Today is part one of two where we are talking to Aly Nichole about their novels. Over the next 2 weeks you will hear about their journey of writing since they were a kid, adapting fan-fiction to full sized novels, using people you know as inspiration for your characters, working through writers block, writing with kids, and building your team.

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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 adventures, holding their very own 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'm also fascinated by talking to authors and learning about their why and how for creating their stories.

We've 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 Ally Nicole about her novels.

Over the next two weeks, you will hear about her journey of writing since she was a kid, adapting fan fiction to full size novels, using people you know as inspiration for your characters, working through writers block writing with kids and building your team.

Heart of Conviction nathan nathan Valentine had given up from ever finding love.

Instead, he dedicated himself to being the best doctor he could be so no one ever felt the pain he had endured.

Sadie Mosey was a single mom with another on the way.

She only thought about how she was going to survive to the next day.

Can they help each other overcome the pain of their past?

The podcast is Freya's Fairy Tales and that is fairy tales in two parts.

It's both something that we either listened to or read or watched the movie of when we were a kid.

And it's also the journey for you.

Spending days, weeks, months, years writing your book and then holding that in your hand is a fairy tale for you.

I like to start off with what was your favorite fairy tale when you were a kid and did that fairy tale change as you got older?

Okay.

I'm trying to think what movie I was obsessed with because the books I read were not fairy tales.

It could be another short story or another story as well.

I can usually find something that can go along with it.

I read animal books then.

Okay.

I think one of the books is called Misty, and it was about a little girl who really wanted a dog.

And so she took all her allowance and bought a dog, but she kept it with an old lady who she watered plants for.

Okay.

And so her parents never knew.

She was like, my chapstick money.

I'm not going to get chapstick.

I'm going to use my money to get to the dog.

And this whole time, her parents don't know this.

And then the little old lady had, I want to say she had kind of heart attack.

Something medical happened to her and it was found out that she had this little beagle there with this little old lady and her little old lady's kids came and they were like, well, she's really attached to the dog.

And the parents like, well, she can't bring it here.

She told her no on the dog.

So she had to give the dog up to the little lady, which in the end the girl was like twelve and she's like, she'd better be with you anyway.

You loved her more than me.

I couldn't even get her dog food.

That was the story.

Okay.

And so I'm guessing that didn't stay the same.

What became your favorite as you got older?

As I got older, shifters became my favorite.

Any particular kind?

Werewolves.

I like werewolves.

Yes, definitely.

If I have to pick a series that I am like obsessed with werewolves.

I can't pronounce names.

I'm so bad with names.

It's horrible.

I can read them all day long.

I'm just going to have to look right now because my brain don't work the way I want it to see.

That'S what YouTube is for, for me.

If I have to look up like some author or whatever name, there's a couple of websites that will give you name pronunciations.

Because I'm like when you're narrating a book man.

Especially when I was doing mostly non fiction.

You don't want to screw up these people's names.

No, that would not be good.

Okay.

Charlie Adhere.

It's the wolf at the door.

It's a five book series.

It's male male romance, big bad wolf series.

Okay.

And so that was your favorite as you got okay.

But I really love Brave.

I like independent women, girls like, I like how it switched.

Like with Mulan was my favorite.

See, my brain is clicking now.

It takes me a minute to start like ADHD brain.

So then it became Mulan, fairy tale wise.

Fairy tale wise.

It was Mulan because didn't need a man.

Not really like the love story.

It wasn't about the Prince and Milan really.

That just so happened to be there.

It just happened to be there and.

Then Brave, it was not even there.

At what age did you think, hey, it might be kind of cool to write a book or I know I'm going to write a book some day, or at what age did you kind of start thinking you might want to write your own book?

I started writing like eight or nine.

I started doing stories.

I actually wrote my first short story in my English AP class in the 9th grade of English AP and 9th grade before they took it away from me.

And so your first story, was that about shifters or was that what was your first one?

My first one was about tells you what kind of mindset I was in as a teenager.

It was about a girl who became a famous rapper and came back to her school and rubbed it in everyone's faces.

Okay, and so how did that then evolve into the book that I narrated for you?

Is he's one of nine siblings that there's no shifters?

The independent female is there because she's a single mom and all of that, but no shifters.

At least not in the first book.

No, there won't be in the Conviction series.

There won't be any supernatural element to it.

So how long did it take you to write it?

The first book, I'm going to say like a year.

I wouldn't even say a year.

But the series started off as fan fiction, so there's actually the first two stories are about Nathan's parents, but of course it's fanfiction, so I'll leave it there.

So the concept of his story was already really there.

I had several chapters written, but it was like, do I continue as fan fiction?

But if you know anything about the fan fiction world, they don't do well with originality.

They want their characters.

So I write Twilight fanfiction.

They would want Edward and Bella.

And Bella.

These are Edward and Bella's kids.

It doesn't do well when it comes to, like, original stuff.

You know what?

I've been writing fan fiction since I was 17.

I was like, you know, I'll just go and try to publish it.

Yeah.

Mason's story doesn't deserve to be a fan fiction.

He deserves it to be original.

And I'm not going to compromise the story because fans don't like originality when.

It comes to they want as close to the original, but twisted a little bit.

