Today is part one of two where we are talking to Anne Kemp about her novels. Over the next 2 weeks you will hear about her journey of writing since she was a kid at writing camp, finding an agent, launching a book, getting the right publisher, her very own meet cute, making sure to keep proper posture to avoid health problems down the road, finding your tribe, and enjoying your journey along the way. 

Get Author's Book https://amzn.to/3PzhyQX

(As an Amazon Affiliate our show makes a small commission on purchases made using our links)

Anne's Website - Anne's Facebook page - @annekempauthor on Instagram - @missannekemp on Twitter - Anne on TikTok

Check us out on our website or Support us on Patreon

Follow Our Show On Socials: Facebook - Instagram - Twitter - TikTok

Follow Our Host Freya: Facebook - Instagram - Twitter - TikTok

Want Freya to Narrate Your Audiobook? Complete This Form

Welcome to Freya's Fairy Tales, where we believe fairy tales are both stories we enjoyed as children and something that we can achieve ourselves.

Each week, we will talk to authors about their favorite fairy tales when they were kids and their adventure to holding their own fairy tale in their hands.

At the end of each episode, we will finish off with the fairy tale or short story read as close to the original author's version as possible.

I am your host.

Freya victoria I'm an audiobook narrator that loves reading fairy tales, novels and bringing stories to life through narration.

I am also fascinated by talking to authors and learning about their why and how for creating their stories.

We have included all of the links for today's author and our show in the show notes, today is part one of two where we are talking to Anne Kemp about her novels.

Over the next two weeks, you will hear about her journey of writing since she was a kid at writing camp.

Finding an agent, launching a book, getting the right publisher, her very own meet cute, making sure to keep proper posture to avoid health problems down the road, finding your tribe and enjoying your journey along the way.

Sweet summer nights.

I friend zoned Wyatt Hogan years ago, but this 4 July brings fireworks.

It's been a few years since I left my hometown, but somehow Lake Lorelei and my closest friend Wyatt have become even more gorgeous.

He's a fireman now.

That's going to come in handy with all the sparks flying between us.

Wait, it's Wyatt.

There are good reasons we've kept love off the table.

Life has served up some big decisions, and I have enough on my plate without getting sidetracked by a trusty hunk of a man who had let put out my fire anytime he likes, if you know what I mean.

I can't be the ridiculous girl who falls in love with her best friend, right?

Sweet summer nights.

The friends to lovers romcom with laugh out loud moments, relatable characters, and a happily ever after you won't want to miss.

Fall in love with Lake Lorelei and its residents and savor the swoony sizzling chemistry with this closed door romance.

All right, so the podcast is Freyas Fairy Tales.

And so that is in two ways.

So fairy tales is something that most of us either watched or our parents read to us or we read as kids.

And then also it's a little bit of a fairy tale for you to spend weeks, months, years working on novels and then getting to hold that physical copy in your hand is a fairy tale for you as well.

Very true.

I like to start out with when you were a kid.

Is there a fairy tale that you remember liking a lot?

And did that fairy tale change over time?

Yes, Cinderella.

That would be the one that I loved as a child.

Loved it, loved it.

But then as I got older, I call myself an accidental romance author because I was actually quite cynical about romance for my twenty s and thirty s.

Okay, so you liked Cinderella, which is a very romantic of the fairy tales.

What did it change to as you got old?

Did that fairytale change to a more cynical darker one, maybe?

No, I think I became so independent in my twenty s that I just started, who needs a prince when you can go out and take care of yourself?

Why is she I could go get my own slipper.

I got this.

But now it's like I've come back.

Plus, I also just like the whole Disney type of fantasy of it.

I always loved anyway.

But yeah, there's always a romanticism, I think, that I'll have with Cinderella forever because it was just it was always between that one and Snow White.

Because I tell you, Snow White, I'm a huge animal fanatic.

I go for walks around here.

Now we have two dogs.

We would have a small farm if we could.

We have discussed moving out to the country some just so because I'm like, I want to go.

I want horses.

I love that we go for walks with their birds that are incredible around us.

So there's just like a little bit of a Snow Whiteness, I think that.

Now I actually just read that fairy tale for another author had mentioned Snow White.

So I just read that fairytale like 2 hours ago.

There are no animals in the original version of that.

Really?

Because you think of the Disney movies and you just always see her going.

Along with all the birds, getting her new things.

None, of course.

And kind of the premise of this, too, as I tried to read at the end of each episode, I'll read as close to the original author's version of the fairy tale as I can because a lot of them like the version that we know is not anywhere close to what it started as.

