Today is part two of two where we are talking to Enni Amanda about her novels. After today you will have heard about teaching herself to read, writing from an early age, taking a long break from writing while learning other arts, knowing that you always consider learning to improve, accidentally publishing your first book, joining critique groups before being ready, going wide from the beginning, writing what you love, the marketing struggle, finding the books that you love, taking into account your personal strengths when listening to advice.

Get My Lucky Star

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Enni Amanda is a graphic designer moonlighting as a rom-com author, or maybe it's the other way around. In 2006, she and her husband moved from Finland to New Zealand and fell in love with the gorgeous islands and their laid-back people. They spent eight years traveling between the two rather inconveniently located countries, studying filmmaking and running a film festival. Through all the filmmaking, Enni discovered a passion for screenwriting, which eventually led to writing books (a slippery slope). Her heart-warming, funny stories explore real-life issues like identity, found family, and the housing crisis. These days, she lives in the Waikato, close to the rolling hills of the Shire, raising two cute, rambunctious boys while writing away and ignoring housework.

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Welcome to Freya's fairy tales.

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 very own fairy tale in our hands.

At the end of each episode, we will finish off with a 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.

Be sure to check out our website and sign up for our newsletter for the latest on the podcast.

Today is part two of two, where we are talking to any Amanda about her novels.

After today, you will have heard about teaching herself to read writing from an early age taking a long break from writing while learning other arts.

Knowing that you always must consider learning to improve.

Accidentally publishing your first book.

Joining critique groups before being ready going wide from the beginning writing what you love, the marketing struggle, finding the books that you love.

Taking into account your personal strengths when listening to advice.

My lucky star imagine having a celebrity doppelganger.

Now imagine a hot tv star asking you to impersonate that celebrity to save his career.

Failing to make it as an actress, Arya Dunn is back in her hometown of Napier, working as a location scout.

No more unattainable dreams, just casual clothing and low expectations until she finds a turkish tv star hiding out in the historic hotel she needs for her client.

SEM or Cam is desperate for good publicity after a drunken night ends with compromising photos with his family.

Banking on his success, he hatches a wild plan, a fake relationship with the New Zealand woman who looks like his old co star.

He just needs to keep his hands off her since they have no future.

That's what everyone's saying, and they're right.

But the more time they spend together.

The harder it is to stick to the script.

Swept into Istanbul's glitz and glamour, Arya is forced to reevaluate her sensible life plan.

Should she give her acting dream one more go?

And what is she supposed to do with the turkish heartthrob?

In the most unattainable dream of all, my lucky star is a story about rediscovering passion when your dreams have failed you.

It's also a story of all that is hot and turkish men tea kebabs like a dizzy in book form, but with a lot more heat.

Escape to New Zealand and Istanbul with this spicy slow burn.

Rom.com the writing is the easy part.

It's all of the after stuff.

So for me, the writing of the first draft took like six ish months, and then the editing and all of that took an additional.

And that was six months of working on it.

I think like 15 minutes a day for most of that.

And so that was like, barely.

I'd get, like, maybe 200 words done most of those days.

So it wasn't working on it a lot.

And then it was like two, three months of just, like, editing, just straight editing after that.

And now I'm getting into the, oh, no, now I have to start marketing it.

I know that's when you should be really gearing up and getting all your ducks in a row and having high energy.

And that's the part of the process when you're like, oh, am I not done yet?

And now you're like, now I have to be all bubly and personable for social media so that people want to look at my book.

Yeah.

And also have to remember exactly what happened in the book and pulling quotes and things out of it.

And when you read it, read through your own book, good.

15 times in the last few months.

And it's just hard to go back.

For me sometimes I try to do some of it now when I'm editing, I'm like, okay, this is the bit that I really love, and I want to use this in marketing, and I earmark it.

Now.

I think that's taken me a long time to learn, but I need to do that when I'm editing, not necessarily when I'm writing.

That would be disruptive.

But when I'm editing, I can find the little bits and pieces that will be really good for reels and marketing and that kind of thing.

If you don't do it, then it is painful to go back and start trying to pull them out.

When you put the book down for the 15 times, like, nobody wants to read the same book for 15 times.

Really?

Time to go dive in for the 16th time to find some marketing material.

There's a couple of lines that I know in my head.