Yes.

Which is weird because the fan fiction isn't all that close to Twilight, obviously, because it's contemporary romance.

There's no but it's still the character physique and clumsy.

Bella.

Whatever.

So how long did it take you to write once you decided to spin off and go into novels, how long did it take you to write Nathan story?

So I started November.

November?

I'm going to say about six months.

Okay, that's not too bad.

No, but it was not easy because, like, right about January, which of course it published in May, I had a massive roadblock in the second so you had the first draft, and then I was going through for the second draft, and I had a massive roadblock where I was like, I don't know what I'm doing.

I don't know what is happening right now.

Like I had no idea.

It was just horrible.

So how did you work past that?

I powered.

It was more like a mental block.

I had a lot of it was 2020.

Okay.

So 2021 is when I published time is Fake.

I just want that out there.

Time is fake.

So I published in 2021.

So in January and February, I had a lot of real life issues happen.

So it wasn't the story, it was my real life.

And it was differentiating.

Like getting rid of okay.

I had to let go of my real life so I could dive back into the story and realize it wasn't the story that was I didn't know what was happening.

It was my real life.

I had no idea what was happening.

So you had to kind of put real life on the back burner for a minute to be able to focus.

Yeah.

And then also I had a couple really awesome people that were just talking me through it and listening to me ramble.

I'm a bad rambler.

I need to talk out loud about my problem.

And then just click.

Typing doesn't help.

I need to say it out loud.

All that makes sense now that it's out out there.

There it's in the universe now, having.

Obviously not everybody that I've talked to have I had a chance to actually read through their book, but I obviously did get a chance to read yours.

For anyone that doesn't know at this point, I actually narrated the first book in the series.

Second one's not out yet, but I did narrate the first one.

And so as having read your book, I'm guessing either you are an amazing editor or it saw an editor at some point.

I am not a good editor.

Let me be clear.

No, I'm not a good editor.

I had some amazing beta readers, and I had a friend who named Christie, and she went to school for creative writing and, like an English degree in editing.

That's her thing.

And I reached out to her.

I'm like, hey, I did a thing.

I wrote a book, and I'd really like to publish it, but I really like it if you would go through it and let me know what you think.

And she went through it, and I didn't ask her to edit it.

I just asked her opinion.

And she just went through and started editing it.

And I'm like, awesome.

Thank you.

She's like, I had so much fun.

Please reach out to me again for your next book because this is a lot of fun.

It was a lot of fun.

She did.

She added the whole thing.

And I was more impressed that there wasn't that much that needed 16.

Grammar and punctuation are not my friends.

Yeah.

Having read through books all the way across the spectrum from not edited at all to have seen publishing editors see them, I will say every book that I have read has at least some errors in it.

And usually you can only read through a book so many times, especially when it's your book, and not start glancing over the errors.

It's the same reason why they say narrators shouldn't proof their own stuff, because if your brain saw the wrong word the first time, it's probably going to see the wrong word the second time and third time and fourth time, too.

Do I listen to that?

No.

But it's hard, especially like when you're on a budget and everything like that.

You're like, okay, where do I make the numbers smaller?

And I know some errors made it too hard a conviction, but it's like so many eyes were on it.

But I was like, those errors were meant to happen.

Those errors were meant to happen because I had Christie and I had, like, five betas on it, plus I went through it.

But as the author, at that point, before I send it, I was done.

I was tired.

You can't see the words after that.

And so you said you were on a budget.

How much did you end up spending to get the book ready to publish?

Honestly, I spent only for the cover and formatting.

I didn't pay for an editor or anything like that.

So I did Dee Garcia, which is Black Widow design.

Okay.

I hope I'm saying that right.

But I did 250.

She did my cover, my paperback, ebook, and formatting.

Okay, and then have you spent any on I came across on TikTok, which you weren't doing, or I didn't come across a paid ad.

You may have done paid ads.

I will not do paid ads on Tik tok no, I have some paid ads on Facebook, so maybe $50.

So $300.

I don't like Facebook ads.

They don't do well unless you're spending the thousands and thousands of dollars.

I don't feel like you're going to hit that good target audience.

And I got some flicks off the Facebook ads.

But Facebook isn't what it used to be, not even five years ago.

Facebook is not what it used to.

Be as far as so I don't advertise for other people's books on Facebook.

But for podcast advertising.

I found that for my budget.

I have it set for $5 a day for podcast advertising.

Which I realize is a lot.

But I have a daily podcast that I do.

And then I have this one that I do.

And so each one.

I have it set for $5 a day to push it out there.

But it kind of learns over time.

At the beginning, I didn't get a whole lot of traction on it, but now that I've been doing it since this one, since April, my other one since October, it's kind of learned, hey, these are the people that it does better with.

Which for my other one, it's like older women.

That doesn't surprise me, if I'm going to be honest.

Yeah, well, my other one is a fiction podcast.

And so it's like public domains are like older classic novels.

Jane.

Ayer, emma three musketeers.

Like old school.

So that when I'm like, yeah, that seems about the right age group.

I did an ad, I spent $15, and it was like over a one week period just to see.

And not that it did bad, but the fact is sounds bad, but I'm not good.