And sometimes, like, I did Beauty and the Beast, and the original of that is one French and two incredibly long, like 200 plus pages.

I'm like, I can't do that on the podcast, so I'm like cutting it into parts.

But some of them, like Snow White was originally the Grims brothers are who recorded it, and so she's German and they recorded it down.

So, yeah, no animals.

None.

So interesting.

I feel like, I guess over the years for myself, Disney took over because my first introduction would have been to I'm sure someone read me the books, but I can think of like the first time seeing the movies as a kid.

Right?

Well, in Snow White was one of their first movies that Disney did.

I think it said in the little thing, the clip I read of it was like 1930 something.

Wow.

I think that's right.

So that was like one of the first Disney movies.

Back in the day.

Back in the day.

Back in the day.

Wow.

So as you were growing up, at what age did you think, I want to be a writer?

Like, when did you start?

And it may have just been a short story or whatever.

Like, what age did you think, hey, this might be cool?

From the time I was little, I was writing stories.

As soon as I was able to read and write and telling stories, I'd always wanted to do something, I think, an entertainment and storytelling.

I have the very first story somewhere around here I found about two months ago in a box that I gave my mother that was about kids going to hang out with their friend who is named Crocodile, and people make fun of him because he had this name, Crocodile.

Right.

But, yeah, I think ever since I was little, I did writing.

I would go to camps in the summer.

I was one of those kids that was very active.

So my parents, as soon as summer hit, they're like, Where can we send her?

We need a break.

We need a break.

She's so active.

So they sent you to writing camps?

Yeah.

There were talented and gifted camps that I would go to in the summers that I would go to a college.

And I grew up in Maryland, so I can remember being at St.

Mary's College on the southern part of Maryland, like, two and three weeks since.

They would go away for quite a while.

But it was for creative writing, where you were basically just with people.

You stayed at a college, but I was in my teens or younger, and you just spent time in classes that we would watch things like Taming of the Shrew and, like, all of these old movies and then dissect them and use our because they would give us prompts to go back to our dorm rooms, and we would do creative writing off of that.

So I just spent a lot of time if it had to do with writing or English language, I seem to just gravitate towards it.

Now.

I think I looked you have five, six books out so far.

I have Abby series tuna vallas I have seven.

Okay, and so when did you start the first book, and how long did it take you to write that?

I started my first book ten years ago this month.

It's actually my month, my ten year anniversary, when I started with Rum Punch Regrets, which is the Abbey George series, I wrote that book, which was the very first thing I take in a class with UCLA Extension doing fiction, and that was born out of that class.

And then that book actually has been the thing that I've held out to New York in the beginning that got me an agent and kicked the door open for me, but that was yeah, I started with chiclet.

So if you were cynical in your how did you make the jump to Romcom?

You know, I think because, well, if you read this first book, it's more chiclet than Romcom.

So that subtle difference with it being that chiclet, when you're telling a chiclet story, it's usually about the journey of our female or male and C, that is what they go through in their journey.

Less about the romance that's happening.

There's romance in there.

But there's going to be more about her journey, which I discovered, especially in the beginning because a lot of people are like, oh, we just don't she can be an unrelatable.

They're like, oh, we just don't know if we like Apple in the very beginning, and you're not supposed to she's a mess.

She's somebody that we see grow by the end of the book.

By the end of the series, she come leaps and bounds, and usually by the third book, people are like, okay, this girl is a fun mess.

She is, she has a fun time.

But yeah, I think comedy, I've just always been attracted to comedy, and that's what I love writing about.

And I've fallen in and out of love over the years with love itself.

Now I'm happily married.

That's why I'm in New Zealand.

I met my husband at a wedding in Mexico and now I'm here.

Yeah.

So you went from Maryland, I was reading your bio on Amazon, you went from Maryland to La, met your husband in Mexico at a wedding, and then moved to New Zealand.

Yes, there are lots of other places in between, too.

But yeah, I was in La.

Actually.

I had a business that was going I had just started writing at the time and was really getting into a good group with a writing routine.

And a friend of mine got married and we were all going to Cancun for the wedding, so I flew down.

I actually bought my plane ticket about five days before the wedding because I just started a business and I didn't know if I was going to be able to make it, so I was able to, and I met Glenn there.

Glenn is the well, I'll say this, my friend who got married is now my sister in law.

Okay.

He is the brother of the groom.

Brother of the group.

Okay?

Yes.

So, yeah, and then what got really creepy when we met, glenn and I were talking and I lived in Los Angeles for about, I think it's like 15, 1617 years, something like that.

