Show Notes:
Over these 2 weeks you will have heard about writing from a young age, prioritizing where to put the money you do have when starting out, what to do about reviews, learning the language of books, and dealing with family and friends reading your books.
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Dallas ‘s Facebook page – @dallasryanwrites on Instagram – @DallasRyan22 on Twitter – Dallas Ryan on TikTok
Nurse and TX native now enjoying lake life in VA. Mom to 2 kids and 5 dogs. Margarita snob. Only likes Moscato. Always had a dream to write a book and now I’ve published two and working on the next 2!
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Transcript:
Speaker A: 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.
Speaker A: 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.
Speaker A: At the end of each, we will finish off with the fairy tale or short story read as close to the original author’s version as possible.
Speaker A: I am your host.
Speaker A: Freya victoria I’m an audiobook narrator that loves reading fairy tales, novels and bringing stories to life through narration.
Speaker A: I am also fascinated by talking to authors and learning about their why and how for creating their stories.
Speaker A: We have included all of the links for today’s author and our show in the show notes.
Speaker A: Today is part two of two where we are talking to Dallas Ryan about her novels.
Speaker A: After today, you will have heard about writing from a young age prioritizing where to put the money you do have when starting out, what to do about reviews, learning the language of books and dealing with family and friends.
Speaker A: Reading your books unbroken.
Speaker A: Book two of the Gladewater series.
Speaker A: Once charmed by a smalltown girl, a big city doctor doesn’t stand a chance.
Speaker A: Attraction sizzled hotter than a skillet, but trouble from his past could put their love and her life at risk.
Speaker A: Cafe owner Maggie Wade has a magic touch when it comes to her business and caring for her friends.
Speaker A: Her own love life, that’s where she falters.
Speaker A: Thanks to an incident long ago that shattered her selfimage.
Speaker A: Then Dr.
Speaker A: Zane Savage comes to town.
Speaker A: The handsome Dallas neurologist can’t seem to take his warm whisky eyes off her.
Speaker A: Their attraction sizzles.
Speaker A: But Maggie’s been burned before.
Speaker A: Ever since, she’s kept her heart away from all sources of heat.
Speaker A: Zayn existed on a steady diet of Barbie doll types plastic temporary disposable until he meets Maggie.
Speaker A: One taste of her sweet smile, sparkling brown eyes and warm personality and he’s a goner.
Speaker A: So what if he’s been a player in the past?
Speaker A: Maggie makes him want to be a better man.
Speaker A: Despite the distance between them, their relationship takes flight and Maggie’s newfound confidence soars.
Speaker A: But when a piece of trash from Zayn’s past blows back into his life and refuses to be shaken off, the strain puts more than Maggie’s trust at risk.
Speaker A: It puts her life in danger.
Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I look at it and I’m all for it and I tell my people beta reading for me for this new book, which is a whole other, other lexicon that you have to learn when you start writing.
Speaker B: Because when I wrote my first book, I didn’t know any of this thing.
Speaker B: I never heard of an art reader or beta reader.
Speaker B: I didn’t know what developmental editing was.
Speaker B: I started getting some I didn’t know TikTok.
Speaker B: Yeah, I didn’t know how to do a TikTok.
Speaker B: I didn’t know how to do Instagram.
Speaker B: I mean, I didn’t know any of this stuff, and so it’s been a huge learning curve.
Speaker B: But I always tell my baby, I’m like, okay, don’t just tell me it’s wonderful and you love it.
Speaker B: Something is not working.
Speaker B: That information is just or more helpful.
Speaker B: Then you’re just telling me you love it.
Speaker B: Yeah, that come through it.
Speaker B: Because if you don’t like you’re the reader.
Speaker B: If you don’t like it, why don’t you like it?
Speaker B: I may or may not change it.
Speaker B: Maybe because something else is coming up that they don’t know about.
Speaker B: It’s got to be there.
Speaker B: Yeah, but it may be something oh, you know, you’re right.
