Today is part two of two where we are talking to Nicki Rae about her novels. After today you will have heard about reading with your grandmother as a buddy reader, reading other authors work to learn what you like and don’t like, buddy writing your novels, using existing resources to promote your book, various reasons behind pen names, dealing with people that don’t like your book, and interacting with your followers.

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Nicki is the author of The Moore Love Series: Lather and The Date: A Moore Love Short Story, The Perfection Series: Damaged Perfection and Resisting Perfection, Broken Minds, Angel Face, and Fire Within.

She is a born Buckeye turned Hoosier who loves to spend time with her family.

Along with being an avid reader, she also loves her animals and the Indianapolis Colts!

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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 holding their very own fairy tale in their hands.

At the end of each episode, we will finish off with a fairy tale or short story read as close to the original author's version as possible.

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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.

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Today is part two of Two where we are talking to Nicki Ray about her novels.

After today, you will have heard about reading with your grandmother as a buddy reader, reading other authors work to learn what you like and don't like buddy writing your novels, using existing resources to promote your book, various reasons behind pen names, dealing with people that don't like your book and interacting with your followers.

Fire Within Beyond the Stage book One music brought us together six years ago.

Our love existed between guitar strings and every beat of the music.

Song lyrics spoke the words of our souls, words only meant for us.

He was a coworker at my first job, a record store.

So many great songs surrounded us, but I was only interested in what our song would become.

With Kelly Shane, I found the first love song that filled my soul with fire.

But he also introduced me to my first sad song heartache that filled my veins with ice water.

Marketing a new band has brought us back together.

Going on a three week tour with Kelly.

It's not how I pictured our reunion.

I'm not sure I can trust him to have my back, let alone confide in him.

But what worries me the most what if my heart decides to trust him without my permission?

Just had a book released.

So what are you working on now?

So a few things.

My book that just released is Second Chance Romance.

It's called fire within.

But it also I started writing this book during COVID when everything was shut down.

I'm a huge music fan.

I love going to concerts.

I couldn't go to concerts because everything was closed down.

Canceled.

Yeah, I canceled.

So I actually wrote concerts into this story.

So this first story, Fire Within, is a second chance romance.

It's about they start working at a record store together.

Their lives literally revolved around each other because of music.

And then they meet back up in marketing for music and they're going on tour with this band.

So it's kind of how the second chance romance story comes into it.

But the band of the story decided they needed their own stories.

So that's what I'm working on now.

I'm working on the continuation of that story.

There will be three more books, one per band member.

Right.

But also, I know I just mentioned my book Angel Face, who is an assassin.

There's a second story to that one that I'm working on as well.

That one's a lot more complex, a.

Lot more research, I imagine.

Yes.

You could do that type of story without the research, but then you're going to get bad reviews because absolutely.

Yes, you have to make sure you dot your eyes and cross your t's because people will know and they will tell you.

But I generally am working on more than like a couple of stories at a time and most of the time it's like a happy story that like a romance that makes you happy.

And then I have the complex story that I can go back and forth on.

That way kind of keeps my mind a little bit fresher.

I don't know if that makes sense.

When your brain feel starts to hurt from the one, you can go to the lighter one.

Yes.

And so I'm working on the next book, the Fire Within.

The actual series name is beyond the Stage.

So I'm working on the second book and be on the stage, which is going to be called Fire Below, which is the band name.

And then I'm also working on the second book in Angel Face, the series name is A Life in the Crosshairs.

And so I'm working on the second book in that one that does not have a title yet.

The working title is Decker, but I do not think that's what it's going to be.

Maybe, I don't know, not far enough in yet to make that decision.

That is a title on my document and that is yeah, that's it.

Yeah, I was working on one in my working title, he says some like snarky comment about like, what is this, a romance novel?

How the boss fell in love with the experiment.

And so I'm like working title how the Boss Fell in Love with the Experiment But I'm like, it's not a romance book.

So I'm like that's too romancy of a name for it to be a not romance book.

Yeah, that's definitely working.

It's going to have to change.

The title cannot be that yet.

Hey, you never know.

I've seen long titles like that.

Sometimes it works, but I mean, you.