I worked at a restaurant called Chinchen, which was a chain restaurant of Americanized Chinese food.

Okay.

And I ended up being a server that went around to train other servers.

At one point, he worked at one of the restaurants and we would have passed right by each other.

We knew the same people when we met, and he came to visit me.

We went to go meet some of his friends.

I knew them.

We had met in passing.

So it was just this weird, like we were in each other's worlds and didn't know it for years.

That's so much like a book.

I have talked about writing this, but I've not found it's such a special story too.

But I'm like, I'll sit down at some point and write it because the whole thing is actually quite hilarious, how everything came to be.

But it's such a I'm very lucky.

He's really lucky.

But, yeah, very weird.

Like how that happens.

It's just kind of dots get connected, I think, in the universe, whether we want it to or not sometimes.

So you wrote a book and you went to New York to pitch this book to publishers.

How did that process go?

Like you said, you found an agent.

How did you go about that process?

How did you find them?

Where work?

And my luck came into play because so my background I worked in entertainment in Los Angeles for a long time, and I was a personal assistant for some celebrities.

And when I had gotten the book finished, I picked up the phone and called one of the PR agents I knew that I really trusted and said, I've done this thing.

I don't know what to do now.

I've written a book.

And actually, at the time, I think I only had a few chapters, and I just knew I wanted to get it in front of people.

Right.

You know I know somebody.

We've worked with her on a couple of projects.

Let me just put you in touch with her.

She can guide you.

Okay.

Okay, cool.

So Cynthia Manson is who we put me in touch with, and she and I had a wonderful phone call.

Pardon me, I'm still waking up.

Sorry.

We had a great phone call.

And she asked me all these questions about my book and basically the elevator pitch, what I saw the series being.

And when we got off the phone, it was a really nice call and very encouraging, but she never said, Send me your manuscript or do these things.

She was like, well, check in with me at some point.

So I remember hanging up and being like, what does that mean?

Yeah, basically, there's that little bit of awkwardness and uncomfortableness to it that I was like I didn't want to call the PR guy back no matter what.

We knew each other, but I didn't want to push the panels change.

What do you think this means?

So I just waited, and I actually ended up putting the book to the side because I was still not sure of myself at the time.

About five months later, I get a phone call.

She's like, hey, it's Cynthia.

Where's that book?

So you want to see it?

Oh, yeah.

I've been waiting for you to say you were going to keep in touch with me.

I've not heard anything, so I figured the book must be done.

I was like, you know what?

It sure is.

Just give me a couple of weeks to polish it off.

And I sat down, cranked it out in about four or five weeks.

Had friends reading it, helping edit, just kind of put the whole machine to work of friends and network.

Got it to her, and she really liked it.

And, yeah, we started the process from there, and she's the one that ran with it, and ten years later, she's still my agent, and she makes miracles happen.

I love this woman.

Even being published and working with an agent, you still have promotion and stuff that you have to do for your books.

So at this point, you've been in it enough.

Like, what did promotion look like when you started?

And how have you kind of now, obviously, you're on Tik Tok, which I know is one of the bigger things.

How have you kind of kept up with the changes over time?

Oh, my gosh, Freya.

I didn't.

So I started it, and I was so green because I can remember giving them my marketing plan to go with the books.

And I wish I could find it now because it's so funny and I actually should share it with new authors.

Because this is what not to do kind of thing completely.

I had a plan where I was like, we are going to find a reader and we're going to fly them to St.

Kitts and we're going to do like I had this amazing plan if I had a million dollars for budgeting, but I thought, we're going to pitch a plan to the publishers and they're going to work with us.

Oh, what an idiot.

So they threw that plan out.

Oh, completely.

They did help.

We did an amazing book launch at a store in Studio City, California, but I was the one doing the legwork.

I went into the store, I confirmed that I got the food and drinks in there.

I got a photographer, I got the press.

I had a charity that I worked with.

So they came in and we made it like a whole fantastic day of shopping for charity.

But also the book launch.

And what I did learn, because I've been talking about my business, I started so in my other life.

I do social media and PR now because I started writing.

So I got into it, and the marketing took over and other people started seeing what I was doing.

And so unfortunately, the writing took a backseat.

At the same time I started writing, the business took off.

I met my husband to be, I started to move across the world, and my mother got Alzheimer's.

So all of these things were happening at one time that I got here, finished the third book in the Abbey series, and then kind of just hit a wall the book wasn't moving with the publisher.

I was with the life.

Things began to happen.