Speaker C: Well, there’s a difference between one person having a problem with it and everybody say this is a problem, or a large majority doesn’t have to be everybody, but that’s obviously different.
Speaker B: Several of them come up saying, yeah, you look at it and go, okay.
Speaker B: One person says it’s probably just opinion.
Speaker C: So what do you do to help sell your books?
Speaker C: Like, what is your promotion process look like?
Speaker C: Or not necessarily the process, but what do you do?
Speaker B: Mostly I have a Facebook page, but I didn’t find that to be as productive as Instagram.
Speaker B: And now I’m trying also to move into TikTok To advertise.
Speaker B: I just started a YouTube channel with two things on it.
Speaker B: So everybody go check them and like them and subscribe.
Speaker B: So I’m trying to learn all these.
Speaker B: I learn it all.
Speaker B: Every one of them is different.
Speaker B: And I create content for it.
Speaker C: Right.
Speaker B: So it takes a lot of time.
Speaker B: And I resisted.
Speaker B: I mean, they pulled me kicking and screaming to TikTok because I love Tik Tok.
Speaker B: I love watching Tik Tok.
Speaker C: But doing it yourself.
Speaker B: But they’re like, no, you have to come on.
Speaker B: OK, so now it’s kind of fun.
Speaker B: But after a while I’ve got to come up with new try to come up with new things and not be just the same thing every time.
Speaker C: I think I’ve done all of one music.
Speaker C: Mine are typically just me talking.
Speaker B: I haven’t done any of me on TikTok yet.
Speaker B: And I’m resisting that because just for professional purposes.
Speaker B: For my other job.
Speaker C: Yes.
Speaker B: I don’t want clients that I don’t want to know that because I write a pen.
Speaker B: So I don’t want clients to see my face on TikTok and go, she writes, okay, we can do that.
Speaker C: This is why I don’t narrate under.
Speaker B: My name for some of them.
Speaker C: Okay, so you’re doing instagram tik tok?
Speaker C: Mostly.
Speaker C: And how are those?
Speaker C: Do you seem to have figured it out so far or still trying different things to figure it out?
Speaker B: It’s getting there.
Speaker B: The Instagram, I’ve got over a thousand followers now, so that’s exciting and figuring out the hashtag, I built up a pretty good base on Instagram.
Speaker B: I’ve met a lot of good people there.
Speaker B: I get all my arc readers and my beta readers off of Instagram and built up a group of people from there and made some great offers, too.
Speaker B: That’s another thing I found on Instagram with Indie offers.
Speaker B: Everybody that I’ve met so far hasn’t met once, not been like this has been so supportive and helpful.
Speaker B: And you’ll be in a group and go, how do you do that?
Speaker B: I don’t know how to do that.
Speaker B: Okay, this is how you do it.
Speaker B: And they’re just willing to do anything to help you out from wherever you are.
Speaker C: Yes.
Speaker B: It sounds like a stupid question that you shouldn’t know before you start, but you don’t.
Speaker B: You just start writing.
Speaker B: I’m just going to write a book.
Speaker B: And then you don’t realize that marketing the book.
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker B: Nice and supportive, helpful.
Speaker C: Writing is the easy part.
Speaker B: Exactly.
Speaker B: The writing is the easy part.
Speaker B: Never would have thought that.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker B: So in Tick tock, it’s just a matter of get you can’t I think it’s a thousand people you have to have, which congratulations, you got your thousand.
Speaker B: Thank you.
Speaker C: I did my first live this morning.
Speaker B: You can’t do a group.
Speaker C: No, Monetize, I think you have to have like ten or 15,000.
Speaker C: It’s like a lot bigger.
Speaker B: There’s something I think maybe it was a group thing you couldn’t do 1000 because somebody was going to do something.
Speaker B: Ask me if I wanted to do it with them and I could have a thousand.
Speaker C: It’s the live because the lives you see some people do group live.
Speaker C: If you can’t live at all, you can’t group live either.
Speaker C: So this morning I had it was like, do you want to join so and so’s live?
Speaker C: And I’m like, no, I don’t.
