Today is part one of two where we are talking to April Berry about her novels. Over the next 2 weeks you will hear about being romantic at heart, why we are all into darker stories based on the stories we liked as kids, writing since she was young, getting published as a child, losing all your work and using it as a sign you’re not meant to write, later realizing you are not too old to start publishing, why you should not use people that you know to edit your book, being surprised by narrator response, self publishing to make things move along faster, and make friends with other authors.

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April Berry is a romance author born and raised in Georgia. She still resides there with her husband, son, and daughter. When she’s not creating fun stories with happy endings, she loves to bake, read, snuggling with her various fur babies, and binge-watching series!

Author of pepperjack romance, my niche is no niche.

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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 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 we are talking to April Barry about her novels.

Over the next two weeks, you will hear about being romantic at heart.

Why we are all into darker stories based on the stories we liked as kids.

Writing since she was young getting published as a child, losing all your work and using it as a sign you're not meant to write later realizing you're not too old to start publishing.

Why you should not use people that you know to edit your book being surprised by narrator response self publishing to make things move along faster and make friends with other authors.

stroked the club series book too.

Can a stroke of fate change two lives forever?

Amy thought she had it all an amazing best friend, her dream job, and a never ending supply of beautiful one night stands.

No complications, no drama and no questioning of her hard limits.

Was she living her best life?

H*** yeah, she was.

Until her best friend blindsided Amy by getting engaged and moving out.

And an exotic stranger leaves her awe struck, sending all her rules right out the window.

Working in a male dominated field made giving up a personal life and hiding her true self.

Under the guise of finding success easy for valentina, she focused on getting her clients onto the scene and not being seen.

Her calculated meetups and secret rendezvous allowed her to stand under the radar of her traditional parents.

But when a chance encounter turns into something much more, will she be able to keep up the act?

When pests are revealed and secrets are threatened, can their impenetrable walls be torn down?

Or will they find themselves unable to break through?

So the podcast is freya's Fairy Tales and that is fairy tales in two ways.

So fairy tales are something that we.

Either listened to or read or watched.

Movies of, or TV shows of when we were a kid.

And it's also the journey for you.

To spend weeks, months or years working.

On your books to then get to Hold it in Your hand is a fairy tale for you.

So I like to start off with what was your favorite fairy tale or short story when you were a kid.

And did that change as you got older?

The favorite one is a kid.

Well, because I had so many, I had a whole book of fairy tales that it was like a collection of them.

So I read them all so much.

I mean, I really liked Little Red Riding Hood.

I don't know why, because it was.

Kind of formed, obviously, depending on which version you had.

Yeah, that's a different story for different days.

The grims Fairy tales.

Wow.

Like, when I had kids, there was an incident and also what was it?

The woman who lived in a shoe.

Do you remember this one?

Yeah.

Is that even the name of it?

You know what I'm talking about, right?

I don't know if that's the name.

Of it, but I know she lived in a shoe and she had like a bajillion children.

Yeah, that one was always cute.

And seriously, just like all of the normal basic ones.

I don't know if they would really consider The Sleeping Beauty considered a fairy tale.

It is, yes.

That was my favorite Disney movie as a kid.

I was obsessed.

And even after I grew up, that was probably still my favorite one.

Which, again, now that I've read a few dark romances, I'm like, you know, this actually is a dark romance.

I mean, she just gets poisoned.

And then sexually assaulted in her sleep.

I questioned so many things throughout my childhood now, you know what I mean?

But I loved it.

And when I had a daughter, I was really excited to finally have another girl in the house.

And so I was like, we have to get Sleeping Beauty.

Because of course I had vhs when I was a kid growing up.

Yes.

And now it was like we had already transitioned into dvds and even that now she's eleven, so that was a while ago.

Now it's like blurays.

But I was like, we have to get dvd because I really love Sleeping Beauty.

I've been romantic at heart forever.

And even Beauty and the Beast.

I love Beauty and the Beast.

So I guess if cinderella is and Beauty and the Beast probably is too same.

I'm like, okay, monster romance.

Also, I don't know if you've ever read the original of that one, but it was definitely not in the nicer version.

It's Will you marry me?

Will you marry me?

In the darker version, like the French one, it's like, will you sleep with me?

Will you have sex with me?

Like every night.

I'm like, no.

And the thing is too, and I saw this meme the other day and I was like, yeah, monster romance.

Because Bill straight up didn't know that he was going to change back into a human, right?

I was like, right.

Seriously, I'm questioning so many things about my childhood these days.

But why did we like these?

I mean, let's be real here.

Disney made them so nice and fantastical and took out all the bad parts.

And they made it seem like a fairy tale, like a very romanticized thing.

And then seriously now as an adult, and especially seeing so much of this dark romance genre that keeps popping up, which I don't really write dark stuff, but it's all over the place.

So I see it and I've read a couple of things, and I really am like, this is what happened.

These are all the elder millennials writing dark romances because we grew up with these fairy tales that really yes, our parents should have questioned a little bit more.

Just because the book is called grims Fairy Tales does not mean it's okay for kids.

Oh, my gosh.

Somebody got my daughter that as a birthday present when she was, like two years old, like the original grims Fairy Tales.

