Today is part two of two where we are talking to Misty Walker about her books. After today you will have heard about writing from a young age and binding her own books, speed writing through the first draft of her first book in six weeks, using her network of authors to get her book ready, catching the writing bug, learning different social medias for your books, her advice to be a little more intentional with marketing, picking your friends carefully in the industry and getting lost in your story.

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Misty Walker is a USA Today Bestselling contemporary romance author. Her books have been translated to Hebrew and adapted into audiobooks.

She reads the way she writes, so in between writing her dark and delicious novels, she'll sneak in a few sweet and steamy ones to "cleanse the palate", as they say.

Misty currently resides in the high desert of Reno, NV with her husband, two daughters, and two dogs. She enjoys camping in her comfy travel trailer, reading, and writing. She loves connecting with readers, so her email and DMs are always open.

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

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Today is part two of two where.

We are talking to Misty Walker about her books.

After today, you will have heard about.

Writing from a young age and binding her own books.

Speed writing through the first draft of her first book in six weeks, using her network of authors to get her book ready.

Catching the writing bug learning different social medias for your books.

Her advice to be a little more intentional with marketing, picking your friends carefully in the industry, and getting lost in your story.

Petrus bikers an MMF dark mc romance I thought I had nothing left to give.

It took two dirty bikers to prove me wrong.

Cameron Bigsby was in her third year residency at UMC of southern Nevada when her entire world was stripped from her.

She was given a new name, Petra, and for two years she was made the property of the worst kind of men who abused her until she was nothing but an empty shell.

Then the royal b******'s MC stepped in and saved her.

Sly club treasurer and resident hacker and Moto road captain and gearhead were tasked with finding out who she was and what they should do with her.

The woman was skittish, fragile, and addicted to God knows what, so luring information from her took unique tactics.

But as they coax her to health, they realize she's so much more than the timid dove they rescued.

She's strong, intelligent, and sexy as h***.

Suddenly, they aren't sure if making her remember is the best idea, because Petra belongs in the world of an MC, but Cameron Bixby doesn't.

So now it took you six weeks to write the first one.

Does it still take you about six weeks?

Or has that kind of so much longer now?

So much longer because there's so much more that I'm doing.

When you first start publishing, I feel like you aren't marketed.

I don't know.

I didn't market that much with my first book.

Maybe it's just a me thing.

I'll just say it's a me thing.

No, that's pretty common.

First book, people usually just throw it into the world.

Yeah.

And that's what I did.

And even after I had, like, two or three books, I wasn't really focused so much on marketing, other than putting books out, which I guess when you ask me if I've learned anything, that would be it.

Intentional, I guess.

I wish I had been a little bit more intentional.

But now I spend so much more time doing admin things that I don't have nearly as much time to write.

And on top of that, I have a functioning, signed paperback business that takes more time than anything else at this point.

Yeah, I don't have as much time to write, so it does take me longer.

Much longer.

But I will say that once I start writing, and this is why my social media gets so sporadic, is because once I start writing, that's all I can think about.

I have total tunnel vision.

Like, my family doesn't get my attention.

Nothing else in my business gets attention.

I am just, like, I can't get out of it, no matter how hard I try, except for things that I have to do.

So I've heard you say a couple of times on TikTok, your husband does your stalking for you.

So he's gotten involved somehow, much to his dismay.

It's a lot at this point, and I'm so freaking lucky.

I'm so grateful for the opportunities that I've received as far as my TikTok shop and my website, they're doing so well that I go through a lot of paperbacks, and we have to store them in his garage, which he is like a woodworker, right?

So his garage, he needs it, his place.

And it kind of isn't anymore because there's just backstock of books.

And he does like the way that TikTok shop and my website, they work in different ways, so he has to manage both of those.

And so he prints my labels for me and deals with any issues with addresses or whatever.

And he keeps my book stocked.

And he runs my books, too, because I'm really bad at keeping my accounting done.

Yeah, I, for my day job, do the accounting part of things.

