Today is part one of two where we are talking to Morrigan Gaines about her novels. Over the next 2 weeks you will hear about dictating your first stories to your mom, getting support from your husband, who helped to encourage her to publish her first book, rearranging your books when your characters talk too much, ignoring bad advice, using reviews to help improve your story, and learning how to promote on social media.

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Morrigan Gaines lives in the woods of Maine with her high school sweetheart. After pursuing her passions for wildlife sciences and nature education in college, she returned to her first love of creating fantasy worlds. When she’s not writing books or homeschooling her four kids, she can be found reading, hiking, playing video games, or chasing new hobbies.

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

We have included all of the links for today's author and our show in the show notes.

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

Today is part one of Two, where you're talking to Morgan Gaines about her novels.

Over the next two weeks, you will hear about dictating your first stories to your mom, getting support from your husband who helped to encourage her to publish her first book, rearranging your books when your characters talk too much, ignoring bad advice, using reviews to help improve your story, and learning how to promote on social media.

Echoes of Bellock memory is a gift.

It's also a curse.

When Cyrus Arbitram refuses to marry the crown princess of Osmaria, his father disowns him.

He's cast out into the world plagued by loneliness and memories of his troubled childhood.

He's becoming the man he never intended to be, finding solace in drugs and alcohol.

His life is spiraling out of control.

It's only a matter of time before he gets caught up in another dangerous situation, one that may cost him everything.

Tessa, a fiery woman with a passion for flowers, lights the spark of hope for a better future.

In his heart, she holds tight to her own secrets as she cares for her ailing father, secrets that may threaten their budding relationship.

Cyrus grasps his second chance, determined to move beyond the memories that haunt his nightmares.

His chance at happiness is within reach, but a darkness is rising that desires the power Cyrus doesn't know he possesses.

Will he survive to shine brightly?

Or will the darkness destroy him?

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

Fairy tales are something that we either watched or read or listened to when we were kids.

And it's also the journey for you to spend weeks, months, years working on your novel.

To hold that in your hands is a fairy tale for you.

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

So this is a hard question because I have a lot of different fairy tales.

I remember reading as a kid, but I think some of the ones that I just kept going back to would be I had this book of Greek myths, okay, that I read, like, so many times as a kid, to the point where, as an adult, I actually went and tracked down that exact book to buy for my own kids.

I did that.

And then The Chronicles of Narnia was also one that I'm not sure if qualifies the fairy tale, but I read that series so many times as a child.

So at what age did you kind of start writing?

Whether that was stories or poems or whatever it was you started with.

So I think my mother talks about back when Reading Rainbow was still on air, I don't think it is anymore that they had like this writing contest and my mother talks about how I couldn't really spell or write things yet, but I dictated like a whole story to her descend.

Okay?

So even back then I probably was like five or six.

Even back then I was already coming up with stories in my mind.

But I've been writing stories as long as I can remember.

I have some stuff from old stories I started about different worlds I written about.

I even had at one point, like a Narnia fan fiction I was writing even before I knew what fan fiction was, okay?

I was like writing a whole nother Narnia book that I wanted add on to the series.

Okay?

So I pretty much been like my entire life, even at 1.1 of my goals when I was younger was to be an author.

But my parents are also very down to earth, so at that point they're like, you may want to think of like a secondary job option because it's really hard to make it as an author.

And this is before indie publishing and being self published was really a big thing.

Well, even, I mean, to be honest, most indie author or authors in general have a day job and they write they're writing you when they get home or what?

I don't know that I've ever heard a story of a writer that graduates high school and full time author immediately.

Maybe Sarah J maass.

What is she doing?

Because I know she started writing the throne of glass in school.

I've read The Throne of Glass and actually what it got me out of her reading slump.

So I appreciate it for that.

But I actually haven't finished the rest of her series.

They're on my TBR.

But I found some other indie authors I wanted to read before I got to her stuff again, so I've myself be distracted.

I got the Throne of Glass series for like ninety nine cents on Black Friday one year, like three years ago.

And I haven't started it, but I did read the first three AKATAR books, and then found out like, the big battle happens in book three.

And I'm like, why would I read book four if the thing we've been working towards happened in three?

So I'm like, I need to just read it because I do like her writing style.

Same.

I also have not finished.

There's other Shinier books that just distract me.

Yeah, I'm at the point where my husband's like, do you really need to buy more books?

Because he doesn't know this, but I have almost 300 books that I own that I have not read.

Oh, I am scared to count how many, because my husband's also a big reader, and so his big thing was, like, the Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson and those authors, and I haven't had gotten a chance to read those yet.

I want to, but they're much heftier books, and as a mom and a writer, it feels like a lot of my brain power goes into reading something that big.

I need lighter stuff right now.

I just finished prepping a narration book, and it was so good that I was like, now I'm having a book hangover, and I need something.

Not that the book wasn't like, light and fun.

