Today is part two of two where we are talking to B. G. Wolfe about her novel. Over the next 2 weeks you will hear about her journey of writing before she understood what she was writing, inspiration coming no matter where you are, using friends to help you develop your book, understanding that your first draft is not going to be perfect, and giving yourself permission to do things a little differently to get the job done.

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B. G. Wolfe constantly has several fictitious storylines playing out in her head—especially when she’s trying to go to sleep. She aims to write diverse characters and storylines, with emphasis on those in the LGBTQ+ community and those who struggle with their mental health like she does. B. G. can often be found chasing after her toddler or one of her various pets whilst in desperate need of (more) coffee (or wine, depending on the time of day).

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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 adventures, or to holding their very own fairy tale in their hands.

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

I am your host.

Freya victoria I'm an 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, today is part two of two where we are talking to BG Wolfe about her novel.

After today, you will have heard about her journey of writing before she understood what she was writing.

Inspiration coming no matter where you are, using your friends to help you develop your book, understanding that your first draft is not going to be perfect and giving yourself permission to do things a little differently to get the job done.

April renegade.

Ashland Singh.

I've been enchanted by him ever since.

I first heard his laugh.

Before I saw his face, before we talked, before everything.

He saved me when I needed saving the most, but I'm about to ruin it all.

I don't know how to keep the pieces of my world intact otherwise.

Drew Dawson I think I've been in love with Ash since we met on that chilly night in April almost ten years ago.

I'd do anything for him, have done everything for him, but I don't know how much longer I can tear myself apart as I wait for him.

I don't know if I'll survive it.

According to Ash Lancing's fans, he has it all.

He's the lead singer for a popular punk rock band, he's got a literal model for a girlfriend, a beautiful loft in NYC, and through the past ten years, he's had his best friend, Drew Dawson by his side through it all.

But Ash doesn't really have it all because the one thing he desires he can only have in the shadows and behind closed doors.

And the exhaustive secrecy is no one's fault but his own.

Drew Dawson is nothing but supportive of his best friend.

They grew from boys to men together and formed the band that has given them more than they could have dreamed of.

But his best friend can't give him the one thing he needs to keep going.

And that might just be his breaking point.

April Renegade is a comingofage and mm romance novel that follows the story of two young men coming to terms with.

Their true selves over the span of.

A decade in this steamy rock and roll romance, tag along as two people form a relationship forged by fate.

April Renegade is not suitable for readers under the age of 18.

So what do you do?

So you got sick.

Did you write through that at all?

Or did you just.

People are always like, you hear the advice you need to write every day, right?

People say that.

Stephen King says you need to crank out like 2000 words every day.

And I was like, oh gosh, no.

I take my mentors advice, which is just do something every day.

Whether it's marketing, whether I write down one sentence in my phone, I count that sometimes because sometimes that's all I can do.

But I also say if you're on vacation or if you're sick, take a break.

Right?

And that's what I did.

And quite honestly, the editing back of something that you write when you're not in the best headspace is probably going to be a nightmare.

Yes, it definitely can be.

And there's also the whole over editing thing because sometimes I'm like now when I go through it and I'm like correcting things, I'm like, don't, you're going to over edit it and it might not make sense or you might end up making more mistakes.

So don't do it.

Just take the feedback you got, fix those few things and step away.

Yes, the audiobook process.

So we have to submit auditions for audiobooks and then, I mean, occasionally you'll get one that you come across on TikTok or whatever that will just hire you straight out.

But for the most part, you're auditioning for these books, you get picked, you have to submit a 15 minutes sample and then they approve it and then you don't submit anything else to them until everything is done.

You submit all the files.

So at the beginning I would just submit the files and I'm like, let me know what I need to fix.

Well, I have since learned that not giving parameters is not wise.

So I'm like character voices can't really find every time stamp where a character talks to change out a character's voice.

I mean, one would hope that most writers write well enough where you have a really good idea of the personality to pick the voices.

But yeah, so now I'm like, I won't change character voices.

But if I interpreted a line wrong I've had where a line could have been mad or sweet and I went to Mad approach and I'm like, no, no, they're supposed to be sweet or whatever.