I'm like, oh, there's that one line about a war being fought because of her.

There's these little lines that have stuck in my head, but I have not yet pulled out.

I'm kind of waiting for, like, and I need to do this before the ebook comes out.

But you know, on Goodreads, when people start highlighting passages in the ebook and you can actually see like, oh, those are the lines that other humans like.

Yeah, that's what I've been doing.

That's great.

And some arc readers are lovely enough to kind of pull those out and create reels or something where you can just like, oh, I'll steal that.

Yeah.

The only thing I did, I haven't asked any if I can use their stuff, but I did make sure to tell them like, hey, I'd rather you not tag me in negative reviews.

And they then asked for clarification on did I consider three stars good or bad or whatever.

And I'm like, I think it depends on how you classify your three star reads because for me, three stars is like, I read it, but I may not read it again.

We're like, four and five are going to be like, I really liked it.

I'll probably read it again.

I mean, everybody has their own rating system that they use.

So it depends on you if three.

Stars are negative for you.

Because three stars on Amazon is not the same as three stars on Goodreads.

They have a different definition for three stars on Amazon.

It is a critical review and it pops up as a critical review and then on, like, it means I liked it or it's good or it's, it's not even.

So some reviewers I've noticed, they might give you three stars on Goodreads and four stars on Amazon because those are more aligned.

But yeah, I don't like telling people how to rate or what.

I did.

Not tell them how to rate.

I even specifically told them.

I've heard a bunch of authors like, oh, don't post a one or two star until it launches a couple of weeks.

Or I'm like, no, you post whatever review you feel comfortable posting.

If you feel comfortable posting the review, just don't tag me in negative reviews.

People to wait a couple of weeks with their one star review or whatever, that's not unreasonable.

But if it's going to come out eventually anyway, I kind of see it as a long term game for me.

That's not like my sales will come, they will trickle through.

It's just up to how much marketing promotion I do.

That's kind of like it's this up and down thing.

I don't sell a million copies in that first two weeks anyway.

For me, doesn't make a huge difference whether that negative review gets posted within that two week period or one week after or something.

Well, the thing for me is if you put a book out there and you only get five star reviews, like you have nothing but five star.

It looks like you are spamming or you are having all of your friends post the reviews or you're paying for reviews, it looks bad if all you have is only five star reviews.

So my thing, and this is because I've talked to so many authors at this point and watched a whole lot of authors on TikTok, is like, if you are going to put your book out there into the world, you have to know that some people aren't going to like your book, and you have to kind of be okay with that.

And if you're not going to be okay with that, maybe you shouldn't put your book out there into the world.

I tried to set, because I was gathering my arc team and sending out my arcs right around two of the biggest arc controversy things that have happened on TikTok in recent days.

Something new happening I think I missed.

Mean, it's the same stuff that happens every time, but it just so happened, like, as soon as I was starting to build my arc team, big controversy happened.

As soon as I'm sending my arcs out, big controversy happened.

And I'm just like, oh, my gosh, you have to be kidding me.

And it was mainly like everything that I say, I'm like, I just want to let you guys know I'm not going to come after you.

I'm not going to attack you.

I'm not going to post any videos about any reviews unless you want me to.

You post whatever you're comfortable posting.

And there was like, something about authors not picking arc readers who had previously rated books one or two stars before or whatever.

At the end of the day, some authors are crazy, and I wanted my team, as comfortable as they could be, to know that they were in a safe space to leave whatever review they wanted to.

And also, I understood if they didn't want to leave a negative review because they didn't want another author to not pick them because of that negative review or whatever.

No, it's a complex issue, isn't it?

That's a whole lot of.

I don't understand how some of these authors have the time to pick reviewers based off their social media following and what reviews they've left previously.

And all these things, I'm like, I don't have the time to look at all these people's social media accounts to figure all this out.

I take the stance just to extend it to everyone, even though they think that some sort of selection process.

But I'm like, I just accepted everyone because.

I did the same thing.

I accepted every now beta readers.

I'll be more selective when I'm doing that again.

But as far as the first people, I asked them for references, and I checked in with their references, and I had one that had never done it before.

So no references, but for, yeah, arc readers.

I'm like, why would you want to limit the quantity of people that are possibly going to love your book and tell everybody about your book?

So that's kind of my thinking on it.

