Today is part one of two where we are talking to Golden Angel about her novels. Over the next 2 weeks you will hear about her incredible journey of writing 70 books in 10 years, how she got into the world of TikTok and her Author Tips for Authors, and her writing journey both indie and traditionally publishing her novels.

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Golden Angel is a USA Today best-selling author and self-described bibliophile with a "kinky" bent who loves to write stories for the characters in her head. If she didn't get them out, she's pretty sure she'd go just a little crazy.

She is happily married, old enough to know better but still too young to care, and a big fan of happily-ever-afters, strong heroes and heroines, and sizzling chemistry.

When she's not writing, she can often be found on the couch reading, in front of her sewing machine making a new cosplay, hanging out with her friends, or wandering the Maryland Renaissance Fair.

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Welcome to Freya's Fairy Tales, where we believe fairy tales are both stories we enjoyed as children and something that we can achieve ourselves.

Each week we will talk to authors about their favorite fairy tales when they were kids and their adventure to hold their very 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 audio book 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 The Golden Angel about her novels.

Over the next two weeks you will hear about her incredible journey of writing 70 books in ten years, how she got into the world of TikTok, and her author tips for authors and her writing journey both indie and traditionally publishing her novels.

A season for smugglers, deception and Discipline book Three Well, his daring debutante rescue reveals a traitor to the Crown, Lily Davies.

First and final, if she has anything to say about it, season in London is mercifully coming to an end.

Exhausted by the parade of balls importuning gentlemen and the endless dismissal of her suspicions about a certain captain, Lily wants nothing more than to return to her quiet life of country walks and intensive study.

Unfortunately for this blue stalking, she is besieged en route to Derbyshire and kidnapped by a highwayman in London to assist his brother, the brand new Earl of Talbot.

Captain Nathan Jones is on the Hunt for the traitor to the Crown.

But when it becomes clear that Miss Davy's life is very much in danger, Captain Jones is dispatched to ensure the reluctant debutante travels safely.

Escorting her safely home will also give him the perfect opportunity to question Miss Davies about the highly dubious gifts she's been receiving from the French.

As Captain Jones becomes the unlikely hero to a very uncooperative damsel in distress, he quickly learns that rescuing Miss Davies is only the beginning of his troubles.

One unfortunate compromise leaves this pair with no choice but to head for the altar.

And the unnecessary distraction just might ruin his opportunity to uncover the identity of the traitor once and for all.

Right, so the show is the podcast is Freyas Fairy Tales.

And so that's kind of in two ways.

So fairy tales, as far as I know, are something that most kids, either your parents read it to you or you read it or you watched a movie.

Knowing kids, most of the time you watch the movie over and over and over again.

And so the first thing I like to start off with is there a fairy tale that you remember from when you were a kid?

And did that change over time?

Do you have a new favorite now compared to then?

Well, my favorite fairy tale movie was always Sleeping Beauty, and that's still true.

There's just something a big part of it is Maleficent, but I also love the animation style.

I enjoyed the story.

Prince Philip is the hottest of all the Disney Princess and it still holds true.

I do remember when I finally read the original fairy tale for it.

I was fairly shocked and horrified, but then also kind of deeply interested.

So at the end of each episode of the show, I tried to read the original, but I had one author whose favorite was Beauty and the Beast.

Well, the original of that was way too long to have on a podcast episode, so I had to do the shortened nicer version of that one.

But on some of them, the originals were usually done for teaching some kind of a lesson or not really sure.

What the lesson behind Sleeping Beauty would be.

I don't know.

Maybe.

Well, the lesson behind Sleeping Beauty is include everybody, be inclusive.

Don't not invite the bad fairy just because you don't like her.

Right.

I imagine that started when you were a kid.

At what age did you kind of decide?

Because you have quite a lot of books you've written.

So at what age did you know that you wanted to write or think, hey, it might be cool to write?

Or when did that start?

I don't really remember a time not writing, I'll be honest.

I've even gone back.

My mom kept a bunch of my old school things and stuff, and it went back so much further than I realized when I got my school things from her, like stories and stuff that I wrote in elementary school.

What stood out to me, the time that I really remember was in middle school.

For a while, I did want to be a writer and I wanted to follow in the footsteps of, like, R.