Like those I'm like, anything you can't live with the way that I did it, I will change.

Otherwise I see.

Yeah, I like it better when people don't do different character voices.

I've noticed.

And I'm like a new audiobook listener.

I only started listening this past year, but there's a few like just contemporary romances that I read, narrated by women.

And when they did the male's voice, I would just be like.

It took.

Me a while because it would throw me off.

I was like, I don't love it.

Just speak.

So most authors want the character voices, whether you can do them well or not.

But I did a dual narration, and it was two books in a series that I did that.

It was dual, so it was the male and the female.

And the way that I got paid, I would have had to pay out of my pocket to pay the other person.

And I'm like, I can't do that.

And so I did both point of view.

So the only negative comment is, we wish that the narrator did a good job, but we wish it had been a male and a female narrating it for that, too.

And that was good.

Yes, I listened to one like that, and I was like, that's not bad, because I like the female narrator, and I like the narrator.

Usually I was like, I'm fine if you stick, but if you switch, if it's dual, like what you're saying, I was like, that's okay.

Yeah, I'm okay with that.

So the issue is if they're paying, like, royalty share, that means you don't get any money upfront.

And then with ACX or Amazon system, you can only hire one narrator for a book.

So then basically, the narrator that you hire would have to subcontract the second narrator.

So that's where you may see a lot more.

Like, bigger publishers are going to have more of the full cast or the dual narration, or you'll get lucky and have a couple that narrate together.

My husband is Dyslexic, so that's not an option.

So is mine.

I was about to say you have a husband.

But no, I do mine.

He's same, so I get it.

Yeah.

He is also writing a book with superheroes.

Ours are adult superhero books.

You don't see a lot of that.

They're mostly young adult and kid books for, like, superheroes.

So he's writing this superhero book from dual perspective.

And so for the first time, I have this author.

I'm working on this trilogy for right now.

And he's like, I don't know if I want to listen to it.

I feel like it'll be really weird because it's really weird.

And so I'm like, okay.

So I asked my husband, will you listen through this series just to make sure I don't make any huge mistakes in the narrating?

He's like, okay.

So he's listening through, and he's finally been like, well, I don't know if I want you to narrate my book or not.

And he listens, like, day one of listening through this.

He's like, you can do my book now.

I'm like, okay.

But he's debating doing the mail parts himself, like the male perspective parts, or hiring someone else to do it.

So I'm like, I don't care either way.

But he's got, like, all these accents and stuff.

I'm like, do you want to learn all these accents?

A lot of work.

I'm just now branching into learning those this week.

Got a bunch of courses on how to do the accents that I've been avoiding all this time.

That's awesome.

Well, good luck with that.

It can definitely be tricky.

Yes.

I did an audition for British, the author I've narrated for before, and she has a British vampire in one of her other series, and I'm like, Listen, you may not like I'm like, I definitely have not done any training, but I'll send you a sample.

And she's like, for, like, doing it dry with no training.

You did okay.

I'm like, I can live with that.

Yeah.

I studied abroad in England for five weeks, and that was the only time that I thought that I had the accent down pat, because that's all you really listen to, and sometimes you even have the twang at the end because you're so used to listening to it that your own speech kind of changes.

I feel like I'm just like, Wait, that's not how I see it.

People that have moved to a bunch of lived in different places will get kind of a mishmash of all that.

Yes, I have a friend who's American, but she lived in Australia for several years, and she lived in other places, too, so she always says she has a very confusing type of accent, and I'm like, no, I love it.

I wouldn't maybe notice if I just spoke to her, but once you get to know her a little bit, you're like, it's interesting.

All right.

Yeah, I wish I visited Europe for, like, I think it was, like, ten days when I was in high school, but we spend a couple of days in Rome, a couple of days in France, and a couple of days in England, so you didn't really get enough of anything to get an accident.

It's a very fast trip.

I was mostly in Bath in England, and then we would tour the countryside occasionally, but we were mostly in the same spot.

So the authors that have books with accents are like, oh, you should just watch shows that have those accents.

And I'm like, one, actors don't usually have accurate accents, so that's the thing.

