Today is part two of two where we are talking to Kimberly Ann about her novels. After today you will have heard about knowing you want to write from a young age, joining groups to help you in your journey, knowing when you need to pull back and write a new story, giving yourself enough time to get everything done, finding your crew, and write what you want to read.

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Kimberly's Website - Kimberly's Facebook page - Kimberly's Facebook group - @Kimberlyannbooks on Instagram - Kimberly Ann on TikTok

Kimberly Ann lives in BC, Canada with her husband, two children and ridiculously cute German Shepherd. When she’s not dreaming of stories, she homeschools her two children as they explore and learn the world together, reads anything she can get her hands on, and drinks a lot of coffee.

 Growing up with her head lost in a book, it was no surprise when she picked up a pen, or her laptop, to write her own. Kimberly Ann’s stories are based on the world around her as she brings her imagination to life with stories of small towns, swoon-worthy men, and the women that keep them on their toes.

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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 very own fairy tale in their hands.

At the end of each episode 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 two of two where we are talking to Kimberly Anne about her novels.

After today, you will have heard about.

Knowing you want to write from a young age, joining groups to help you in your journey, knowing when you need to pull back and write a new story.

Giving yourself enough time to get everything done, finding your crew and writing what you want to read.

Canadian Logan Creek, book four.

A bubbly city girl, a grumpy country boy.

A weekend that will change their lives forever.

Skyler Martin is more than happy to flee the city, leaving her past and failed engagement behind.

Her off on a new adventure in Logan Creek to plan a wedding for an old friend.

She hopes to do just that.

What she didn't expect was encountering a grumpy bear of a mountain man on her stop for coffee.

He riled her up, turned her on and drove her crazier than any man ever had before.

Just on that one stop, dylan Thompson had his life planned out, be the mayor of his hometown, Logan Creek, for as long as he could, and then figure out a way to live a quiet life that is free of responsibilities to other people.

After seeing how having a family could cause so much heartbreak, he swore he'd never put himself or anyone else through that.

Unfortunately, Skyler and Dylan had to grin and bear their discontent towards each other on a trip to Vegas for the bachelor and bachelorette parties.

Not only did they wake up in the same bed together, but also with rings on very important fingers, refusing to divorce.

Will their rings be enough to hold them together?

Or is not everyone meant to have a happily ever after?

So now I have to ask, as an audiobook narrator, is there any plans for audio in the works?

Actually, yes.

I just announced that Canadian Summer is going into audiobook.

We just had the casting for it fun with casting.

Are you a single narrator or are you team Narrating?

Team narrowing.

There's a dual.

Okay.

Yeah.

And so are they doing same duo doing the whole series?

Well, right now we're just doing the first book.

Okay.

So I'll cross that bridge when I get to it again.

I'll admit audio is a little bit of a scary venture for me as an author.

Well it's a different like promoting.

Yeah, it's a whole different game.

The little that I know from ebooks and paperback I can probably do a little bit to audiobook, but I know it's totally different.

But I'm very excited for it though.

I'm excited to hear it, I'm excited to see what happens and hopefully have more after that.

Fun.

So you said you have a book in your newsletter and then you're releasing a couple of anthologies, that's pretty much your hold like this year going into next year, right?

Yes, I have two anthologies coming out in November and then that will be it for this year which is when.

Your episodes for the podcast will be airing, just so you know.

Amazing.

Good timing.

Yeah.

Every time I go to schedule an episode I always put whatever the most recent book is when I read the blurb and then during the episode and then I always put like the link to whatever the most recently published one is in the show notes so people can go buy it.

Awesome, thank you.

Now anthology, would you prefer the anthology or one of your own books?

Anthologies I think are good.

Well, this will be my first actual published anthology, so I don't know how it goes.

On the post publishing side, I'm hoping that it does well and I'm hoping that I'm able to reach a bunch of readers that I hadn't been able to reach before, that they find me and they like my ratings.