Speaker C: I don’t know who that is.
Speaker B: I did a lot of those and I’m like, no.
Speaker C: I also got tagged in a voiceover video.
Speaker C: And I’m like, voiceover doesn’t apply.
Speaker C: Like, that’s a different ball game.
Speaker C: I don’t play that game.
Speaker C: I play the narration game.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker B: We don’t know what the differences are sometimes.
Speaker B: It’s all such a big learning curve.
Speaker B: With every book you get a little better.
Speaker B: You hope that people, they’re new to seeing your latest book will go back and pick up your previous book.
Speaker C: Right.
Speaker C: So do you have any tips or tricks or advice for anyone just getting started out?
Speaker B: Well, the biggest one I’ve already said is just write it.
Speaker B: Keep writing no matter what.
Speaker B: And two, you really have to think about marketing before you’re even done with the bar.
Speaker C: Right.
Speaker B: So if you can get a cover done, decide on your cover early.
Speaker B: You can do things with that ramping up to your what’s coming up.
Speaker B: Do lots of people’s work in Progressing?
Speaker B: I try to throw out like little paragraphs or dialogue of whatever I’m working on every once in a while to get people interested in what’s coming up other than just cramming the ones you’ve already got out down the road, which you have to do.
Speaker C: Right.
Speaker B: And yet we got to be consistent.
Speaker B: If you throw one thing up there and then don’t come back for three weeks, you’re not going to be following that way.
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker B: And you’ve got to build that following.
Speaker B: Answer everybody.
Speaker B: I’ve only heard of a couple of people this has happened to, but it just floors me.
Speaker B: Like somebody will reach out DM or something about your book or make some comment or always I answer everything and it’s like, I’m open on things right now, but I do because it makes the difference.
Speaker B: These people are taking the time to read your book, and depending on how fast you read, it may take a week or more for them to get through something that you wrote.
Speaker B: So be appreciative.
Speaker C: The only ones I delete are the spammy ones.
Speaker C: I don’t answer those.
Speaker C: Yeah, like, I just got one that.
Speaker B: Was like, no, I got those either.
Speaker C: Yeah, I just got one.
Speaker C: Your patreon doesn’t accept bitcoin.
Speaker C: Okay.
Speaker C: I accept other forms of payment.
Speaker C: I’m guessing there’s some scam with bitcoin and patreon.
Speaker C: I don’t know.
Speaker B: Probably.
Speaker B: I get people that, oh, I’d love to review your book.
Speaker B: And my first thing now is how much?
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker B: Because I’m like, I’m not paying for reviews at this point.
Speaker C: Yeah, I get that for podcasts, too.
Speaker C: They’re like promoted on this one.
Speaker C: And then you message that one and it’s like, oh, we charge whatever for.
Speaker B: I’m not doing that at this point.
Speaker B: I’ve got enough people that are willing to read it and review it for free.
Speaker C: For Podcasts.
Speaker C: I advertise on Facebook.
Speaker C: Well, Facebook does Facebook and Instagram and messenger, like all those three places.
Speaker C: So I have it set for like I’m not going to spend a fortune.
Speaker C: I have like $5 a day set.
Speaker C: I have two different podcasts, $5 a day apiece.
Speaker C: And that’s it, right?
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker C: So I’m sure when I eventually do release, I’ll put more money into my own books.
Speaker C: But for podcasts, I’m like, I don’t know how many people are listening off that anyways.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker B: You can only do what you can do and there’s limited funds.
Speaker B: And that’s another thing when you’re getting ready to market, is look at what’s going to give you the most bang for your buck.
Speaker B: If you are really funny and you’re out there and you don’t mind being on TikTok and you can do funny Tik tok and promote your book, what is it?
Speaker B: Diane.
Speaker B: She does the smuthood.
Speaker B: She’s really helped.
Speaker B: She’s hilarious.
Speaker C: Douglas last name?
Speaker A: I don’t think the first name is Diane.
Speaker B: Diane.
Speaker C: She always has the Smut shirt.