L.

Stein and Christopher Pike.

And for my creative writing class, 8th grade, we had creative writing, and the teacher did a thing where every Friday everyone would vote on someone's story to be read.

And for the most part, everyone was writing like, little short stories and stuff like that.

And of course, me.

I'm like, wait, I can write whatever I want overachiever write a horror story.

I was obsessed with Christopher Pike, but I was like, I didn't really know how to build characters and stuff.

This was my first time ever trying anything like this.

And so I turned to my friend who was sitting next to me, and I said, I'm going to write this story.

I want to make it a horror story.

Can I put you in it and make you the heroine?

And she's like, okay, cool.

Yeah.

And I'm like, all right, so everyone else is going to die, but you'll live.

I promise.

Okay, cool.

And the kids around me all went, I want to be in it.

And I was like, kill everybody.

And they're like, yeah, can I choose who I'm going to die?

Sure.

And this was several years before Columbine, so I don't think it would fly now.

Right.

I wrote an entire chapter, like, multi chapter book for that class.

And every week until it was done, they voted for me to read from it because I killed off, like ten of my classmates in it, all volunteered and chose the manner of their own death.

And I remember my teacher holding me back after class.

I mean, I was such a goodie two shoes.

I'm just like little, not quite straight A, but like honorable student, quiet, very studious, never get into trouble, never had detention.

And she said, you're very good writer.

But are you okay?

No, I swear, I'm not even coming up with these decks.

They all volunteered.

This got way bigger than I thought it was going to be because they all want characters named after them who are going to die.

I wish I could find I'm sure the writing was awful, but I wish I could find it.

And the teacher does stand out to me because as disturbed as she was, she did encourage me to keep working.

She just wanted to make sure you were okay in your head.

Right.

And like I said, this was before a lot of issues that we now have in schools cropped up.

So it was not quite the big deal that it probably would be if a kid tried to do that today.

And then in high school, I would write essays and stuff, and I had teachers who would tell me that they really liked my writing style, which I didn't really understand that particular compliment until later in life.

Right.

I always had stories in my head.

The difference was when I finally started writing them down.

How long did it take you to write your first full length novel?

Well, I originally wrote for a website which was Lit Erotica.com.

It's a free erotica website, and I can't remember because I would just write, like, chapters.

You posted every chapter if you wrote it, or you'd write short stories.

And my first full length novel that was published was originally a story on that website.

It didn't take me long.

Maybe for some reason, it seems to take me longer to write than it used to.

Yeah.

I think I heard you say on TikTok, you try to put out like.

Four books a year, my main series books.

So I have two main series that I write in, and I try to put out two books in each of those a year.

And those are my longer books.

And then I also put out some shorter books in between, or I'm part of anthologies, things like that.

Last year I put out an extra well last year, and then in February of this year, I put out an extra three books, all of which were about 60,000 words long.

And that's shorter than my main series.

Books like, the one that I'm just finishing is going to be a little bit over 90,000 words.

So for me, 60,000 words is short, but I know a lot of authors who their Max is like 40,000 words.

Yeah.

I write long, so I probably could write a lot faster if I wrote shorter.

But.

Right.

Yeah, but my stories get complex.

They need the words.

I think for me, it's funny.

So like writing, I'm like, I think being a narrator, I think in terms of how many hours is this narration going to be?

My husband's writing a book, and he's like, but how many chapters in it is it?

And I'm like, well, that's irrelevant because some of the chapters are only like three pages long.

Right.

So then for him who also listens to a lot of audiobooks, I'm like, at this point, it would be about a three and a half hour audiobook.

He's like, okay, just the things prior to starting Narrating, I would have had no idea how many words fit into an hour of audio.

Yeah.

That is a fun way to measure.

It is like, how long would this take as an audio book?

And that's something valid to keep in mind for those of us doing audiobooks.

Yeah.

Do you have any idea how many books in total you've written?

I was trying to look on Amazon, but it doesn't tell me a number.

I did write this down somewhere.

Where's the notebook that I wrote it down because I never know the answer to this question.

So I finally started keeping track.

So under my current pen name under Golden Angel, I have about 60 books, and then as finished, I have another ten.

So about 70.

And you've written those in what amount of time?