I write certain kind of books, and if you rated my last two books one or two stars, it's like, why are you even applying for this new one?

Like, work?

Yeah.

I don't fully understand the logic behind it because there's, like, thousands of authors and books that you could be applying.

For that would be a little bit weird.

I would also question, why are you still.

I mean, I've left it up, too.

I'm like, I understand if you want to unsubscribe.

Yeah.

And I let them know that at the beginning, too.

Like, if you don't like it and you want to unsubscribe, that's totally fine.

Yeah, exactly.

I tell them, like, you can just move on and find other books and authors to follow and, yeah, you don't have to stick around.

There's no obligation because I gave you a free book.

It's like, that's fine.

Let's both move on.

If you don't like it, that's totally valid.

Totally fine.

Just read something else.

I really hope everybody finds the books that they really love and are excited about reading.

It is so much more enjoyable.

If the book is good and if it gels, like, oh, this is for me.

This is written for me.

This is so good.

You want people to find those books.

This is where I really hope that AI will help us in the future.

I don't know how, but there's got to be better ways to find the things that you might actually enjoy.

Like algorithms right now are so s*** like this.

We need something that really guides us to those hidden gems.

Because if there are a million books published every year or something like that.

A lot, how am they ever going.

To find, like, there's going to be something that's just perfect for me that I'm never finding.

And that's why I'm like, why would you hang around in some arc team if you don't like anything?

It's like, really, there's no point.

Life is way too short.

Funny you said that, though.

That's the same thing that I comment on people that will negatively review podcasts or my narrating, because occasionally I have a fiction podcast that's like classic novel audiobooks, and people will comment on my social media posts talking about how awful I am or how boring I am or how whatever.

And my comment is quite literally always, isn't it great that there are so many narrators in the world and you can go find one that you like?

I don't add and leave me alone, but it is implied.

I know there's something for everybody, and that's the real beauty of the situation where we are in right now and the rise of self publishing and all that.

We don't have the gatekeepers.

We have all this content.

We just need better tools to find the content.

I give you that.

But still, it's out there, so there's no reason for you to hang around if you're not enjoying yourself for any content.

Yeah, I hope you ludicrous.

I can only imagine that maybe you liked something the author wrote earlier, and now you're like waiting book after book.

It's like, maybe they'll write something similar again, maybe in the future.

Yeah, there might be some of that.

Who knows?

But there's a lot of things that I know that I don't enjoy from the first try.

I can tell.

Okay, I don't enjoy this.

I can just move on.

It's so simple.

Who's the really popular audio narrator?

Who?

Just the male voices in this weird way.

I can't listen to it.

I don't know if something about it doesn't work for me.

Describe me.

I wouldn't say I'm really popular, but.

I'm pretty sure it's not you because it was one of those really big names that someone recommended and said that you should really try.

But I'm not really an audiobook person.

I listen to nonfiction, but the fiction, it's just something to do with my brain.

I feel like it's always either too slow or too fast or I think my pacing, the way that I read and my pacing doesn't match up with listening to audio.

I would have to constantly slow down or speed up, or I would want to jump back and reread something.

I reread a lot of stuff because I'm like, oh, cool sentence.

How did it go?

What was that again?

It's really difficult to do an audio.

You have to be really navigating it constantly.

And, yeah, for me, that doing that male voice, where they drop their voice and talk like this as a Male, it just throws me every time I miss what they're saying because I'm like, oh, we adwood.

That is how I do it.

And I know they're super popular, and that's what I'm saying.

There's nothing wrong with it.

It seems to work on a large scale.

Right.

Just because it didn't work for me and my brain doesn't mean there's anything wrong with it.

I can tell that it works, and I would even hire someone to do my books that way if there's enough evidence that it works for a lot of people.

And I can't judge that based on my own personal experience as someone who doesn't really listen to audiobooks, who struggles with taking things in in that format.

So I would just rely on the evidence of, like, okay, that works.

Lots of people seem to love it.

I would just go for that.

There's evidence this works.

I would produce my.

Well, right now I don't have the budget to do a lot of audio, but I would love to do that, and I wouldn't mind at all.

I think it would be a better choice, to be honest, than trying to hire audio, especially when I need very specific accents and voices.

It would be really difficult to find someone to do my turkish character who's got a turkish accent.

It's like, how even know where to start to find the talent.