Know, Court of Thorns and Roses is really I saw one the other day, I don't remember what the title was, but the COVID was just like and it wasn't big words, but the COVID had so many words on it, I'm like, oh my gosh, that's covered.

This cover is so busy.

Like, why did you pick a name so long, I don't know.

But then it begins.

Nicky Ray is a pen name for me because my last name is Long.

And originally I was using my last name when I was like, that just looks like too much on the COVID So I used a Pinname because of that.

So, I mean, I don't really care if people put my two names figure out who I am or whatever, I don't really care about that.

It was just because Nicky Ray is such a shorter name than my last name and it looks better on the.

COVID Freya is not my real name, but my last name is so distinct that I am the only person of my name you will ever be able to Google.

Got you.

And I'm like, yeah, my day job occasionally runs background checks.

Maybe I don't want them to know that I'm narrowing spicy romance books and with my family, some of them, so I just don't use my name.

Yeah, I know a lot of people do use Pinnames because they don't want the two connected, but that's not really my thing.

I don't really care.

I started my first five narrations I did under my name and then I was like, okay, we need to make another name.

So then I made another name and that's where two of my podcasts are hosted under that name.

And then Freya once like I told my family about the podcasts and the other name.

So I have an author, my first fiction author that I get, she's like, I also have this like 50 Shades type book that I'm like writing and I also want you to narrate that.

And I'm like debating whether I should have another name for spicy romance.

And then I'm like, okay, we're definitely going to have to have a different name if we're doing 50 Shades type books.

And so I came up with this name and now just all of my fiction is all under Freya.

And then I started this podcast for similar to you.

I wanted another way to help authors kind of talk about their books and get their stories out there that maybe they wouldn't.

I mean, some of them I have had that have also interviewed on other podcasts and stuff.

But it's just a different way that I know some podcasters will charge the people to guest on their show.

I do not.

I do not either, but there are.

Some that charge for that.

But I'm like, I just want a way to I mean, I've interviewed authors that I've narrated for, I've interviewed like I didn't narrate for you.

You've found me based on another author that I talked to a couple of months ago.

So just another way for your book to get out there.

My audience and your podcast audience may be the same, it may be totally different.

So it's just another way that's not social media somewhat still dependent on an algorithm because you're still trying to get people to find you, right?

But then I've also attempted to learn a little bit about SEO and trying to get where your blog posts are found and stuff like that.

And so occasionally I have the Google Alerts set up for my names and I'll always get Google Alerted, my own podcast pages.

I'm like, yes, I'm aware that that's out there because that's mine.

But yes, thanks for letting me know.

Thank you so much.

Now there is an ASMR lady.

Typically when I was picking names to pseudonym under, I'm like, it needs to not be a famous person.

I need to be able to own the domain.

I don't want to have to own Freya's Fairytales, the podcast or Freya Victoria the narrator.

I want it to be shorter.

That is what I want.

And so as I'm trying to pick these names, I found Freya Victoria worked out well, but there's an ASMR Lady that also uses the name.

And apparently according to Google Alerts, she also has an only fans.

And those photos have been leaked.

At one point it was like Nudes Afraid of Victoria got leaked.

And I'm like, not me.

Definitely not me.

Oh my, we're not going to click on those links.

We're not going to see what that is.

Yeah, but then occasionally I'll get some random because it'll have some Freya, not the same last name.

And then someone Victoria or Victoria something or other.

Like it gives you all these random things as well.

But I know that she is out there, but she does not own her own name as a domain.

So that's on her, not me.

And then there's also a Freya Fairy Tales or something that's like it's a blog.

She does like stickers I want to say she does something, I don't know, didn't even come across that at all because Freya's Fairy Tales didn't think to search, just Freya by itself, but were two very different mine is all like darker colors and then the hot pink and themed stuff.

And hers is like all light and happy fairy tales.

I'm like I like to do at the end of each episode.

I'll do ideally a fairytale or short story close to Little Red Riding Hood, if there is one out there I haven't already done.

But those original fairy tales are dark.

Most of them are dark.

I didn't want a light, happy website and all of that when all these fairy tales are disturbing for most parts.

I don't know if you saw it, but there were I can't remember the exact name of them, but they were fairy tale retellings.