So I was already familiar with running a business and business finances and all of that.

And I'm like my sister jokes all the time, like, oh, you just love spreadsheets.

And I'm like, no, I do not love spreadsheets.

It's that I know they're a necessary evil, and once you get them set up with all their calculations, it makes your job so much easier on the back end.

So I'm like, do I like it?

Absolutely not.

But I know that there are some things that you just have to do.

And my accountant especially likes at the end of the year, when I'm able to say, here's all the information that you need for taxes.

And I'm like, I don't know what you can deduct or not.

Here's what I spent money on.

You figure that out.

Yeah.

Well, that's really good, because I'm good at some things.

I am not good with numbers with my accounting.

Yeah, now I'm doing.

So I just last weekend sent out my first batch of PR boxes, and so I have them available for sale on my website right now.

And I made a whole spreadsheet for keeping track of inventory of everything.

So it's like, PR boxes have, like, a ton of things that go in the PR boxes, and almost every single thing comes in a different quantity.

So keeping track of, like, when do I need to order more?

Today I had a package.

It's something that comes in a pack of six.

And I sold one yesterday, a PR box.

And so it was like, oh, it dropped below a quantity of ten that I have in stock, so I need to order another one of those.

All these weird things.

I do not like spreadsheets.

I know how to set them up to make my life easier, and that is what is important.

Yeah.

Did you have a hard time figuring out what to put in your PR box, or did you just kind of know?

There was some things that I knew up front.

There are.

Pretty much every PR box I've ever seen opened had some kind of a candle in it.

And then my first book is a beauty and the Beast retelling.

So I was like, ideally, I wanted rose scented candles, but I could not find any large quantities with those without them being the giant candles that I didn't want to buy a box big enough for this giant thing.

So I ended up with.

It was like, the first pack of candles I bought was, like, this multi scented floral pack of candles, and then that one wasn't in stock when I needed to reorder, so I had to get.

I think it's just lavender, is what the next batch is.

I'm like, of course they would not have that one anymore.

So that one I kind of knew.

I knew I wanted to do character art and stickers, so that I kind of knew.

But then I included things like recipes from the book.

Like, they mentioned the mom cooks a lot, and so there's, like, pumpkin roll and cinnamon rolls and things the mom cooks in the story, and then there's other things that are mentioned throughout that as I was sitting there trying to think of what are items that you could put in a PR box that are.

My beta readers at one point were joking about including a shot glass and little shots of alcohol because I, like, repeat words in some places.

They're like, it's the snowflake flake drinking game.

It's the decoration drinking game.

And I'm like, would you just shut up?

So I did not include a shot glass or liquor in anybody's box, but it was just, like, thinking, like, what are some things that got mentioned in the book that are things that you could buy for a decent price, that you're not spending a fortune on these things?

And so that's kind of what I kept in mind as I was picking items and all of that.

Yeah, I didn't do a different things.

My very last book, that was my very first one, and now my second book came out just days ago.

Have I sent the PR boxes out?

No.

My office is, like, being overrun by boxes.

Last weekend, I was packing because all of my beta readers got PR boxes.

One of them just wanted a signed copy, which is fine.

It was my brother in law.

He was like, just send me a signed copy.

So I did.

So all of my beta readers got one.

My alpha reader got one.

And then I did a giveaway drawing for all of my Arc team.

So I did five PR boxes and then five signed copy bundles with the character art and a sticker, much smaller quantity of stuff.

And then I also did a giveaway on TikTok for the same five PR boxes and five bundles.

Because I'm like, dude, at some point, I'm like, if they want to buy them, you can also buy them online.

But I'm like, at some point, I have to say enough money is leaving my account for my first book.

For real.

I'm like, there's a certain amount of, like, I want to be able to do giveaways as, like, thank yous, but also there's only so much money that I can just be like, bye.

Yeah.

It's so expensive to publish, and there's so many different things that you don't even think about until they come up and you're like, wait a minute.