It was like magic and stuff like that, but it was just so good that I'm like, I need something, like, light after that to, like do I ever call it?

Yeah, I'm like, I just need something light.

So, like, the first couple of books on my things were all, like, BDSM type books.

I'm like, that is not light.

No, towards the opposite side.

So you started writing when you were young.

You were writing fanfiction, apparently.

When did you start writing your first full length novel?

Did you finish that first one and did you publish that one?

So I had a lot of book ideas throughout high school.

Even I did a bunch of writing courses.

I had great English teachers that were very encouraging.

But after high school, I went into college and I just experienced, like, severe writer's block and even a reading slump.

And I mean, like, six to seven years where I was struggling to read anything except for textbooks.

I was in the middle of writing college papers, and every time I sat down to try to write creatively creatively.

There we go, creatively, I just couldn't do it.

I was so frustrated.

So it wasn't until 2021 that I started writing again.

After high school, I started looking back at what I'd written and trying to decide if there was anything that was salvageable, because, of course, I'd matured, I'd become a mom, I'd become a parent, adulting, and everything gone through college.

So a lot of what I'd written in high school was a lot different from what I write now.

Right, so when did you start writing the first full length?

So the one I have, the books I published this past couple of years, I started writing those in 2021.

It was July of 2021, and my youngest son, one of my middle children, so I have four.

We had just gotten a Lyme disease diagnosis for him.

Okay.

And I just remember being really stressed that night, and I sat down just trying to find something I could just escape into because I was really worried about him.

And we had all this medication we had to do and all the stuff we had to do for him.

And luckily he's fine now.

He fully recovered.

No long term damage with that.

And I started going through some old high school stories I had started but never really finished.

And I had one where the main character's name was Elizabeth, and it was set in like a magic school, sort of Harry Potterish.

And I looked at it and I was like, I sort of want to write this character, but I don't want to write this story.

So I changed the name to Elsbeth and I started just writing.

And the words started flowing again.

And there was a moment where I stopped and I was getting frustrated because I realized that I was writing a character that I had written so many times, sort of that young woman who's trying to break free from her family, a coming of age, and for some reason, that just really annoyed me that night.

And so I looked at it and I said, okay, I'm going to do a dual perspective.

I started writing about this man, Cyrus, and started writing his side of the story, okay?

And then it just sort of evolved into this full blown story about the two of them and their own past and their own traumas they're trying to overcome.

And that is what became a treachery of ravens.

So at first it was just, I'm going to write this and go write this.

And I actually had two friends who are also writing at the time, and one of which had just self published her first romance novel, Tiffany Costa, and she had published See You Monday.

And seeing her process in seeing that self publication wasn't such a far stretch anymore, it was possible.

Got me discussing with my husband if I actually finish this novel and if I feel like it's actually something people want to read.

It's something that we can clean up and everything is it something that I want to actually attempt publishing.

And so I decided to take a chance on it.

It also took a lot of encouragement from my writing friends, EA Buckingham Young and Tiffany Costa, who are both romance authors, and my own husband, to say, yes, go and do this.

Just do it.

Even up through even the book was done, as in final edits.

I was like, I don't know if I should do this.

Is it going to be good enough?

Are people going to want to read it?

And my husband's like, Just do it.

Just put it out there.

You don't have anything to lose.

We're not pouring thousands into this right now.

Right?

Put it out there and see if you can do it.

So with the first one, did you have it edited?

Did your friends edit it for you?

How did you go about finalizing it to go?

A lot of self editing, a lot of going over it again.

I also had some beta readers that were really great that went through it for me.

I had my own friends who'd go through it.

My husband, Alpha read it for me initially and gave feedback on the developmental stuff.

So a lot of support from the mostly book talk community.

Honestly, I joined TikTok about the same time that I started writing again, and the community on there is amazing.

I've reached out to them many times being like, hey, I have this going on, or I'm trying to figure out this, and they're always ready to help.

It's just really amazing support.

I haven't really found that on any other social media sites.

I haven't found that little section of those sites that have that sort of support on them.

So a lot of it has been self editing.

I actually did for A Treachery of Ravens, I did my own covers because I have some trading in photo editing.

Okay.

So I figured out how to do my own covers, figure out how to do all the right placement of everything.

I wrote my own blurb, and I had feedback on that from different authors that are helping me out on that as well.

So a lot of it I've done myself because we are a low income family, so we don't have a lot of extra money to put into some of the aspects I'd love to put money into right now, but I'm hoping at some point I could outsource a lot of that.

And for the second book, which later on became the first book in the series, Echoes of Bellock, I did actually outsource the COVID because I couldn't, with my skills, find the right cover set up that I wanted.

So I did outsource that cover and found someone that could do it within my price range and did a really nice job on it.

Okay, and so how long did it take you to write the first book when you got started versus the second one?