Well, I started self publishing in 2012, so I'm actually celebrating my 10th year this year.

You have some that you have with publishers.

Do you have any reason why some of them go to publishers and some of them you self publish, or is it just you throw them all out there and what sticks?

Well, I mean, I originally was on the website, and the reason I started self publishing was because readers from the website asked me to.

They wanted it in a form they loved a certain story, they wanted it in a form that they could own.

And I said, well, back in 2012, self publishing was fairly new.

And I said, well, let me look into it.

Let me see how difficult this is.

It turned out that putting it up a book for sale was actually really easy.

That's the easy part is just putting it up for sale.

So I did.

And then it just kind of started to snowball.

And back in 2012, there was still a fair amount of stigma about being an indie author.

And so in my head, I always said that I wanted to be traditionally published as well.

I was enjoying doing indie, but I felt like I would feel more like a real author if I was traditionally published.

Right.

And I had sent in query letters not for my romance.

I had sent in query letters to agents for a vampire story that I had written that had no smut or anything in it.

And it got rejected by everybody now.

And eventually I'll finish that series.

But, yeah, I just kept being getting rejected by them.

And so I was like, well, let me just continue with this.

And then on that same website, Florida.com, I got a cold call, a cold email from an agent with Carol Man agency.

And she had read one of my stories, marriage Training, on the website.

And she said, I want to help you make this into a book.

I think it's a really great story.

And so I researched her, and I researched the Carol Man agency, and it turned out they were legit.

That's very important research and legitimacy, especially.

When you get the cold call.

Because I was like, I don't know how I feel about that.

At that point, I had what I didn't realize was already a fairly successful indie career.

And so I wrote her back, and I knew I was doing pretty well, but I still didn't consider myself a real author.

So my perception was fairly skewed.

Like, I've talked to a couple of authors at this point, and I have asked, at what point do you feel like you'll consider yourself a real author?

And they're like.

Yeah, and every milestone that I hit, like having an agent, having a publisher accept my work and put it out in a real book.

You know what I think I've seen pictures of my book in line of some of my traditionally published books in libraries and bookstores and stuff.

I've seen pictures, but I could be fooling myself, too.

I'm like, maybe if I see my book in the bookstore, like, in person or a library in person and I see my book, maybe then I'll feel like a real author.

But I thought that about getting an agent.

I thought that about having the traditionally published list.

I thought that about being a USA Today bestseller.

I was like, surely I will feel like a real author once I have been on the USA Today bestsellers list.

And no, I feel no different.

It's like when you're a kid and you're like, oh, when I hit 18, I'll feel like an adult.

And then you're like, okay, when I hit 21, I'll feel like an adult, and then that comes and you're like, I don't feel any different.

And you hit 30 and you're like, surely I must feel like an adult when I'm in my thirty s now.

The difference is I have to pay bills now, right?

Things have changed.

Clearly, I'm a full time author.

I still don't always feel like a real author.

You're like, Well, I make enough to pay the bills with it, but that's like audiobooks.

So I do narrating on the side.

It is not my full time thing.

My full time thing.

I have no intention of ever leaving.

So, like, I am like, I will fully just always be it's from home.

And like, I work while I'm on the clock doing narrating stuff too.

But I'm like, now I'm writing my own books and all this, and my sister, who's actually my boss, is like, please don't ever leave me.

And I'm like, I wrote her some silly text that was like, I promise not to even consider leaving you unless I make like $20,000 a month consistently or some crazy number that I'm like, Good luck with that.

Hey, don't knock it.

You do not know.

I would have never.

I actually wrote myself back in 2011.

I did this thing for my personal blog.

I hadn't published a single book yet, and I wrote a letter to myself to be opened in ten years.

And I opened it this past year because I found it because we were moving.

So I actually happened to find it and read it right around the time when I wanted myself too.

And literally everything that I put in that letter had come true.

I wrote like, oh, it would be really cool if I ever published a book.

Oh, it would be really cool if maybe I could even start to think about having that as a career, maybe one day.

And by the time I opened it, I was a full time author.

Yeah, like USA Today bestselling full time author.

Breadwinner for my family.

My husband narrates some of my books and also cares for our daughter.

And we don't live in a cheap area either.