I haven't even received royalties on this book yet.

The last big expense that I had to buy, because I had already bought everything else was the isbns, because I wanted to own my isbns.

And so that was the last.

I did a pack of ten, because if you're doing more than like one format, you need to buy the ten.

So I did the pack of ten.

But my husband is getting ready to hopefully in April, publish his first book.

So I'm like, when yours comes up, we're just going to buy a pack of 100 because it's like $600.

So it's like twice the amount.

But you get so many more isbns.

So I'm like, well, basically the family will buy them and then our companies will buy them from the family at that point.

We'll figure it out.

We'll figure it out.

I'm like, that ten pack will go fast.

For sure.

So what is the best piece of advice and the worst piece of advice you have gotten for writing, writing, publishing anything your book related?

And we've already talked about this, but I think the worst piece of advice that I got was just put books out there.

You have to have a backlist.

I think that's kind of old advice.

Anyway.

I still hear some give that advice, but it's more make sure you're putting out quality books now.

Yeah, for sure.

When I first started publishing, it was like, you just have to have a backlist.

So that was probably the worst.

The best.

Gosh, I have such a hard time when I'm put on the spot.

Like my brain seriously, like empties and I can't even remember at all.

Let's see.

I'll have to think about this for just one more second.

I think I had an author friend tell me that you really need to find your people, like your other author friends, and don't try and reach out to and be friends with everybody all at once.

And not to be surprised when you received.

I don't even know how to say it, but I was pretty surprised that I had a lot of caddiness back in the day.

Okay.

A lot of caddiness.

So when my author friend was like, you need to find one or two other authors and just stay real close with them because it's better to have one good friend than ten really bad ones.

So I've been fortunate.

But, yeah, back in the day, there was just a lot of caddiness and a lot it.

I don't know if it even happens anymore.

I'm not really involved too much, but there was a lot of drama back in the Facebook days.

I stay out of like, the only thing that I get now is all the spam.

Like, I'm an author, too.

Let's talk craft.

And it's like, it's always the same message that they sent.

Multiple people send essentially the exact same message, hi, you're an author.

I see you have a book out.

We should talk craft.

And it's always craft or a synonym of craft.

And you're just like, here we go again.

And they do it.

They do it just so that they can send you their link to their book.

They don't care about your book at all.

Oh, my gosh.

That happens all the, at least, at.

Least a couple of times a week for me now.

But I imagine it's going to get worse.

I don't even accept new friend requests on Facebook anymore because the second you do it, that's what happens, is they come into your dms and they're like.

See, that's where it's a bonus that I don't do all this under my legal name because the only friends that I have on Facebook from any of this are authors that I've narrated for that didn't have other social media platforms because my preferred would have been to reach out to them on Instagram where I can message them.

But you can't message from a Facebook page to someone unsolicited.

I can't know random authors, so I would have to send them a message from my personal page and be, you know, this is my legal name.

This is the name that I narrate under.

Those are the only people.

I have a few author friends on my Facebook because that was the only way that I could talk to them.

And then my editor had me add her recently.

But other than that, for the most part, all of my communication happens through my pages or like Instagram or, oh, you're lucky.

Back in the day, it was just like vague.

Booking all authors would be like, posting something and then you spend like the next 3 hours trying to figure out who they're talking about.

That still happens.

They just don't keep it vague anymore.

No, it's not vague anymore.

Everybody's like, I am going to.

In fact, I saw one for the first time a couple of days ago, and I was like, I wonder who they're talking about?

Because they didn't just call them out.

I'm used to now people just getting called out.

Rightfully called out.

Yeah, there's still crazy stuff that happens.

The big things that happen now is like the review bombing and stuff like that that goes on now for whatever crazy stuff.

I think the craziest thing that I saw recently was that one guy that was like, I'm going to read a female author and read only female authors.

I'm like, what?

Did this seem like a good plan when you came into it?

I don't understand crazy.

He figured out what happens very quickly.