It was just like an anthology and they were dark themed fairy tales.

And I was like, oh my gosh, this is like heaven for me.

Because I don't know.

I love reading darker stories.

I've come across a couple, I narrated one that was a Pie the Piper one.

But that author also did like Phantom of the Opera and other, like, fairy tales.

Got you.

There's one going around TikTok right now that's actively writing these dark fairy tales.

I don't remember who the author is, though.

Okay.

Yeah.

I don't know.

I just love them dark and twisted.

I don't remember what it was called, but it was very good.

They had a ton of authors like Elise Romeg and CJ.

Roberts was in there.

There was a ton of them.

And it was so good.

I loved it.

I think my first retelling that I ever came across was the Marissa Meyer Cinder Scarlet in their bionic.

Not completely, but like, one will have a bionic leg or a bionic eye and it's loosely based, but it's still like Cinder and Scarlet and all these different characters and they all tie in.

It's one overall storyline, so it'll be like Cinder starts it off and then they'll run into the next character or whatever.

So it just keeps going on, this series.

Those are the first retellings that I ever came across.

And then I wanted to read all the retellings because it's so good.

And now I'm like, I want to narrate all the retellings because I love them so much.

Yeah, I love them, too.

I hear you.

They're so good.

Most of everyone I've read have been so good.

Yeah.

I really can't remember who the one so that's you're talking about an anthology.

Yes.

So I had run across she's doing full length dark retellings, so they're full things.

I can't remember who the author is.

Well, that's interesting.

I'll have to look into that.

I'm sure if you searched dark fairy tale retellings, there's probably a lot of.

Authors that do that, I'm sure.

And you don't really have to when the story starts pretty dark, you don't really have to do a whole lot of stretch to get there.

Right?

No, I did the original Beauty and the Beast for patreon content because it ended up being like 9 hours of audio to finish that whole story.

Oh, wow.

And it's so much more than the short version that we get from I think it's Charles Peralt that rewrote it, but it's so much shorter.

The story that most of us know which Disney made happier and whatever.

But yeah, the original, it's darker, it's way longer.

And there is not a singing teacup to be found.

Dang it.

Someone was like, but is there still singing things?

And I'm like, no, there's no singing.

No singing.

The birds, I think Tweet or whatever, but I think that's about it.

Yeah.

I don't I appreciate the songs that are then made for it, but most of the stories do not have that.

And then I've done Cinderella a couple of times and all of those versions have the original telling of Cinderella.

They like to fit their feet into this shoe.

They'll cut off the toes or the ankles and so it's like, oh, he doesn't notice that anything is wrong until he sees the blood coming out, right?

Was she not limping?

Did that not get because if I'm cutting off parts of my foot, I'm going to be limping, right?

It's going to hurt pretty bad.

Yet logic apparently doesn't come into these stories.

Who needs logic?

They're all to teach you some kind of a lesson to scare the tar out of you, right?

That's so funny.

So what is one piece of advice that you would give to yourself starting or give to some other author?

Starting or maybe needing help continuing on in their story?

What is advice that you would give?

Have patience with yourself.

You're learning.

We all are still learning.

Like I said, I have been writing since 2014, and I learned something new every day.

But have patience with yourself.

And I would say learn to have thick skin.

I hate saying that because I really wish that wasn't a part of the job.

But not everyone's going to like your story, and that's okay because there's going to be a ton of people who do.

But some of the people who don't like your story are not going to be afraid to tell you about it.

And that's also okay because that's where you grow.

But it's not always fun to read those.

To read that.

Yeah, I've said with that.

If you're getting just people not liking your book, that's going to happen.

Not everybody likes every story.

If you're getting a consistent this is the problem with the story.

Maybe you should reevaluate.

I did a live yesterday and someone was like, all of her sentences sound the same.

This is boring.

But then everybody else after that was like, oh my gosh, I love how she's narrating this.

So it's like you need consistent for well, one constructive criticism would be nice compared to just being mean, which is what most of them do.

Right.

I'm like, I have no problem with constructive.

Just being like I didn't like it is not constructive.

Right.

But we always take it to heart because we put our heart into it.

Exactly.