It's rough.

It's a little stressful because of that because I like stability and stuff.

But I did it.

I got myself into a position where I felt comfortable that I was like, all right, I'm going to be the breadwinner writing books.

And that was what you would think would make me feel.

One would think.

But not all of your books are audio.

Do you have any particular reason why?

Some you do an audio and some you don't.

Not really.

It is the initial upfront investment and they don't pay themselves off Super, super quickly, so that's part of it.

But for the most part, I'm trying to get all my books into audio.

I would like them to all be available in audio.

I haven't done that with my other pen names books, in large part because I'm not sure that they'll be worth the investment.

I know I had seen one author on TikTok and I don't remember who it was had asked about, like, because ACX will do where there's, like, royalty share, so you don't pay upfront or you can do a small amount upfront with a royalty share plus, and then you get royalties for like seven years.

And so they were like, she was like calling out narrators.

Like, what helps you determine whether you'll do a royalty share book?

And I'm like, well, for me, which is a lot of what I do, because most a lot of the fiction that I get hired on is royalty share or royalty share plus.

And I'm like, for me, I have to want to read the book.

It has to interest me.

But because this is not my main gig, I have a little more freedom with taking on more of that kind of stuff.

But I very much appreciate authors like you that want to pay the upfront.

And whatever the case, I want the royalties for myself.

Right.

But you could spend all this time narrating the book.

And I feel terrible because I do.

I have an audio.

I did a royalty plus because I was a little bit worried that these books weren't going to make a ton of money once I put them in audio.

And I was right.

They were books that were probably not worth putting in audio.

And I feel terrible.

But I'm really glad that we did the royalty plus because that way she at least got a decent chunk of change for recording it.

And then the royalties are trickling, but it ain't great.

Yes, I had one book sell.

Well, it showed five more copies between yesterday and today.

And I'm like, hey, we sold five more.

And she's like, how.

I feel like I haven't quite figured out marketing for my audiobooks yet.

It's a whole different thing like that, but it's far more difficult now.

You've also made the jump from so back in 2012, obviously, TikTok wouldn't have been around.

So you've made the jump from promoting and stuff on Facebook to having to figure out how the tick Tock thing works.

So how did that kind of transition?

When did you decide, oh, crap, I need to come over here because that's where Stuff's happening nowadays.

Yeah, well, for a while, like, when I first joined social media, I was so excited.

People were so welcoming because I did not join social media immediately.

Like I said, I didn't feel like real author.

So it took a few years before I got onto Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and all those things.

And when I first joined, I didn't think people would actually want to interact with me.

And then they did, and that was really cool.

And I was so excited.

And I kind of burned myself out a little bit just by trying to do too much and trying to be everywhere and trying to make different content for everything.

And one of my friends was like, you have to stop choose the one that you enjoy and focus on that.

And then you can schedule like, you can schedule your Tweets, you can schedule your Instagram, you can schedule your Facebook.

You don't have to be on it.

Every couple of hours, right?

You don't have to.

And you can't you are burning yourself out doing this.

And so I do.

I truly enjoy Facebook.

And so that was where I focused my time.

And I occasionally go onto Instagram and Twitter, but I don't spend a lot of time on either of them because they don't feed me energy and happiness the way that Facebook does.

I love my Facebook group.

It would have been a little bit into the pandemic, like, part I'm trying to remember if I joined TikTok, it must have been in 2021.

Like early 2021, probably around Jan.

Like, right around the beginning of 2021.

My husband was already on just, like, watching things.

People were watching things.

And I was like, all right, well, one of the things that I do is I always like to try the new thing that everyone's talking about.

I might not stick with it.

It depends on how I feel about there have been a lot of things that I've tried and gone.

No, not for me.

Right.

With TikTok, I thought that was what was going to happen.

I was like, there's going to be another Instagram where I go and I try and it just feels like work and I'm not going to do it.

But I got on and then I got addicted and I really loved it.

And now it's like my favorite.

I mean, my Facebook group is still like my favorite place on the Internet.

But if I had, like, I spend a lot more time on TikTok than.

I do on Facebook now I find myself now, I just recently, like, in the last month, I think, finally got a scheduler thing going for before, I was just like, going to Tweet Deck, where you can go on there for you don't have to pay for Twitter's scheduling thing.