There's people that come into the space, and it's happened with musicians have come into the space, and just other people have come into the space.

And it's like you come in and book talk, you've said you've been at it since the beginning.

And so from at least the time that I've been in, it's very much, like, built as a community, and communities have to interact with each other to be a community.

And now it's branched into, gosh, I don't even know how many people are involved in book talk.

And there's all these little niches in here for you get into the people that only ever see Colleen Hoover books, or there's, like, the dark romance books, or there's all these different sections of it now.

And so everybody's got their thing, and everybody's got their own crazy, too, because I swear, each little niche there has their own drama that goes on.

Yeah, I think book talk has been.

Just been amazing in so many different ways.

For me, it's such a great place to learn and grow and see different perspectives that without it, you wouldn't have seen.

I find TikTok to be, like, the most inspiring place.

It's also a very scary place, but it can.

Yeah, very, very inspiring, too.

And just to see so many different stories and interact with people that you probably wouldn't have had the opportunity to otherwise.

Yeah, I've loved building my little book talk community.

I feel like so on other platforms now, I never spent a lot of time on Twitter X, so we'll leave that one out of this.

But on Facebook and Instagram, when you're searching through feeds, most of what I see is, like, the same stuff over and over again, or the same people over and over again where, like, TikTok, when I'm scrolling through for you page, I am constantly coming across people I've never seen before.

And so I feel like, as far as platforms and algorithms go now, occasionally I'm like, man, I haven't seen so and so in a while.

Did they stop posting videos?

No, I just haven't gotten to see them, excuse me, in forever.

So it does a good job of making sure that you're mixed up with all the people there.

And then occasionally, the algorithm will reset itself, and then you'll get the weird viral dance videos all over again.

It's so weird when that happens.

Or if, like, I don't know, sometimes I look at.

I'll watch TikToks with my kid, and it's insane how different our for you pages are because mine's, like, full of snuggling dogs and cute old couples telling their life story, and then my kids is, like, all these teenagers dancing all over.

I had no idea that still happened, because I.

It's wild how different for you pages can be.

Yes.

And then my sister one time was talking about, oh, my for you page has.

I can't even remember what it was.

Something inappropriate.

And I'm like, you know, you trained it for that, right?

You know that you did that to yourself.

You spent a second too long on one video.

That happens to me.

I will get these random.

There's a lady on there, and I haven't actually seen her in a while, but she owns, like, a sex shop, and so she would do these kind of educational videos or whatever.

So occasionally I would watch one out of curiosity, and then I'd be getting all these kink community videos after that, and I'm just like, I did this to myself because I watched the one video, my life.

Now you can't get away from it.

Yeah.

And there's some, because I read spicy books all the time.

There are some that I'm like, I'll watch through or whatever.

And then there's other videos where I'm like, can I get off this any faster?

How is this on here?

I don't know.

I got lost.

I know it used to be the people who saw my videos, they had some kind of interest in books, romance books.

Yeah.

But with my TikTok shop, it pushes me out to the masses.

So I get comments daily just telling me how awful I am, how ugly I am, how annoying am.

So that's been a fun experience.

That was the one thing with the podcast I would get.

When I started the podcast, I thought, oh, you need to do Facebook ads.

That's what did.

And, like, all the comments that I would get would be people, oh, my God, her voice is so annoying.

Oh, my God, her inflection is all wrong.

And just all these negative comments.

And so around the time of the podcast conference, I stopped paying for ads because I was like, I'll probably learn a ton at this conference, and then we'll revamp our strategy, right?

I've continued to grow in downloads since the conference, and I have paid for not a single ad since then.

So I'm like, it is what it is.

Might I grow faster with ads?

Sure.

But none of the classes that I went to talked about paying for Facebook ads.

They were all like, here's how to find your community where you don't have to do.

But anyways, so much better when you.

Don'T have to be pushed out to people that don't have interest in what you're doing.

Well, you hashtag things, and I swear, probably I still feel this strongly.