So the first book, I started writing in July of 2021, and I published it in March of 2022.

Okay.

So that would be about eight months, I think, total.

And Echoes of Bellic, I started writing in April of last year, 2022.

And that published in October.

And that one's shorter, though.

Okay.

That one's significantly shorter.

Treachery of Ravens, about 110,000 words, the first edition.

And then Echozabellic is only, I think, 65,000, I want to say.

Okay, quite a bit shorter.

And that one is only single perspective.

So a lot of it was a little easier to sort of write and.

Edit and figure out.

So you got those done, you, I'm guessing, leaned on your friends to help walk you through this, like, getting it actually published?

Part of it, yeah.

Between booktalk and my friends who had already gone through some of the process, that's pretty much where I got my information.

I did some research, of course, on Google, and I couldn't answer something, but basically going through the whole steps of Amazon and Kindle Unlimited and all that fun stuff.

So you got them out.

So you published book Two first and then book One.

Yes.

So what happened with that is I published what was supposed to be book one, and I started writing a prequel novella is what Echozabella was supposed to be.

Okay?

But the story didn't want to be told in under 20,000, 30,000 words.

Okay.

So it ended up becoming a much longer actual prequel.

And then, like a couple of weeks before publication, I had an Alpha, an Arc reader reading it.

Not alpha reader, but arc reader.

I had an Arc reader reading it, and she mentioned, hey, you can change the order of your series on Amazon.

They let you change the order of your books because apparently she had tried to read the second book before, and she just had not liked one of the characters and couldn't work with it.

So she had stopped reading it.

She had DNF.

D***.

If I had read this book before that one, I would have kept reading reading the second one because now I understand why this character is the way they are.

And so she suggested making it the first book in the series.

And I had actually been thinking about that, but I didn't realize it was possible to rearrange them.

Okay.

I wouldn't have thought that was possible either.

But, yeah, you can I looked at everything.

I was like, Well, I don't have a huge readership yet, so this would be the time to sort of do that.

Right.

I was like, okay, I'm going to do this, because it helps the whole series as a whole.

It helps tell the whole story better if people know they really should read this book first.

Right.

And then I went back and did look at the first book I published, A Treachery of Ravens.

And right now, I'm actually doing some rewrites on that.

Okay.

Because I decided that even though the story, I still am proud I published it.

I'm still happy I did it because it motivated me to actually continue working on writing and publishing.

But I don't think that that book can carry readers to the third book as well as it should.

Okay.

So I'm actually in the process of doing a second edition of that book, rewriting it, making some edits, developing some of the characters a little better so that the story that is being told is more clear to the reader and actually carries you through the series.

That makes sense.

So you were on book talk while you're writing your book, what did you kind of do to talk about the first book that you put out?

Like, how did you get people to read it?

I did a lot of different videos.

Some of them were just like the voiceover things, and I just put, like, a little thing at the top.

And TikTok, it's both good and bad because it really is no set pattern on how to get people to see your stuff, I don't think.

Right.

It changed.

I know that too much.

Yeah, there's an algorithm.

But some weeks my things would get great reviews and people would be commenting.

Other times not.

But I think that a lot of it that got more of the personal relationships that led to the arc readers and the beta readers was just actually just talking to people about my process and saying, here's what my book is about, and here are the characters.

And it's always fun to do, like the little fun videos as well.

But those don't always give you the connection you need to be part of the community.

And another one I did, though, that did get a lot of reactions, was just me being outlandish.

One evening, I grabbed my tripod, I went outside and I just had my little practice sword, and I ran up like, hey, adventurer, I have a quest for you.

I need beta readers to go read this book and did this whole I think I saw that one, this whole skit.

And I did another one later on where I needed arc readers for my second book.

And that got a lot of positive feedback.

People loved it.

They loved that I was just being sort of outlandish in myself.

And that's really hard for me sometimes on video because I'm not as used to interacting on video.

So it was a big learning curve for me on TikTok because I had the public speaking experience.

But seeing myself on video and being able to rewatch it before you post it was not good for me.

Wait, we're supposed to rewatch it?

Because I never do that.

I wouldn't recommend rewatching because then I go back and delete it and redo it.

I record it, and then I add my narrator logo in the corner.

That's like, all I ever do.

I honestly need to start doing that because I start being too self critical.

But I see on the screen and.

There'S like, oh, I can get this in in 15 seconds.

And then it's like, okay, no, then I have to delete it and start over and read it.

Or I'm like, oh, I'm going to talk about this today.

And I'll start and I'm like, Why did you word it that way?

That was so stupid.

And then I'll delete it just because it's like that made it be like, too much ranting instead of actually being what it's supposed to be.

I have a hard time keeping it short and sweet.

It's not my strong point.

So a lot of times I set it to, like, the three minute option and I just record and then hopefully it's short enough.

Who knows?

So you have these two books out.

You are talking about them on TikTok.