But when it comes to the back end side, I kind of want to say I prefer my own books just because I can be more fluid with my deadlines when it comes to an anthology.

Not that I don't love the coverage for the anthologies, because I do, but I have no say in it.

Right, right.

And while I have my own coverage for my own books and those anthologies that's not posted on the things like.

That yes, it will be the main cover for all of them.

Yeah, which I mean I'm very thankful that the covers that I have seen for the anthologies I've been so far, I love them, so I'm very excited for that.

But yeah, it's probably just a control thing, might be another author tendency.

Yes.

And then just put the deadlines which I mean I totally get and I signed up for this, I'm not complaining but yeah, when it's my own project I could be like, well if we push it back a week right, so.

How did you get included in the anthology?

How did you find out about it?

I either had friends that were signing up for it and they sent me the open link for it or I found it through.

There's some really great Facebook groups for authors if you're looking for different ethologies to join.

Yeah, there's just a sign up that you can apply to the organizers to see if you can get a spot.

And I'm guessing at that point the organizers are like, no, this person's style isn't a fit for this one.

I imagine that would have to happen or you'd end up with like a weird mishmash of stories.

I think so, yeah.

I mean, I know there's some anthologies that have varying levels of spice and they kind of organized the book so that you can be like, okay, if you like the lower end spice probably the closer to the front or stop there.

Yeah, if you don't want to read more, don't read more.

But yeah, I think that they just look that you're not say writing a paranormal for a contemporary or just to make sure that everything goes I think is more they're looking for.

I've also seen a lot of there's a lot of anthologies that are free or maybe they're always running specials, maybe I don't know.

Or like they're always at least the ones that I've seen or maybe because I always sort by price, I just don't need the cheap ones.

But I know I've seen a lot that are like really good anthologies with a lot of but I like to buy whole series and so I don't like anthologies where it's like, oh, here's the first in series and that's all you're getting.

Like I'd rather buy the collection of also.

Yeah, I know, I know.

Vermont, the ones that I'm in right now, I believe the starting price will be $0.99.

So that's why you might see it is to get the most amount of sales as you can right at launch.

Right.

That's why you make it like the some do free to maybe hit a list like if they want it.

Because I know I'm in one next year, next May, the Wicked Games anthology where we specifically are trying to get on a best seller list.

So we are doing everything we can in order to do that and I believe the starting price for that will be $99.

Just so that we can be like, hey, here's our book only dollar.

Yeah, take a chance on us if you want it to.

I guess this is up to personal preference, but once you hit a best selling list, even if it's an anthology, you can then say you're a best selling author, right?

I can, yeah.

So if this works, I'm hoping that it can be Kimberly Annex selling author because that would be amazing.

I feel like there'd also be a little bit of like but I didn't do it on my own.

For me I'd be like maybe you feel just a teeny tiny bit like it's cheating because you didn't do it on your own.

I mean it is, but at the same time we're working as a team.

Right?

Right.

So I am actively pushing it.

I am writing for it.

With those there's a bigger cost buyin, so I'm equally paying for marketing and a higher end cover and all that kind of stuff.

Right.

So yes and no.

Right.

Like, I know what you're saying.

I'm not saying it is cheating.

I'm not saying it is cheating at all.

I'm just saying in the back of my head, I would just have that little, like right.

I mean, at the end of the day, would I love to have that off of a Logan Creekbook 100%.

I also don't have the reach for that.

I don't think many authors hit it unless they are, like, with a big publisher with tons of publishing dollars.

I don't feel like most authors in their first series hit it.

Well, that's the thing, is also when you're an indie author, you are everything.

Right.

So, again, it all depends.

You might have someone who is an exhaustor that might be a little more financially better off, that they could throw a whole bunch of money at marketing and things.

And I'm like, great for them.

I'm not there.

Right.

So it's doable.