And two, the best way would be for me to just be able to move to these locations for a few months, but I can't afford that.

And then I couldn't narrate during that time either.

We're going to go the lesson route, where it's like, the phonetic change this sound to this sound or whatever.

Yeah.

Plus, different accents in the same area are a thing.

Yeah.

For, like, British I just went general British accent because most books aren't going to be specific of this region.

Anywhere you go where I live, people are like, you really don't have an accent.

But I'm surrounded by people who have a very thick country accent and then others who have a slight one, and then a few others like me that don't really have unless I'm mad, if I'm mad or if I'm drunk, I will have a country accent because it's the only two times.

Yeah.

So I born and raised in Texas.

Don't have a Texas twang.

I'll say you all you really don't.

I'll say about it.

My dad was born in Texas, and my grandparents are like, through and through Texas, even though they've lived in Florida for most of their lives at this point.

But they still got the Texas accent.

You really don't.

Yes.

I had one narration where it was a novella with a country singer, and so I had to get and she was actually from North Carolina, so I had to do more like the Southern bell kind of accent.

And I'm like, I'm not good at it, but.

I couldn't do it.

I feel so bad, like, when I do it because I'm like, it's not going to be good.

But I have got no complaints on the Southern part at all.

So reviews there's no complaints yet.

I guess I'm passable.

I don't know.

All right, well, do you have any tips or tricks or advice for people who might be starting out or thinking about writing?

Well, I already mentioned the more you read, the better you're going to write.

So if you're not an avid reader, I think that's the place to start.

And I was kind of in a reading lull after I graduated from college.

And you're reading a guitar right now.

That's what got me back into it in a lot of ways.

I read Flowers in the attic.

Have you ever read that by VC?

Andrew?

Very creepy.

I think it's written in the maybe before.

I have no idea.

It's older.

Please don't quote me on that.

Don't get mad, people.

It's very good.

It's well known, pretty well known.

You should look it up.

It's very interesting, but it's kind of like a gothic novel.

So I read that and then I kind of like, delved into book talk.

And then I just started reading more and I started getting more ideas.

And the biggest thing for me was accepting the fact that I'm going to make mistakes, right?

Accepting the fact that as I write, it's not going to be perfect.

And also coming to terms with the fact that people are going to read this.

And the more people who read it before it comes out, the better.

You want feedback?

It's terrifying to get feedback.

It's terrifying to make mistakes.

But those are things that I had to come to terms with, especially because I have severe anxiety, always have.

And I was like, those are things you cannot get around.

So the first thing I did when I got my new journal for plotting a mares nest was I wrote myself a permission slip and I said, I give myself permission, wrote my name to be imaginative, to find that creativity that I might have lost when I was a kid, because I feel like that's when we're at our peak, right?

And then as we get older, it kind of dissipates.

So I gave myself permission to do that.

I gave myself permission to scribble all over my journals because I always wanted things to be perfect.

And I was like, does it have to be perfect?

You're planning.

You're planning.

And I also stopped going back and editing every chance I could get because I used to just like, I'd go, well without writing.

And then before I jumped back in, I would edit quite a bit.

And I was like, no, you don't need to do that.

You need to get your first draft done.

So now I will, like, read a sentence or two before just to get myself back in the headspace.

And then I start writing.

And I'm like, do not go back unless I have to fact check something about a character or something.

What color was his eyes?

Exactly?

And that's why I have my character description in my journals now.

I definitely will mix that up sometimes.

So, you know, just trying my best to let go of all of those controlling factors as a writer in my brain, it's like, it's not going to be perfect.

It's just not even.

Well known.

Traditionally published books will still have issues.

Exactly.

My main thing with April Renegade was it being because I'm not a man, I'm not a gay man.

So writing those characters, I wanted to do my research.

I want to be respectful.

I didn't want anything offensive.

I wanted it to be realistic.

So I checked with some of my gay friends, some gay authors.

I did research in that way.

Did you have a sensitivity reader?

Not really.

One of my beta readers is an avid Mm romance reader, specifically, so she's amazing, and she's pretty much read it all.

And then my other one had never read Mm romance.