Speaker B: Yeah, the smudhood shirt.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker B: Which is great if you’re that person, put your time into TikTok, if you like to do your own reviews and build that book community, instagram is a great place to do that.
Speaker B: You just have to decide what you’re most comfortable with and what’s going to take because it takes a huge chunk of time to do the marketing part of it, but you have to do it because you won’t be able to read your book.
Speaker C: Right.
Speaker C: You won’t get readers well, you’ll get very, very few readers of people just scrolling through that stumble across it.
Speaker B: Yeah, I still haven’t mastered hashtags.
Speaker B: I don’t know what I’m making stuff up as I go with the hashtag.
Speaker C: It’s a hashtag generator.
Speaker C: So you’ll put in, say, like, book romance, and you’ll put in, like, a few, and then it’ll give you recommendations on, like, here’s similar ones that people use.
Speaker C: And it’s like a website.
Speaker C: And so I just have it bookmarked on my phone so that I can just click on it.
Speaker B: You need to send me that.
Speaker C: I found that last year sometime.
Speaker C: And so that’s what I use now.
Speaker C: For every podcast episode that I do, I’ll do relevant hashtags.
Speaker C: And it’s specific to instagram.
Speaker C: So, like, it’s pulling from Instagram stuff that’s working, that works well.
Speaker C: And you can say if you have, like, your own that you’ve made up, like, say you have your name as a hashtag that you use, you can say, oh, I only need 29 instead of 30.
Speaker C: And it does it for you.
Speaker B: Cool.
Speaker C: Or you can go through and take out I’ve had to take out some that you’ll put in romance, and you’ll get these really weird ones that have nothing to do with what you’re doing.
Speaker C: So I need to manually adjust what hashtags you’re giving me.
Speaker B: Yeah, don’t read them.
Speaker B: Don’t just take all of them.
Speaker B: Another author friend of mine came up with the one, Hallmark After Dark.
Speaker B: Because Hallmark, you can’t put any sex in the home if you’re ready.
Speaker C: Yeah, it’s all clean.
Speaker B: You’re lucky if you get kissing.
Speaker B: It’s all clean.
Speaker B: Clean, yeah.
Speaker B: And so somebody said that her that her books were like Hallmark After Dark.
Speaker B: And I’m like, that’s great because it’s small town.
Speaker B: We both write small town romance.
Speaker B: It’s definitely not clean, but it’s got stuff in there.
Speaker B: So we’re like Hallmark after dark.
Speaker B: That’s brilliant.
Speaker B: So we’re trying to make that it’s.
Speaker C: Like back in the day, or probably not back in the eye that had cable in forever, but the Cartoon Network would do the Adult Swim or whatever at night.
Speaker C: Not kid approved.
Speaker B: Yeah, I’ve been to that.
Speaker C: So it’s like, that Hallmark after.
Speaker C: I like that.
Speaker C: That’s a good hashtag.
Speaker C: You could add that into your thing.
Speaker C: Now, some hashtags I’ll put in there, like, what is it?
Speaker C: Narrator?
Speaker C: I don’t think it recognizes narrator as, like, a valid hashtag.
Speaker C: So I always have to add a few narrator hashtags on there.
Speaker C: But for the most part, it does a good job of giving valid recommendations and that help it get to more people.
Speaker B: Well, anything else I tell you, yeah.
Speaker C: I max those out every time.
Speaker C: Well, every big one, like book related one, I always make sure I max it out for max engagement.
Speaker B: Yeah, well, that’s what you need because you’re always wanting to pick up new people that are relevant.
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker B: They’re not just trying to date you on Instagram.
Speaker C: Hey, beautiful, how are you?
Speaker B: Hello, dear.
Speaker B: Okay.
Speaker B: Automatic.
Speaker C: No, I had one comment on one of my TikTok videos and it was some super smarmy comment on my thing.
Speaker C: And I commented back and I was like, that’s funny, you don’t look like my husband.
Speaker C: Because that’s the only person I should be saying that kind of stuff to me.