As someone pointed out to me, I'm not a romantic person.

So when I'm going through my book, I don't know the romantic moments.

Okay, I'm writing through and I can't pick.

I know it's so sad, but I'm like, I don't know what the moments are to me.

I can see what moments are for me, but apparently my moments aren't what most audience see as moments.

Okay, don't ask for me.

I like access service.

So when someone is doing something constantly, I see that and that is my love language.

So I'm like, oh, that's so romantic.

Apparently people like words, especially when they're reading and I'm learning.

Okay, well, I have to say, you didn't do a bad job writing.

It.

The one thing in your book I was like.

So I'm reading through it and because they don't actually do anything well, they do stuff, but like spicy stuff.

There's like little light spice during the book.

It's not until the very, very end that it's finally like, yes, but as I'm reading through, I have to say I love the will they, won't they?

I'd like that dynamic.

I like pretty much everything else, too, but that's my favorite, is the tension and the build up to stuff happening.

And with them, her being a single mom and adding in the kid into the dynamic as well kind of changes it a little bit more.

Now, when you wrote Nathan story, did you know you wanted to write all the other siblings or did you decide that later?

I always knew that everyone was going to get a story.

I know all their stories.

A couple of them change.

Like IRA stories changed.

He's the oldest lawyer.

His story the deepest voice of the.

Ones that I did.

I technically have about one to two chapters written for all the siblings already.

Mason's story obviously has the most written because he's next.

But I've always known I wanted all their stories.

They all have a story and they're all unique.

And of course, I have favorites most of all.

The stories pretty much have been the same for the last couple of years.

Other than IRA, he changed a little bit and only one person knows how his story changed.

And they just stared at me like, why would you do that?

Because I can.

Because it's my book and I can do what I want.

Well, I'm going to confuse people, but at the same time it happens, considering he's married with two kids.

So how does that work?

Typically, there's some kind of a falling out.

It's the rebuilding or new person, depending on how bad the fallout was.

Yeah, and I'm really upset or someone dies.

Yeah.

I really love Sam, too, and Sam's like a critical, partially like, you don't see the dynamic of Red and Nathan much in Nathan's book, but in this fan fiction, that's where their friendship goes.

And of course, everyone tells me, you should really turn those fan fictions into original so people can see that dynamic.

But it's fan fiction, and it's written in such a way that it'd be so hard to write to transfer it to original.

My fan fiction writing and original writing are very different.

And you could always get through the nine books and then go back and do like, the prequels after the fact.

I probably will, because I played with them.

When I have a major writer plot, I'll go and I'll start playing with the names and changing over and stuff.

And I'm like, if anything, they'll be turned in, like a short version, like a short story.

Not that they're very hard to begin with, but like a shorter version, like.

Novellas instead of, like, take some chunks out of there.

So it was a woman of conviction and a family conviction.

A family conviction is when all the kids come into play.

That was heavily Nathan's story as a teenager.

And that's why I was told you, really, so they can get Nathan's teenager story.

I'm like.

I don't want Nathan.

Nathan was such a nathan teenage story was very much heavily based off my dad.

My dad was a man who, as a teenager, he wasn't even 14 years old, and he knocked up someone who was 18.

By the time he was 16, I'm going to say 16, he knocked someone else up and had to marry them.

Of course, this is early 80s, so it was a thing.

His promiscuous ways were definitely based off my father.

I don't know that any author doesn't use real life people.

Somewhere in there, it may not be all of the characters, but some characters will be based off of people that they know.

Yeah, well, I had someone try to tell me because it was unrealistic that he had that much sex as a teenager.

I'm like one where you never met teenagers.

Yeah.

And I'm like it's realistic because it's based off my very crazy sexualized family.

Are you done with book two or are you still working on book two?

I had just dropped the first version of after talking to a couple of different people, and that read through the first version of mine of Conviction.

I had to scrap the whole thing.

So I am currently on chapter 13 of it.

Okay.

Which is way I've made a lot more progress and it's so much better.

That's good.

So no, I'm not finished, but I'm making a lot better progress now.

Mason has been so much fun.

I guess my problem with the first round is I didn't know who Mason and Cynthia were.

And I was just so stuck with.

Trying to figure that out.

Yeah.

I was stuck on I don't know if you're on TikTok or what side of TikTok you get on, but I got stuck on because Cynthia is going to be Latina full blown.

I didn't want a whitewasher kind of thing.

Right.

And I got stuck on all this research and then paranoia hit me like, oh, my God.

I can't write her.

I can't write her.

And then after talking to several of my friends and stuff like that, they're like, I realize I don't need to make it about her background.

I just need to make it about a woman falling in love.

And it made a whole it made it so much better.

You're like, I don't need five chapters of where she came from.

No, I don't need to.

All the background noise isn't even part of the book.

It is for me to make her character believable and her characters and stuff like that.

But I don't need to be as paranoid and then remembering that Nathan's the manchild of the family.

Like, I have to remember he's the 6th kid.

He's the first biological child of Liam.

He has his own mental health issues, but he's a child actor.

They have all kinds of weird tics.

And he's a cinnamon roll.

He pines.

Mason was like this Alpha custody kind of guy.