I didn't even plan that.

It was just like two different ends of the spectrum.

So I was like, great.

But I kept asking or I have a best friend who is non binary ish he doesn't really like labels.

So you say he, she, they, he doesn't really care and attracts to all sorts of people.

So if I ever had questions I would ask him, I'd be like, do you think this is far fetched?

Do you think this is accurate?

And then again, reaching out to other people.

So just doing your research and being mindful of the fact that I'm not a gay man, I will never be a gay man.

Those are things that I want to be mindful about.

But I think next time I do want specifically to have a sensitivity reader.

I had one arc reader say that they didn't want to leave me a review because it just wasn't for them.

It wasn't their kind of book.

Do you mind me asking if anything was offensive to you, did you have any problems with it?

Because I just wanted to make sure that I hadn't hurt this person or offended them in any way.

Because if I had, I wanted to backtrack and see if I could fix it or if I was in the wrong, etc.

And they're like, no, it just wasn't for me.

And I was like, okay, so try to be very respectful and very careful with that.

Okay, well, yeah, and that makes sense, too.

I mean, I've bought books before that, you realize, and I'm terrible, but I always forget to leave reviews.

So, like, at a couple authors I was asking for, like, I want books that have really big plot twists that you never saw coming.

And a couple recommended to me and then they're like, but please, I can give you a free copy, but please leave a review.

And I'm like, dude, I don't know when I'm going to have time to read it.

I'll pay for it because I'm going to feel bad if it takes me a year to finally get to it.

Yeah, I'm the same way.

Sometimes I'll do the star rating.

Yeah, because I did a beta read for Alex Reed's Romance on Tik Tok and loved her book and she was also one of my beta readers.

So she left me a review and I was like, okay, I'll give you a review.

I don't do it now I'm going to forget because I always use stars.

So I totally understand that.

But some people really get into their reviews.

Yeah, well, I appreciate as a narrator, especially if it's a bad review, like if you leave me a bad review because on audiobooks you do like the overall rating and then the narrator rating and then the book or the story rating.

And so I'm like, if you leave me a bad narrator rating, I want to know why.

What was it that you didn't like?

Because some things now, it could have been like you started the book and you just didn't like my voice, in which case, just tell me, hey, this voice wasn't my favorite or whatever.

It is what it is.

But leaving like one star reviews and then not telling me why is that criticism.

We want the constructive criticism.

I have a few four stars so far and one of them was from one of my friends and she was like, I would have given it five stars, but I didn't like the cheating element because there is a cheating element in April Renegade and it's in the trigger warnings in the beginning in my note to the reader.

And I was like, I totally understand, and it's not something I typically want to read about either, but it was essential for the plotline.

To each their own.

Well, I pretty much think four stars are probably just people that give their five stars.

Sparingly is what I think it's like three stars, and under that I'm like, tell me why.

Because like, four stars, I can see it just being someone that's very picky and that's most of mine are four and five, but almost no one leaves comments, so I don't know.

Mine are mostly four and five too.

And I usually give four and five.

You really have to lose me for me to give you a two or three.

I don't think I've ever really done a one except for maybe like one or two books, and they really just had to p*** me off or just lose me or something for me to.

I need to get better at reviewing because I'm just, like, terrible at remembering to go review after I've read it.

It's hard to me, it's hard to juggle everything.

Yeah.

I'm like I'll read through stuff well now, because during the week, I try to stick to narration reads for books.

I need to be preparing for narrations.

But then on the weekends, I'm like, okay, unless I'm behind on narration reading, I can either do research for my own book, which there's only so many facts you can shove in at one time and remember them.

And I'm typing out the stuff that I find.

This is a key thing that you need to be able to search later.

Those I type in other stuff.

It's like, you can only research so much.

The weekends are kind of my read.

Fun book time.

Yeah.

So I've been reading through Sierra Simone's American Queen series.

I haven't read that.

Yeah, I saw what's her name, dimitri Rose on TikTok who does a lot of book review things was talking about and pretty much anything she recommends, I buy it without even reading the blurb.

It's ridiculous.

I have people like that too.

I'm like, okay, great.