I have to ask, any plans for audiobooks in the future?

I've looked at some of the audiobook options and I'd love to make that accessible because my son, who has Dyslexia, relies very heavily on audiobooks.

And I know that's a great way to get the book out to people who either can't perhaps read it for whatever reason or it's great.

Like, I listen to audiobooks, I'm cleaning and stuff.

It opens it up to so many more people.

I don't have any plans right now because, again, it would be looking at sort of the investment and different options of how to do that.

But I'd love to do it someday.

I'm like, I have to ask because.

That'S what I mean.

I don't actually remember how you found me to get on the podcast, but.

There'S a lot of other authors I know that I've follow and we interact and stuff that have been on the podcast.

I've been sort of following you for a while.

I'm like, okay, this is pretty legit.

This seems pretty cool.

I should do this.

I should take the leap of faith and just try it out.

I'm like, from day one, I'm like, I don't know what I'm doing.

I try not to make this seem like I mean, I ask the same questions because I'm talking to authors all the time.

There's going to be the same, like, when did you start writing?

What is your book about?

Essentially?

How long did it take you to write that book?

What did you do after you finished writing it?

All of those are going to be the same no matter what author I'm talking to.

But then I'm like, the rest of.

It, I'm like, just talk.

I'm going to talk sometimes because it's weird for it to be my podcast and me never to talk on it.

Plus, some authors are just not as wordy, so you have to fill in the fill in the gap.

This is really weird.

Both of you guys today are great, though, and both of you have been getting words in just fine.

So we're good.

So what have you found has worked like the best for you?

I think you kind of said just being honest, being yourself, talking about the process has worked better promotion wise.

Yeah.

And sort of I also try my best to sign up for other office arcs and sign up for beta rating other authors and then promoting their work because I found that, number one, it sort of keeps me in the radar, honestly.

If they know that I'm willing to support them, then often they're willing to support me.

And also it helps start forming those relationships as well.

So if I read another fancy author's work and then I start chatting them about it, then I can feel more comfortable reaching out and saying, hey, how do you feel about this?

Or I'm having this issue.

So it helps me form those relationships online that maybe wouldn't organically grow without a little input, a little extra work.

And also I found so many great indie authors on there.

It's so much fun to be able to see them from when they start out and watch them grow alongside me and stuff and watch all the cool stuff they're putting out as well.

So you said you're working on the rewrites for we're just going to call it book two because it is book two in the series.

Book two.

Do you already have book three done or are you still working on that?

Or you just know what's happening, so you know how to rework book two.

I know what's happening at book three, which usually doesn't happen to me.

I have book three pretty much plotted out.

Okay.

The first two books were sort of I'm more of a panster, so I'll have some plotting done, but a lot of it's just fill in the blanks.

Mine is quite literally my book is quite literally bullet points of the names of the chapters.

And this is the one line of plot point that has to happen somewhere in this chapter that is my plot.

This is a vibe.

Usually how mine.

Is, meet the male main character in this chapter.

She needs to be doing this in this chapter somewhere.

Beginning, end, middle, I don't know, but somewhere in this chapter this has to happen.

I write a lot of character driven fantasy, so I have a hard time trying to make sure that the readers understand that, even though this way I describe my writing is that I write about the little things in life that you don't really think about until you look back and you realize they actually had a big effect on you.

Because in my life, I look back, I see all these little moments that didn't seem very important at the time but had rippling effects.

So I write I guess it's what it is called is character driven fantasy where I focus a lot on the characters experiences and then there's still that overarching plot, but you may not get as much of the huge battle points and plot points right away in the series, which works for some readers and doesn't work for others, which I totally understand.

So it's a little bit different than I think sort of the traditional fantasy that a lot of people are used to because of that.

Or it's like go, go the whole time.

Yeah, it's like go, go the whole time.

And a lot of my books will have like little moments where they're interacting with a villager or something, but through that interaction, you learn more about them and their reactions to things and their view of the world.

But yes, book three I actually do have plotted, so I know what direction to rework book two, to actually make it mesh in.

Well, the series again, so it doesn't feel like it's.

So outside of everything that's going on.

And then book four is the one where I don't have as much planned.

I know generally what's supposed to happen there, but I haven't actually plotted it out yet.

I also have like, the first I think it's first three chapters of book three actually written.

Okay.

So I know where it's supposed to start.

At least I have an author that I narrate for.

And she has like the last chapter of the whole series written.

But she hasn't written books three or the rest of book four yet.

She's just like, I wrote the last chapter, so that one's done.

I know where it's ending.

I just have to get there.

With a Treachery of Ravens, the second book in this series, I actually had the end of it written.

I was about halfway through and I was like, I have the ending in my head.

I'm just going to write it right now.

And so I just wrote the ending first and then just worked everything into that because it was just like stuck in there and it wouldn't leave my head.

That's how my husband's been writing.