The reality of writing, where I was like, oh, this is like I have to be the one to keep the churning going, right?

And I am the type of person I want to keep the churning going.

And when I feel like I can't, I slide down the wall.

So I ended up taking some time off.

And a lot of the books that I've written have been coming out of me just in the last few years as I kind of got my mojo back and have put the business on the back burner.

Coming back to do things like teach social media to authors, come back into my industry that I love, being in with writers and authors and narrators and people that are publishing and doing all things bookish.

All right, you said you weren't keeping up with the trends, but then you started a business to help other people.

Because I've talked to a few authors that have been around for a little while at this time.

I know, like, Facebook was the big thing, and Twitter at one point was the big thing, and Instagram the big thing at one point.

And now we're over to TikTok being the big thing, which is how I found you.

Yes, it's how we met.

Yeah, because obviously, like, Facebook and Instagram and Twitter, those are not take videos of yourself and be goofy, and that's how you get whatever.

So how has that change been?

I know most authors are introverted, so how has that been to have to put yourself out there and come up with these fun, quirky videos to promote?

Looking back, because Facebook, like you said, it was such a great thing.

Facebook and Twitter ten years ago were the things to be on, especially Twitter.

Twitter was really active, and it's become such a different beast at this point that it's just very toxic for people to get on there.

And Facebook was so great, and then it became that Pay to Play, where Instagram gave us this perfection to aspire to this inspiration.

But I think for a lot of folks, and I know authors that I was teaching, what I did for a while is just kind of just tried to teach authors how to bring social media into their life, to be steady and to have consistent posting.

So they didn't feel like they had to suddenly mass promote at one time.

Right, but that was the thing that the feedback I got from them was how Instagram made them feel.

They couldn't show up.

It had to be perfect.

Right?

And they did enjoy hiding behind a book picture and being able to send out to bookstore grammars, but they didn't feel like they could have that connection.

And then you look at what Tik Tok has done.

Tik Tok and Book talk for me, was an experiment a year ago.

I have had friends asking me to join TikTok since it began.

And I am one of those people that just kind of rolled their eyes.

Same awesome.

And also in full transparency, back in the day, I worked on back end of some social media sites in the mid two thousand s, and Twitter, when they were beta testing, we were one of the businesses that beta tested Twitter.

And I remember sitting there thinking, well, this is stupid.

It's not going to go anywhere.

I feel like if I say it's stupid, it's going to be amazing, right?

It's just going to go everywhere.

And a good friend of mine, Mira, actually took the time to call me here to tell me, and she was always my challenger.

Why don't you want it?

You need to go.

There's this thing called book talk.

You're being closed minded.

That's not you.

You need to go try it.

Fine.

I'm going to give it 30 days and that's it.

And I even started it, and it's.

Not going to work.

It's going to be the worst thing ever.

I'm not going to find anything.

She's so wholesome on there.

I'm like, yeah, it's wholesome.

Whatever.

I love it.

I have not met a community this engaged this much fun.

I can't explain.

It's very hard to put into words the love I have for Book Talk because it even confuses me.

But it's forgiving.

And stepping in front of the camera was the hardest thing to do in the beginning, but then as soon as you get the feedback, I remember going on my first live and thinking, oh gosh, what kind of horrible thing have I done to myself doing this?

And 45 minutes later, I'm still on there chatting with people.

People are still listening.

Yeah, you want to talk to me right now?

Okay.

And it's just I get so much energy out of it myself, talking to people.

And yeah, I'm grateful for it.

I am grateful.

It has brought me so many amazing people into my life.

I've met wonderful folks along the way, and it's just really mind boggling to me that out of all of these things in the world, there's this one little corner on Tik tok that I have found my people and I can quietly hang out with them at any time of the night or day.

All over the world, too.

All over the world, yeah.

Meeting one of my really good friends.

So this is a funny story.

And you probably know this author because she's all over TikTok.

When I started a year ago, I saw this really cool author named AK Malford pop up on my screen.

And so we would see each other and comment on each other's posts.

And one day, I can't remember if it was her eye, one of us recognized the background of where they were.

I was like, Wait a minute, you're American, but you're in New Zealand.

And she was like, wait, how did you know?

I'm like I am in New Zealand.

And then we figured out after whittling it down, we're five minutes from each other.

Oh, my gosh.

So now you hang out all the time.

Yeah, I'm seeing her tomorrow.

It's become like, into my life.

Like, I now have one of my good friends I have met on TikTok and she's five minutes away.

It blows my mind.

And again, the cynic and me didn't want to believe this.