And I was like, oh, that's so cool.

You know?

And I used to love to read to them when they were smaller.

I read to them every night.

And so when we got that, I was like, let's bust into the new one.

Because we had the same thing that I had when I was a kid.

And it was like just a collection of fairy tales.

They all were a little like there was always a little twisty thing in there, but then it usually with the newer versions, it was written like, happy at the end, but in Grand fairytale no, like and so I got to the end of Jack and the beanstalk and I was like and I looked and I was like, oh, no.

And that was it happening.

And we're going to go.

Good night.

I love you.

Because I was like, I cannot read these next few lines.

What's happening right now?

And I called my friend and I was like, Dean, did you realize what you gave us?

And she was like, oh, but she's a kid.

She's not even going to know it.

I was like, I know you read this to her.

It's terrible.

So interesting, but random tidbit about grim's Brothers.

So they started actually writing more like nonfiction stuff, and then they started collecting these fairy tales.

I think it was like a job.

Like, someone had told them to start collecting these fairy tales, and so they did.

But then at one point in time, hitler loved them.

And so everybody had to own grim's Fairy tales.

And then hitler was like, oh, just kidding.

No one can own grim's Fairy tales.

And I'm just like, no idea.

There was, like, that kind of history behind it.

That's crazy.

I didn't realize that I have, like.

Another podcast where I go into, like, the history of the authors.

And I was like, had no idea.

Any of this stuff, but okay, no reason.

Oh, my goodness.

All right.

At what age so you clearly loved fairy tales as a kid.

At what age did you start writing anything?

I mean, I've been writing since I was young.

I was in elementary school, and even in third grade, I actually had some poetry published because we had an assignment for my teacher.

She was one of the literature teachers, and she gave everybody a random assignment.

And then, like a week later, she approached me and one other student and said, I really loved these, and I have an opportunity to submit a couple of pieces for this poetry collection, and I would really love if you and your parents would be interested in letting me submit your work.

And of course, my parents were like, yeah, whatever, that's fine, because they had to approve since I was a child.

So I actually had something published when I was in third grade, although I didn't really do it, and I never saw any royalties or anything from it.

But it was just really cool because I was a kid, and she's the one who actually really always encouraged me, even though I was so young.

She's one of the teachers that I remember even today, which that was such a long time ago, but she was so nice, and even as a child, she always told me that I was an excellent writer and that I should continue to pursue that, and I thought that was just lovely.

So I really loved her.

She was, like, my favorite teacher, and she still sticks with me today, and I think about her all the time.

But she's been retired forever because, again, seriously, that was so long ago.

It always hurts a little when you have to think back on, like, when you really go back and you're like.

I'm turning 41 next month.

I don't hide that.

I know a lot of people are like, I'm on my 29th.

I'm like, Listen, I'm about to turn 41.

I earned every right to be here at this age, so I'm going to claim it.

So it's been a long time, and I continued writing just, like, little short stories, and I did a lot of poetry when I was in elementary school.

And then once I got into middle and high school, I did write some more.

They weren't like full legs novels, so they would be considered short stories today, probably.

But I did write a lot, like, all the time.

I carried journals around.

Even my mom was cleaning out the basement, you know, like last year, and she found a bunch of old notebooks, and she made a comment and she was like, you know, I'm really I'm so proud of you.

Like, you finally you did what you always said that you wanted to do.

But I got married kind of young.

I was 20 when I got married.

I was 21.

So no.

No judgment.

Yeah.

No, I mean and we're still married, you know, this year will be 21 years, so like, we're going on eleven.

And March will be eleven for us.

So you're still a baby.

Yeah.

Listen, if you're two years younger than me, you're a baby to me.

I always tell you that I'm elder to you.

So I got married when I was 20 and pretty much like, I had to go get a full time job and do all of the adults.

I think I did take a shot at going to school because I didn't go to school out of high school.

Wasn't able to.

Not everybody's parents have this college fund.

I watched all these movies when I was a kid, and I thought there was, like, money waiting around.

It turns out there was none, and there also was none for a wedding.

So our wedding was lovely, but very small and very quaint.

But again, I wouldn't change anything, but I was going to school and working full time, and I had a few things written.

And back then we had a desktop computer.

Big screen, big, huge thing.

Yes.

And the tower was down on the floor.

There was actually a space under the desk where you put your tower in this little section right there.

So it was on the floor so that it didn't take up space on the desk.

Right.

And they were all unfinished.

There was only like five they were all unfinished.

I just kept dabbling with different ones and nothing really was like I just wasn't I wasn't fully going after it, but I was just kind of, you know, dabbling, as so many people do.

So you're trying to make and full length ones.

At this time, I was trying to.

Do full length novels.

I finally was like, this is something I've always wanted to do.

And I knew at that point, because I was always an avid reader, too, and I was like, I want to actually write a whole book.

So I started dabbling with a bunch, and none of them were romance.

They were all like fantasy.

Which is so funny because now I'm like, romance, romance, romance.

And there was one with a dragon.

I remember the dragon.

It would have been so cool.

That's so fantasy, right?

Having a dragon.

I know.

And in 2005, there was a hurricane that was so big that it actually traveled up into Georgia, and it did turn into a tropical storm, but it brought so much heavy rain with it that our apartment got flooded with 4ft of water.