He's like, oh, this scene will pop into my head.

So then he'll be like working.

So he has like a bunch of where it'll say chapter, question mark, question mark.

Because he's not sure where when in the story he's going to get to it.

He just knows that that's going to be in the book.

And so now he's like, well, dang it, now I have to connect all the dots because I've written all these.

And now they have to all fit together somehow.

Like, yeah, I like writing in straight lines so I don't have to do that.

It's always amazing to me how all these books that we have out here, every author has a different process, like a different way it works for them.

And sometimes that process changes as they evolve as an author from book to book.

Sometimes you may go back to it like, oh, this book really has to be or based on I mean, it could be based on the genre too.

When I write a fantasy, I write this way versus when I write a romance, I write whatever.

Yeah, mine.

Like I said, my plot is very basics, like introducing female main character and then it's Christmas based, so then we're decorating the house.

Then she has to meet the male main character.

Then she has to like stuff has to start happening for the controversy in the books.

It's like these different things.

But I'm like, what's going to get me there?

I don't know, but I'm.

Like, seeing it out in my head of like, some of the stuff, but I'm like, I'm not going to skip ahead and write that.

I need to naturally get there.

Discovery writing is I think I heard what one person called it.

Yeah, less though I think discovery writing is more panther because typically there's no plan.

Okay.

You're discovering it as you go.

So more pants are like, all right, so you're working on book two, book three, at the same time you have a book four coming out.

Any other plans for any other series or anything going on?

I know authors can't stay in one place.

I know there's something else.

I usually do pretty good staying on track of what I'm supposed to be working on.

I do have these beginnings of a cozy fantasy that's set in the same world, but it's set back when.

So in the world of Osmaria and Namarn and Strilltgarb, which are the three nations in my book, the current series takes place as magic is sort of returning to that world slowly.

So people think magic serve in stories and myths.

They haven't seen it for hundreds of years, and people are starting to regain these magical powers and no one's really sure what's happening.

So it's also a fantasy book, but it's a slow build up of magic in the book series.

The cozy fantasy book I have partially written, like, the first chapter is set in the past of this world, so back when magic was very common.

Okay.

So that one would have a lot more magic.

But I wanted to sort of dive into, especially since the Chronicles of Osmarius series deals with a lot of different trauma and a lot of difficult topics.

I wanted to sort of have a cozier book on the side that I could market and write and people could read.

That wasn't so harsh.

So I do have that.

And that one's about an elderly healer who is a widow and she's lived in the same town her entire life, and she decides to pass on the mantle of healer to her apprentice and just go out and see the world with her horse and her cat.

And so that is like the premise of that book and I'm really excited about it.

I'm trying still to decide if I should jump on the Kindle Vella wagon and try to do it as a little series before I put it together as a book or if I should just publish it as a book like I've been doing.

Yeah, I think I've seen too many TikToks about people stealing Velas and they're not copyrighted yet because it's just like the chapters or whatever.

I'm like, I might do Vella, but I'm like, I'll wait until the entire book is done and copyrighted and then do it so that I have that protection in place.

Yeah, I need to look into it.

Because go after someone.

It's risky.

I mean, even if Kindle Unlimited, I haven't seen Echoes of Bellock Anywhere Pirated yet, but a Treachery of Ravens within the first couple of weeks was already on piracy sites.

And I know it wasn't my Arc readers.

I know it wasn't my Beta readers because I went and actually checked it and made sure they actually had an actual file.

It was probably, I'm guessing, from kindle unlimited.

But who knows?

I have this is definitely not fact checked, but I secretly think in the back of my head that Amazon's handing over all of these files just so that they can keep all the income from these authors that they ban.

How like, messed up would that be?

But I'm secretly like, but is that what's happening?

That'd be a good book.

Oh, there you go.

Yeah.

It's hard because I understand why some authors don't go with Amazon and with Echozabellic, I tried going wide and having it available across different ebook retailers.

And it's hard as an indie author to get people to take a chance on buying a book.

So Kindle Unlimited gives people sort of that they've already paid the monthly fee and it gives them that chance to take out a book.

And I use Kindle Unlimited, too, my husband does, for reading tons of different books to take a chance on those authors.

And it's a hard decision for authors to make.

Yeah, that's where I think the giving away free chapters in the newsletter comes into play.

Or for me, I'm considering, because for Vella, you don't have to be exclusive.

So you could have the release of the Vela chapters and then also have it serialized on your own website, where you would get to keep all of the money from that one other than the transaction fees or whatever.

So, like, hey, you can pay Amazon.

But they get some of the cut.

Or you can come straight to me and I get the whole cut.

Yeah, giving people also that option.

Yeah.

So I feel like Vela is like, a good option, too, but I do know that they have to pay for it.

But it's like less than a whole book.

I think it's like per 100 words or something.

They buy these tokens.

I don't know.