I was a couple of chapters in, and I'm like, oh my gosh, I bet this is going to end up being a reverse harem.

And then I go and read the blurb, and it's literally like she's in love with two men.

And I'm like, well, if I just read the d*** blurb.

My beta reader, who was the one who reads Avid, and she was like, go read this book.

Don't read the blurb.

Just trust me.

And I was like, okay, that's what I'm reading right now.

And it's great.

I'm like, but I did ask.

I was like, the only thing in my trigger warnings is like, I can't do the salt.

I can't do several things.

So I lifted off my trigger warning.

She's like, Let me check for you.

And I was like, I love that you're checking for me.

You can tell me what the book is about, but you're going to check on my trigger warning.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Thankfully, I don't have any issues.

Although all the authors that I've worked with have been great for letting me know.

Like, hey, this is in my book.

Are you okay with that?

Before some sent me the contract, and then some asked first and then sent me the contract.

But I'm like, I'm cool with everything.

Some things I may not be the best at narrating because I don't have experience with.

But yeah.

I only have two people comment on the cheating because for all my arc readers.

I put all the trigger warnings and I was like.

Of all the things.

I didn't think it would be that.

But I'm glad I included it because I wasn't going to and it was one of my Beta.

You need to add that because that's going to be a trigger for some people.

It's like, yeah, you're right.

That is it just didn't when everything else in the book, I didn't primarily think of that.

So I'm glad that I added it because it's like, I don't want to make any reader uncomfortable ever.

And my husband's book has his main character has this super abusive childhood backstory to him.

I'm like, you're going to have to put all the trigger warnings on your thing.

Yeah, I have a character like that, but it's mostly it's not really front and center.

It's kind of like thought about, but it's not like so blatantly obvious that I would have to put a trigger warning for it.

Yeah, it's just like, hey, this happened.

Yeah.

And that's kind of why Ash, my main character in April Renegade is the way he is, and he's closeted, and it has to do with that.

Okay, well, I think we are getting about done.

It's getting very hot in my booth right now.

But do you have any final parting words of advice?

Well, tips, tricks, anything?

I think the best tip that I've learned is just to keep your current work in progress front and center in your mind.

Like I said, it's okay to take breaks.

It's okay if you only write a sentence a day.

It's okay if you make a graphic, but to keep it fresh in your mind so that you don't have to keep reacquainting with that story.

Right.

I think that's probably the biggest part to me, and I've done really bad at that lately, so I'm really like.

So you're telling yourself what you need to be doing again?

Yes, I really am.

But I also have a three year old and I started a new job, so it's just like I'm cutting myself some slack right now, but if anyone asks me, that is what I would say, and I'm going to jump back into it as soon as I can because it really has helped me the most.

Have a good rest of your Saturday.

Thank you.

Nice.

Bye.

You too.

As she got older, BG Wolf liked different stories, but Hercules was special to her when she was sick, Hercules was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alchemene, and the foster son of amphetreon.

He was a great grandson and halfbrother as.

They both sired by the god Zeus.

Of Perseus, and similarly a half brother of Dionysus.

He was the greatest of the Greek heroes, the ancestor of royal clans who claimed to be Herculedi, and a champion of the Olympian order against Kotonic monsters in Rome and the modern west.

He is known as Hercules, with whom the later Roman emperors, in particular Commodus and Maximum, often identified themselves.

The Romans adopted the Greek version of his life and works essentially unchanged, but added anecdotal detail of their own, some of it linking the hero with the geography of the central Mediterranean.

Details of his cult were adapted to Rome as well.

Today we'll be reading about the life of Hercules.

Don't forget we're reading Lamont de 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 Adventures of Hercules hercules was the son of Zeus and Alchemy as Hara was always hostile to the offspring of her husband by mortal mothers.

She declared war against Hercules from his birth.

Knowing that Hero would forever hate her child, Alchema left the poor child on a hill to die, fearing that life for him would be a more horrible fate.

However, from the sky, Athena saw a bright light and went down to Earth to see what it was.

It was alcmina's infant.

Asina felt that this baby was special, and as, the patron of heroes, brought the baby up to Mount Olympus to raise.