It is like, much harder if you're not traditionally published because you don't have that powerhouse behind you.

Like, you don't have that presence.

You can't get into the Walmarts and the targets and everything else, at least not to the same level as you could be, as you were say, with one of the big publishing houses.

So as an indie author, it's kind of almost already the underdog.

Just because you don't have that, you are it.

So for me, like, my first two books, I didn't have the editors because I didn't have the budget.

I chose to spend more of that money towards the covers and getting it in front of readers than I did editing, which, I mean, I've now learned that's what I'm doing now, yes, I'm putting it towards editors, but that's just the kind of decisions that you have to make.

I find, as an indie author is because you're limited in your budget, you're kind of like, okay, where am I throwing my money?

Like, if I have $100, where can I best be that investment?

Whereas to a traditional publishing house, they'd be like, $100 to take it.

I don't care.

But for me, $100 is a lot more.

Right.

So talking about low budgets and all that, what did you do to promote books?

Well, all of the books, I guess.

But, like, at the beginning, what were you doing to promote your book and get it out there?

It was mainly just instagram.

I hit Instagram hard a lot with just putting out different graphics, learning what kind of graphics work, even just playing around with trying to make my own graphics to see which got the best engagement.

So that worked a lot.

Facebook, not so much.

For me, promo wise, but it's really great for me to be able to connect with other readers, connect with writers.

So it's really great that way.

But for me, it's Instagram and Facebook.

I'm attempting to learn Tik tok I am not that good at it, I'll admit.

I also don't like taking videos of myself, so that also does not help a lot.

But I'm trying because I know book talk can be a very helpful tool for authors, so I'm trying to get there.

Well, I know that's how you found me, because you saw my video about like, hey, I need Fem Audio, which they're actually doing another event here in a couple of weeks that I can't participate in because my house foundation is being repaired during that day.

Oh, no.

I'm like, I got to sit this one out, but I'll be in the next one.

Yes, I saw there was another one.

That's exciting.

I was trying to think, oh, who else can I sit in there?

And then they're like, oh, it's fine.

You can just record them ahead of time.

I'm like, no, you don't understand.

I have to take three days off, which means all the days leading up to that, I have to, like, cram in as much as I can because I have to take three days off that I'm supposed to be recording.

Right?

I know.

You see, that's just when life gets in the way, right?

Now, the last one I did prerecord, I had some that I did the day of, but for the most part, I had Prerecorded, the 30 something videos that I did that day, and then I just dropped them.

I think I dropped, like, four an hour or something all day long.

Like, I was constantly like, stop recording whatever audiobook I was working on, post four videos, go back.

Right?

So many there were so many videos, and I did not realize when I posted that video, like, call out, calling authors, contact me, whatever, I didn't realize that my response was ridiculously higher than most other people.

So I'm doing it, and some people are like, oh, I did like, five, and I'm like, Five?

I'm over here.

And they're like, well, you could pass them off.

I'm like, Except I didn't ask anybody if it was okay to pass it off.

So I'm like, no, we'll get it all done.

And I did all you did great.

I know, I know that every time I logged on that day, I think I saw one of your videos.

It was great.

Yeah, so many so many videos.

Yeah.

Well, now I've learned that TikTok has a scheduler if you go on their website, so in the future you may be able to do that.

Yes, well, and it wasn't too bad because I honestly, while I'm narrating, I try to stop, like, once an hour to walk around anyways.

Oh, goodness.

Which is why I had to like I told you.

I had to change my chair.

I typically sit on a kneeling chair, but my interview earlier went too long and so my knee is bothering me.

So switch to a normal chair that's not on my knee, but I typically try to get up and walk around just so I'm not sitting stationary all day long.

Sounds good.

So it did work out because I'd be on a break between chapters and I would get them posted.

It's just a lot.

Yeah, I can imagine.

So you are learning new social medias.

You are improving your books with each.

New book because those are pretty good tips for any author in general.