Right?

You can't help but see this amazing engagement, a community that is willing to hold its hand out constantly.

And I think that's the big like having that support to come to, because where I am published, I'm a hybrid author.

I'm doing indy and doing myself, publishing and answering to contracts that I have and being able to come.

And I've always like, it's my freak flag.

I can put it up as high as I want.

And I was a theater kid.

And we like finding our people because you can sit down and start singing Broadway tunes with them in the middle of a crowded room and they understand you.

But that's like, curious.

Like, you can fall into these amazing bookish conversations with people or learn something.

I learned so much.

Yes, I am constantly saving I just joined TikTok back in August of 21, I think.

And I joined it because I have another podcast under a different pseudonym, and I wanted to help promote it or whatever.

So I'm like, we're going to join TikTok.

And of course, I got the first videos you get the dancing ones and the viral ones and all of those.

So I'm trying to wheedle it down to the videos I want to see.

And then I started getting I got recommended.

It was like a, here's how to earn a bunch of money from home.

And it was like, you can narrate audiobooks for $1,000 an hour.

I'm like, okay, that's clearly clickbait.

But I had been looking for years for some kind of side job I could do with books, reading books, reviewing books, something.

I'm like I want something.

And I would Google search all the time.

I want something with books.

That's a side job that I do on the side for fun.

And it ideally pays me money.

So I stumble across that clickbait video and I'm like, well, that's probably not true because they're never true.

It's never factual, the amount of money you're going to make.

So I'm like, all right, so we're going to search, hashtag, narrator or narration and see who pops up.

Well, like, Natalie Nadis is one of the first ones that pop up.

And she was like, here's how to get started.

And I'm like, Cool.

So literally, this is in early September of last year.

By late September, my closet was set up.

I was putting up auditions for books.

I had read an article that was like, everybody will find somebody that wants your voice for their book.

And I'm like, I might land, like, I don't know, five books.

That'll probably be it.

I'll get about five, and that'll be about it.

So I've been doing this since September?

Late September.

I'm booked on my 70th book.

That's incredible.

I have, like, 40 something out under three different names, and then I have another 20 that are just waiting to be made.

And now I have three podcasts.

I'm like, clearly oh, my God.

One of them is a daily fiction podcast.

I just read a chapter from a classic novel, like old School Public Domain Books.

There's 20 to 40 people a day that listen to that podcast that just started.

I'm like, oh my God, I'm getting over imposter syndrome a little bit, but I'm like, I'm way over five books at this point.

Obviously, you have fallen into your own, like, Alice and Wonderland, Rabbit Hall.

I've said before on here too.

Like, within my first month, I started on a $50 mike and $50 mics.

Sound like $50 mikes.

But on that $50 mike, I made like, one $200 in my first month.

And I'm like, I took all of that and upgraded all of my equipment.

I sound much better.

I mean, people were still paying for it, but I wouldn't have paid for it.

Now, hearing how it is now, I'm like, I would never have paid for me back then, but whatever.

Oh, my gosh, congratulations.

I love when people when you fall into something like that.

And now I've always, always tried to write myself and it would be like, come up with an idea, write, like, maybe a chapter, and then just couldn't get it to go.

So now I'm like, writing my own stuff that I'm like, well, currently I'm researching for writing my stuff, but my husband's looking at I've got all these sticky note flaggies in this book.

I'm researching it, and he's like, well, clearly you're serious about this idea because it'll be a mythology based book.

And so mythology has got a lot of stuff to learn.

Yes, it goes deep.

I feel like a lot of genre, if you stay in just fantasy, you can create and do a whole lot of stuff.

You can change werewolves and vampires to whatever you want to do.

But I feel like mythology is one of those you can only change it so much without getting booed out.

Yes, I agree on my TikTok now, or at least the Freya one.

I talk about Narrating and I talk about books, and I follow tons of authors.

And these days, all I keep getting recommended is all these different authors that I never would have ever heard of before TikTok.

So you and AK Malford and I talked to Jason Durrow and I've talked to Golden Angel and all these people that I had never heard of before.

So for me as well, mainly a reader.

But also an author I save constantly videos, a lot of golden angels.

I have a lot of golden angels.

My headphones are trying to fall off.

I've saved a lot of hers because she does those just the tip videos.

So I'm constantly like, oh, so I saved like, here's how to go wide with your distribution.

So I saved that video for later, and here's how to do this, and I saved that video for later.

But I have several authors I've done that with because all of you guys at some point do some kind of here's how I did this, and if it's something I think would help me, I save it.