One day, Athena handed off the child to Hara to feed, but he bit so hard that Hera pulled away and the milk went flying across the sky.

And this has created what we call the Milky Way.

After drinking divine milk, the baby became stronger and more godlike.

A few months later, Athena found his mother, ALC Mina, and returned the baby to her.

Alcmina named the child Heracles, meaning pride of Hera in Greek, at another attempt to calm Herah, but he is more well known by his Roman name, Hercules.

But this was not enough to keep her a calm.

She sent two serpents to destroy Hercules as he lay in his cradle, but the talented little infant strangled them with his own hands.

Hara left little Hercules alone for a while after this.

When he grew up, Hercules married the king of thebes king Crayon's daughter, named Magara.

After some years, Hera noticed that Hercules was having too successful of a life and thus made Hercules go insane.

Insane enough to kill his own children.

After he came back to his senses, he begged for a way to be forgiven.

The gods decided he could only be redeemed by completing twelve impossible tasks.

The first was the fight with the Nemian lion.

The valley of NEMA was attacked by a terrible lion Eurystheus, the king of the land, supervisor of the twelve tasks, and Hercules.

Worst enemy ordered Hercules to bring him the skin of this monster.

After using in vain his club and arrows against the lion, hercules strangled the animal with his hands.

He returned carrying the dead lion on his shoulders.

But Eurystheus was so frightened at the sight of it and at this proof of the extraordinary strength of the hero that he ordered him to deliver the proof of his tasks completed in the future.

Outside the town, his next labor was to kill the Hydra.

This monster devastated the country of Argos and lived in a swamp.

The Hydra had nine heads, of which the middle one was immortal.

Hercules struck off its heads with his club, but in the place of the head knocked off, two new ones grew forth each time.

Eventually he burned away the heads of the Hydra and buried the 9th immortal one under a huge rock.

Another labor was the cleaning of the Auggan stables.

Agius, King of Ellis, had a herd of 3000 oxen whose barns had not been cleaned for 30 years.

Hercules pulled two nearby rivers and ran the waters through the barns and cleaned them thoroughly in one day.

His next labor was of a more delicate kind.

admita, the daughter of Eurystheus, had always wanted the jeweled belt of the Queen of the Amazons and so Eurystheus ordered Hercules to go and get it.

The Amazons were a nation of women.

They were very warlike and held several prosperous cities.

It was their custom to bring up only the female children.

The boys were either sent away to the neighboring nations or put to death.

Hercules was accompanied by a number of volunteers and after various adventures at last reached the country of the Amazons.

Hippolyda.

The queen received him kindly and agreed to give him her belt.

But Hera did not like how easy this task had become and taking the form of an Amazon, went and persuaded the rest that the strangers were carrying off their queen.

They instantly armed and came in great numbers down to the ship.

Hercules, thinking that Hypotlata had betrayed him, killed her and took the belt.

Another task was to bring Eurytheus the Oxen of Gerryon, a monster with three bodies who lived on the island Erythia near Spain, of which German was king.

After crossing various countries, Hercules reached the frontiers of Libya and Europe where he raised the two mountains of Calpia and Abula as monuments of his progress forming the Straits of Gibraltar.

The two mountains being called the Pillars of Hercules the oxen regarded by the giant Euretian and his twoheaded dog.

But Hercules killed the giant and his dog and brought the oxen to Eurystheus.

The most difficult labor of all was getting the Golden Apples of the hospitalides, for Hercules did not know where to find them.

These were the apples which Hera had received at her wedding from the Goddess of the Earth and which she had entrusted to the keeping of the daughters of Hesperus, assisted by a watchful dragon.

After various adventures, hercules arrived at Mount Atlas in Africa.

Atlas was one of the Titans who had fought against the gods, and thus as his punishment.

Atlas's punishment was to bear on his shoulders the weight of the heavens.

He was the father of the hospirit, and Hercules wondered if anyone could find the Apples and bring them to him.

But how could he send Atlas away from his post?

Or who would hold up the heavens while he was gone?

Hercules took the burden on his own shoulders and sent Atlas to seek the Apples.