What other tips?

Tricks?

Anything do you have for maybe a new author or someone trying to figure out something's not working, need to fix something kind of thing?

I would definitely say try to find other writers that write similar to you and lean on them because the support in the book community is amazing.

And the friends that I've made have become some of my best friends.

Which is kind of funny if you think about it, because with the power of the Internet, I have best friends all over the world, but I've never met.

But probably some of them know me better than my friends in real life because I talk to them every day on the Internet.

Right.

And because they're also writers, I can talk to them about things that I can't talk to all my other friends about.

Right, right.

So definitely find your crew if you write paranormal, find other paranormal letters.

Right.

If you write contemporary, find those people.

Have them read your things, have them bounce ideas off of them, ask them questions.

Even if they're the same level as you and you're learning at the same time, it's still amazing to have someone go through that journey with you and to learn with you at the same time.

And chances are they find things that you don't know and you know things that they don't know.

And you can help each other out that way.

Well, different people retain different things in different ways.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Like my friend that I wrote with, the shared character with Monique, I talk to her every day and she is a whiz at remembering things when it comes to marketing.

Whereas for me, they go way over my head.

So, like, you know, you're like, I.

Need a step by step version.

Right.

And I'll be like, what did you say about this promo?

And I know I asked you five times, but thankfully she's very patient with me.

I get to the point where if you ask me too many times, I'm like, here's a list.

Yeah, you know what?

We've joked about making lists, and we're starting to get better at spreadsheets that we share, but we both just have the attention span of, like, a nap.

So sometimes it just doesn't work out that way.

But I just got to where for author edits on Audiobooks, I will make a Google Doc and share it with them so that they can update like, hey, in this chapter at this time stamp, this is what's wrong with it.

And then I can see it as they update it to edit.

I just started doing I did that with one author because he was trying to message me.

But we would talk so much on Facebook Messenger that the fixes would get lost.

I'm like, we need a place that we're not going to be chatting back and forth.

These won't get lost.

100% shared drives are the way to go.

So yeah, I would definitely recommend find your people.

Find some beta readers that you trust that no read in your genre that can give you some honest feedback about your writing to let you know if there's any plot holes, any inconsistencies, anything that might throw a reader off, anything like that.

And then, yeah, just keep going because there are going to be times that you're like, why do I do this?

I can't do this anymore.

For me, it's usually when I'm close to the end of a book, I don't know if it's because all of a sudden my characters are like, oh, we're near the end.

I'm just going to drag this out and let my story go for as long as humanly possible.

But I get to the point where.

I'm not done yet.

Yeah, they do.

Literally, it's like they're just making it go like molasses.

And I'm just like, okay, this book is just not getting published.

I think just keep it a thousand pages later.

Right?

Well, for me, they just stopped talking.

They're like, oh, you're going to finish this.

Well, I'm not going to tell you what happens at the end there's.

That too cliffhanger exactly.

For the readers and the author, which is always fun.

So, yeah, I think that's just what I would recommend is just find your people and keep going.

So how did you find you covered why you need beta readers.

How did you find as a new author, how did you find your beta readers?

A lot of them, it's a trial and error.

I'll be honest.

I'm still learning sometimes.

Sometimes there are other authors that I trust that maybe have critique for me in the past or something like that, or just other authors that have read my things and really liked my story.

And I'm like, hey, I have a new story.

What do you think about this before I send it off to my editor?

I would try to find those people that you connect with and that, you know, will give you an honest opinion, obviously without hurting your feelings or anything like that.

But be honest about things that need to be changed.

If you're a new author.

There are Facebook groups where you can find data readers.

Maybe if you don't have that networking of a whole bunch of other authors.

There are a ton of groups that are so supportive and will have a ton of people happy to read your things and give you feedback on it.

So I'd probably start there.

Okay.

When I asked that question to anyone that mentions beta readers, I've gotten well, I got some on fiverr or social media or just different answers every time.