I think a few months ago that they broke the hashtag.

You know how it used to be, if you hashtag something book talk, it went to book talk.

We're like, now I feel like that's not necessarily the case either.

I'm like, interaction is down.

And I'm like, that doesn't make sense.

If it's getting pushed to book people, the interaction should be the same, if not better, since more followers over time.

But who knows?

Yeah, well, and I write dark romance, so you can only imagine the masses.

Getting a hold of.

Yeah.

So your angry masses versus my fantasy romance.

Angry masses are two totally different things.

Now, my novellas are all told from the villain's perspective, so my novellas will be dark.

But for the most part, I'm like, if you don't want to read dark, just stick to the novels.

If you want to read dark, read all of them.

Yeah.

So you're getting the extra.

Now, did you start writing dark romance or did it evolve to that?

No, dark romance was what I always read.

Like, when I was not working, I was reading dark romance.

But no, I didn't start with that.

And I think I was just kind of a little bit uncomfortable with, or maybe I was just trying to get comfortable with writing to begin with.

Eventually, the second that I wrote my first dark romance, I was like, okay, yeah, this is my place.

This is my home here in the dark.

Yeah.

Someone asked me, one of my friends in real life asked me, I did like an ask me anything video, and they were like, was it awkward when you narrated your first spicy scene?

And I'm like, no, because I've been reading spicy books for basically my entire adult life.

But the awkward thing was when I did the first one live, which I got banned.

My first live, I got banned for three days.

But for the most part, I'm like, no, that's what was the awkward, like, doing it live where my face turned red and then I got banned.

I knew I was going to get banned because at the time, every narrator was getting banned for spicy content and violent content and stuff like that.

So I was trying to figure out first live out there where the line was.

So then I learned what the line was, and then I started flagging.

As I'm prepping an audiobook, I will now flag chapters.

It's like, hey, either proceed with caution or do not read this chapter at all on TikTok Live or you will get banned.

As I was going into the book I was doing right before mine was a rom.com, but it had towards the end of it as the couples together and all of this.

Finally in the book, there was quite a few straight up just smut chapters.

And I'm like, listen, I don't want to get banned right before my audiobook, so I'm just not going to do the last two days live so I don't get banned.

And she was like, okay, yeah, I remember that.

When all of the narrators were getting banned, even when they weren't even, like, doing the super spicy scenes.

No.

Barely spiced.

And they were.

I've never been banned for violence, and I've done some pretty.

My book has some pretty gruesome scenes in it, and I did not get banned describing, like, decapitation and blood gathering in the snow.

I did not get banned for any of that because I kept stopping and laughing because I forgot how gruesome I had written it.

So I would, like, say it and then bust out laughing.

Did you love writing those scenes, though?

Oh, my God.

Seriously.

Originally, there was only one scene like that.

All of the chapters in my book are based off of Christmas songs.

And so there's a Christmas song that talks about, like, they have scarves around their necks to keep their heads from falling into the snow.

So I'm like, of course, that has to be a really gruesome chapter, right?

And so I'm writing it and people are getting decapitated because head's falling in snow from the song and there's, like, blood, and at one point a horse died.

The horse no longer dies.

One of my beta readers made me change it.

And so I'm, like, writing this, and as my beta readers were going through it, one of them was like, I feel like a different writer wrote this whole chapter because it's so gruesome.

And there's like, an earlier battle scene where it's like, our main character's first battle.

And so I'm like, she wouldn't be describing all the gruesome stuff going on because she's freaking out about the fact she's killed someone for the first time.

They're like, well, towards the end of that scene, she could be observing stuff around her now that she's not shooting people.

I'm like, okay.

But I seriously just would bust out laughing while I was narrating it.

There's a couple of times that that happened, and I'm just like, it is what it is.

I'm like, I can't believe I wrote this.

I had that experience just recently because I still proofed my audiobooks to save myself some money.

And so I was listening to a particularly gruesome chapter because I like to go gory.

I think that it's fun for me to write it.