You put so much time and effort into your craft and you feel like you know what, you've written the book, you've polished it, whatever polishing looks like to your book, and then you're ready to send it out into the world and then someone may say some bad things about it.

And so, of course, that's going to lay on your heart a little bit.

That's normal.

That's a normal reaction.

But you just take it like you said, unless it's something that someone is saying consistently, people are saying consistently about it.

You just kind of have to take it with I don't want to say take it with a grain of salt, read it, understand it, absorb it, whatever you're going to do.

But you got to move on.

You can't live in that world.

And I tell people, too, a lot when I'm looking at reviews for a book.

First of all, reviews for books don't drive me to purchase a book with because I don't look at them at first.

I look at the COVID I read the synopsis or blurb or whatever.

I take recommendations from friends, but the reviews don't really drive me, and that's different for everybody.

Everyone has their own way of purchasing books, but then I will go and look at the reviews and there's a lot of times where I'll say, oh, well, I don't like this because of this, this, or this.

And I'm like, well, that actually worked for me.

I really love that because no two people really read the same book.

It comes across to different people differently.

And so when I say take it with a grain of salt, I don't necessarily mean don't look at it or don't read it or understand what it's saying.

It's just like that is their opinion.

Put everything through a lens of is that opinion or is that a problem?

Right.

Exactly.

So that's kind of what I tell people, too.

Most authors do not get this many reviews, but AK Molford had said, oh, I just read the first 1000 reviews, and then I stopped reading after that.

And I'm like, most people aren't dealing with that number.

Books, I think like eleven, is the highest I have on audiobooks so far.

Reviews are very hard.

That's another thing.

Generally, you can expect maybe a third of the people review your book.

Like I said, I just had a book come out a couple of weeks ago and I'm still I have one review, I think, which is not a third of what I sold, but it's just that getting reviews is, I think, the most difficult part of releasing the book.

It's very difficult because that's something for the reader.

The reader is going to post a review if they want to.

They don't have to, and a lot of people don't.

And I know it's because first of all, maybe they don't have time or whatever, but they also don't understand how leaving a review affects the book as far as their review being a recommendation to somebody else or the more reviews you have, especially on Amazon, the more.

It helps the ranking, doesn't it?

Well, it does help the ranking, but it also like for the algorithm part of it, it's more Amazon puts might send out.

I think it's once you get 50 or 100 reviews, they'll add it to their emails, this new release or whatever, so they'll start doing a little bit of free marketing for you once you get to a certain number of views.

And that's not something a reader would know.

An author would know that.

Well, that's something that I'm looking for on ACX.

When I'm looking through books to audition for.

I'll go through the audition and it's like a giant list.

So I'll narrow it down to it.

At this point, only fiction, I need it to be longer because I'm booked so far out that I don't think anyone who has a less than three hour book is going to wait or want to wait for their book.

And so I'll open up all the ones like, oh, that covers pretty, or that name looks interesting, or whatever, open up all the ones that meet that criteria.

And then I start looking at, like, when did the book release versus how many reviews are there?

Are the reviews good or bad?

If your book released six years ago and you have one review, that means you're probably not.

I mean, I realize that less people review than buy.

Yes, but that means you're not selling a whole lot of copies at all.

Yeah, right.

So especially when I'm dealing with royalty share.

Not that I won't do it at all, but it's like I'm not going to put in the time to audition for something when I don't think that you're going to be putting in the effort to sell the something.

Now, occasionally there will be a note like, hey, I'm completely revamping everything and I'm going to start doing this, this and that to promote it.

That's different.

And you take that into consideration.

But I've also seen a couple that it'll be like two stars for this book.

And I'm like, that means even if there's a lot of reviews, if you got real low star, something's wrong with it.

And I've had some where I had to say, hey, you need to take this to an editor first because I can do a little bit of editing, like, as I'm reading and like, that's okay.

Like, oh, the word two was in that sentence twice and it shouldn't have been or what.

Like, those kind of changes are not that big of a deal.

But if it's really, really bad, it takes me like, two to three times as long just to read it because I'm trying to figure out what you're trying to say.

Absolutely.

I think that's another thing, too.

When you first start writing, you don't really understand that if you get something that will read it back to you or you read it to yourself, that's a lot easier to make changes because you're hearing what the issues are.