So I think it's a good kind of workaround of, say, a female narrator breeds both and then just drops their voice and you know that it's not supposed to be.

They don't magically turn into a turkish male.

You kind of go like, okay, I understand.

They're just reading the lines, and it's like a workaround for that awkward situation.

Where you can't find.

Actually, I have heard from authors that there's one I recently narrated for.

In most of her books, she's had male narrators, and I think I might be her only female narrator, or there's, like, maybe one other one.

But she was like, having had mostly male narrators that the male is trying to do the female voices, she's like, I much prefer you dropping your voice for the male voices than how the males raise their voice.

That would be even harder.

I can.

Imagine that being way harder.

Sometimes.

Some authors I talk back and forth with as I'm narrating their book and getting it ready and all these things, but me and her, it's been way more conversation back and forth than I usually have.

And so she kept mentioning my previous narrator, my previous narrator, blah, blah, blah.

She had, like, two guys that did the bulk of her audiobook so far.

And so I go and I listen out of curiosity, how do they perform the audiobook versus how I know I'm going to be doing it, which is going to be not over the top, but more performance than just reading the lines?

And so she kept saying, I can't stand to listen to my audiobooks.

I cringe as I listen to my audiobooks over and over and over again.

She told me these things, and then she listens to mine, and she's like, I didn't cringe.

It's the first time I haven't cringed.

But God, my characters are really toxic.

Relationship between them.

And I was like, I performed the toxicness as best I could.

I'm sure I'd highlight certain things, and that's what I'm worried about.

One day I'll do an audiobook like, okay, that's what sounds like.

It's not just the voice, but those are the words I wrote.

Yeah, somebody offered to do a little clip, like, read a little clip from my last book on TikTok, and she did it really well, and it didn't bother me at all.

I put that up on my website, so you can listen to that little clip, even though I don't have any other audio, but it works for me.

There's a lot of performance in it, and it's a little slow for me.

Obviously, I know how it goes, so I'm like, okay.

But I think it works.

Like that sort of pacing probably works for a lot of people who are hearing it for the first time and not familiar with the material.

I think that's another thing with the author listening to it.

Yeah, I know what's happening.

Just say no, let's go, let's go.

People actually need time to take it in because it's all new for someone else.

Well, I've heard from, I do not necessarily follow this rule, but I heard from one audiobook narrator that the reason that most of them talk so slow is because for elderly people, it might take them longer to process it than, like, a younger person, where a younger person is probably just going to speed it up on their app to listen to it faster.

I narrate at a normal speed of speech, so I can't imagine any older people listening to my audio that may need a slower audio.

I talk slightly slower when I'm narrating than I talk normally.

But as you get to action scenes.

I speed up how I'm talking.

I don't know.

It's like authors and styles of writing and people liking it.

There are narrators that narrate some ways and narrators that narrate other ways and one person.

Interesting challenge, isn't it?

Because it's like a mix between acting and this sort of technical performance that's just getting it right, not messing up words and all that.

Yeah.

I have huge respect for people who can do it, especially when it comes to, I think, the acting part of things, like keeping that performance consistent for such a long time.

Like, you have same person that we're following and they have the certain cadence and maybe somebody, one of them has these wordy rents or talks a little.

You can tell from the dialogue that some things should be a little bit faster.

Like, people are rambling and talking fast and you kind of have to adjust to that as well.

It's not like AI would just read it like they read it.

Yeah.

And it all stays at the same pace.

The whole.

It really kills it.

If it's something that's like a rambly, rambly ram.

Can't do it like that.

That's horrible.

Or you get to the end of the line and it says, he whispered, and you got to go back and do it again.

Whispered.

The amount of times I have done gotten to the end of a line and been, like he said, irritated, let me go back, do it again.

Or those dialogue tags that aren't really dialogue tags, trying to understand how someone's even, like, biting it back or doing with his mouth full, how that sounds.

You accept it.

You're reading it on page and like, yeah, okay.

But if someone has to perform it, it's like, how do you think that?

Let's see my challenge this last week, there was two characters talking with their mouths full.

So I had to kind of talk like this.

So weird.

I did not have anything in my mouth.

I just kind of, like, garbled my speech.

But I've also had a character that's drunk, and you have to slur your speech.

No different than you did the film stuff.

