introduced, when she told me about her brother, I wasn't really like trying to hear her out because, like in the story, he didn't even live in Louisiana, he lived in another state, and I was like, nah, but she kept on, she kept on and I was like, ok, you can just give him my number.

00:33:19.828 --> 00:33:25.123
So we started to talk and at the time he told me he was in college, all kinds of stuff.

00:33:25.660 --> 00:33:26.403
Everything was a lie.

00:33:26.403 --> 00:33:30.048
Basically, everything was a lie.

00:33:30.048 --> 00:33:58.743
And it was like I said that book was, the only people that were kind of made up was the girl who was the Darius dude was kind of made up was, um, the girl who was the, the darius dude was kind of made up, the, his ex was made up and the, the one who who wound up catching uh hiv and giving it to um their friend or whatever yeah those people were made up.

00:33:58.763 --> 00:34:00.828
They were just to add those spice to the book.

00:34:00.888 --> 00:34:21.012
But um, outside of that, everything else was kind of true I'm glad you said that, because I always wonder and it's always one of my questions, um, like within these books and stuff with the right, and I always ask the person like, were these like inspired events and we exaggerated them some, or how do we come up with this?

00:34:21.012 --> 00:34:24.117
Because some of these stories be like what?

00:34:24.237 --> 00:34:40.280
so to know that there was actually a Gigi, that is mind blowing yeah, it was definitely not made up, but loosely, loosely, based on on all that I have to say fictional.

00:34:40.280 --> 00:34:45.400
I had to put that out there, just in case fiction.

00:34:47.224 --> 00:34:55.284
So I know you said you are part-time and you kind of just kind of write for fun, but do you see yourself being a full-time author at any?

00:34:55.324 --> 00:34:55.704
point.

00:34:55.704 --> 00:34:57.469
Now that's the thing you.

00:34:57.469 --> 00:35:01.014
You know, I truly would love to get to that at some point.

00:35:01.014 --> 00:35:05.927
And that just goes with more developing my craft.

00:35:05.927 --> 00:35:12.664
I feel like that just goes with me putting more books out, promoting better things like that.

00:35:12.664 --> 00:35:32.123
Because if I can get to a point to where, hey, my books can cover my bills or whatever, then yeah, like I feel like I would, but I feel like, um, right now I don't let it get to me because you know I I've always worked, so that'll never go away, like I even told my husband I was like

00:35:32.163 --> 00:35:38.907
even if you made so much and told me I could be a stay-at-home wife, I probably wouldn't do it, because I just enjoy working.

00:35:38.907 --> 00:35:46.452
Like I don't want to just get to that point to where I'm just stagnant at just, you know, raising our kids and that's it.

00:35:46.452 --> 00:35:52.588
You know, like I do enjoy working, even though I work from home, but still because, like you, got the best of both worlds.

00:35:52.588 --> 00:35:56.922
I mean, I'm still at home, but true, um, but yeah.

00:35:56.922 --> 00:36:13.376
So I was thinking of that and and I was like you know, I definitely need to put more titles out there, like I said, and promote myself more and things like that, to even develop a decent amount of fan base to where maybe one day I can just write full-time.

00:36:13.376 --> 00:36:23.161
But until that time comes, I enjoy taking my time developing my stories, developing my characters, characters, trying to put out some, you know, pretty good books.

00:36:23.601 --> 00:36:32.164
Yeah well, speaking of promoting yourself, can you tell us where can we follow you on instagram, facebook, all your socials?

00:36:32.164 --> 00:36:32.907
Yeah?

00:36:32.967 --> 00:36:35.893
so my instagram is there, go keisha.

00:36:35.893 --> 00:36:38.664
So there underscore, go, underscore keisha.

00:36:38.664 --> 00:36:40.126
That'll never change.

00:36:40.126 --> 00:36:43.793
Um, tiktok, I have two TikTok accounts.

00:36:43.793 --> 00:36:53.235
So I have Arthur LaKeisha Burkett, which you can follow me on there, um, that's, that's where I mainly post like all of my, my books and things like that.

00:36:53.235 --> 00:37:00.313
I say you know what I need to separate my TikToks and have just one strictly for my Arthur page, my books and things like that.

00:37:00.313 --> 00:37:09.039
So Arthur LaKeisha Burkett on TikTok and then Facebook is just LaKeisha Burton and I don't really post my books on Facebook.

00:37:09.039 --> 00:37:17.039
Facebook is just for me to just be silly and share funny posts and stuff like that, but mainly on Instagram.

00:37:17.039 --> 00:37:23.690
And TikTok is where you can find like most of my um, my books and my work and stuff like that well.

00:37:23.851 --> 00:37:28.318
I appreciate you coming on with us today well, I appreciate being here.

00:37:28.458 --> 00:37:32.628
It took a minute because I was trying to get my children together, and that's okay.

00:37:32.628 --> 00:37:33.951
How to work this out?

00:37:33.951 --> 00:37:34.800
I was like Lord.

00:37:35.601 --> 00:37:36.583
I will say one thing.

00:37:36.583 --> 00:37:40.349
I said um because at first I didn't even know.

00:37:40.349 --> 00:37:44.362
When I first um came on to until book talk that what an indie.

00:37:44.362 --> 00:37:46.266
I know people were like self-published.

00:37:46.266 --> 00:37:58.505
But then when the term like indie author kind of came in and I started looking, I was like oh wow, an indie author is basically an entrepreneur yeah, and I didn't know that either until I did my research.

00:37:59.128 --> 00:38:01.271
Because, because Deandra would say you're an indie artist.

00:38:01.271 --> 00:38:02.054
I'm like, what is that?