Some of them.

There's a lot of tips and tricks that it just doesn't work with my personality, like how people organize their information or lack of organizing their information.

Not everything is going to work for everybody.

And you know what, I was going to say that exactly like that.

I tell people that when I'm teaching social media to them, that maybe my style and what I'm about to teach you isn't going to be the same for what you want to do.

So kudos to you to recognizing that you're going to get information.

We have so much coming at us from Facebook groups, instagram, tik, tok especially for authors and indie writers, it is overwhelming.

When I got started, I had my romance writers of America group in Los Angeles to go to.

I had Google and there were yahoo groups.

It was not like it is now.

And I know even on Facebook I will go in and I've joined a group for a box that I'm in.

I'm in Elena Johnson's group that she has for writers and wide for the win, which is about going wide.

There are all these different groups I'm in, and I find myself getting assaulted with information constantly that I have to mute things or step back and go, right, I'm not going to know all the things I don't want to have FOMO right now.

I'm going to find what I can pick and pull and bookmark and save and come back when I need to.

Anne Loves the story of Cinderella cinderella, or the Little Glass slipper, is a folktale with thousands of variants throughout the world.

The protagonist is a young woman living in forsaken circumstances that are suddenly changed to remarkable fortune with her ascension to the throne via marriage.

The story of Rodopus, recounted by the Greek geographer Strabo sometime between around seven BC.

And Ad.

23, about a Greek slave girl who marries the king of Egypt, is usually considered to be the earliest known variant of the Cinderella story.

The first literary European version of the story was published in Italy by Jeanbautista Basil in Is Pentamearon in 1634.

The version that is now most widely known in the English speaking world was published in French by Charles Perrault in History's ocantes Duke's Pasi in 1697.

Another version was later published by the Brothers Grimm in their folktale collection Grimm's Fairy Tales in 1812.

Although the story's title and main characters names change in different languages, in English language folklore, Cinderella is an archetypal name.

The word Cinderella has, by analogy, come to mean one whose attributes were unrecognized, one who unexpectedly achieves recognition or success after a period of obscurity and neglect.

The still popular story of Cinderella continues to influence popular culture internationally, lending plot elements, illusions, and tropes to a wide variety of media.

Today we'll be reading Cinderella by the Brothers Grimm.

Don't forget we are continuing the original story of Beauty and the Beast on our patreon.

Cinderella, jacob and Wilhelm Grimm a rich man's life became sick, and when she felt that her end was drawing near, she called her only daughter to her bedside and said, dear child, remain pious and good, and then our dear God will always protect you, and I will look down on you from heaven and be near you.

With this, she closed her eyes and died.

The girl went out to her mother's grave every day and wept, and she remained pious and good.

When winter came, the snow spread a white cloth over the grave, and when the spring sun had removed it again, the man took himself another wife.

This wife brought two daughters into the house with her.

They were beautiful, with fair faces, but evil and dark hearts.

Time soon grew very bad for the poor stepchild.

Why should that stupid goose sit in the parlor with us?

They said.

If she wants to eat bread, then she will have to earn it out with this kitchen maid.

It took her beautiful clothes away from her, dressed her in an old gray smock and gave her wooden shoes.

Just look at the proud princess, how decked out she is.

They shouted and laughed as they let her into the kitchen.

There she had to do hard work from morning until evening, get up before daybreak, carry water, make the fires, cook and wash.

Besides this, the sisters did everything imaginable to hurt her.

They made fun of her scattered peas and lentils into the ashes for her, so that she had to sit and pick them out again in the evening.

When she had worked herself weary, there was no bed for her.

Instead, she had to sleep by the hearth in the ashes.

And because she always looked dusty and dirty, they called her Cinderella.

One day it happened that the father was going to the fair, and he asked his two stepdaughters what he should bring back for them.

Beautiful dresses, said the one.

Pearls and jewels, said the other.

And you Cinderella, he said.

What do you want, father?

Break off for me the first twig that brushes against your hat on your way home.

So he brought beautiful dresses, pearls and jewels for his two stepdaughters on his way home.

As he was riding through a green thicket A hazel twig brushed against him and knocked off his hat.

Then he broke off the twig and took it with him.

Arriving home, he gave his stepdaughters the things that they had asked for and he gave Cinderella the twig from the hazel bush.

Cinderella Thanked Him, went To Her Mother's Grave and Planted The Branch On It.

And she Wept So Much that Her Tears Fell Upon It and Watered It.

It grew and became a beautiful tree.