It's hard.

I mean, I personally have never paid for a beta reader before, but there are some people that do and it's perfectly fine.

I just never tried the fiverr or anything like that before.

Yeah, I would probably start with the groups and it is ten minutes.

Sometimes a beta reader reads your books and you find that maybe your book just wasn't for them.

And you have to take that with a grain of salt, too, after you usually cry a little bit and you go, okay, my book is not for them.

But yes, it can be hard and it can be a lot of trial and error, but when you get like a good core beta reader said, it's very helpful.

It's like your writing style is not going to change a whole lot.

So you can use the same beta read.

Same with reviews.

I've had reviews on audiobooks recently, and I'll have one that's super brutal and then another one that's like, oh my gosh, I loved this.

And it's like, well, you can't improve on conflicting opinions.

Exactly.

And it all comes down to a preference too, right.

Maybe some people like, I've had people give me a bad review because I write in third person.

So it all depends on somebody's preference.

Yes.

And you can't control someone.

Now, in theory, in books, there's typically the sample that you can read ahead of time to see if it's your style before you buy it and don't like the whole thing.

With audiobooks, there's like a three to five minute clip that in theory you can listen to to see if you like the style before you pay for the book.

No one actually reads them or listens to them or most people don't.

Yeah, I'll admit I don't usually read the samples of books.

I don't either.

Try not to read.

Yeah, right.

But I also try not to release a review about things that are my personal preference on things.

Yeah.

If I am leaving a review, it's not going to be brutal.

It's going to be this is because I don't think that you should only leave five star.

Like you should only leave reviews when you like the book.

I honestly just forget to review half the time.

But be honest about it because something that you don't like might be something someone else loves and something you don't like, maybe something that someone else also doesn't like.

And so they're not going to waste their money and be mad about a book that they didn't like.

Because they didn't see a review or whatever.

Exactly.

Yeah.

I mean, as an author and I'm sure narrator, too, that you're just kind of like, you know, you take the emotional hit and then you try to forget about it and realize that you're not maybe you're just not their cup of tea.

And that's okay because then, you know, you find the people that you are their cup of tea.

What I find slightly frustrating is usually the only narrators.

Now, there are probably let me say this first, and then I'll say typically it's the female narrators that are going to get more of that.

I didn't like their voice, as opposed to male narrators.

Typically, the male narrators are like, they're amazing.

I loved it.

Whatever.

And females, it's like, I hated it, or I loved it.

I feel like men get the easier end of the review stick, and it may just be I've never come across one that has bad reviews.

But to be honest, it's the same with characters.

I found this romance novels because I have people being like, oh, you know, I really love Dylan.

And I'm like, oh, okay.

What book father?

They're like, yeah.

And I'll be like, okay.

Or in my Canadian fall, I've heard a lot of, like, Travis is my favorite.

And I'm like, well, what did you think about Lila?

Oh, I wanted to smack her.

I'm like, okay.

I wanted to smack her a couple times too, while writing it.

But.

You'Re like, does it really have to go like this?

I'm like, yeah, you like Travis.

Hey, at least that's half of a couple right there.

There you go.

I'm batting 50.

I'm okay as long as they're not brutal about it.

Exactly.

Exactly.

I mean, with Lila I can kind of understand because she's a bit of a firecracker, but yeah, I always just kind of laugh when I get those, like, oh, Travis is my new book boyfriend.

Oh, that larva.

So you're playing with TikTok.

Have you figured out what works or hasn't worked yet?

Now I feel like they just reset the algorithm.

They reset the algorithm.

I switched over to the business account now because I didn't want to worry about all the licensing with music and stuff like that, because that's a big issue right now.

And I find that now it's harder because you now don't have access to all of the trending music.

Basically, I'm not great on making original content, so I find that I get kind of stuck at, like, this 200 view area.

But then I did a book opening.