I kind of researched into it and was like, I may not do that.

I don't know.

I'm still toying with the idea.

And it really depends on sort of how this rewrite goes and then how I feel about getting that cozy's fantasy done and getting it up.

And also toying with route, doing an insane amount of Arcs, get it in as many people's hands as possible up front, see what happens.

That's a valid I've been trying to do that.

And again, it's hard because with Arc readers, there's a certain percentage that you will not get the feedback and you will never hear from them again.

Right.

Because they just didn't have the time to read the book or they didn't like the book.

Who knows?

So it's always like, I'm pretty much of open Arcs and open beta readers.

My beta readers, I'm a little more picky because I definitely want them to give me feedback.

But my Arc readers, I'm like, if you want the book and you give me your email, I will email you a copy of the book.

And I have what I call sort of open rolling forms for Arc readers where you can go to my link tree and do my Google form anytime and just say, yes, I'm interested in Arc reading for you.

And then I'll email everyone when I happen to have an Arc available and say, hey, this book is coming out.

Here's a rundown of it.

If you're interested, let me know.

And even with that, it sometimes is still hard to get Arc readers I.

Found for myself, at least that's where it's good.

Like the newsletter where they'll do giveaways and stuff in the newsletters is also a good way to I feel like there's a lot of options out there.

It's just like the brainstorming to figure out what works.

But I feel like there are a lot of good, wide options besides just having to go to Ku where you could get it into people's hands for free and whatever.

I came across one guy who has a pay what you can model for his book right now, where it's like, pretty cool on his website.

And I would assume he has, like a donation, like a buy me a coffee or something on there for the however you send him the money for it.

But I was like, that's very of course he's getting flak from a bunch of authors for doing it that way.

He's making his book available to people that want to read it.

He's like, I don't want you he's like, I don't want you to get it on a pirate side.

I want you to get it directly from me if people are going to get it free no matter what.

I feel like as I build up my sort of back catalog, it's going to be easier to do that where I'll be able to say, yeah, this is the first book in the series.

Go ahead and read it for free.

And then if you're interested, here's the rest of them.

So I'm trying to be patient.

I think a lot of being an author is just being patient and keeping at it.

Gosh, why can't I write faster?

Morrigan liked Greek mythology growing up a major branch of classical mythology, greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks and a genre of ancient Greek folklore.

These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities of deities, heroes, and mythological creatures, and the origins and significance of the ancient Greek's cult and ritual practices.

Modern scholars study the myths to shed light on the religious and political institutions of ancient Greece and to better understand the nature of mythmaking itself.

The Greek myths were initially propagated in an oral poetic tradition, most likely by Minoan and Mycenian singers, starting in the 18th century BC.

Eventually, the myths of the heroes of the Trojan War and its aftermath became part of the oral tradition of Homer's epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Two poems by Homer's near contemporary Hessiad, the Theogeny and the Works and Days contain accounts of the genesis of the world, the succession of divine rulers, the succession of human ages, the origin of human woes, and the origin of sacrificial practices.

Myths are also preserved in the Homeric hymns, in fragments of epic poems of the epic cycle, in lyric poems, in the works of the Tragedeans and comedians of the fifth century BC.

In writings of scholars and poets of the Hellenistic Age, and in texts from the time of the Roman Empire by writers such as Plutarch Imposseneus.

Aside from this narrative deposited in ancient Greek literature, pictorial representations of gods, heroes, and mythic episodes featured prominently in ancient vase, paintings and the decoration of Votive, gifts and many other artifacts.

Geometric designs on pottery of the 8th century BC.

Depict scenes from the epic cycle as well as the adventures of Heracles.

In the succeeding archaic, classical and Hellenistic periods, homeric and various other mythological scenes appear, supplementing the existing literary evidence.

Greek mythology has had an extensive influence on the culture, arts, and literature of Western civilization and remains part of Western heritage and language.

Poets and artists from ancient times to the present have derived inspiration from Greek mythology and have discovered contemporary significance and relevance in the themes.

Today we'll be reading the story of Eros and Psyche.

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

You can find the link in the show notes.

I would like to apologize in advance for any mispronunciations of the Greek mythology names the legendary beauty of Psyche once upon a time there was a king who had three wonderful daughters.

The youngest, Psyche, was much more beautiful than her two sisters and looked like a goddess among mere mortals.

The fame of its beauty had been spread throughout the whole kingdom, and men kept coming to her palace to admire and worship her.

When people would see her, they used to say that not even Aphrodite herself could compete Psyche.

The more people were getting to know Psyche, the less would remember the goddess of love and beauty.

The temples of Aphrodite were abandoned, her altars covered with cold ashes, and the sculptors would no more make statues for her.

All the honors reserved to her were then attributed to a simple mortal girl.

The goddess could not accept such a situation and required help from his son arrows.