So that's something that I learned the hard way.

Yeah, I've seen people talk about just, like, editing it in a different way.

So if you, like, write it on a computer, print it out, and edit it that way, or put it on your Kindle and read through it that way, or listen to it or read it aloud or whatever, just some different method than how you originally wrote it at some point.

It doesn't have to be a different time every time you read through it.

Right.

It's just one by the time you actually release your book, you have read it so many times that if that word is not there, your mind is going to put it there.

You know what I mean?

So it's very easy to not catch little things, the bigger things, a misspelled word or plot holes, those are a lot easier to catch than like you said, you have two instances of the word two in the same sentence.

Sometimes it's not as easy to catch those because you've read through it so many times that your mind just automatically changes that for you.

And you're like, oh, that's right.

And then you go back and you're like, how did I miss this?

Well, I always have that conversation like, some narrators won't do this.

They'll just read it as it is on the page.

But I always have that conversation with authors at the beginning.

If I come across something that's an obvious, oh, it should have been this.

Do you want me to just change it?

Do you want me to ask you for every instance?

How do you want me to handle those?

Yeah, that's a good idea.

There's one platform that I'm on that keeps sending me books that it has to be word for word no matter what.

And I'm like, that's exhausting.

If your book has words out of order or whatever, it's going to not want to come out of my mouth that way, right?

Oh, yeah, for sure.

Because when you're reading it out loud, you're going to stumble on something that doesn't make sense.

That's why then usually I stop the audio and then I'm like sitting here staring at the screen like, what does this say?

Yeah, absolutely.

So if you had the time to sit and analyze your entire book one sentence at a time like that, you'd be good.

At the end of the day, I think it is always wise to have one other set of eyes on it.

For sure.

100%.

It doesn't have to be a bunch of people, but just one other person at least, whether you're paying them as an editor or they're a beta reader or whatever, just someone else to hey, why did you say this?

Yeah, absolutely.

I agree with that 100%.

And sometimes I have one guy that I narrated for.

He's a little bit older, but he used some sayings in the book that I had never heard before.

So when I narrated it, I had no idea that that was a saying that was supposed to have a particular cadence to it.

So he'd be like, hey, he would send me a voice message on Facebook Messenger and he'd be like, hey, you're supposed to say that like this.

And I'm like, oh, I just assumed it was a string of words.

That's interesting.

I hadn't thought about that.

Yeah, it's things that you don't think about, but that then happen.

I've also had some where it's like, I've never heard it said that way.

Is that like some maybe Midwestern way to say that phrase.

And they're like, the author will be like, yeah, that is I'm like, oh, okay.

I've always heard it this way.

I'm from the south, so I don't know.

I've never lived all over the United States.

I don't know what other places might say it differently.

Yeah.

Or I've done a couple of books from British authors that write it and they might change out different words, and I'm like, well, you wanted an American narrator, but you've got me reading British words and an American accent.

Well, that would be interesting.

Yeah.

I think the most prominent one was Torch.

I had to say torch for flashlight in one book.

Okay.

And that I was like, I knew that ahead of time, that that's but then elevator is a lift and there's just a couple different things that it's like, that's not how we say it, but okay, sure.

I'll do it as it is.

Yeah, that's interesting.

Yeah.

There's so many things you just don't think about ahead of time.

Like, you read a book and you enjoy the story and you may remember the story.

I'll read a book, and then later on, like, years later, I'll have scenes replay themselves in my head and then I'm like, what book was that from?

So that I can go read it again.

Because if it's stuck in my head, it's going to be it's like if a song gets stuck in your head, like, listen to it a thousand times so that we're so sick of it, it'll leave, hopefully.

Yeah, I do that too.

I will write a book about it.

All right, so your book just released two weeks ago.

So what are you doing right now to help promote the book?

Well, before it was released and a little bit after it was released, it was on Net Galley, but it was on Net Galley.

I've put out some ads.

It was on a new release, solar on Book Pub, and I've had some ads on Instagram and Facebook and it's been on TikTok.

Yes.

So to be honest with you, the best performance was first by TikTok, which seems to be like a juggernaut for books right now.

My NetGalley did okay.

I had a lot of downloads from Net Galley.