It's really hard because it's like drunk people are pretending to be sober.

So you are acting against that.

Sober person, trying to act like you're drunk, trying to act like you're sober.

Yeah.

There's a challenge.

Everything is new every day.

Figure something out.

So what is the best piece of advice and worst piece of advice you've ever gotten?

Wow.

Answer in whichever order you want.

Yeah.

I recently kind of realized that a lot of the advice that we get given as indie authors is based on this sort of rapid release model or certain kind of approach to publishing.

That if you look at like Mark Dawson and self publishing platforms, it's all valid advice, but it doesn't take into account your personal kind know strengths and the way you're wired.

I think it doesn't take into account what comes naturally to you and what doesn't.

And it doesn't help you lean into your strengths.

And I think that's often the problem.

It's good advice, but it only works on so many people and not everybody, right?

And there's a lot of advice like that that I've heard that is like, yes, it works.

And I'm not saying that it doesn't because there's evidence that it works for some people.

And there are people who can just focus on the publishing and doing it on a rabbit schedule and doing lots of advertising and pushing and pushing in that way and becoming like staying relevant on Amazon and staying on top of things.

But it's only one of the ways, and I think that's something I'm slowly starting to kind of grasp, is that there's so many different paths to success that you have to be wary of anyone selling that one way saying, hey, this is how it works, this is where you should be.

This is the social media platform you should be on.

This is how you should be doing it.

There's so many ways you can do it.

And for me, it's way more important that I find ways that I can do my marketing so that it's not taxing me and not taking away the joy of writing and all the other things that I want to focus on.

And it's still successful.

And it doesn't have to be as successful as it is for some people who are capable of following that rapid release or other sort of more aggressive kind of let's take over the market kind of strategies.

It doesn't have to be.

It can be long term, it can be slow growth.

And I'm okay with that.

I want to think like ten years ahead and just build a life that I actually enjoy living.

And that's way more important than looking at my sales figures and hyper focusing on what's happening this month or even this quarter.

I'm kind of like, am I signing up for things that I will enjoy in the long run?

Am I going taking those steps, those little steps towards having a sustainable career?

That for me is a mix of doing cover design and then doing some writing on the side.

And I love both.

And I love doing design work, and I love running my own business in there, so I want to keep it all, so I have to forge my own path in there.

And I think the best advice I've had very recently is just listening to one of the podcasts.

What was it?

I can't remember.

The Ally podcast is really good.

And they had somebody on talking about these.

There was a whole lot of talk about different landscapes, like, are you a tundra or are you a desert?

Like a whole personality test based on different landscapes.

I'm like, I'm not sure if I'm a forest, so I was kind of like giggling about that stuff.

But the whole idea of we are so different, that different approaches work for different people, and you have to find your own path.

And it's the only way that stuck with me.

And I don't really care if I'm the swamp lance or whatever I am in the auto, but I really need to just trust that going with my guts and kind of this is what I enjoy doing.

And I don't like doing complicated reels with graphics and things like that because that's too much work for me.

I do graphic design, so I don't want to be doing that day and night for my books.

Right.

I find it way easier to just pick up my phone and do a five minute TikTok talking about something and post it.

I don't even do a second take.

I just post.

Yeah.

I'm like, I vlog, but on TikTok.

Yeah, exactly.

It's like a personal diary kind of thing, but it helps you connect with the community.

You find people who connect with what you're saying, and you can create some conversation, and it's almost like checking in with yourself.

I'll do a little personal kind of update of like, this is what I'm thinking right now.

This is what's on my mind.

And I find that's really fast and easy and comes naturally.

And I know for a lot of people it doesn't come naturally and you shouldn't force yourself into it.

That's, again, against how you wired and what's natural and what your strengths are.

And I think we really need to, when it comes to long term marketing and anything like that, we need to lean on our own strength and what feels natural and how we want to spend our time.

Because whatever the action is, you might be able to do it once, but can you keep it up for weeks and weeks and months and months.

You shouldn't pick up anything that you can't carry on with for a long term, because usually the benefits will come in the long term.

So the thing you're able to not.

Hardly any instant hits anywhere.

Well, you have a good rest of your day, and I'm going to get some air conditioning and get Monday's episode ready.

Enjoy.

Bye bye.

Annie liked detective stories and mysteries as she got older.