And back then there wasn't a cloud, and so that desktop was destroyed.

And so all of my stories along with it gone.

Because, I mean, I didn't think I was seriously by then, what, like 24, 25 years old when that happened, and I didn't think to put it on a floppy disk.

And people listening are probably like, what the h*** is a floppy disk?

We had computers very early, so in our house, I was home schooled for most of my life.

So in our house, we actually had like a row of computers, like me and my sister and my mom, boom, boom, boom in a row.

Had our computers with the compartment for the cpu and like, all of that.

So that's how we did our stuff.

Though I don't even think I had any blank floppy disk to save because it just wasn't something back then that you, at least a lot of people didn't really have.

And I had it saved onto the hard drive, thinking everything was fine.

And once I finished something, if I finished something, I would have printed it out and done whatever because things were so much different back then, but it got destroyed, and I just kind of chalked it up to, okay, maybe this is not what it was meant to be.

And by then, I was in that mindset of, I just need to focus on my real job.

Everybody always talks about having a real job, and I love my parents, but they're one of the ones they were like, writing is not a vocation, it's an art.

And I didn't know those things could be mutually exclusive.

You know what I mean?

You just listen to people, and even today, you still hear it.

I still see so many young writers come in and they're working and doing so many things, and people are telling them, that's not a job, it's disheartening.

And you just try to do the right thing and you have bills to pay.

And then we started having kids and stuff like that.

So it just kind of got away from me.

And then, funny, as with so many people, when COVID hit, we started binge watching a ton of shows.

And like I said, please nobody be upset with me about what I'm about to say.

So we ran across outlander on Netflix, and at the time, I had never heard of it as a book.

I knew that.

I also watched it about that time.

So, like, I'm not going to judge you.

I loved the show because we had watched Game of Thrones at the urging of friends.

We were like the last people on the planet to watch Game of Thrones.

So we binge watched that after you.

I watched it literally as the last season was airing.

I started watching the rest of it.

Yes.

And we were like, right around the same time.

We watched that first, and then we got addicted to the whole binge watching.

So we were like, what next?

So I asked people on Facebook, I was like, hey, we're binge addicts now, so give me another show.

But it has to be something that my husband and I can watch together.

And a bunch of people were like, Watch outlander.

You're welcome.

And I was like, yeah, all right.

So we started watching it and he, of course, enjoyed it because fighting movies.

The lack of clothing on the women.

And I know probably the same reasons you enjoyed it.

Like, you know, the romance, of course, yeah.

And then the Scottish guys, I mean, you can't go wrong.

So we binge watched all the seasons that were available at the time.

And then the newest one, like season four was on Stars.

It wasn't on Netflix yet, so we get Stars just to watch that same thing.

While I was watching the show, we started to put together that this was on book.

So of course, as a reader, I was like, oh, yeah, the same thing.

Like, we watched The witcher and my husband got me the box set of the witcher book.

He had gotten it for me a couple of christmases ago because it was like right that same year that we watched the first season.

He just bought the whole set and it was a gift.

He was a Christmas gift.

So that's funny.

I got the first outlander book and read it, and then of course, again, I did a deep dive then on Diana Gabbledon, and I became obsessed with the series in the show.

Let's face it, as far as we talked about social media before we actually started talking, if you have seen any of her social media, she is fantastic at keeping her community engaged.

She asked I remember the big first, and I remember she was like, hey guys, I'm working on like book ten and what did they call the underwear that the guys wore back in this time period?

And I'm just like, she probably knows.

The answer already, but it's smart because she's getting engagement.

Yeah.

So I did like a deep dive on her, which and I know some people, especially in the romance community, feel torn about her because she says she's not a romance author, but I still am.

Like, you know what, it's all up for interpretation.

It's very subjective.

And as a reader, you can't tell me how to feel.

It's a romance for me, okay?

It is.

It really is.

Like, this is what I'm going with.

You do what you want to do.

pam but I was on my computer one day peddling around, and I was looking at articles and stuff from her, and I think it was actually a YouTube interview that I stumbled upon.

And my husband was sitting on the couch and he was watching television and I'm sitting there watching this, and somebody had asked her about when she started writing and she said something like she had published outlander when she was 36.

And I had this light bulb moment because at the time I was 38.

And I looked over at my husband and I was like, bang.

And he was like, what?

And he kind of jumped.

This is just his life.

This is how I am all the time.

And he was like, what?

And I was like, did you know that Diana Gabbledon was 36 years old when she published out later?

And he was like, and of course.

At this point, he's like, Not Diana gabbled again.

And he's just like, really?

Really?

That's why you said that?

In this in that very expressive manner, you know that's what you wanted to tell me?

And he was like, no, I didn't know that.

And I was like, yeah.

And he was like, all right, cool.

And I was like, do you know what that means?

And he said, I'm sure you're going to tell me.

And I was like, I'm not too old.

And he was like, I never said you were too old.

And I was like, I'm not too old to write a book.

And he was like, who told you that?

And I was like, Just my head told me that.

So I was like, I'm going to do it.

And he was like, okay.

And I was like, no, I'm serious.

I'm going to write a book.

And he was like, look at me.