I have not gained a lot of reviews yet.

I don't know what's going on with that.

I have one or two, but that's not even close to the amount of downloads I got.

So I don't really know what happened there.

Slow readers, maybe.

Maybe it could be.

Facebook ads really didn't do well this time.

I don't know what the issue was.

Instagram did a little bit better.

Okay.

And so you said TikTok is kind of doing the best.

So what kind of videos are you doing for TikTok?

Well, before it came out, I had a book video made, so I put that on TikTok.

I just took like a screenshot.

Of one of the pages that I thought was interesting, like the entire page was interesting and I posted that as a video.

And then I'm going to do actually the book.

I don't know when this episode is going to air, but on November, December, December, I think.

Okay, well anyways, by then the book will be in Kindle Unlimited.

In the next little bit I'll be making some videos about the book going into Kindle Unlimited and start promoting that a little bit.

Okay, so are you trying to stay consistent with posting across social media like every day?

A couple of times a week.

Once a week.

What's your strategy?

Yeah, I post a couple of times a week.

I try my best.

It doesn't always happen, but I try to post something like promoting the book, but I also want to try and post some things that's interactive with the followers not having to do with my book because I don't want it just to be like straight book promotion because I feel like that's not good.

It works for some, it doesn't work for others.

And I feel like too, because I'm not a big name author, I feel like the more that I interact with my followers, the more I'm going to be upfront for them right, as far as they're going to actually see my posts.

Where if I'm just straight for me anyways, that works for me.

If I'm just straight posting promotional posts, I feel like those are not going to have any really a whole lot of interaction, or at least this is what I've seen.

It's not going to have a whole lot of interaction.

But if I kind of mix in with the promotional post and just like interaction posts, I feel like I get a little bit more viewership or more interactions that way.

That's what works for me.

What I've noticed too, I had been doing like a string of 1 minute videos.

So I typically try to post Monday through Friday.

Those are the days that I narrate.

I get in the booth, I warm up, I post a TikTok.

If I'm doing a book appropriate for Live, I'll then narrate Live.

But I had been doing a string of like 1 minute videos and yesterday I was like, well, I don't really have a lot to say today.

So I did a 15 2nd video and it got like double the views that I had been getting then.

I'm like, it's so irritating because at the beginning I would do all three minute videos and no one would watch through the three minutes of me blobbing about whatever.

Right.

I try to stay away from the three minute videos just because I feel like TikTok is just like if you don't catch them within the first few seconds of the video, they're just going to slip.

So I try to keep it as short as I can, but with the most content I can so I try really hard to stay away from the three minute videos.

Right.

Well, my brain does not work in the let's put out a big information packed video that everybody's going to want to know.

All these tips I'm like, I don't have the brain capacity to plan that ahead of time.

Mine will be like, tips and tricks for narrating.

Like this is what I'm doing today.

This is how I'm getting ready for this book.

Those kinds of things is more like what I post.

Very rarely it will be about my own writing stuff, because I haven't been writing lately.

So that's not there, but just random.

I am what you shouldn't do on your social media.

Yeah.

I admit I don't post as much as I should, but I do what I can.

Yeah.

Have a good day.

You too.

Thank you.

Bye.

Bye.

Nicki liked dark fairy tales.

Growing up among the dark fairy tales, we can find the Frog Prince or Iron Henry.

It is the German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm and published in 1812 in Grimm's Fairy Tales.

Traditionally, it is the first story in their folktale collection.

The tale is classified as ARN Thompson, type 440.

Today we'll be reading The Frog Prince by the Brothers Grimm.

Don't forget we're reading Lamont DeArthur 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 Frog Prince one fine evening, a young princess put on her bonnet and clogs and went out to take a walk by herself in a wood.

And when she came to a cool spring of water that rose in the midst of it, she sat herself down to rest a while.

Now, she had a golden ball in her hand, which was her favorite plaything, and she was always tossing it up into the air and catching it again as it fell.

After a time, she threw it up so high that she missed catching it as it fell, and the ball bounded away and rolled along upon the ground, till at last it fell down into the spring.

The princess looked into the spring after her ball, but it was very deep, so deep that she could not see the bottom of it.