And the whole time I was listening to the chapter, I was just, like, in hysterics.

I was like, I wrote that and I was having my husband come in and listen to it.

I'm like, oh, my gosh.

What is wrong with you?

Yeah, at one point, the people watching me live were like, are you okay?

I'm like, listen, my head is a very scary place, but I'm like, I would be a very good horror writer, but I don't think it would be good for my mental health to put myself there for so long.

So I have the novellas that are going to be told from the villain perspective, and those are much darker and stuff than the other ones, but the other ones are just like fantasy romance.

So there's the fun storyline and all of this.

I'm like, my darker.

I will keep those to shorter books, so I'm not in that space for a super long time, but I'm like, yeah.

And then there's my husband, who literally on his TikToks is like, when you're thinking about unspeakable things to do to your main character, I'm like, one of us is going to get committed by our families.

Which one will it be first?

I don't know.

We'll see.

Well, and you probably get this too, because you're very sweet looking, and I know I'm sweet looking, so it does get challenging for people to reconcile how you look and what you're writing.

Well, I had recently one of my beta readers was like, you seem like the person that always followed the rules and did what you were told, and now here you are writing.

Now, my first book is a slow burn, so nothing happens until the last three chapters of the book.

But there is a lot of language and stuff that I don't usually use around other people.

Typically.

Tomorrow I'll be announcing this is what I've written.

But also on my website, I have all the triggers listed with a breakdown of, like, if you have a trigger of alcohol, here's the specific situation so that you can avoid it if you need to.

And actually, I need to add one, because as I was narrating, I realized that he does go on a drunken vendor that I didn't mention.

I'm like, oh, yeah.

So the mom kind of freaks out one time and drinks, like, a couple of glasses of bourbon, but that's not that bad.

And then I'm narrating, and I'm like, oh, yeah, I forgot about his whole drunken freak out where he just basically drinks for, like, six months.

Maybe we should mention that on the website somewhere.

Anyways.

So, yeah, my rules will be, if you want to read my books, that's fine.

Make sure you read the blurbs or ask me if you're concerned about something.

And if you read something that you didn't want to read and you didn't ask me about it, that's your problem, not mine.

That's what I told my family with my audiobooks, too, I found out my sister in law listened to at the time.

It was one of my spiciest audiobooks that I had done.

It's an erotica.

I'm like, why did you buy that one?

And she's like, it's just a book.

It's okay.

And I'm like, you're listening to your sister in law narrate this?

I wonder.

I would love to know if she could get into the storyline enough to not have it feel like you were reading it to her.

I don't know.

And then my mom at one point, told me she was going to listen to my audiobook.

And I'm like, mom, you know that there's spice in there, right?

And she's like, you're not my daughter writing it.

And I'm like, I'm literally.

I wrote it, and I'll be reading it to you.

How are you not?

Can you disassociate that much?

I can't.

My mother in law reads my books, and she loves them.

She's very kind.

But sometimes when she's telling me, oh, and this scene and this, and she even will mention the spicy things to me, and I just feel like I need to have a rule with everybody in my real life.

If you read my book?

No, you didn't.

Because I don't like this.

My husband's brother was one of my beta readers, and so I let him know because he also writes, but he's never published anything.

And so I knew that he would be a good editing.

And then there's, like, a lot of war scenes, and he reads a lot of war kind of novels, so I figured he would be a good opinion for that.

So I let him know that there's.

Going to be spicy chapters.

And the one thing that he said was like, just don't tell me if you're writing stuff that you and my brother do into your book.

And I'm like, I would never tell anybody that.

So in his Google Doc version, I had, like, asterisks with, like, spicy scenes are beyond this.

So, like, if you enter at your own risk or something like that.

So he said he basically just skimmed the last three chapters.

At that point, we were past all the war stuff that I really needed help with.

It's funny how a lot of people assume that whatever spice content you're putting into your books is what you do, see how you are.

I find that fascinating because I think it's so far from the truth for a lot of us.