I bought some books off of Book Outlet, and so I'm like, oh, well, I'll do like, an unboxing video or whatever, right.

And I get like 500 views, which I know for other people is not a big deal.

But I'm like, what happened?

My first video that got more than, like, 100 views was a video of me talking about my fan in my booth.

Maybe everybody needed that fan.

Yeah, I mean, for people, when you are in an enclosed space that has no air flow, something that is quiet, that's not going to pick up on the mic very much is very important for moving air around so you don't die.

So everybody was like, oh, my God, where can I get it?

Of course, it would be the silly, like, 15 2nd video of me.

Like, this fan is amazing.

And then the author call out for I got like, over a thousand views for that author call out video.

Well, for me, it was showing off everybody else's book.

Hey, we all eventually figure out well, hopefully eventually figure out what works for us and just in time for the algorithm to change again.

And then you're like, why am I only getting five views when I usually get 100 or 200 or whatever?

Exactly.

Yeah, no take.

TOC is a whole different game that I have not figured out.

I feel like everybody else because I just had the same thing happen with Instagram.

So I think they're changing their stuff, too.

I don't know.

And then I see some people talk about, oh, they just changed it, and here's how they've changed it.

And I'm like, but did they actually say that or are you just making stuff up?

Right, yeah, I heard that Facebook and Instagram are now moving towards a more real video based system.

And I'm like, please don't.

I'll do the graphics all day long.

Don't make me do videos.

I just post the same videos across them.

I'm lazy.

Oh, I did the same thing.

Yes.

Like, why am I going to put a bunch of effort into doing different things for every platform?

Yeah, I don't know.

Yeah, no, I hear you on that.

All right, we've already talked about what's coming next.

Do you have any final tips or advice or anything that maybe we haven't talked about or any final, like, get off your b*** and write your book stuff?

I don't know, because I feel like sometimes I need that thing.

Get off your button, rachel, new job for your PA.

Right?

She does that, too.

She's like, so how's that for coming along?

She sent me a list yesterday of all my dates that I need to have thanks to her.

And I'm like, yeah, I'm just going to have a little panic attack over here.

Don't mind me.

I think yeah, just what I said.

Honestly, just finding your people and just keep going.

And at the end of the day, you can write the market, you can write what you think people want to read, but my recommendation is just to write what you want to read.

Don't worry too much about well, this trope is really popular right now because chances are by the time you write it and you get it marketed, it's going to be something different.

Right.

So.

Trust your characters, trust your instincts.

Sometimes characters do know best and you have to trust them.

And I know that sounds insane that I've tried to push plot on a character and they're like, no.

Everything comes back around.

So if you write some trope now that you want to write, if that's not a popular one right now, in five years it might be.

And you know what your books already.

Done and out there, right?

How many authors now are getting a revival for books that were released years ago?

Like Cullen Hoover, her book was released, what, like, three years ago?

Amy Dodd, like her blind sided, I think was a couple of years ago, and then somebody picked it up on Booktop and all of a sudden it's like hitting best seller lists all over its place again.

Right.

You always have your tropes that are pretty much always going to stay the same, like small town brothers, best friends, enemy lovers, that kind of stuff, right?

But yeah, just honestly, just write what you want to read because if you don't like it, the readers are going to know that, right?

They're going to be able to feel that you didn't have the same vibe.

Maybe.

So just listen to your next text.

Sounds bored would be your review.

It does.

Really?

It does.

Because if you don't have your heart in it, they will tell.

So that's just what my advice is.

Anyway, thank you so much for your time today.

Well, thank you too, and I will see you around.

You better start promoting yourself on TikTok more something, even if it's page flips.

Get out there.

I will try.

I did a page flip yesterday, so I'll try to keep up with that.

All right, well, I will see you around.

Instagram and tik tok.

Sounds good.

Have a good day.

You too.

Bye.

Bye.