Speaker C: And then I don’t remember he commented back and I’m like, dude, I’m not interested.
Speaker C: This is not going to happen.
Speaker B: Yeah, not even.
Speaker C: That is another reason for creating pseudonyms.
Speaker C: I have like my real life that I have to be like, professional and all of this and have background checks run occasionally.
Speaker C: And then I have my two pseudonyms that I use that are like one is the Nicer, the Public Domain books and the nonfiction and the Christian fiction.
Speaker C: And then there’s the fray of Victoria.
Speaker C: That’s all the spicy stuff.
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker C: So the first spicy book author that I got a kid with her, that she’s the reason that this name had to come into being cause she’s like but I have a she said she has a what did she say?
Speaker C: 50 Shades of Gray, like book, like inspired by or like that type of content.
Speaker C: And she was like, is that going to be okay?
Speaker C: And I’m like, we’re going to create a different name so we can have all of your stuff under the same name.
Speaker B: Just can’t do that.
Speaker B: I know some of it.
Speaker B: You’re just okay, yeah, I’ve got a couple of things working that’s up there and I’m like, okay, I’ll have to have another different name for that one.
Speaker C: Yeah, well, a lot of authors do.
Speaker C: I don’t intend to have like all of my stuff will be spicy, so we’re just going to throw it all under Freya Victoria and call it a day.
Speaker C: And as long as none of my family ever helped me move and see the books in my house, we’re good.
Speaker C: Otherwise.
Speaker B: I had relatives buy my first book and she won.
Speaker B: My uncle, he’s like in his 80s bought it.
Speaker B: And I was like, okay, one, the bad guy in the first book is his name, and I said, tell him it’s not based on him.
Speaker B: I just used his name, don’t panic.
Speaker B: And two, apparently I was told he didn’t finish reading it because it wasn’t his cup of tea.
Speaker B: And I was like, well, I could have told him that.
Speaker B: Yeah, thank you for buying it anyway.
Speaker B: But yeah, pass it on to somebody that’s going to enjoy it.
Speaker B: I’ll have no trouble with that.
Speaker B: But it was funny.
Speaker B: I was like, oh, and my kids, my kids who are well, one of them is grown and I can’t get her to read it for nothing.
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker C: My mom is like, I can’t read it.
Speaker B: Yet.
Speaker B: I’m like, fine.
Speaker C: My husband has listened to the One Audiobook, and there’s no spicy content in that book but the One, because I begged him, like, I need someone else to listen to this besides me.
Speaker C: And then he listened to the first one, and then he didn’t listen to the next two.
Speaker C: And I’m like, come on, dude.
Speaker C: Whatever.
Speaker B: I know it’s as funniest.
Speaker B: Your family the ones you think would be, like, all over the place, whatever.
Speaker C: Yeah, I don’t intend to tell my mom.
Speaker C: And my sister and my best friend know.
Speaker C: Nobody else knows.
Speaker C: They don’t know what name I used.
Speaker C: They know that I narrate audiobooks, but they don’t know what name I narrate under, so they can’t oh, my sisterinlaw knows because my sisterinlaw was like, hey, I want to know.
Speaker C: And I’m like, cool.
Speaker C: Don’t tell your parents.
Speaker C: Just like, okay, cool.
Speaker C: And so I’m like, just know that I do some spicy books.
Speaker C: I had done a couple of erotica ones at that point.
Speaker C: And I’m like, just make sure you read the blurbs, because I’m not going to be held responsible if you accidentally get an erotica and you freak out.
Speaker C: So the first book that she gets is literally the dirtiest book that I have narrated.
Speaker C: And I’m like, did you read the blurb?
Speaker C: She’s like you did.
Speaker C: Good.
Speaker C: I’m like, oh, my God.
Speaker B: How about I didn’t write it, I just read it?
Speaker B: Because you never know.
Speaker B: But I have.
Speaker B: It’s funny because every year we have a beach trip that we go on with some girlfriends that I go on.
Speaker B: And so this year, I took both books.