Today we'll be reading the first chapter of a study in Scarlet.

A study in Scarlet.

Chapter one.

Mr.

Sherlock Holmes.

In the year 1878, I took my degree of doctor of medicine of the University of London and proceeded to Netley to go through the course prescribed for surgeons in the army.

Having completed my studies there, I was duly attached to the fifth Northumberland Fusiliers as assistant surgeon.

The regiment was stationed in India at the time, and before I could join it, the second afghan war had broken out.

On landing at Bombay, I learned that my corps had advanced through the passes and was already deep in the enemy's country.

I followed, however, with many other officers who were in the same situation as myself, and succeeded in reaching Kandahar in safety, where I found my regiment and at once entered upon my new duties.

The campaign brought honors and promotion to many, but for me it had nothing but misfortune and disaster.

I was removed from my brigade and attacked to the Berkshires, with whom I served at the fatal battle of my wand.

There I was struck on the soldier by a jezel bullet, which shattered the bone and grazed the subclavian artery.

I should have fallen into the hands of the murderous Ghazis, had it not been for the devotion and courage shown by Murray, my orderly, who threw me across a packhorse and succeeded in bringing me safely to the british lines.

Worn with pain and weak from the prolonged hardships which I had undergone, I was removed with a great train of wounded sufferers to the base hospital at Peshawar.

Here I rallied, and had already improved so far as to be able to walk about the wards and even to bask a little upon the veranda, when I was struck down by anteric fever, that curse of our indian possessions, for months my life was despaired of, and when at last I came to myself and became convalescent, I was so weak and emaciated that a medical board determined that not a day should be lost in sending me back to England.

I was dispatched accordingly in the troopship Orentes, and landed a month later on Portsmouth jetty, with my health irretrievably ruined, but with permission from a paternal government to spend the next nine months attempting to improve it.

I had neither kith nor kin in England, and was therefore as free as air, or as free as an income of eleven shillings and sixpence a day will permit a man to be under such circumstances.

I naturally gravitated to London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the empire are irresistibly drained.

There I stayed for some time at a private hotel in the strand, leading a comfortless, meaningless existence and spending such money as I had considerably more freely than I ought.

So alarming did the state of my finances become that I soon realized that I must either leave the metropolis and rusticate somewhere in the country, or that I must make a complete alteration in my style of living.

Choosing the latter alternative, I began by making up my mind to leave the hotel and to take up my quarters in some less pretentious and less expensive domicile.

On the very day that I had come to this conclusion, I was standing at the criterion bar when someone tapped me on the shoulder and turning round, I recognized young Stamford, who had been a dresser under me at bart's.

The sight of a friendly face in the great wilderness of London is a pleasant thing indeed to a lonely man.

In old days, Stamford had never been a particular crony of mine.

But now I hailed him with enthusiasm, and he in his turn appeared to be delighted to see me.

In the exuberance of my joy, I asked him to lunch with me at the Holburn, and we started off together in a handsome whatever have you been doing with yourself, Watson?

He asked in undisguised wonder as we rattled through the crowded London streets, ear as thin as a laugh and as brown as a knot, I gave him a short sketch of my adventures and had hardly concluded it by the time that we reached our destination.

Poor devil, he said commiseratingly, after he had listened to my misfortunes.

What are you up to now?

Looking for lodgings, I answered, trying to solve the problem as to whether it's possible to get comfortable rooms at a reasonable price.

That's a strange thing, remarked my companion.

You are the second man today that has used that expression to me.

And who was the first?

I asked.

A fellow who's working at the chemical laboratory up at the hospital.

He was bemoaning himself this morning because he could not get someone to go halves with him in some nice rooms, which he had found and which were too much for his purse.

By Jove, I cried, if he really wants someone to share the rooms and the expense I'm the very man for him.

I should prefer having a partner to being alone.

Young Stamford looked rather strangely at me over his wine glass.

You don't know Sherlock Holmes yet, he said.

Perhaps you would not care for him as a constant companion.

Why?

What is there against him?

Oh, I didn't say there was anything against him.

He's a little queer in his ideas, an enthusiast in some branches of science.

As far as I know, he's a decent fellow enough.

A medical student, I suppose, said I.

No, I have no idea what he intends to go in for.

I believe he's well up in anatomy and he's a first class chemist, but as far as I know he's never taken out any systematic medical classes.