Well, and the people that are like, if you.

I've seen this.

Prior to recently, the video that I would see going around is, don't always assume that what she reads in her books is what she wants in the bedroom.

And recently I've seen there's a lady that her video keeps showing up for me, probably because I have multiple accounts, but anyways.

And it's like, if you ever want to know what she wants in the bedroom, read her favorite romance book.

And I'm like, no, don't do that.

Let's see.

Recently I've read the haunting Adeline book.

I'm like, please, no, I do not want you to stalk me.

I do not want to run through a corn maze.

Like, none of this be like a.

Disclaimer unless it's dark romance, right?

Yeah, no.

Funny.

Definitely.

I mean, there are people that.

That is their thing, and that's totally okay, but for most of us, I would say that is not the case.

Yeah.

And it definitely should not be a rule for men.

Maybe ask ahead of time.

Do you want me to do the things in that book and then read the book?

Maybe just have a little conversation?

Because that would get pretty intense real quick.

And if you're not at the point where you can have that conversation, you shouldn't be doing the things anyways, right?

Yeah, for sure.

Well, you have a good rest of your Saturday.

I'm going to get some air conditioning.

Oh, my goodness.

Yeah.

Okay.

Well, thank you so much for chatting with me.

I had fun.

Thank you.

I will see you around TikTok.

I am sure.

Okay.

Bye.

Bye.

Misty also liked beauty and the Beast.

Today we'll be reading a Grimm's brother story.

King grizzly beard.

King grizzly beard, a great king of a land far away in the east, had a daughter who was very beautiful, but so proud and haughty and conceited that none of the princes who came to ask her in marriage was good enough for her.

And she only made sport of them.

Once upon a time, the king held a great feast and asked thither all her suitors.

And they all sat in a row, ranged according to their rank.

Kings and princes and dukes and earls and counts and barons and knights.

Then the princess came in, and as she passed by them, she had something spiteful to say to everyone.

First was too fat, he's as round as the tub, said she.

The next was too tall.

What a maple, said she.

The next was too short, what a dumpling, said she.

The fourth was too pale, and she called him wallface.

The fifth was too red, so she called him coxcomb.

The 6th was not straight enough, so she said he was like a green stick that had been laid to dry over a baker's oven.

And thus she had some joke to crack upon one.

But she laughed more than all at a good king who was there.

Look at him, said she.

His beard is like an old mop, and he shall be called grizzly beard.

So the king got the nickname of Grizzly Beard.

But the old king was very angry when he saw how his daughter behaved and how she ill treated all his guests.

And he vowed that, willing or unwilling, she should marry the first man, be he prince or beggar.

That came to the door.

Two days after, there came by a traveling fiddler who began to play under the window and beg alms.

And when the king heard him, he said, let him come in.

So they brought in a dirty looking fellow.

And when he had sung before the king and the princess, he begged abun.

Then the king said, you have sung so well that I will give you my daughter for your wife.

The princess begged and prayed, but the king said, I have sworn to give you to the first comer, and I will keep my word.

So words and tears were of no avail.

The parson was sent for, and she was married to the fiddler.

When this was over, the king said, now get ready to go.

You must not stay here.

You must travel on with your husband.

Then the fiddler went his way and took her with him.

And they soon came to a great wood.

Pray, said she, whose wood is this?

It belongs to King Grizzly beard, answered he.

Hath thou taken him?

All had been thine.

Ah, unlucky wretch that I am, sighed she, that I had married King grizzly beard.

Next they came to some fine meadows.

Whose are these beautiful green meadows?

Said she.

They belong to King Grizzly beard.

Hath thou taken him?

They had all been thine.

Unlucky wretch that I am, said she.

What, that I had married King Grizzly beard.

Then they came to a great city.

Who is this?

A snowble city, said she.

It belongs to King Grizzly beard.

Had thou taken him?

It had all been thine wretch that I am, sighed she.

Why did I not marry King Grizzlybeard?