Right?

But I was like, I need something where it's all in one place.

I do the huge no no where it's like, of course, mine are like podcast and then writing random posts and stuff like that.

So it doesn't matter as much what my content is, but I use the same post across all of them.

I am all for that because what I realized when I was trying to do different content across all the things, different people follow me on every platform.

Like, the real just like us, they don't like every platform they are on and interacting on every platform.

Like, the people who are interacting on Instagram are spending most of their time on Instagram.

They are on Facebook, they are on Twitter.

And so not only do the algorithms not show us everything anyway.

Right?

But it actually is showing it to a different audience.

So personally, I think it's perfectly fine to reuse content all over the place, the exact same post, because I don't think that the same people are going to see it or very few of the same people are going to see it.

So I know people say to do that.

And then I got to this point of, like, but why?

I don't feel like that makes sense now.

I do try to follow the, like, not word vomiting.

Like, I'm not going to talk podcast for every single post that I do that day.

I'm not going to talk writing books for every single.

But I have to diversify.

So I'm like, on the Freya Victoria is not my actual name.

On the Freya Victoria profiles, I talk.

I have the narration stuff, and then I'm writing my own book stuff, and then I have just, like, random I'll usually do, and I've got it in my thing.

I have it tagged as, like, musings or something like that.

It's just, like some random thought that I had that day or whatever.

I love that.

But I try to kind of diversify.

So I have, like, two main sets of profiles.

Well, I kind of neglected my own actual name at that point, but I have one set of podcasts and pseudonym where I do, like, nonfiction books, and then I have more cleaner podcast stuff.

It's a fiction one.

And then I have the Freya Victoria stuff, which is all, like, fiction audiobooks, and then romance audiobooks, and the Friars Fairy Tales podcast that goes with that.

So it's very odd to maintain, like, three personalities.

I'm like, there's me, and then there's, like, the nice version of me and then the not nice version.

But I'm more active on the Freya stuff because that's the one.

I'm going to publish any books under that I eventually will get there and all of that.

So I try to maintain that one because I'm like, man, it will be better if I already have a following sitting there waiting for books as opposed to starting from zero at the beginning.

Definitely.

Yeah.

So when did you did you start your tick Tock with the author tips for authors, or did that more over time?

In fact, I was never going to do that.

Okay.

About TikTok was basically like, no, you need to make your thing for readers.

Like, you want your TikToks to be for readers.

You don't want them to be for other authors.

Who is your audience.

And, like, all the advice that I was getting.

And I don't know why it works for me, because I do think that good advice.

And I do think I've seen several authors who have made two accounts, one where they do author tips and one where they are an author and are talking about their books.

And instead of doing that, I did the wrong thing.

And yet somehow it's working for me.

I think as long as your audience knows that's what they're getting.

Yeah.

What does it matter?

Yeah.

And I do get it because if you're making content for authors, Book Talk is going to TikTok.

The algorithm is going to show the content mostly to the authors.

But at this point, I kind of feel like the algorithm is so on point.

Like, it knows who's going to watch the author TikToks that I do versus who's going to watch the TikToks I do about my books.

Right.

And there is also the thing that authors are also readers.

And I definitely like TikTok has had me buying books left and right.

I bought more books because of Tik Tok and I think any other form of social media.

Yeah.

I haven't gotten into buying a bunch yet because I have so many narrations up.

I'm like, I don't have time right now to read other things.

But I started because I have recently, like in the last two weeks, just started coming across the bookmail videos and like the crowns.

And so I'm like, all right, we're going to make and not I think I said, like, one thing about it, but I made my obligatory wish list for Book Talk, whatever, and added it to the link tree.

So I'm like, nothing may ever come of that.

But I can keep track of all the Book Talk books that are like ones I want to read.

We'll just add them all into that wish list, too.

Eventually we'll get them either bought or gifted.

That's awesome, right.

And you never know.

And that's one of the things that I love about Book Talk, though, is like the book fairies, the interaction with people, being able to see people's faces.

Because as much as I love Facebook and you can get the profile pictures like this tiny little thing.

Right, I'm not going to recognize those people.