Mason is not like, yes in the.

First I think it starts with something about, like, I hate f****** paperwork, or something like that.

There's a couple of people I have.

Explicit warnings on this podcast.

It is f***.

F*** paperwork.

I'm like, yeah, I was channeling my brother.

Like, literally every other word is F as.

F*** this, f*** that.

Too.

Yours is probably the first book with any substantial amount of language in it, which I don't necessarily have a problem with at all.

But it was just like the first time that I had to and then because most of it's in the mail perspective, I'm like, all right, so we have to drop all this stuff in the mail voice.

Okay.

Yeah.

No, Christie.

She was like, I don't know.

Do you realize he used the F word like, eight times?

I'm like.

Yes, they do.

Yes.

It's who he is.

Do you feel like you really need that many F words?

My writing style is I'm that character when I'm writing.

So if my character, I have to do what he would do.

I don't know if that makes sense, but yeah.

So, like, mason, don't cut.

He kind of cusses, but he really doesn't cuss like that.

So he'll use freaking or occasionally you'll see health, but he's more like a manchild who's, like 22 years old, and he's had everything given to him between his rich daddy or the fact he's a pretty famous actor and Cynthia is his pal.

I've got glimpses of their dynamic in the first book.

You kind of got a little bit of that in there, like, that man, she's driving me crazy.

Whatever.

Yeah.

It doesn't change because I try to put in like, when you become from a very wealthy, famous family, you can't really trust anybody or trust really.

Right.

I feel like everyone has a motive.

Even when you're not rich.

Everyone has a motive, I feel.

But when you have the extra incentive of look at the name, look at the money, and then he's in the public eye.

And the book Mason is very much over that at this point because it's eight months.

It's well after part of conviction.

Now it's just like, I need to figure out how to Cynthia closer.

So you wrote and you published book one, and so you said you did that last year.

Now, I didn't come across you until this year because I didn't really get on TikTok until the very end of last year.

You are obviously a different story, because I think we talked about you planned on doing audiobooks.

You just hadn't gotten to that point yet when I found your tick tocks and approached you to ask about it.

So how did that feel for you?

Or kind of what was your thinking prior to being approached by me?

Like, when did you think you wanted to do audiobooks versus how do you think the process went?

What did you like and not like.

Actually, it was about July.

I want to say between July and August of 2021, because I was talking to several I want to say, no, they're not Book Talk After Dark anymore, but it's a discord.

I don't know if you ever ran across my Chick Talk, but there's a group on Discord, and it was called Book Talk After Dark.

I don't know what it's called right now.

They were talking about how a good chunk of them are all audio listeners, because a lot of them have, like, tunnel.

It's really hard for them to flip the page.

Yeah.

And they're like, Are you going to turn your book into audio?

And I'm like, you know, I got to look into it because I know it's kind of expensive, and I didn't have a lot of information about what we use, the Ace XD or whatever.

Yeah.

So I went and I did look into it, and I tried doing the audition, but I was so overwhelmed, and I had an narrator approached me about it, and it kind of was very condescending to me.

And then in that moment, yeah, I don't think I'm ready, because he was very condescending to me, and he was like, Well, I could do it for this profit, but you'd also have to pay for it, too.

And I'm like, I don't understand what you're saying to me.

And then you figure, I've never done audit.

This is my first book.

This is my first step into anything.

So I didn't like the feeling.

I'm like.

You know what?

Right now, I don't think is the time for me.

And I put it on the back burner, and I was like, I'll think about it maybe after book two.

Okay.

And then when you approached it, and I had a better feeling, and you were actually nice, and you weren't condescending about it, and you're like, Well, I can read.

I was like, all right.

I don't know about pay.

That's what really confused me.

And they're like, well, yeah, we're going to do what we did, the royalty thing.

But you would also have to pay me.

And that really confused me.

Like, why would you also get royalties?

Plus I would have to pay you?

That really confused me.

It made me feel really stupid, and I don't like feeling stupid.

Yes.

Just so you know, there's three different ways on ACX we can hire.

There's royalty share, which is what we did, where you only get royalty.

So me and you will split royalties for seven years unless you decide to buy me out.

Right.

Then there's loyalty share plus, where you give basically a small stipend upfront.

I've had some that they want to pay the narrator, some things that they feel like, hey, I put some money into this.

But then they're like, hey, I can't afford full rate to pay it all upfront.

So pay say, like fifty dollars to one hundred and twenty five dollars upfront, and then royalties for seven years.

Or you can pay it all upfront, where you're going to pay a higher rate because I don't make royalties.

Right.

There's the three different options.

But yeah, that doesn't sound like that was well explained.

And I think a lot of authors don't understand what it's called.

Royalty share plus.

So it's royalty share plus upfront stipend, basically.

Yeah, that would have been better understood, but no, it didn't come across at all well.

And I don't know because I said I'm a new author and I've never done this before, so please be patient with me.

So I can understand.

I wasn't against paying somebody.

It's just he was like $500 plus royalty share.

And I'm like, what?

I feel like that's a lot.

Not that he wasn't worth it.

I just knew that was very much out of my price range.

Right.

I haven't even spent that on the whole book at this point.

Yeah, because I know audiobooks and everything are a big deal, especially to be done right.