That is no business of mine, said the fiddler.

Why should you wish for another husband?

Am I not good enough for you?

At last they came to a small cottage.

What a paltry place.

Said she.

To whom does that little dirty hole belong?

Then the fiddler said, that is your and my house where we are to live.

Where are your servants?

Cried she.

What do we want with servants?

Said he.

You must do for yourself whatever is to be done.

Now make the fire and put on water and cook my supper, for I'm very tired.

But the princess knew nothing of making fires and cooking.

And the fiddler was forced to help her.

When they had eaten a very scanty meal, they went to bed.

But the fiddler called her up very early in the morning to clean the house.

Thus they lived for two days.

And when they had eaten up all there was in the cottage, the man said, wife, we can't go on thus, spending money and earning nothing.

You must learn to weave baskets.

Then he went out and cut willows and brought them home.

And she began to weave, but it made her fingers very sore.

I see.

This work won't do, said he.

Try and spin.

Perhaps you will do that better.

So she sat down and tried to spin.

But the threads cut her tender fingers till the blood Ran.

See now, said the fiddler, you are good for nothing.

You can do no work.

What a bargain I've got.

However, I'll try and set up a trade in pots and pans.

And you shall stand in the market and sell them.

Alas, sighed she, if any of my father's courts should pass by and see me standing in the market.

How they will laugh at me.

But her husband did not care for that.

And said she must work if she did not wish to die of hunger.

At first the trade went well for many people.

Seeing such a beautiful woman.

Went to buy her wares.

And paid their money without thinking of taking away the goods.

They lived on this as long as it lasted.

And then her husband bought a fresh lot of ware.

And she sat herself down with it in the corner of the market.

But a drunken soldier soon came by.

And rode his horse against her stall.

And broke all her goods into a thousand pieces.

Then she began to cry and knew not what to do.

What will become of me?

Said she.

What will my husband say?

So she ran home and told him all.

Who would have thought you would have been so silly, said he, as to put an earth and wear stall in the corner of the market where everybody passes?

Let us have no more crying.

I see you are not fit for this sort of work.

So I've been to the king's palace.

And asked if they did not want a kitchen maid.

And they say they will take you, and there you will have plenty to eat.

Thus the princess became a kitchen maid.

And helped the cook to do all the dirtiest work.

But she was allowed to carry home some of the meat that was left.

And on this they lived.

She had not been there long before she heard that the king's eldest son was passing by, going to be married.

And she went to one of the windows and looked out.

Everything was ready.

And all the pomp and brightness of the court was there.

And she bitterly grieved for the pride and folly which had brought her so low.

And the servants gave her some of the rich meats.

Which she put into her basket to take home.

All on a sudden, as she was going out, in came the king's son in golden clothes.

And when he saw a beautiful woman at the door.

He took her by the hand and said she should be his partner in the dance.

But she trembled for fear, for she saw that it was King grizzly beard who was making sport of her.

However, he kept fast hold and let her in.

And the COVID of the basket came off so that the meats in it fell about.

Then everybody laughed and jeered at her.

And she was so abashed that she wished herself a thousand feet deep in the earth.

She sprang to the door to run away.

But on the steps, King Grizzlybeard overtook her and brought her back and said, fear me not.

I am the fiddler who's lived with you in the hut.

I brought you there because I really loved you.

I am also the soldier that overset your stall.

I have done all this only to cure you of your silly pride and to show you the folly of your ill treatment of me.

Now all is over.

You have learned wisdom, and it is time to hold our marriage feast.

And the chamberlains came and brought her the most beautiful robes, and her father and his whole court was there already and welcomed her home on her marriage.

Joy was in every face and every heart.

The feast was grand.

They danced and sang.

All were merry.

And I only wish that you and I had been of the party.

Thank you for joining Freya's fairy tales.

Be sure to come back next week for a special episode where one of my readers interviewed me for my journey to holding my own fairy tale in my hands and to hear one of my favorite fairy tales.