But it's like if I'm watching someone's videos regularly, I feel like I have a better chance of recognizing them in person.

Golden Angel's favorite fairy tale when she was a kid was Sleeping Beauty.

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

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

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

Composed between 1330 and 1344.

The tale was first published by Gian Batista Basil in his collection of tales titled The Pentagon, published posthumorously in 1634.

Basil's version was later adapted and published by Charles Perrault and historius Ocantes du Tempest PASseven.

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

The Arne Thompson classification system for folktales classifies Sleeping Beauty as being a.

410 tail type, meaning it includes a Princess who is forced into an enchanted sleep and is later awakened reversing the magic placed upon her.

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

Today we'll be reading Sun, Moon and the original recorded version of Sleeping Beauty.

Don't forget, we are also continuing the original story of Beauty and the Beast on our Patreon Sun, Moon, and Talia.

It is a well known fact that the cruel man is generally his own hangman, and he who throws stones at heaven frequently comes off with a broken head.

But the reverse of the metal shows us that innocence is a shield of fig tree wood, upon which the sword of malice is broken or blunts its point, so that when a poor man fancies himself already dead and buried, he revives again in bone and flesh.

As you shall hear in the story, which I'm going to draw from the cask of memory with the tap of my tongue.

There was once a great Lord who, having a daughter born to him named Talia, commanded the Sears and Wiseman of his Kingdom to come and tell him her fortune, and after various counselings, they came to the conclusion that a great peril awaited her from a piece of stalk in some flax.

Thereupon he issued a command prohibiting any flax or hemp or suchlike thing to be brought into his house, hoping thus to avoid the danger.

When Talia was grown up and was standing one day at the window, she saw an old woman pass by who was spinning.

She had never seen a distaff or a spindle, and being vastly pleased with the twisting and twirling of the thread, her curiosity was so great that she made the old woman come upstairs.

Then, taking the staff in her hand, Talia began to draw out the thread when, by mischance a piece of stalk in the flag sitting under her fingernail, she felt dead upon the ground, at which sight the old woman hobbled downstairs as quickly as she could when the unhappy father heard of the disaster that had befallen Talia.

After weeping bitterly, he placed her in that palace in the country, upon a velvet seat under a canopy of brocade, and fastening the doors.

He quitted forever the palace, which had been the cause of such misfortune to him, in order to drive all remembrance of it from his mind.

Now a certain King happens to go one day to the chase, and a Falcon escaping from him flew in at the window of that palace.

When the King found that the bird did not return at his call, he ordered his attendance to knock at the door, thinking that the palace was inhabited, and after knocking for some time, the King ordered them to fetch a Vine Dresser's ladder, wishing himself to scale the house and see what was inside.

Then he mounted the ladder and going through the whole palace, he stood aghast at not finding there any living person.

At last he came to the room where Talia was lying as if enchanted.

And when the King saw her, he called to her, thinking that she was asleep, but in vain, for she still slept on, however loud he called.

So after admiring her beauty awhile, the King returned home to his Kingdom, where for a long time he forgot all that had happened.

Meanwhile, two little twins, one a boy and the other a girl who looked like two little jewels, wandered from I know not where into the palace and found Talia in a trance.

At first they were afraid because they tried in vain to awaken her.

But becoming bolder, the girl gently took Talia's finger into her mouth to bite it and wake her up by this means.

And so it happened that the splinter of flax came out thereupon.

She seemed to awake as from a deep sleep, and when she saw those little jewels at her side, she took them to her heart and loved them more than her life.

But she wondered greatly at seeing herself quite alone in the palace with two children and food and refreshment brought her by unseen hands.

After a time, the King calling Talia to mind took occasion.

One day when he went to the chase to go and see her, and when he found her awakened, and with two beautiful little creatures by her side, he was struck dumb with Rapture.

Then the King told Talia who he was, and they formed a great League and friendship, and he remained there for several days, promising as he took leave to return and fetch her.

When the King went back to his own Kingdom, he was forever repeating the names of Talia and the little ones in so much that when he was eating he had Talia in his mouth and sun and moon, for so he named the children.

Nay, even when he went to rest, he did not leave off calling on them, first one and then the other.