Kimberly liked the story of Sleeping Beauty growing up.

Sleeping Beauty, or Little Briar Rose, also titled in English as the Sleeping Beauty in the woods, is a classic fairy tale about a princess who has cursed to sleep for 100 years by an evil fairy to be awakened by a handsome prince.

At the end of them, the good fairy, realizing that the princess would be frightened if alone when she awakens, uses her wand to put every living person and animal in the palace asleep to awaken when the princess does.

The earliest known version of the story is found in the narrative Purse Forest.

Composed between 1330 and 1344, the tale was first published by Gian Bautista Basil in his collection of tales titled The Pentagon, published post humorously in 1634.

Basil's version was later adapted and published by Charles Perrault in historis O'contess du Temps passe in 1697.

The version that was later collected and printed by the brothers Grim was an orally transmitted version of the literary tale published by Perrault.

The Arne Thompson classification system for folktales classifies sleeping Beauty as being a 410 tail type, meaning it includes a princess who is forced into an enchanted sleep and is later awakened, reversing the magic placed upon her.

The story has been adapted many times throughout history and is continued to be retold by modern storytellers throughout various media.

Today we'll be reading the Petrified Mansion.

This story has been noted to be similar to the original Sleeping Beauty story and comes from India.

Don't forget we're reading LeMorte de Arthur, the story of King Arthur and of his noble Knights of the Round Table on our patreon.

You can find the link in the show notes.

The Petrified Mansion once upon a time there was a prince who set out on his travels into foreign countries alone, without taking with him any valuables.

His sword was his only companion.

He crossed mountains, seas and rivers, and at length came to a grand mansion.

He entered it, and great was his surprise to find petrified forms of men and animals in all the apartments through which he passed.

Even the weapons in the armory were not exceptions.

There was in one of the halls a stone statue dressed in royal splendor, surrounded by other statues, gorgeously equipped.

The lonely house greatly frightened the prince, but just as he was on the point of quitting it, he happened to notice an open door.

Passing through it he reached the presence of a very beautiful damsel reposing on a cot bed of gold and surrounded by lotuses of the same metal.

She lay quite motionless and was apparently dead.

There was not the softest breath perceptible in her.

The prince was enamored of her beauty and sat with his eyes fixed upon her.

But one day he happened to notice a stick of gold near the girl's pillow.

He took it up and was turning it round and round for inspection when it suddenly touched her forehead, and instantly she started up, fully conscious.

The whole house resounded with the clamour of human tongues, the clanking of arms, the songs of birds and the sounds of domestic animals.

It was full of life and joy.

Harolds made proclamations, ministers speechified in the courtroom, and the king engaged himself in the discharge of his royal duties.

The prince was struck speechless with wonder, and the princess was equally astonished.

The servants entered the room and finding a princelike youth seated by their master's daughter, hastened to the king.

With the intelligence.

He hurried to the spot and seeing the prince, asked him who he was.

The prince told him and the royal family, with all the other inmates of the palace, acclaimed him as their deliverer.

They said that the touch of a silver stick had petrified them all and that their revival was the result of his having touched the princess with a stick of gold.

In recognition of the very great service he had rendered them, the prince was rewarded with the princess's hand and great were the rejoicings on the joyous occasion.

Meanwhile, in his own home, his parents mourned for the prince.

As the years passed and he did not return.

The queen had taken to her bed and the king had become blind with weeping.

They were disconsolate and courted death as the only termination of their great grief.

The whole kingdom was overcast with sadness, which was, however, ultimately removed, when one day the long lost prince appeared with his bride joyous acclamations rent the heir, and the royal couple, being informed of the return of their dear son, hastened out to the gate and embraced him and the princess.

At the touch of the stick of gold, the king regained his sight and the queen her health, and they lived for years in the enjoyment of great happiness, at length leaving the throne to his son, the king, with the queen, retired to spend a secluded and godly life in the depths of the forest.

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