Speaker B: They weren’t passed around, so that was fun because we got to discuss everybody got to discuss their favorite scenes out of which book.
Speaker B: And I get the eyebrow raising.
Speaker B: They read something.
Speaker B: I’m like, what scene are you reading?
Speaker C: I had my best friend Alpha reading for me, and she reads she says, spicy books, but clearly, based on what I’m writing, she reads very mild books because she gets to like, you know, they finally do it for the first time, and she sends me this meme that’s, like someone fanning herself.
Speaker C: And I’m like, well, I can tell where you’re at in the book.
Speaker C: She’s like, I’ve never read anything like that.
Speaker C: I’m like, yeah, maybe we need to ease you into it something else.
Speaker C: We need a scale.
Speaker C: What’s the worst that you’ve read?
Speaker C: And she tells me, and I’m like, oh, my God.
Speaker C: No, that’s not even bad at all.
Speaker C: I’m over here reading, like, Sierra Simone.
Speaker B: Oh, my goodness.
Speaker C: We’re not on the same plane.
Speaker B: Exactly.
Speaker B: I’m not on the Sierra Simone plane yet, but we’re trying.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker C: I’ve never read anything else.
Speaker C: Like, I don’t even know who else is up.
Speaker C: I read that based on Dear Jaw.
Speaker C: Is it Deirdre on TikTok, the lady with the curly gray hair or the wavy gray hair?
Speaker C: She had recommended or was, like, talking about one of the books.
Speaker C: And then there was this other lady that, like, went on a long car trip and asked for recommendations and talked about the Priest series.
Speaker B: And so I’m like, okay, I’m going.
Speaker C: To get it and I’m going to read it.
Speaker C: And so I did and was like, I’ve never read anything like that before, so I don’t know who else writes like that.
Speaker B: Yeah, plenty of people.
Speaker B: Yeah, but she’s very good.
Speaker B: I listen to all hers on audiobook, too.
Speaker B: Okay.
Speaker B: Now it’s so funny and I’m in awe.
Speaker B: I can remember when I was writing to Lie.
Speaker B: It was a pretty slow burn kind of book because there it’s a second chance thing.
Speaker B: They were high school sweethearts things back up as adults and have to get over a bunch of history before anything happens.
Speaker B: So I got to my first sex scene, and that was the hardest scene I’ve ever written anywhere, ever.
Speaker B: I had to rewrite that first thing I got to my editor.
Speaker B: I was so proud of it the first time.
Speaker B: I was like, oh my God, I got through this thing.
Speaker B: It sounds pretty good.
Speaker B: I’m happy she reads it.
Speaker B: She’s like, no way.
Speaker B: Too cliche.
Speaker B: Blah, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker B: Rewrite it.
Speaker B: And it’s just like torture.
Speaker B: Rewriting the things.
Speaker B: I felt like I’m happy with how it came out finally.
Speaker B: Oh, my God.
Speaker B: So I rewrite that thing like, five times before what ended up in the book to get it right.
Speaker B: Now the second book, I’m broken.
Speaker B: Now they meet up.
Speaker B: They’re a new couple, so they get into things a little bit faster.
Speaker B: So that was a little bit easier.
Speaker B: When she gets going, it gets a little easy to do in my first one.
Speaker C: The more you do it, too.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker B: Remember the first the third book, the first chapter is get started in the first chapter.
Speaker B: So yeah.
Speaker C: So it’s a little bit weird.
Speaker C: Like, when I’m reading for narrations, like, I do spicy books and so like, not all, but some.
Speaker C: And it’s more clinical when you’re reading through it for a narration because you’re like, how am I going to do this to make it come across believable?
Speaker C: But as far as having to redo it, yesterday I did the big, like, main character like the big, saddest main character dying scene.
Speaker C: And I send it to the author and I say, I’m very proud of the way this came out.
Speaker C: So you’re not allowed to poo poo on it because, like, I don’t want to redo it.
Speaker C: It came out exactly how it went on my heado.
Speaker C: It and tears.