Now the King's stepmother had grown suspicious at his long absence at the chase, and when she heard him calling thus Antalya, sun and moon, she waxed Ross and said to the King's Secretary, Harkie friend, you stand in great danger between the axe and the block.

Tell me who it is that my stepson is enamored of, and I will make you rich.

But if you conceal the truth from me, I'll make you ruin.

A man moved on the one side by fear and on the other pricked by interest, which is a bandage to the eyes of honor, the blind of justice, and an old Horseshoe to trip up good faith told the Queen the whole truth, whereupon she sent the Secretary in the King's name to Talia, saying that he wished to see the children.

Then Talia sent them with great joy.

But the Queen commanded the Cook to kill them and serve them up in various ways for her wretched stepson to eat.

Now the Cook, who had a tender heart, seeing the two pretty little Golden Pippins, took compassion on them and gave them to his wife, bidding her keep them concealed.

Then he killed and dressed two little kids in a hundred different ways.

When the King came, the Queen quickly ordered the dishes served up, and the King fell to eating with great delight, exclaiming, how good this is.

Oh, how excellent by the soul of my grandfather.

And the old Queen all the while kept saying, Eat away, for you know what you eat.

At first the King paid no attention to what she said.

But at last, hearing the music continue, he replied, I know well enough what I eat, for you.

Brought nothing to the house.

And at last, getting up in a rage, he went off to a Villa at a little distance to cool his anger.

Meanwhile, the Queen, not satisfied with what she had done, called the Secretary again and sent him to fetch Talia.

Pretending that the King wished to see her.

At the summons, Talia went that very instant, longing to see the light of her eyes and not knowing that only the smoke awaited her.

But when she came before the Queen, the latter said to her with the face of a narrow and full of poison as a Viper, Welcome, Madam slide sheet.

Are you indeed the pretty mischief maker?

Are you the weed that has caught my son's eye and given me all this trouble?

When Talia heard this, she began to excuse herself.

But the Queen would not listen to a word.

And having a large fire lighted in the courtyard, she commanded that Talia should be thrown into the flames.

Poor Talia, seeing matters come to a bad past, fell on her knees before the Queen, and be sought her at least to grant her time to take the clothes from off her back.

Whereupon the Queen, not so much out of pity for the unhappy girl as to get possession of her dress, which was embroidered all over with gold and pearls, said to her, Undress yourself, I allow you.

Then Talia began to undress, and as she took off each garment, she uttered an exclamation of grief.

And when she had stripped off her cloak, her gown, and her jacket, and was proceeding to take off her petticoat, they seized her and were dragging her away.

At that moment, the King came up, and seeing the spectacle, he demanded to know the whole truth.

And when he asked also for the children and heard that his stepmother had ordered them to be killed, the unhappy King gave himself up to despair.

He then ordered her to be thrown into the same fire which had been lighted for Talia and the Secretary with her who was the handle of this cruel game and the Weaver of this wicked web.

Then he was going to do the same with the Cook thinking that he had killed the children.

But the Cook threw himself at the King's feet and said, truly, King Sir.

I would desire no other cynicure in return for the service I have done you than to be thrown into a furnace full of live coals.

I would ask no other gratuity than the thrust of a spike.

I would wish for no other amusement than to be roasted in the fire.

I would desire no other privilege than.

To have the Ashes of the Cook.

Mingled with those of a Queen.

But I look for no such great.

Reward for having saved the children and brought them back to you in spite of that wicked creature who wished to kill them.

When the King heard these words, he was quite beside himself.

He appeared to dream and could not believe what his ears had heard.

Then he said to the Cook, if it is true that you have saved the children, be assured I will take you from turning the spit and reward.

You so that you shall call yourself.

The happiest man in the world.

As the King was speaking these words, the wife of the Cook, seeing the dilemma her husband was in brought sun and moon before the King.

Who playing at the game of three with Talia and the other children went round and round kissing first one and then another.

Then giving the Cook a large reward he made him his Chamberlain and he took Talia to wife who enjoyed a long life with her husband and the children.

Acknowledging that he who has luck may go to bed and bliss will rain upon his head.

Thank you for joining Freya's fairy tales.

Be sure to come back next week for the conclusion of Golden Angels journey to holding her own fairy tale in her hands and to hear another adaptation of her favorite story.