And he did the whole look into my eyes.

He was like, do it, then.

And I was like, well, I will, d*** it.

And I literally I X out of all of that stuff.

And I opened a Word document and I started writing one of my books that is now published.

So it all started with outlander and binge watching.

That's crazy.

And so hopefully there's other people my age that are hearing this, because I hear it all the time.

So many people even on TikTok now, people like, I've always wanted to do that, but I'm 40 years old, or I'm too old.

And I'm like you're.

Never too old.

Just sit down and start doing it.

Because that was a hang up that I had too.

Like, for some reason, we have this idea that if you don't start in your early 20s, you're done, right?

And that's just bananas.

But that's the thing.

I'm one of the people who fed into that.

So now I'm making a mission to tell everybody, if you feel like you want to do it, just sit out and write.

And the beauty of writing your first book is there's no timeline.

You're writing it for yourself.

You're not trying to write to market.

You're just writing the story from your art.

So just get out and do it.

So it's so funny, because last week I talked to someone, and he had the idea in his head that you couldn't publish until you were in your.

Fifty s.

Oh, my goodness.

Only old people could publish.

It's funny.

The opposite of that.

And I think what's funny about that is that he's a man, because a lot of women have the stigma that, oh, I'm too old.

I didn't start young enough.

So that could be like a gender situation.

This has not really anything kind of to do with gender.

But if you watch the authors that are big on the news or whatever, for example, the trial that just went on for the publishing houses, who was the big author that they talked about the whole time?

Stephen King.

How old is Stephen King?

He's old.

For a while.

But the ones that you see a lot and hear a lot about on, like, the news and stuff is going to be like Stephen King and George rr.

Martin and like all these, like, you know, older people that have been publishing forever.

But when they started making it big, they were not young 20 year olds.

Well, let's see.

So I'm 41 and I watched It, which was a movie based off of a book when I was a child in elementary school.

So, I mean, that's the thing.

He really has been publishing for quite a long time.

Yeah, I mean, that's, you know, what.

30 years, 60s or 70s, right?

So, I mean, that's the thing, though.

People you only think about the things that you're seeing right this second.

And like you said, when people are seeing them right now, they do.

They're older gentlemen now.

And so I can see that even nora Roberts, she's wiser, let's say wiser.

I would never call a woman old.

And plus she's freaking nora Roberts.

Right, yeah.

But she's been publishing forever.

But if you're a 20 year old and you're just now getting into this genre and you pick up one of her books or maybe you see her on social media or something, you're going to look at her and be like, oh, well, she's older, so I can see how that would happen, too.

But when you're actually thinking about doing it, it's like, for some reason, because I have so many people that I know that they're like, oh, well, I'm too old to get started now.

And there's Heather belladonna with the right women the right women network.

They do a book event every year up in Maryland.

And she's an older started author as well.

And she preaches a lot about it's.

Never too old to start like a later in life, later in life, start with these things.

And because there are so many women who have that same mindset, like, they want to do it, but they feel like that ship has sailed.

And I was one of them.

That's why I love telling that story.

The only difference between starting when you're young and starting when you're old is you have less time to make books.

You still have stories that people are still going to want to read, but you just have less time to get it in.

Which means instead of like, I talked to Golden Angel a while back, and she's published like 70 books in the amount of time she's doing it.

So maybe you only get 20 books out in the time you have left.

But yeah, that's still 20 books, and.

I will say this too, especially to the women who put it off for whatever reason, that I don't think that I could have written relationships as well as I do now when I was 20 years old.

I think things do happen for a reason.

And even though it was very traumatic to lose all of that work, I think that it was for the best that I lost those stories that I did because thinking back, they were probably all at garbage.

Especially now, writing the things that I do.

Even if I wanted to write fantasy again, which nothing is ever off the table for me because part of my logo is my niche is no niche.

I just really love romance, but I write a lot of different subgenres of romance.

My characters would not have been as well developed, I don't think, because you just don't have as much life experience.

But that's not to say that a younger author can't.

I've seen some really well written stories from very young individuals and even like music artists, there's always these breakout artists that write these incredible songs that hit you right in your gut and you're like, you're 15 years old, Taylor.

So you know what I mean?

So it's possible to still and that's just a nod to the younger gals and guys, I guess, that they have a really great knowledge of the craft.

But I think that life experience can kind of also really contribute to your storytelling.

So if you are later in life and you wanted to do it, you can pull on your life experiences and all the friendships that you've had and all the relationships that you've had and really create some phenomenal stories.

So you write this first book, you type the end, what did you do?

And cried.

What did you do?

Because you said you published that one.

So what was your process after you finished your first draft?

Let's go with that.

Well, so that wasn't the first book that I published either.

But it is published.

So I wrote that one and it took me six months to get to the end and it did.

It was very emotional moment to know that I finally finished one.

Like I said, I started a bunch, didn't ever finish one.

So I finished one and it was great.

And then I set it aside for two weeks because I had read somewhere that it was best, like give your eyes a rest.

And I read a few books in between, watched some new shows, that kind of thing.

And then I went back to it and tried to do some self edit.

And in the meantime, I had started looking for beta readers to help me polish it as well because that's another thing.