Atlas returned with the Apples, but enjoyed his freedom.

He did not want to trade places with Hercules and once again hold up the universe.

But Hercules had more tasks to complete.

Finally, he thought of a plan.

Hercules told Atlas, the buckle on my cape is hurting my neck.

Could you hold this for a second while I adjust my cape?

Atlas reluctantly took back the universe, and Hercules cleverly ran away with the Apples Atlas brought for him.

A celebrated accomplishment of Hercules was his victory over Anteus.

Anteus, the son of Terra the Earth, was a mighty giant and wrestler whose strength was invincible as long as he remained in contact with his mother Earth.

He forced all strangers who came to his country to wrestle with him, on condition that if defeated as they all were, they should be put to death.

Hercules challenged him and finding that it was not possible to throw him, for he always rose with renewed strength from every fall.

He lifted him up from the Earth and strangled him in the air.

The last task we shall record was bringing Cerberus from the lower world.

Hercules descended into Hades, accompanied by Hermes and Athena.

He obtained permission from Hades to carry Cerberus to the upper air, provided he could do it without the use of weapons.

And in spite of the monster struggling, he captured him, held him fast and carried him to Eurytheus, and afterward brought him back again.

But Hera was furious that Hercules survived all twelve tasks and was not ready to forgive him.

So once again she made Hercules go insane, and he killed his friend Ephedus, and was sentenced for this offense to become the slave of Queen of Failure for three years.

While in this service, the hero's nature seemed changed.

He lived effeminately, wearing at times the dress of a woman and spinning wool with the female servants of a familiar queen, wore his lion's skin.

When this punishment ended, he married Deshawnera and lived in peace with her three years.

On one occasion, as he was traveling with his wife, they came to a river across which the centaur Nessus carried travelers.

For a fee, Hercules himself crossed the river, but gave deja Nira to Nessus to be carried across.

Nessus attempted to run away with her, but Hercules heard her cries and shot an arrow in the heart of Nessus.

The dying centaur gave Dejanira a small bottle and told her to take some of his blood and keep it, as it might be used as a charm.

To preserve the love of her husband.

Dejanira did so, and before long had a reason to use it.

Hercules, in one of his conquests, had taken a pretty woman as a prisoner named Eole, of whom he seemed more interested in than Dejanira approved.

When Hercules was about to offer sacrifices to the gods in honor of his victory, he asked his wife for a white robe to wear for this special occasion.

Deja Nira, thinking it was a good opportunity to try her love spell, soaked the robe in the blood of Nessus.

She gave him the robe, and as soon as he put it on, the garment became warm on the body of Hercules and a poison penetrated into all his limbs, causing him the most intense agony.

He tried to remove the robe, but it stuck to his skin and with it he tore away whole pieces of his body.

Dejanera, on seeing what she had done, hung herself.

Hercules, prepared to die, climbed Mount Oetta, where he built a funeral pyre of trees, gave away his prized bow and arrows, and laid himself down on the pire, his head resting on his club and his lion's skin spread over him.

With his expression as peaceful as if he were about to take a nap, he commanded one of his followers to apply the torch.

The flames spread and soon overwhelmed the whole pire.

The god themselves felt troubled at seeing the champion of the earth brought to an end like this.

But Zeus, with a smile, addressed them.

I say to you, fear not.

He who conquered all else is not to be conquered by those flames which you see blazing on Mount Oeida.

Only his mother share in him can die.

What he got from me is immortal.

I will take him dead to Earth, to the heavenly shores, and I require of you all to receive him kindly.

No one can deny that he has deserved it.

The gods all gave their approval.

So when the flames had consumed the mother's share of Hercules, the diviner Part, instead of being injured, seemed to start forth with new life.

Zeus enveloped him in a cloud and took him up in a four horse chariot to live among the stars.

As he took his place in heaven, Atlas felt the added weight.

Hara finally felt sorry for all the pain she caused him and gave him her daughter heeb in marriage.

Thank you for joining Freya's fairy tales.

Be sure to come back next week to hear Jess's journey to holding her own fairy tale in her hands and.

To hear one of her favorite fairy tales.