Then she began to bewail her loss and said, alas, if I could only get my ball again, I would give all my fine clothes and jewels and everything that I have in the world.

While she was speaking, a frog put its head out of the water and said, princess, why do you weep so bitterly?

Alas, said she, what can you do for me, you nasty frog?

My golden ball has fallen into the spring.

The frog said, I want not your pearls and jewels and fine clothes, but.

If you will love me and let.

Me live with you and eat from off your golden plate and sleep upon your bed, I will bring you your ball again.

What nonsense.

Thought the princess.

The silly frog is talking.

He can never even get out of the spring to visit me, though he may be able to get my ball for me, and therefore I will tell him he shall have what he asks.

So she said to the frog, well, if you bring me my ball I will do all you ask.

Then the frog put his head down and dived deep under the water, and after a little while he came up again with the ball in his mouth and threw it on the edge of the spring.

As soon as the young princess saw her ball, she ran to pick it up and she was so overjoyed to have it in her hand again that she never thought of the frog, but ran home with it as fast as she could.

The frog called after her, stay, Princess, and take me with you as you said.

But she did not stop to hear a word.

The next day, just as the Princess had sat down to dinner, she heard a strange noise tap, tap, flash, flash, as if something was coming up the marble staircase.

And soon afterwards there was a gentle knock at the door and the little voice cried out and said open the door, my princess dear, open the door to thy true love here and mind the words that thou and I said by the fountain cool in the greenwood shade.

Then the Princess ran to the door and opened it, and there she saw the frog, whom she had quite forgotten at this sight.

She was sadly frightened and shutting the door as fast as she could, came back to her seat.

The King, her father, seeing that something had frightened her, asked her what was the matter.

There's a nasty frog, said she, at the door that lifted my ball for me out of the spring.

This morning I told him that he should live with me here, thinking that.

He could never get out of the.

Spring but there he is at the door and he wants to come in.

While she was speaking, the frog knocked again at the door and said open the door, my princess dear, open the door to thy true love here and mind the words that thou and thy said by the fountain cool in the greenwood shade.

And the King said to the young princess as you have given your word, you must keep it, so go and let him in.

She did so, and the frog hopped into the room and then straight on, tap, tap, plash, plash from the bottom of the room to the top, till he came up close to the table where the Princess sat.

Pray lift me upon chair, said he to the Princess, and let me sit next to you.

As soon as she had done this, the frog said put your plate nearer to me.

That I may eat out of it.

This she did, and when he had eaten as much as he could, he said, now I'm tired.

Carry me upstairs and put me into your bed.

And the princess, though very unwillingly, took him up in her hand and put him upon the pillow of her own bed, where he slept all night long.

As soon as it was light, he jumped up, hopped downstairs and went out of the house.

Now then, thought the princess, at last he is gone, and I shall be troubled with him no more.

But she was mistaken.

For when night came again, she heard the same tapping at the door.

And the frog came once more and said, open the door, my princess dear.

Open the door to thy true love here and mind the words that thou and thy said by the fountain cool in the greenwood shade.

And when the princess opened the door, the frog came in and slept upon her pillow as before, till the morning broke.

And the third night he did the same.

But when the princess awoke on the following morning, she was astonished to see, instead of the frog, a handsome prince gazing on her with the most beautiful eyes she had ever seen.

And standing at the head of her bed, he told her that he had been enchanted by a spiteful fairy who had changed him into a frog and that he had been faded.

So to abide till some princess should take him out of the spring and let him eat from her plate and sleep upon her bed for three nights.

You said the prince have broken his cruel charm.

And now I have nothing to wish for but that you should go with me into my father's kingdom where I will marry you and love you as long as you live.

The young princess, you may be sure, was not long in saying yes to all this.

And as they spoke, a gay coach drove up with eight beautiful horses decked with plumes of feathers and a golden harness.

And behind the coach rode the prince's servant, faithful Henrich, who had bewildered the misfortunes of his dear master during his enchantment so long and so bitterly that his heart had well nigh burst.

They then took leave of the king and got into the coach with eight horses and all set out full of joy and merriment for the prince's kingdom, which they reached safely.

And there they lived happily a great many years.

Thank you for joining Freya's fairy tales.