His studies are very desolatory and eccentric, but he's amassed a lot of out of the way knowledge which would astonish his professors.

Did you never ask him what he was going in for?

I asked.

No.

He's not a man that is easy to draw out, though he can be communicative enough when the fancy seizes him.

I should like to meet him, I said.

If I'm to lodge with anyone, I should prefer a man of studious and quiet habits.

I'm not strong enough yet to stand much noise or excitement.

I had enough of both in Afghanistan to last me for the remainder of my natural existence.

How could I meet this friend of yours?

He's sure to be at the laboratory, returned my companion.

He either avoids the place for weeks or else he works there from morning to night.

If you like, we shall drive round together after luncheon.

Certainly, I answered, and the conversation drifted away into other channels as we made our way to the hospital.

After leaving the Holburn, Stamford gave me a few more particulars about the gentleman whom I proposed to take as a fellow lodger.

You mustn't blame me if you don't get on with him, he said.

I know nothing more of him than I've learned from meeting him occasionally in the laboratory.

You propose this arrangement, so you must.

Not hold me responsible.

If we don't get on, it will be easy to part company, I answered.

It seems to me, Stamford, I added, looking hard at my companion, that you have some reason for washing your hands of the matter.

Is this fellow's temper so formidable or what is it?

Don't be mealy mouthed about it.

It is not easy to express the inexpressible, he answered with a laugh.

Holmes is a little too scientific for my tastes.

It approaches to cold bloodedness I could imagine is giving a friend a little pinch of the latest vegetable alkaloid.

Not out of malevolence, you understand, but simply out of a spirit of inquiry in order to have an accurate idea of the effects.

To do him justice.

I think that he would take it himself with the same readiness.

He appears to have a passion for definite and exact knowledge.

Very right too.

Yes, but it may be pushed to excess when it comes to beating the subjects in the dissecting rooms with a stick.

It is certainly taking rather a bizarre shape.

Beating the subjects?

Yes, to verify how far bruises may be produced after death.

I saw him at it with my own eyes.

And yet you say he's not a medical student?

No.

Heavens knows what the objects of his studies are.

But here we are and you must form your own impressions about him.

As he spoke, we turned down a narrow lane and passed through a small side door which opened into a wing of the great hospital.

It was familiar ground to me and I needed no guiding as we ascended the bleak stone staircase and made our way down the long corridor with its vista of whitewashed wall and done colored doors.

Near the further end a low arched passage branched away from it and led to the chemical laboratory.

This was a lofty chamber, lined and littered with countless bottles.

Broad low tables were scattered about, which bristled with retorts, test tubes, and little bunsen lamps with their blue flickering flames.

There was only one student in the room.

It was bending over a distant table, absorbed in his work.

At the sound of our steps he glanced round and sprang to his feet with a cry of pleasure.

I found it, I found it.

He shouted to my companion, running towards us with a test tube in his hand.

I have found a reagent which is.

Precipitated by hemoglobin and by nothing else.

Had he discovered a gold mine, greater delight could not have shown upon his features.

Dr.

Watson, Mr.

Sherlock Holmes, said Stamford, introducing us.

How are you?

He said cordially, gripping my hand with the strength for which I should hardly have given him credit.

You've been in Afghanistan, I perceive.

How on earth did you know that?

I asked in astonishment.

Never mind, said he, chuckling to himself.

The question now is about hemoglobin.

No doubt you see the significance of this discovery of mine.

It is interesting chemically, no doubt, I answered, but practically.

Why, man, it is the most practical medical, legal discovery for years.

Don't you see that it gives us.

An infallible test for blood stains?

Come over here now.

He seized me by the coat sleeve in his eagerness and drew me over to the table at which he had been working.

Let us have some fresh blood, he said, digging a long vodkin into his finger and drawing off the resulting drop of blood in a chemical pipette.

Now I add this small quantity of.

Blood to a liter of water.

You perceive that the resulting mixture has.

The appearance of pure water.

Their proportion of blood cannot be more than one in a million.

I have no doubt, however, that we shall be able to obtain the characteristic reaction.

As he spoke, he threw into the vessel a few white crystals and then added some drops of a transparent fluid.

In an instant the contents assumed a dull mahogany color, and a brownish dust was precipitated to the bottom of the glassy jar.