So it's not that it's not worth it.

I just knew that was not me at this point.

Right.

And I feel like I'm diminishing you.

So I'm sorry.

I hope I'm not doing that.

Just so everybody knows our experience, you're my second ever person to message and be like, hey, the reason that when I approach someone, if you are already promoting your books, like actively promoting your books on Tik tok, that's a reason for me.

I will not audition for books that I don't like the cover.

That's like a huge like, if the cover is bad, I'm like, I know you're not supposed to judge a book by its cover.

Everybody does.

Everybody does.

I don't care.

I've been very honest with that upfront.

Like, if I don't like your cover, I'm not going to do it royalty share because I don't think same reason I won't.

Do royalty share for nonfiction.

I just don't feel like they're going to sell enough to make it worth it, where especially if it's a series covers, well done, the author's promoting.

I feel like in seven years, it may be a slow snowball to making money off of it, but you're going to make something.

But I do this and this is going to make me sound terrible as a narrator.

This is my on the side hobby that I do.

So while I completely have no problem with narrators that do it full time.

And I would never cheapen what I do.

And I'm to the point now in my narrating where I'm asking for not doing royalty share.

Because I still think if you're an author and you want your book done in royalty share because that's all you can afford.

I have no problem with doing books that way.

Like, I still do a lot of royalty share books, but on ones that you're established and you're wanting to pay and you've got the money to pay and whatever, by all means, I'm not going to say, oh, I'll take some really small amount of money and cheapen what I do.

Yeah.

Because I talked to you, reached out and I said, hey, if you want me to I think it was like, if you want me to send you an audition, here, email three to five pages to this email address.

Kind of what was it like to hear that for the first time?

I'm going to be upfront.

So I'm not an audiobook listener.

My brain don't like it.

Okay.

My brain don't because okay, so way I read a story and it's like it's a whole movie plane.

So I have narration, I have action, I have the whole theme plate.

So when I hear an audiobook, it interrupts the whole thing.

So it took me a minute to really listen to it.

So I had to have a friend help me listen to it.

Okay.

Who listens to audiobook.

I was like, okay, I need you to listen this with me to help me.

She's like, this is really good.

I'm like, okay.

Okay.

So I tried and I almost cried because the scene I sent you is the scene I needed was the most important scene to me.

One of the most important scenes.

I think that's what I asked you.

Send me a scene that this will be the defining if the narrator is good or not.

If they do the scene well.

That's what I asked you to send me.

Yes.

And I'm like, yes.

This is awesome.

When you sent me the other thing I wanted to really listen to was the hospital scene with Sadie.

When you sent me all the clips to review, I went to that scene before I listened to anything else.

To listen to that one, too, because I wanted to make sure because that seems so pivotal to me because it's the emotion.

I always worried that I'm not writing the emotion well.

So I'm like, I hope she did the emotion come across, which came off so well.

I started crying.

Like, that's all I cared about.

It took me forever to write that hospital scene.

That's a moment in itself.

But yeah, I mean, and quite honestly, any of those high emotional scenes, I don't know if this happened in your book, but I've had a few where I get myself to the point where I'm almost crying so you can hear that in my voice.

And then you got to suck it up so you can move on to the next scene.

And I'm one of those weirdos not weirdos.

I can make myself do that.

I can get myself to cry by thinking about something ridiculously sad.

And sometimes I did one story.

My father died in November after years of suffering from diabetesrelated complications.

And so I recently narrated a book where the main character had cancer and was dying through the whole book.

It was too soon.

That one is the first one that I actually had to stop while narrating several times to get myself together enough to be able to do it without actually sobbing into the microphone.

Yeah, I could.

And I won't do one of those books anytime soon.

Now, that's rough.

Yeah.

So for me, on the narrator side of things, I reach out to you and I'm just, like, praying.

I'm like, please don't let because you don't know people that are self publishing.

It could be.

It never saw an editor.

It's, like terribly done, and it's going to take me forever to narrate it because I got to fix all the issues at the same time.

Your book was not like that, which I'm sorry, I was very thankful for because it takes me twice as long to narrate something that's full of issues.

And so I stay now, when I talk to you, it wasn't this way, but I stay pretty booked up now.

So if I see something that's bad, I have to cancel contracts because I'm too booked to have the time to fix that.

Yeah.

Now, I do have an author that I also edit for.

Hers is different because we have an agreement.

I edit her books, she's editing and beta reading my books, or alpha reading technically, because she's reading.

As I write it.

I have to praise because I have a horrible habit, especially right now, because I'm going through a massive imposter syndrome, like crushing.

I don't like reaching out to people and asking for help.

But that is like, the success.

If you ask any successful author, public, traditional or indie, whatever, it's a team.

It is not a single person.

It is a team.

It's the alpha, the betas, the editors.

It's an entire team of people.

And I don't have a team.

I have occasional people, and I always wait until the last minute and then.

I draw back like, well, I've seen on TikTok.

So you asked what side you didn't know what side of TikTok I am on both the reader and the author sides of TikTok, along with narrator.

So I get narrators, writers and readers, I get all of that stuff and other voiceover people.

So voice acting in general, writers and readers.