Cinderella went to this tree three times every day, and beneath it she wept and prayed.

A white bird came to the tree every time.

And whenever she expressed a wish, the bird would throw down to her what she had wished for.

Now, it happened that the king proclaimed a festival that was to last three days.

All the beautiful young girls in the land were invited so that his son could select a bride for himself.

When the Two Stepsisters heard that they too, had been invited, they were in high spirits.

They called Cinderella saying come our hair for us brush our shoes and fasten our buckles we're going to the festival at the king's castle.

Cinderella obeyed, but wept because she too, would have liked to go to the dance with them.

She begged her stepmother to allow her to go.

You Cinderella, she said you all covered with dust and dirt and you want to go to the festival.

You have neither clothes nor shoes, and yet you want to dance.

However, because Cinderella kept asking, the stepmother finally said, I have scattered a bowl of lentils into the ashes for you.

If you can pick them out again in 2 hours then you may go with us.

The girl went through the back door into the garden and called out you tame pigeons, you turtle doves and all you birds beneath the sky come and help me to gather the good ones go into the pot.

The bad ones go into your crop.

Two white pigeons came in through the kitchen window.

And then the turtle doves, and finally all the birds beneath the sky came worrying and swarming in and lit around the ashes.

The pigeons nodded their heads and began to pick pick.

And the others also began to pick pick.

They gathered all the good grains into the bowl.

Hardly 1 hour had passed before they were finished and they all flew out again.

The girl took the bowl to her stepmother and was happy thinking that now she would be allowed to go to the festival with them.

But the stepmother said, no, Cinderella, you have no clothes and you don't know how to dance.

Everyone would only laugh at you.

Cinderella Began To Cry.

And Then The Stepmother Said, You May Go if You Are Able To Pick Two Bowls Of Lentils Out Of The Ashes For Me In 1 Hour.

Thinking to herself she will never be able to do that.

The Girl Went through the back door into the garden and called out you tame pigeons, you turtle doves, and all you birds beneath the sky, come and help me to gather.

The good ones go into the pot, the bad ones go into your crop.

Two white pigeons came in through the kitchen window and then the turtle doves, and finally all the birds beneath the sky came whirring and swarming in and lit around the ashes.

The pigeons nodded their heads and began to pick pick, and the others also began to pick pick.

They gathered all the good grains into the bowls.

Before a half hour had passed, they were finished and they all flew out again.

The girl took the bowls to her stepmother and was happy thinking that now she would be allowed to go to the festival with them.

But the stepmother said, It's no use.

You are not coming with us, for you have no clothes and you don't know how to dance.

We would be ashamed of you.

With this she turned her back on Cinderella and hurried away with her two proud daughters.

Now that no one else was at home, cinderella went to her mother's grave beneath the hazel tree and cried out shaken, quiver, little tree, throw gold and silver down to me.

Then the bird threw a gold and silver dress down to her and slippers embroidered with silk and silver.

She quickly put on the dress and went to the festival.

Her stepsisters and her stepmother did not recognize her.

They thought she must be a foreign princess, for she looked so beautiful in the golden dress.

They never once thought it was Cinderella, for they thought that she was sitting at home in the dirt looking for lentils in the ashes.

The prince approached her, took her by the hand and danced with her.

Furthermore, he would dance with no one else.

He never let go of her hand, and whenever anyone else came and asked her to dance, he would say, she is my dance partner.

She danced until evening, and then she wanted to go home.

But the prince said, I will go along and escort you, for he wanted to see to whom the beautiful girl belonged.

However, she eluded him and jumped into the pigeon coop.

The prince waited until her father came, and then he told him that the unknown girl had jumped into the pigeon coop.

The old man thought, could it be Cinderella?

He had them bring him an axe and a pic so that he could break the pigeon coop apart.

But no one was inside.

When they got home, Cinderella was lying in the ashes dressed in her dirty clothes.

A dim little oil lamp was burning in the fireplace.

Cinderella had quickly jumped down from the back of the pigeon coop and had run to the hazel tree.

There she had taken off her beautiful clothes and laid them on the grave, and the bird had taken them away again.

Then, dressed in her gray smock, she had returned to the ashes in the kitchen.

The next day, when the festival began anew and her parents and her stepsisters had gone again, cinderella went to the hazel tree and said shaken quiver, little tree, throw gold and silver down to me.

Then the bird threw down an even more magnificent dress that on the preceding day, when Cinderella appeared at the festival in this dress everyone was astonished at her beauty.

The prince had waited until she came then immediately took her by the hand and danced only with her.