Aha.

He cried, clapping his hands and looking as delighted as a child with a new toy.

What do you think of that?

It seems to be a very delicate test, I remarked.

Beautiful, beautiful.

The old guacam test was very clumsy and uncertain.

So is the microscopic examination for blood corpsecles.

The latter is valueless if the stains are a few hours old.

Now this appears to act as well.

Whether the blood is old or new.

Had this test been invented, there were.

Hundreds of men now walking the earth who would long ago have paid the penalty of their crimes.

Indeed, I murmured.

Criminal cases are continually hinging upon that one point.

A man is suspected of a crime.

Months perhaps, after it has been committed.

His linen or clothes are examined, and.

Brownish stains discovered upon them.

Are they blood stains or mud stains, or rust stains, or fruit stains, or what are they?

That is a question which has puzzled many an expert.

And why?

Because there was no reliable test.

Now we have the Sherlock Holmes test, and there will no longer be any difficulty.

His eyes fairly glittered as he spoke, and he put his hand over his heart and bowed as if to some applauding crowd conjured up by his imagination.

You are to be congratulated, I remarked, considerably surprised at his enthusiasm.

There was the case of von Bischoff.

At Frankfurt last year.

He would certainly have been hung had.

This test been in existence.

Then there was Mason of Bradford, and then notorious Mueller and Lafarre of Montpelier, and Samson of New Orleans.

I could name a score of cases in which it would have been decisive.

You seem to be a walking calendar of crime, said Stamford with a laugh.

You might start a paper on those lines.

Call it the police news of the past.

Very interesting reading.

It might be made, too, remarked Sherlock Holmes, sticking a small piece of plaster over the p**** on his finger.

I have to be careful, he continued, turning to me with a smile, for I dabble with poisons?

A good deal.

He held out his hand as he spoke, and I noticed that it was all modeled over with similar pieces of plaster and discolored with strong acids.

We came here on business, said Stamford, sitting down on a high three legged stool and pushing another one in my direction with his foot.

My friend here wants to take diggings.

And as you were complaining that you.

Could get no one to go halves with you, I thought that I'd better bring you together.

Sherlock Holmes seemed delighted at the idea of sharing rooms with me.

I have my eye on a suite in Baker street, he said, which would suit us down to the ground.

You don't mind the smell of strong tobacco, I hope.

I always smoke ships myself, I answered.

That's good enough.

I generally have chemicals about and occasionally do experiments.

Would that annoy you?

By no means.

Let me see, what are my other shortcomings?

I get in the dumps at times.

And don't open my mouth for days on end.

You must not think I'm sulky when I do that.

Just let me alone and I'll soon be right.

What have you to confess now?

It's just as well for two fellows to know the worst of one another.

Before they begin to live together.

I laughed at this cross examination.

I keep a bullpup, I said, and I object to rose because my nerves are shaken and I get up at all sorts of ungodly hours.

And I'm extremely lazy.

I have another set of vices when I'm well, but those are the principal ones at present.

Do you include violin playing in your category of rows?

He asked anxiously.

It depends on the player, I answered.

A well played violin is a treat for the gods.

A badly played one.

Oh, that's all right, he cried with a merry laugh.

I think we may consider the thing is settled.

That is, if the rooms are agreeable to you.

When shall we see them?

Call for me here at noon tomorrow.

And we'll go together and settle everything, he answered.

All right, noon exactly, said I, shaking his hand.

We left him working among his chemicals, and we walked together towards my hotel.

By the way?

I asked, suddenly stopping and turning upon Stamford.

How the deuce did he know that I had come from Afghanistan?

My companion smiled an enigmatic smile.

That's just as little peculiarity, he said.

A good many people have wanted to know how he finds things out.

Oh, a mystery, is it?

I cried, rubbing my hands.

This is very pecant.

I am much obliged to you for bringing us together.

The proper study of mankind is man.

You know you must study him, then, Stamford said as he bade me goodbye.

You'll find him a naughty problem, though.

A wagery learns more about you than you about him.

Goodbye.

Goodbye, I answered and strolled on to my hotel, considerably interested in my new acquaintance now.

Thank you for joining Freya's fairy tales.

Be sure to come back next week for Melinda's journey to holding her own fairy tale in her hands and to hear one of her favorite fairy tales.