So I get all of them.

But I've seen a lot of authors have good or what I think is good response from asking for arc readers and asking for beta readers and stuff like, hey, reach out to me.

Prior to in, I don't know if you know this in January or February of this year, they made it where you can't put a link in your bio until you have over 1000 followers.

I find that interesting.

So I've been part of book so I'm sorry, I don't want to interrupt, but I've been part of Book Talk since about October.

I want to say August of 2020.

Okay.

And that's always been a thing.

You had to have 1000 followers for a link.

Now, if you go to a business account, you can put a link in your bio, but you can't do certain things in a business account because of copyright issues.

Well, now, as of January or February of this year, a business account can't until it hits $1,000.

Okay, so that's what's changed.

Yeah.

So I have like, the fray of Victoria profile.

I started in January just before that.

So on the Freya Victoria one, I have a link in there that takes to my website with my list of links.

The podcast one, I started after that, and so I can't have a link.

So I have to tag my Freya one so you can go there to get the link.

It's annoying.

I was going to say, I know back in the day I feel it's like times fake, like I said.

But back in the day, a lot of people were like, go to my Instagram before they can get this out.

Go to my Instagram.

And they have Instagram.

Don't need so many followers, you could just have that link in there.

I just started recently doing random things.

Like, I started doing book reviews on my TikTok lately as a creative outlet because I haven't been wanting to talk about my writing.

So you said you're having imposter syndrome.

I feel like I also deal with that now, probably in the last two weeks I've stopped at this point, I have narrated almost 50 books across three different names.

So like, I have like, Freya is my fiction name that I narrate with, but I have two other names that I also started with my actual name and then went, I probably don't want all these under my name.

One, my actual name is impossible to say.

So then I started another name, and then I did like all nonfiction, and that's where one of my other podcasts I host under that name, and for that one, like, my family and stuff know about it.

But then I started narrating spicy books, and I was like, we need to I've done these, like, Christian nonfiction.

I need, like, okay for spicy scene where the two aren't going to clash.

And so in my books, my writing is spicy, not ridiculously, but more than your book was.

See, I get awkward with spicy.

I get awkward.

I read a lot of it.

I feel like that probably helps.

Do not get don't mistake me.

I read a lot.

Like, a lot, and I read kinky stuff.

But when you read it then go to write it, it feels different.

Yes.

I don't know.

For me, it feels different because I don't know, I view sex differently, I guess.

It's very complicated up here in my brain.

The author that I edit for, so the way that we ended in the editing for her, she hired me based on an audition from ACX and was like, I like you.

Whatever.

And then she was like, hey, if you notice any errors in the book, let me know and I'll get them fixed.

I'm like, Cool.

So I start reading through, and I'm like, hey, I'm noticing quite a few things.

Do you just want me to throw it in a Google Doc and I can edit and leave comments for what I changed and you can approve it or not, so that's the way that we still edit today.

And she's, well, I've finished two books.

We're contracted on a lot more.

I just have to get to them.

But yes, that's how we do it.

We throw it in a Google Doc.

I edit, I leave comments for here's what it was so she can see, like, the difference and change it back if she doesn't like what I did.

And then I started writing a couple of months after I met her, and I was like, hey, can you, like, check this out?

Because I want to make sure.

I think it's good, but I want to make sure.

So I sent her a link to the Google Doc, and then I sent my best friend a link as well and was like, hey, because my best friend reads a lot as well.

Not spicy, usually, but it is what it is, and it finally gets will they, won't they, will they, won't they little things like spicy kisses up against the wall and all this.

And then it gets to, like, stuff actually happening, and she sends me this meme of Christina Aguilera, like, fanning herself, and I'm like, So I can tell what scene you just got.

But then at the end of March was my ten year anniversary with my husband.

And so we went out to a town near us that has, like, a lake, and we went and we stayed at, like, a hotel, and we ate at this little shopping center near there for a weekend.

And we were talking about he is Dyslexic, but very creative.

He does the blacksmithing.

He does other, like, handcraft, like, wood carving, like very crafty person.

But he was talking about, yeah, I've had like this book I've been in my head writing since I was like a teenager, but I think with the Dyslexic I'm not going to be able to get it done, whatever.

And I'm like, dude, write your book.

And me and his brother went to school for the editing and English and all of that.

Me or your brother or a combination of both of us will get it edited.

Don't worry about that.

And so we're talking about his storyline.

And then I started having another story that like that weekend.

It just embedded in my head, welcome.

To the plight of writers.

And then I'm like, I'm 300 words into this other book and I can't get the one to shut up in my head.

So now I'm doing all this mythology research for that book that I haven't actually started writing yet because it'll be in the mythology subgenre and I don't want to screw that part up.

So it's different from contemporary where it's based on real life or even other fantasy where werewolves and vampires and all of that has been redone so many times.

You have pretty much free creative license to do what you want with those.

I'm like, no, when you start getting into you're using the gods from mythology yeah, well, you want to make sure while you need to take some creative license to make it your own.

In my head, I'm like, I don't want to change it so far from what people know that they're like, what are we doing?

Yeah, that kind of like you probably don't, but there is a male male romance book by Hayley Turner that does something like that.