He told him in distress, use your power and make this little shameless girl to fall in love with the vilest and most despicable creature has ever walked on Earth.

Arrows agreed to do so, but the moment he saw her, he himself felt his heart pierced by one of his own arrows.

He couldn't make that charming maiden fall in love with a horrible creature, but also decided not to tell his mother horrible prophecy.

Psyche, however, was feeling bad, because not only could she not fall in love with someone, but even more surprising, nobody seemed to really fall in love with her.

Men were happy just to admire her.

Then they passed by and married another girl.

Her two sisters, though definitely less seductive, had held two lavish weddings, each with a king.

Psyche was the most beautiful girl on Earth, but she was sad and lonely, always admired, but never really loved.

It seemed that no man would want her as his wife, and this caused great anxiety and distress to her parents.

That is when her father went to visit the oracle of Delphi to ask Apollo for his advice on what to do to find a husband for Psyche.

The prophecy of the god was terrible.

Apollo decreed that Psyche, dressed in black dress, should be brought to the summit of a mountain and stay there alone.

The husband that was assigned to her, a winged serpent, terrible and more powerful than the gods themselves, would come up and take her for his wife.

No one can imagine the despair of the family and friends of Psyche.

She was prepared for the hill as if she were to face her death, and with more cries than if they were to drive her to the tomb.

They led the young lady to the hill.

Desperately they all departed, leaving Psyche to her fate, radiant and helpless, and they locked themselves in the palace to mourn her for the rest of their days, the beginning of a fairy tale.

On the hill and in the dark, Psyche remained seated and waited.

While she was shaking and crying in the quiet night, a slight breeze reached her.

It was the fresh wind of Zephyr, the mildest of the winds.

He felt that she was being raised, she was being taken into the air over the rocky hill to a soft meadow full of flowers.

He did his best to make her forget her pain and put her to sleep.

She then woke up by the sound of a clear stream, and when she opened her eyes, she faced an imposing and magnificent castle.

It seemed destined to a god, with gold columns, silver walls and floors of inlaid precious stones.

Absolute silence rolled.

It seemed uninhabited, and Psyche approached cautiously to admire its splendors.

She remained suspicious at the threshold where she heard a noise, but could not see anyone.

However, she could clearly hear the words the house is for you.

Come in and do not be afraid.

Take a bath, and we will immediately honor you with a great dinner.

Never had she taken such a refreshing bath, nor tasted such delicious dishes.

While eating, she heard a soft music around her, like a harp accompanying a numerous choir.

She heard it, but she could not see it.

The whole day she was alone, only accompanied by the voices.

But somehow she knew her husband would come at night.

And so it was when she felt he was close to her and heard his voice whispering sweetly in her ear.

Her fears disappeared.

Without even seeing him, she was certain that he was not a monster, but the loving husband she had always been wishing for.

The doubt in her heart.

The following days passed in full joy, and Psyche could not remember any happier time of her life.

However, day after day she was feeling sadness that she could not see her husband.

Moreover, she was left alone all day, and boredom filled her heart.

Suddenly, she started missing her family.

They must have been mourning for her, and she was alive and happy.

This was not fair, and she didn't want her family to suffer.

That night, she asked her mysterious husband to grant her a favor.

She wanted her sisters to come up at the palace and make sure that she was fine.

That would be a comfort for her old parents.

At first her husband refused, but when Psyche turned out so sad, he told her, okay, I will allow your sisters to come up here, but I'm warning you, do not let them influence you.

If they do, you will destroy our relationship and suffer a lot.

Next day, her two sisters, carried by the wind, they came up to Psyche.

They were all happy to see each other and cried in happiness.

However, when they entered the palace, the two older sisters were amazed by all those magnificent treasures.

During dinner, they heard a wonderful music and drank the most delicious of wines.

Envy was flourishing in their heart and an irresistible curiosity to know the owner of such magnificence.

The husband of psyche.

They kept asking the poor girl questions on her husband, his look and his occupation.

Psyche just said that he was a young hunter, but they didn't believe her.

Of course.

Could a simple hunter be so rich?

He must be a prince, or even a god, they thought.

The two sisters knew that compared to Psyche, their own wealth and happiness were nothing at all.

And in total jealousy, they made a plan to hurt their sister.

When they were saying goodbye, the two evil women told Psyche that her husband must be the awful snake that the Oracle of Delphi had told her husband.

That is why he doesn't allow you to see him.

Because he knows that if you see him, you will feel disgust in his sight and leave him forever.

Oh, poor Psyche.

How can you sleep with such a horrible creature?

The Betrayal from that day on, Psyche could think of nothing else but these words.

Her sisters must be right.

Why doesn't he come to me in the day?

Why doesn't he allow me to see him?

What is his secret?

Why hasn't he ever told me about his life?

His thoughts were puzzling Psyche for many days long.

He must be hiding something horrible, and that is why he does not want to be seen in the daylight.