00:38:02.054 --> 00:38:05.284
Oh, I guess indie, like indie.

00:38:05.284 --> 00:38:05.706
Author.

00:38:07.041 --> 00:38:23.987
So when you were like your baby, I'm like it's really like, because I'm a small business owner, entrepreneur too, so I'm just thinking like you are a mom, working from home, indie author, entrepreneur, like balancing it all.

00:38:23.987 --> 00:38:27.590
So that's why I was like honey, you are fine, cause I have been.

00:38:27.590 --> 00:38:38.306
There have been days when I first opened my spa where my clients were literally laying on the bed and getting their lashes done and they were holding my baby like petting me, so, and she's nine now.

00:38:38.306 --> 00:38:51.306
But so when you were like, oh, my baby, let me grab him, I'm like it just took me back to like yeah, he's so spoiled Because I knew Earlier I tried to put him down.

00:38:51.480 --> 00:38:53.067
It's like he fell asleep on me.

00:38:53.067 --> 00:38:55.947
The moment I laid him down, his little head popped up.

00:38:55.947 --> 00:39:04.070
I was like Lord, because you know, when you lay your babies down, you gotta, you gotta wait, you gotta let them marinate before you, just where.

00:39:04.070 --> 00:39:07.755
So I had to like wait a little while and then finally he fell asleep.

00:39:07.755 --> 00:39:16.230
So I got myself together and I tell my, my daughter like okay, kinsley, I need you to sit down and be good and give her some candy, because you know you always gotta bribe these kids.

00:39:16.230 --> 00:39:18.742
So gave her some candy so she chilling.

00:39:18.742 --> 00:39:29.172
But yeah, it's like I do juggle a lot and that's why I'm not hard on myself at all, like I don't give myself no timelines, no deadlines.

00:39:29.172 --> 00:39:34.271
I do as best as I can when I can and put it out when I can put it out.

00:39:35.282 --> 00:39:37.293
I know that's right, yep.

00:39:37.293 --> 00:39:40.750
Well, thank you again for joining us today.

00:39:40.750 --> 00:39:55.244
No, thank you again for joining us today and hopefully, because your husband look now that we got through that, I look forward to having you both back on when it's time for his book to drop yeah, he mentioned it today.

00:39:55.264 --> 00:39:57.168
I was like I gotta do my podcast today.

00:39:57.168 --> 00:40:15.880
He's like, oh yeah, he said, let her know that as soon as I um, because he's like more organized in a sense, like he wants everything kind of already ready before he starts to promote and things like that, so he gets his cover, I think, probably this week coming up and it's going to be really really nice.

00:40:15.880 --> 00:40:23.434
Um, and I wish I could tell you about his book, but I don't want to give it away because that's his time to shine.

00:40:23.434 --> 00:40:26.969
But he's definitely looking forward to coming on as well.

00:40:29.001 --> 00:40:32.911
I look forward to having him on and then having you both on together.

00:40:33.400 --> 00:40:36.510
Yeah, so he'll be looking forward to that too.

00:40:36.510 --> 00:40:37.902
I told him.

00:40:37.902 --> 00:40:43.722
I said, yeah, I said Lexi, like she reads, I said she'll read anything Like she's not, like she don't discriminate.

00:40:43.722 --> 00:40:46.929
And he had me like his story.

00:40:46.929 --> 00:40:49.112
Um, I was blown away.

00:40:49.112 --> 00:40:53.344
I was like you wrote this and I was like dang okay.

00:40:53.344 --> 00:41:00.547
So because, um, he, he's the same way like he, um, he, he, he's a creative mind.

00:41:00.547 --> 00:41:09.125
And he said I want to write something and his uncle inspired, his late uncle inspired his story in a way.

00:41:09.125 --> 00:41:14.726
So, yeah, when he's ready, he's going to let you know, but you're going to like it.

00:41:14.726 --> 00:41:15.860
I was shocked.

00:41:15.860 --> 00:41:21.119
I said wow, okay, and what's crazy is he's actually going to be doing a series.

00:41:21.119 --> 00:41:25.882
Oh, wow, but his book is gonna be a series.

00:41:25.882 --> 00:41:29.148
I'm like, okay, I see you ain't that crazy.

00:41:29.168 --> 00:41:34.673
It's so opposite, because you're like I don't think I want to do series and he, he coming at the gate with a series.

00:41:34.753 --> 00:41:35.739
We're doing a series.

00:41:35.739 --> 00:41:37.583
I'm like okay, and I told him.

00:41:37.583 --> 00:41:46.891
I said the only thing about that is, you can't keep on waiting, because I know I love a good series, I will read a good series, but I will hate to read a book.

00:41:46.891 --> 00:41:53.307
And then it's like, okay, dang, let me go see when book two, let me go see book two out, and I look on Amazon, it's nowhere to be found.

00:41:53.307 --> 00:41:55.947
And then I look at the publication date for book one.

00:41:55.947 --> 00:42:02.231
It came out in 1997 and it's 2032 and there's no book two yet.

00:42:02.231 --> 00:42:18.931
And I said don't be like that, please don't be like book two is coming as soon as you can get it out, because people going there's the second book gonna be looking for the title before before they download it to the.

00:42:19.231 --> 00:42:20.152
I have to do that now.

00:42:20.152 --> 00:42:38.351
I have to look and see like if it's a do it, and sometimes I still be going to it so fast I don't realize it's going to be like a do it, but until I finish the end, and then it pops up and shows me that it's another book, but you see the cover and that and the date, and so because when you don't show that, yeah, and now it's like I don't.

00:42:38.632 --> 00:42:58.025