It's with the gods, but it's all the gods across, so it's really cool.

So you have the angels, the Christian, and you're going to need to send.

Me that because that's what I'm trying to do.

I have no idea.

Something out there was like that.

You can always do it differently, but obviously it's about I'll send you a link.

I think you'd be interested in looking into it.

Yeah, because I'm planning on combining like Greek and Roman, which is essentially Greek, with different names like Japanese and Chinese and Egyptian.

And I've figured out how to do it, but I'm planning on I will.

Send you a link because obviously you'll do yours different, but this might give you a baseline of what to look at.

Well, I'm reading through a guitar right now, and that one is actually in the mythology subgenre.

But it's like they don't use the god's names.

I feel like have you read those books?

I know they're big.

No, they don't interest me.

Okay, so it's fantasy subgenre is mythology.

And I'm like, I don't know how they're going to wrap that in, but they have the big bad beasts, I feel like are based on the titans of Greek mythology.

It's just very like the big bad from the beginning of time and like all of this, and I'm like I can see now why, but there's also the Faye and the whatever in there too.

Shifting.

There's some shifting.

They have the Olympus gods.

They have gods from all different cultures.

And they use the names and they kind of do a small background of them or why they're there, but they're all there.

I'm so bad at names.

But you have MC one, and he's contracted like a soul bound to Persephone.

Okay.

Because his family essentially stole and killed Persephone and Hades daughter.

So he has to make it correct.

But he's not just for Persephone, but for all the gods, because the gods need to be believed.

And again, they're losing their power because humanity doesn't really believe in the gods anymore.

It's interesting.

Yeah.

I think the first mythology, when I read, I don't remember the author's name, there's no audio books, and I've reached out to her like several times now.

Please let me narrate your audiobooks because I've read the books twice now and I love them, but they did it's like the characters, not all of the characters, but there's this family that are all descendants of the gods, and they all have these powers of the gods in this family.

And it's the same relationship.

So Zeus.

And I'm terrible with names.

Athena, Zeus and Athena.

I think anyways, it's like all the couples are still couples in these descendants or whatever.

Oh, you're thinking Hara.

It's Zeus and Hara.

Okay.

Yeah.

Athena is Zeus daughter, so they all.

Have modern names because they're these descendants.

They've essentially bred with humans, and they're these descendants of the gods living on our world.

And this girl gets mixed up in it and throws a wrench in everybody's plans and all that.

I've read a couple of other ones like that, but I don't know.

The book that is taking over my brain is those ones now, but because I want to do a mismatch of everything I have to know, at least a little bit.

Ali loved the story Misty, about a girl buying a dog when she was younger.

The Three Dogs is a German fairy tale.

Andrew Lang included it in the Green Fairy Book, listing his source as the Brother's Grimm.

A version of this tale appears in a book of dragons by Ruth Manning Sanders.

It is Arne Thompson.

Type 562.

The spirit in the blue light.

Other tales of this type include the blue light and the tinder box.

Today we'll be reading the three Dogs from Andrew Lang's green fairy book.

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

The Three Dogs.

There was once upon a time a shepherd who had two children, a son and a daughter.

When he was on his deathbed, he turned to them and said I have nothing to leave you but three sheep and a small house.

Divide them between you as you like, but don't quarrel over them, whatever you do.

When the shepherd was dead, the brother asked his sister which she would like best the sheep or the little house.

And when she had chosen the house, he said then I'll take the sheep and go out to seek my fortune in the wide world.

I don't see why I shouldn't be as lucky as many another who has set out on the same search.

And it wasn't for nothing that I was born on a Sunday.

And so he started on his travels, driving his three sheep in front of him.

And for a long time it seemed as if fortune didn't mean to favor him at all.

One day he was sitting disconsonantly at a crossroad when a man suddenly appeared before him with three black dogs, each one bigger than the other.

Hello, my fine fellow, said the man.

I see you have three fat sheep.

I'll tell you what, if you'll give them to me, I'll give you my three dogs.

In spite of his sadness, the youth smiled and replied, what would I do with your dogs?

My sheep at least feed themselves.

But I should have to find food for the dogs.

My dogs are not like other dogs, said the stranger.

They will feed you instead of you them and will make your fortune.

The smallest one is called Salt and will bring you food whenever you wish.

The second is called Pepper and will tear anyone to pieces who offers to hurt you.

And the great big strong one is.

Called Mustard and is so powerful that it will break iron or steel with its teeth.

The shepherd at last let himself be persuaded and gave the stranger his sheep in order to test the truth of his statement about the dogs.

He said at once, salt.

I'm hungry.

And before the words were out of his mouth, the dog had disappeared and returned in a few minutes with a large basket full of the most delicious food.

Then the youth congratulated himself on the bargain he had made and continued his journey in the best of spirits.

One day he met a carriage and pair all draped in black.

Even the horses were covered with black trappings and the coachman was clothed in crepe from top to toe.

Inside the carriage sat a beautiful girl in a black dress, crying bitterly.

The horses advanced slowly and mournfully with their heads bent on the ground.

Coachmen, what's the meaning of all this grief?

Asked the shepherd.