Like you can't well, I won't say can't.

You probably shouldn't edit your own work and expect it to be good and nobody wants to hear that it's.

Never going to be perfect.

I've seen so many traditional books that have typos and stuff, and I tell people all the time, listen, you can go through this a hundred times.

As long as the story is good, the continuity is there.

You got a good character arc, and you don't have a bunch of errors.

You got to learn how to be comfortable with it at some point, because no matter how many times you look at it, you're going to find something, right?

There's never going to be a perfect book.

If anybody tells you so, then run far away from that person because they're.

Probably definitely don't pay for their coaching services.

Don't pay for their coaching services, for sure.

Oh, my gosh.

That's a whole different conversation.

Don't get me started on that.

But you really do need other sets of eyes.

And one thing I learned from that first one is those other sets of eyes do not need to be your friends.

Even if they're avid readers, even if they're teachers, even if they have done editing for other people whenever, it's never good because they made a few notes and a few changes.

But overall, they all I think the excitement of it all got to them.

And they just told me they loved it.

It was great.

Which the story is good, yes, but there were some major things that they didn't catch, including I changed the main male character's name halfway through the book, and nobody could no, it was very close.

It was very close.

I went from Jack to Jake because his full name is Jackson.

So I started off with Jack, and then for some reason, I just started typing Jake and it went with it.

And so for the first half of the book, it said Jack.

In the second half, it said Jake.

And then I let all of them read it and make changes and stuff.

And as I was going through to look through their changes, that's when I realized, holy crap, the name is different.

Who the h*** is Jack?

So funny.

I had that happen on a book I narrated.

I'm like, reading through.

And the whole thing was the guy wanted to be able to call the daughter his angel.

So it started as angelina and then changed to angelica.

And I messaged the author and I'm like, dude, the name changed.

Like, do you want me to keep it fluent or just read what's on the page?

And he was like, I cannot believe I did that.

Please keep it consistent.

But seriously, I had five people look at it and nobody thought that, and that would have been such a huge thing.

And so it was kind of at that moment that I was like, I love them, and I know that they love me.

And they did make some good grammatical changes and stuff, but I think it was maybe if they had been reading for a stranger, it would have been different.

But I think because it was for me, again, it was just like the excitement got to them.

That's when I knew I need to find some strangers that can help me.

And I had more thorough not thorough.

But more they're not so excited about the story and the process.

And they're like, oh my gosh, it's my friends.

Yeah.

And they also are not afraid to hurt your feelings, which I'll elaborate on that just a second.

I had already been talking about the writing process and kind of building some friends on TikTok and Instagram, which Instagram is sad for me, but TikTok is not terrible.

So I kind of made friends and stuff.

And so I started letting a couple of people because when it was strangers, it felt different.

And I was scared and I legit was scared that somebody was going to steal my book.

So I started out really slow.

I knew that I wanted to have at least five people look at it because I wanted that odd number for like a tiebreaker.

If there was anybody who couldn't agree on something, I was like, I need an odd number.

So five seemed like a really good number, and that's still what I use today.

But it was a little bit more slow going.

And I started to really feel like I did get some feedback from one person on just like a few chapters.

And it wasn't super kind and it wasn't very helpful either, but I was such a baby author then that it got in my head.

imposter syndrome completely consumed me and I was like, the story will probably never see the light of day.

I really was like, wow, I just invested.

And at that point it had been like nine months, and I was like, okay.

So I've invested almost a year of my life for nothing.

I was super upset.

I didn't seek out any other beta readers after that.

And even the other one gave me some decent feedback.

But by then I was crushed, you know what I mean?

But I was like, I'm not going to quit, though, because once I wrote The End, it was such an amazing feeling.

I was like, you know what, though?

I was like, I'm just going to switch gears and I'm going to try a different style.

So I went from a fantasy paranormal romance, and I was like, I'm going to try contemporary and just see how it goes.

And contemporary isn't quite as long, and it's just like, literally the relationship between two people.

And I read a ton of contemporary.

So I was like, I'm going to try my hand at this and we'll see what happens.

So I started writing Served, which is my debut.

So this is how that happened.

This is how that got you.

So this is how Served became my debut.

Instead of the other book, I wrote it.

And once again.

I met somebody on the Internet that gave me some weird feedback.

We'll say weird.

And the thing is though, is I read it through several times and I was like, okay, my petty hat has switched on because I am not going to let this stop me.

And I was like, I'm going to make this look good and I'm going to put it out and I don't need them.

So I found a new little set of beta readers, got some good feedback, I got constructive feedback, but did have to make some changes.

I had to make a ton of edits, but they all said ultimately that they really enjoyed the story and they really loved my characters.

And I was like, okay, cool.

So I tell people all the time, even now, I'm a decent storyteller, not the best writer you're ever going to meet in your life.

But the important part for me was that they loved the characters because that's what the whole contemporary romance, that's literally all that matters, right?

Right?

I was like, I'm going to put it out.

And Served is now my most popular book and people love it.

And I look back at it, that book is on audible, by the way.

And I had to listen to it and read along after my narrator was done with it.

And I was listening and reading it and I was like, why do people like this book so much?

Oh my God.

Because I've come a long way since then.

I have like ten or eleven books out now.