When others came and asked her to dance with them he said she is my dance partner.

One evening came she wanted to leave and the prince followed her, wanting to see into which house she went.

But she ran away from him and into the garden behind the house.

A beautiful tall tree stood there on which hung the most magnificent pears.

She climbed as nimbly as a squirrel into the branches and the prince did not know where she had gone.

He waited until her father came and said to him the unknown girl has eluded me and I believe she has climbed up the pear tree.

The father thought.

Could it be Cinderella?

He had an axe brought to him and cut down the tree, but no one was in it.

When they came to the kitchen cinderella was lying there in the ashes as usual, for she had jumped down from the other side of the tree, had taken the beautiful dress back to the bird in the hazel tree and had put on her grave smock.

On the third day, when her parents and sisters had gone away cinderella went again to her mother's grave and said to the tree shaken, quiver, little tree, throw gold and silver down to me.

This time the bird threw down to her address that was more splendid and magnificent than any she had yet had and the slippers were of pure gold.

When she arrived at the festival in this dress everyone was so astonished that they did not know what to say.

The prince danced only with her and whenever anyone else asked her to dance he would say she is my dance partner.

When evening came, Cinderella wanted to leave and the prince tried to escort her but she ran away from him so quickly that he could not follow her.

The prince, however, had set a trap.

He had had the entire stairway smeared with pitch.

When she ran down the stairs her left slipper stuck in the pitch.

The prince picked it up.

It was small and dainty and of pure gold.

The next morning he went with it to the man and said to him no one shall be my wife except for the one whose foot fits this golden shoe.

The two sisters were happy to hear this for they had pretty feet.

With her mother standing by, the older one took the shoe into her bedroom to try it on.

She could not get her big toe into it for the shoe is too small for her.

Then her mother gave her a knife and said, cut off your toe.

When you are queen, you will no longer have to go on foot.

The girl cut off her toe, forced her foot into the shoe, swallowed the pain and went out to the prince.

He took her on his horse as his bride and rode away with her.

However, they had to ride past the grave and there on the hazel tree sat the two pigeons crying out rupti goo, rupti goo.

There's blood in the shoe.

The shoe is too tight.

The bride is not right.

Then he looked at her foot and saw how the blood was running from it.

He turned his horse around and took the false bride home again, saying that she was not the right one and that the other sister should try on the shoe.

She went into her bedroom and got her toes into the shoe all right, but her heel was too large.

Then her mother gave her a knife and said, cut a piece off your heel.

When you are queen, you will no longer have to go on foot.

The girl cut off a piece of her heel, forced her foot into the shoe, swallowed the pain and went out to the prince.

He took her on his horse as his bride and rode away with her.

When they passed the hazel tree, the two pigeons were sitting in it and they cried out rUK de goo, rook de goo.

There's blood in the shoe.

The shoe is too tight.

This bride is not right.

He looked down at her foot and saw how the blood was running out of her shoe and how it had stained her white stocking all red.

Then he turned his horse around and took the false bride home again.

This is not the right one either, he said.

Don't you have another daughter?

No, said the man.

There is only a deformed little Cinderella for my first wife, but she cannot possibly be the bride.

The prince told him to send her to him, but the mother answered, oh, no, she is much too dirty.

She cannot be seen.

But the prince insisted on it, and they had to call Cinderella.

She first washed her hands and face clean and then went and bowed down before the prince, who gave her the golden shoe.

She sat down on a stool, pulled her foot out of the heavy wooden shoe and put it into the slipper, and it fitted her perfectly.

When she stood up, the prince looked into her face and he recognized the beautiful girl who had danced with him.

He cried out, she is my true bride.

The stepmother and the two sisters were horrified and turned pale with anger.

The prince, however, took Cinderella onto his horse and rode away with her.

As they passed the hazel tree, the two white pigeons cried out rupti goo, rookie goo.

No bloods in the shoe.

The shoe is not too tight.

This bride is right.

After they had cried this out, they both flew down and lit on Cinderella's shoulders, one on the right, the other on the left, and remained sitting there.

When the wedding with the prince was to be held, the two full sisters came, wanting to gain favor with Cinderella and to share a good fortune.

When the bridal couple walked into the church, the older sister walked on their right side and the younger on their left side, and the pigeons pecked out one eye from each of them.

Afterwards, as they came out of the church, the older one was on the left side and the younger one on the right side.

And then the pigeons pecked out the other eye from each of them.

And thus, for their wickedness and falsehood, they were punished with blindness as long as they lived.

Thank you for joining Freya's fairy tales.