At first the coachman wouldn't say anything, but when the youth pressed him, he told him that a huge dragon dwelt in the neighborhood and required yearly the sacrifice of a beautiful maiden.

This year the lot had fallen on the king's daughter and the whole country was filled with woe and lamentation and consequence.

The shepherd felt very sorry for the lovely maiden and determined to follow the carriage in a little, it halted at the foot of a high mountain.

The girl got out and walked slowly and sadly to meet her terrible fate.

The coachman perceived that the shepherd wished to follow her and warned him not to do so if he valued his life.

But the shepherd wouldn't listen to his advice.

When they had climbed about halfway up the hill they saw a terrible looking monster with the body of a snake and with huge wings and claws coming towards them, breathing forth flames of fire and preparing to seize its victim.

And the shepherd, called, Pepper come to the rescue.

And the second dog set upon the dragon and after a fierce struggle but it so sharply in the neck that the monster rolled over and in a few moments breathed its last.

Then the dog ate up the body, all except its two front teeth, which the shepherd picked up and put in his pocket.

The princess was quite overcome with terror and joy and fell fainting at the feet of her deliverer.

When she recovered her consciousness, she begged the shepherd to return with her to her father, who would reward him richly.

But the youth answered that he wanted to see something of the world and that he would return again in three years and nothing would make him change his resolve.

The princess seated herself once more in her carriage and bidding each other farewell, she and the shepherd separated, she to return home and he to see the world.

While the princess was driving over a bridge the carriage suddenly stood still and the coachman turned round to her and said your deliverer has gone and doesn't thank you for your gratitude.

It would be nice of you to.

Make a poor fellow happy.

Therefore, you may tell your father that it was I who slew the dragon and if you refuse to, I will throw you into the river and no one will be any wiser, for they.

Will think the dragon has devoured you.

The maiden was in a dreadful state when she heard these words but there was nothing for her to do but to swear that she would give out the coachman as her deliverer and not to divulge the secret to anyone.

So they returned to the capital and everyone was delighted when they saw the princess had returned unharmed.

The black flags were taken down from all the palace towers and gay colored ones put up in their place.

And the king embraced his daughter and her supposed rescuer with tears of joy.

And turning to the coachman, he said.

You'Ve not only saved the life of.

My child but you've also freed the country from a terrible scourge.

Therefore it is only fitting that you.

Should be richly rewarded take therefore, my daughter for your wife, but as she.

Is still so young, do not let.

The marriage be celebrated for another year.

The coachman thanked the king for his graciousness and was then led away to be richly dressed and instructed in all the arts and graces that befitted his new position.

But the poor princess wept bitterly, though she did not dare to confide her grief to anyone.

When the year was over, she begged so hard for another year's, respite that it was granted to her.

But this year passed also, and she threw herself at her father's feet and begged so piteously for one more year that the king's heart was melted.

And he yielded to her request much to the princess's joy, for she knew that her real deliverer would appear at the end of the third year.

And so the year passed away like the other two.

And the wedding day was fixed, and all the people were prepared to feast and make merry.

But on the wedding day it happened that a stranger came to the town with three black dogs.

He asked what the meaning of all the feasting and fuss was, and they told him that the king's daughter was just going to be married to the man who had slain the terrible dragon.

The stranger at once denounced the coachman as a liar, but no one would listen to him, and he was seized and thrown into a cell with iron doors.

While he was lying on his straw pallet, pondering mournfully on his fate, he thought he heard the low whining of his dogs outside.

Then an idea dawned on him, and he called out as loudly as he could mustered, come to my help.

And in a second he saw the paws of the biggest dog at the window of his cell, and before he could count to two, the creature had bitten through the iron bars and stood beside him.

Then they both let themselves out of the prison by the window, and the poor youth was free once more.

Though he felt very sad when he thought that another was to enjoy the reward that rightfully belonged to him, he felt hungry, too.

So he called his dog Salt and asked him to bring home some food.

The faithful creature trotted off and soon returned with a table napkin full of the most delicious food, and the napkin itself was embroidered with a kingly crown.

The king had just seated himself at the wedding feast with all his court when the dog appeared and licked the princess's hand in an appealing manner.

With a joyful start, she recognized the beast and bound her own table napkin round his neck.

Then she plucked up her courage and told her father the whole story.

Then the king at once sent a servant to follow the dog, and in a short time the stranger was led into the king's presence.

The former coachman grew as wide as a sheet when he saw the shepherd and, falling on his knees, begged for mercy and pardon.

The Princess recognized her deliverer at once, and did not need the proof of the two dragon's teeth which he drew from his pocket.

The coachman was thrown into a dark dungeon, and the shepherd took his place at the Princess's side.

And this time, you may be sure, she did not beg for the wedding to be put off.

The young couple lived for some time in great peace and happiness, when suddenly one day, the former shepherd bethought himself of his poor sister and expressed a wish to see her again and to let her share in his good fortune.

So they sent a carriage to fetch her, and soon she arrived at the court and found herself once more in her brother's arms.

Then one of the dogs spoke and said, our task is done.

You have no more need of us.

We only waited to see that you did not forget your sister and your prosperity.

And with these words, the three dogs became three birds and flew away into the heavens.

Thank you for joining Freya's fairy tales.