And so that was my very first one I published.

And just like some of the little errors and stuff that were still in there, like being by twitch, but people love it and I'm just being hard on myself.

I'm not really trying to call out my readers.

And I love the two main characters so much and you see them through the rest of the series and they're going to have another book.

The two of them are going to have another book because that's why people like it is because of the characters and the story.

So the few little boo boos that are still there, I chalk it up too.

It was my debut.

And that's why when I talk to new authors, I always tell them, like, listen dude, it's a stepping stone.

Our debuts are supposed to kind of be crappy.

I think as long as it's good enough and you can get people interested in the story, that's what really matters.

And I know there's a lot of readers out there who are very critical of even the smallest of commas being out of place.

And I'm like, that's cool.

You know what, that's not your reader, so that doesn't matter.

You don't focus on the people who are not your readers.

You focus on the people who are.

And I have found a nice little readership who apparently they don't mind a little bit of my chaos because they really are invested in my stories.

And now I have readers that will pre order every single time, and they get excited with me every single time.

I say, you're not a taco.

You can't please everybody.

Like, just do your best, put your best work out there.

If it's the story that you wanted to read, then somebody else will too.

And we're looking for our readers.

We're not looking for all of them.

We're looking for hours.

So you finish your first one.

And what did your husband do?

He's been very supportive through the whole process, but he doesn't really understand.

He knows that it's a business, and he knows that there's so many things that go on in the back end.

But I show him all the covers when I get them ordered, and I kind of talk to him about the process, but he doesn't read my book.

He's more of a sci-fi kind of guy.

He keeps asking me when I'm going to write sci-fi, and I'm like, we'll.

See maybe if a good enough idea comes to me.

Yeah, because he does.

He loves sci-fi so much.

I told him that.

I was like, did you know that there's a whole genre of alien romance?

And he was like, all right, that's not exactly what I meant by sci-fi.

Last year, I had started writing towards the beginning of the year, which I totally chalk it up to.

Like, I was narrating.

And the inspiration just comes.

We're on our anniversary weekend trip thing, and I'm talking to my husband about this book that I'm writing, and he's like, oh, yeah, I've had this idea for this book since I was in junior high.

And I'm like, well, why haven't you written it?

And he's like, well, honey, I'm dyslexic I can't write.

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

Editing is blurry.

It might take you longer.

I will help you edit it just to get it.

And a couple of things.

Like, I've read through some parts of it and I'm like, hey, you need to expand on this, those kind of things right now, because he's still writing it.

So we kind of talk back and forth.

But I know he'll never read what I'm writing.

We're like, I have to read what he's writing, but not have to.

It's very good, very well written.

He writes way better than I do.

It's just a much slower.

And I tell people, everybody that everybody's going to do it at their own pace and don't worry about the things that you jack up.

Just get the meat of the story out.

And then that's why we have editing.

Because anybody like, we can fix anything, but there are very few people who actually end up typing the end.

That in itself is a feat.

It's like, forget about the publishing aspect of it for a second.

Finishing a book, finishing that first draft.

Most people don't do that.

So many people say, I have this book idea, or I've always wanted to do this, but they don't.

And that's what sets people apart.

That's what makes you an author versus just a reader or whatever.

It really does take some gumption to sit down and do it, even if it's not a very long one, which I'm a big fan of shorts and novellas and stuff, too.

If written correctly, you can pack a punch with a shorter story.

Like, you don't have to write the next epic novel of 300,000 words to have a good book, you know?

And I think that's that's lot a a hang up that a lot of people have too, but sometimes the story.

Is a short story and they just wrote all this extra random side quests to fill the extra words.

I mean, there's so many, especially, oh, my goodness, the tragic.

You can tell where the fluff is.

And I'm like, this would have been so much better if all of this crap was happening here.

I get bored.

I'm like, I just want to know the story.

I don't mind description and stuff, but there's a point where it can get to be too much.

But again, people like different things, and some people love that.

I hope that don't nobody come for me.

But reading Lord of the Rings for me, I was like, really?

Oh, my God.

Because I'm like, I don't tried.

I tried now.

I did.

I finally got through The hobbit, but only because of the audiobook done by the actor that did the audio books.

I finally got through The hobbit and I was like, he did such a fantastic job.

I haven't had a chance to have time to read.

I will say, definitely listening.

Listening and watching these things is a different experience.

So, like, listening to it or watching movies and stuff, I can handle all that because then it's all coming together at once.

And even listening to the book being narrated, when the narrator is giving all the inflections and stuff, it takes you out of the space and it just feels different.

But I'm telling you, I'm one of those people, I want an easy read.

And yes, paint a picture for me, but I don't need to know the details of the pillow that's on the chair that's in the corner of the room facing east.

Made out of walnut.

Exactly.

You know what I mean?

And that just goes back to this whole book thing is so subjective because everybody likes something else.

But those are the kind of books that I write, are quick, easy reads.

They're not all shorts and novellas, but they're all pretty quick reads and they're really easy reads.

So, like, if you need your brain broken, I'm not your gal.

But if you just need a quick little read and escape from reality and you want to connect with some characters, I got you and there's people who like both.

So a lot of that goes into marketing properly so that people know what they're getting from you.