I must find out.

Tonight, when he falls to deep sleep, I will light a candle to see him.

If he is a snake, I will kill him.

Otherwise, I will turn the candle off and go happily to sleep.

He had taken her decision, forgetting all about her husband's warning instead.

That night, when her husband fell asleep peacefully, she took courage and lit the candle.

Walking on her toes, she approached the bed and she felt a deep relief.

The light did not show a monster, but the most beautiful of men.

Ashamed by her madness and her little confidence, psyche fell down on her knees and thanked Gods for this happiness.

But while she was leaning on him, a drop of oil fell from the candle on the back of that handsome young man.

He woke up in pain and saw the light.

He looked at her eyes and, facing Psyche's distrust, he left their bedroom without uttering a single word.

Psyche immediately ran after her husband.

It was dark and she could not see him, but could hear his heartbroken voice.

Love cannot live without trust.

Those were his last words before flying to the dark sky.

The god of love.

She thought.

He was my husband and I did not trust him.

She cried and cried for days, and then she decided to do anything to gain him back.

She would look everywhere for him, and she would prove her love.

Three dangerous tasks to prove her love.

Without knowing what else to do, she went to the temple of Aphrodite and prayed to the goddess.

She asked Aphrodite to speak to her son and persuade him to get Psyche back.

Aphrodite had not, of course, overcome her jealousy for Psyche and still wanted her revenge.

She told the young girl that she needed to be completely sure that Psyche was the appropriate wife for her son.

Therefore, Psyche should accomplish three tasks to prove her skills.

If she failed in even one of these tasks, arrows would be lost forever.

Psyche agreed, and Aphrodite led her on a hill.

There, the goddess showed her a dune of different small seeds of wheat, poppies, millets, and many others.

I want you to separate these seeds by this afternoon.

If you do not, I will never let you see arrows again, said Aphrodite, and left.

How could she do that?

How could she separate all these tiny seeds?

This was a cruel task that filled her eyes with tears.

That moment, a group of ants were passing by and saw her in despair.

Come feel mercy for this poor girl and let us help her, they said to each other.

They all responded to this appeal and worked hard separating the seeds, something in which they were experts.

From the big original dune, they formed several smaller dunes, each with one kind of seed.

These smaller dunes saw Aphrodite and became angry.

You have not finished your work, she said, and ordered Psyche to sleep on the ground without giving her any food while she leaned in her soft bed.

She thought that if she could compel Psyche to hard work for a long time, her beauty would not resist.

Meanwhile, Aphrodite would not let her son to leave his room where he was all that time, mourning for Psyche's betrayal.

Next morning, Aphrodite came up with a new job for Psyche, a dangerous task.

Can you see those black waters descending from the hill?

That is Rever esteege awful and abhorrent.

Fill this bottle with its water, the goddess said.

On reaching the waterfall, Psyche realized that the surrounding rocks were slippery and steep.

The waters rushed through such abrupt rocks that only a winged creature could approach, and indeed, an eagle helped her.

It was flying with its huge wings above the river.

When it saw Psyche and felt sympathy for her, it seized the bottle from her hands with its beak, filled it with some black water, and gave it back to Psyche.

Aphrodite accepted her with a cold smile.

Someone helped you, she said sharply.

Otherwise you would not have been able to perform this task by your own.

I'm going to give you another chance to prove that you are as determined as you claim to be.

She gave a box to Psyche.

She had to take it to the underworld and ask Persephone, Queen of the.

Dead, to drain a little of her.

Beauty into the box.

Obedient as usual, Psyche took the path leading to Hades.

When she entered the gates and took the boat to the other bank where the dead people used to leave, she gave much money to Sharon, to the boatman to help her find her way in the dark to the palace of Persephone.

Indeed, the boatman helped her, and after a while she was right in front of Persephone.

When she asked her to drop a drain of her beauty in the box, persephone was glad to serve Aphrodite.

Psyche took the box and returned cheerful to the earth.

When she gave Aphrodite the box, the goddess got extremely angry.

She yelled at the poor girl that she would never let her go and she would always be her servant.

All it's well that ends well.

At this crucial moment, the gods who are watching this wrongdoing all this time, decided to take up action.

They sent Armes, the messenger god, to narrate arrows.

All the misfortunes that his wife was going through arrows was touched, and this healed the wound of betrayal.

He left his room and found Psyche exhausted in his mother's garden.

From that moment on, Eros and Psyche lived happily together in their lovely palace, which was always full of roses and other flowers.

Psyche persuaded arrows to forgive his mother for what she had made her suffer.

As a wedding gift, zeus made Psyche immortal and allowed her to taste Ambrosia, the drink of the gods.

Even Aphrodite was happy because now that Psyche was living in the sky with her husband, men on Earth had forgotten all about her and were again worshipping the true goddess of beauty.

Thank you for joining Freya's fairy tales.