My husband like, circling back because my squirrels got out of control.

My husband is very supportive, but he doesn't really understand the whole process.

But he cheers me on.

And of course, he always makes comments like, when you hit it big, we're going to do this.

When you hit it big, I'm going to be a stay at home dad.

That's what I told my husband.

I'm like, when your book sells and have copies, you can quit your job.

Exactly.

Working on it.

April Berry liked The Woman Who Lived in the Shoe growing up, There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe is a popular English language nursery rhyme with a rude folk song index number of 19132.

Debates over its meaning and origin have largely centered on attempts to match the old woman with historical female figures who have had large families.

Although King George II has also been proposed as the rhyme subject, the term a loafing, they believe was shakespearean, suggesting that the rhyme is considerably older than the first printed versions.

They then speculated that if this were true, it might have a folklore meaning and pointed to the connection between shoes and fertility, perhaps exemplified by casting a shoe after a bride as she leaves for her honeymoon or tying shoes to the departing couple's car.

archaeologist Ralph merryfield has pointed out that in Lankeshire it was the custom for females who wish to conceive to try on the shoes of a woman who had just given birth.

Debates over the meaning of the rhyme have largely revolved around matching the old woman with historical figures, as Peter opie observed, for little reason other than the size of their families.

Candidates include Queen Caroline, the wife of King George II, who had eight children, and Elizabeth vergus of Boston, who had six children of her own, and ten stepchildren.

Some evidence suggests the rhyme refers to the wife of theodore Vesselev of shuya, Russia, who reportedly birthed 69 children during her lifetime.

Albert Jack has proposed a political origin for the rhyme.

George II was nicknamed the Old Woman because it was widely believed that Queen Caroline was the real power behind the throne.

According to this explanation, the children are the members of Parliament that George was unable to control.

The whip refers to the political office of that name, the MP, whose role is to ensure that members of his party vote according to the party line.

And the bed is the House of Commons, which MPs were required to attend daily.

The phrase gave them some broth without any bread may refer to george's parsimony in the wake of the South Sea Bubble of 1721 and his attempts to restore his own and the country's finances.

Today we'll be reading The Woman Who Lived in a Shoe for Mother goose.

In prose by L.

Frank baum.

Don't forget we're reading Le morte Arthur.

The story of King Arthur and of his noble knights of the Round Table on our patreon.

You can find the link in the show notes.

The Woman Who Lived in a Shoe there was an old woman who lived in a shoe.

She had so many children she didn't know what to do.

She gave them some broth without any bread and whipped them all soundly and sent them to bed.

A long time ago there lived a woman who had four daughters, and these in time grew up and married and went to live in different parts of the country.

And the woman after that lived all alone and said to herself, I have done my duty to the world and now shall rest quietly for the balance of my life.

When one has raised a family of four children and has married them all happily, she is surely entitled to pass her remaining days in peace and the comfort.

She lived in a peculiar little house.

It was not like most of the houses you see, but the old woman had it built herself and liked it, and so it did not matter to her how odd it was.

It stood upon the top of a little hill, and there was a garden at the back and the pretty green lawn in front, with white gravel paths and many beds of bright colored flowers.

The old woman was very happy and contented there, until one day she received a letter saying that her daughter Hannah was dead and had sent her family of five children to their grandmother to be taken care of.

This misfortune ruined all the old woman's dreams of quiet, but the next day the children arrived, three boys and two girls, and she made the best of it and gave them the beds her own daughters had once occupied and her own cot as well, and she made a bed for herself on the parlor sofa.

The youngsters were like all other children and got into mischief once in a while, but the old woman had much experience with children and managed to keep them in order very well, while they quickly learned to obey her and generally did as they were bid.

But scarcely had she succeeded in getting them settled in their new home.

When Margaret, another of her daughters, died and sent four more children to her mother to be taken care of, the old woman scarcely knew where to keep this new flock that had come to her fold, for the house was already full.

But she thought the matter over and finally decided she must build an addition to her house.

So she hired a carpenter and built what is called a lean to at the right of her cottage, making it just big enough to accommodate the four new members of her family.

When it was completed, she put four little COTS in her new part of the house.

And then she sighed contentedly and said, now all the babies are taken care of and will be comfortable until they grow up.

Of course, it was much more difficult to manage nine small children than five, and they often let each other into mischief, so that the flower beds began to be trampled upon, and the green grass to be worn under the constant tread of their little feet, and the furniture to show a good many scratches and bruises.

But the old woman continued to look after them as well as she was able, until Sarah, her third daughter, also died and three more children were sent to their grandmother to be brought up.

The old woman was nearly distracted when she heard of this new addition to her family, but she did not give way to despair.

She sent for the carpenter again and had him build another addition to her house.

Then she put three new COTS in the new part for the babies to sleep in, and when they arrived they were just as cozy and comfortable as peas in a pod.

The grandmother was a lively old woman for one of her years, but she found her time now fully occupied in cooking the meals for her twelve small grandchildren and mending their clothes and washing their faces and undressing them at night and dressing them in the morning.

There was just a dozen of the babies now, and when you consider they were about the same age, you will realize what a large family the old woman had and how fully her time was occupied and caring for them all.

And now, to make the matter worse, her fourth daughter, who had been named abigail, suddenly took sick and died, and she also had four small children that must be cared for in some way.

The old woman, having taken the other twelve, could not well refuse to adopt these little orphans also.

I may as well have 16 as a dozen, she said with a sigh.

They will drive me crazy someday anyhow, so a few more will not matter at all.

Once more she sent for the carpenter and bade him build a third addition to the house, and when it was completed, she added four more COTS to the dozen that were already in use.

The house presented a very queer appearance now, but she did not mind that so long as the babies were comfortable, I shall not have to build again, she said, and that is one satisfaction.

I have now no more daughters to die and leave me their children, and therefore I must make up my mind to do the best I can with the 16 that have already been inflicted upon me in my old age.

It was not long before the grass about the house was trodden down, and the white gravel of the walks all thrown at the birds, and the flower beds trampled into shapeless masses by 32 little feet that ran about from morn till night.

But the old woman did not complain at this.

Her time was too much taken up with the babies for her to miss the grass and the flowers.

It cost so much money to clothe them that she decided to dress them all alike so that they looked like the children of a regular orphan asylum.

And it cost so much to feed them that she was obliged to give them the plainest food.

So there was bread and milk for breakfast, and milk and bread for dinner, and bread and broth for supper.

But it was a good and wholesome diet, and the children thrived and grew fat upon it.

One day a stranger came along the road, and when he saw the old woman's house, he began to laugh.

What are you laughing at, sir?

Asked the grandmother, who was sitting upon her doorsteps engaged in mending 16 pairs of socks.

At your house, the stranger replied.

It looks for all the world like a big shoe.

A shoe?

She said in surprise.

Why, yes, the chimneys are shoestraps and the steps are the heel, and all those additions make the foot of the shoe.

Never mind, said the woman.

It may be a shoe, but it is full of babies, and that makes it different from most other shoes.

But the stranger went on to the village and told all he met that he had seen an old woman who lived in a shoe.

And soon people came from all parts of the country to look at the queer house, and they usually went away laughing.

The old woman did not mind this at all.

She was too busy to be angry.

Some of the children were always getting bumped heads or bruised chins or falling down and hurting themselves, and these had to be comforted, and some were naughty and had to be whipped, and some were dirty and had to be washed, and some were good, and had to be kissed.

It was grandma do this and grandma do that from morning to night so that the poor grandmother was nearly distracted.

The only peace she ever got was when they were all safely tucked in their little COTS and were sound asleep.

For then, at least, she was free from worry and had a chance to gather her scattered wits.

There are so many children, she said one day to the baker man, that I often really don't know what to do.

If they were mine, ma'am, he replied, I'd send them to the poor house, or else they'd send me to the madhouse.

Some of the children heard him say this, and they resolved to play him a trick in return for his ill natured speech.

The Bakerman came every day to the Shoehouse and brought two great baskets of bread in his arms for the children to eat with their milk and their broth.

So one day when the old woman had gone to the town to buy shoes.

The children all painted their faces to look as Indians do when they are on the warpath.

And they caught the roosters and the turkey c*** and pulled feathers from their tails to stick in their hair.

And then the boys made wooden tomahawks for the girls and bows and arrows for their own use.

And then all 16 went out and hid in the bushes near the top of the hill.

By and by the Bakerman came slowly up the path with a basket of bread on either arm.

And just as he reached the bushes there sounded in his ears a most unearthly war whoop and a flight of arrows came from the bushes.

And although they were blunt and could do him no harm they rattled all over his body and one hit his nose and another his chin while several stuck fast in the loaves of bread.

Altogether.

The Bakerman was terribly frightened and when all the 16 small Indians rushed from the bushes and flourished their tomahawks he took to his heels and ran down the hill as fast as he could go.

When the grandmother returned, she asked, where's the bread for your supper?

The children looked at one another in surprise for they had forgotten all about the bread.

And then one of them confessed and told her the whole story of how they had frightened the Bakerman for saying he would send them to the poor house.

You are 16 very naughty children.

exclaimed the old woman.

And for punishment you must eat your broth without any bread.

And afterwards each one shall have a sound whipping and be sent to bed.

Then all the children began to cry at once and there was such an uproar that their grandmother had to put cotton in her ears that she might not lose her hearing.

But she kept her promise and made them eat their broth without any bread for indeed there was no bread to give them.

Then she stood them in a row and undressed them.

And as she put the night dress on each one she gave it a sound whipping and sent it to bed.

They cried some, of course, but they knew very well they deserved the punishment and it was not long before all of them were sound asleep.

They took care not to play any more tricks on the Bakerman and as they grew older they were naturally much better behaved.

For many years the boys were old enough to work for the neighboring farmers and that made the woman's family a good deal smaller.

And then the girls grew up and married and found homes of their own so that all the children were in time well provided for.

But not one of them forgot the kind grandmother who had taken such good care of them.

And often they tell their children of the days when they lived with the old woman in a shoe and frightened the Bakerman almost.

Into fits with their wooden tomahawks.

Thank you for joining freya's fairy tales.

Be sure to come back next week for the conclusion of april's journey to holding her own fairy tale in her hands and to hear another of her favorite fairy tales.