Speaker C: There were actual like I got to the page with that on it and I was like, Already?
Speaker C: Tears were coming.
Speaker C: Because I’m like, I know it’s coming.
Speaker C: Oh, no.
Speaker B: I don’t want to write people dying.
Speaker B: That’s one thing why I like getting in the romance genre.
Speaker B: Because I want your happily ever.
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker B: Nicholas sparks.
Speaker B: Everybody dies.
Speaker C: He’s super mild.
Speaker C: Okay?
Speaker C: He doesn’t count.
Speaker B: No, but we have this conversation all the time about Nicholas Sparks in the romance community.
Speaker B: A lot of people are like, he’s not a romance author because somebody is not a happy ever after.
Speaker B: Somebody always dies.
Speaker B: Somebody always dies with that.
Speaker C: Now, the one thing that I do say, he does well because there are a lot of men that write sex scenes that do it, and you’re just like, he does do those well.
Speaker C: Like, it is not cringy the way that he does this.
Speaker B: I have a feelup in it, which is a good thing.
Speaker B: But, yeah, I’m like I said, Why don’t you die at the end?
Speaker B: Quit making them die.
Speaker C: And they don’t have to.
Speaker C: Now, I read I don’t remember who the author was.
Speaker C: I read one where it was like she was in this weird triangle.
Speaker C: Like she loved two guys.
Speaker C: But she really wanted to be with the one guy.
Speaker C: And it was this whole weird thing.
Speaker C: But then the one guy ends up dying and then she ends up with the other guy.
Speaker C: And it was like.
Speaker C: Oh.
Speaker C: This is why I’ve been torn between these two guys this whole time.
Speaker C: It was a weird way to end it, but it did end up happy.
Speaker C: It was just not the happy you thought was coming.
Speaker B: Yeah, my editor got me a little bit the second book because it kind of ends a little bit cheesy.
Speaker B: But I did it that way.
Speaker B: I did it purposefully cheesy.
Speaker B: I wanted something just kind of fun at the end because there’ve been a lot of drama, dark drama.
Speaker B: I kind of like to do the dark drama built in between the part to give it some more interest.
Speaker B: He had the drama there at the end, so I wanted something really light and fun at the end.
Speaker B: She’s like, okay, this is really cheesy.
Speaker B: But if you’re going for cheesy, that’s fine.
Speaker C: At the end of the day, in most romances, they meet.
Speaker C: Guy gets the girl, girl gets the guy, whichever way you want to look at it.
Speaker C: The difference is how they get from point A to point Z.
Speaker C: Like, what was the journey throughout the whole thing?
Speaker C: Like, what was the big conflict that tore them apart in the middle of the book?
Speaker C: What did the family think the first time?
Speaker C: Did they all love them immediately?
Speaker C: Or was it some big oh, my God, why did you bring her here moment.
Speaker C: The journey is different in every book.
Speaker C: And if the journey is not different, that means you’re copying someone else, and shame on you.
Speaker B: And they are similar because it’s funny because I took an online class the other night on things that have to be in a romance novel because I thought it would be interesting.
Speaker B: And so I took it and I was, like, writing notes and everything.
Speaker B: I was like, oh, okay.
Speaker B: I did that cool.
Speaker B: I did that.
Speaker B: I did all these things.
Speaker B: I did not do it right.
Speaker C: It’s weird seeing when people break it down for you, thinking about like, did I do that?
Speaker C: I’m trying to think what I saw.
Speaker C: Someone was breaking down something.
Speaker C: Oh, they were talking about prologues and how to start your book and all of this.
Speaker C: And it was like, don’t do this because it’s been too overdone.
Speaker C: And I’m like, but it works.
Speaker C: That’s why the book sell.
Speaker C: That’s the point of writing a book, not to be original.
Speaker C: Completely follow the pattern.
Speaker C: That works.
Speaker B: I got a review just yesterday.
Speaker B: What did it say?
Speaker B: I was laughing about it with one of my author friends because it says something about it followed this romantic trope.
Speaker B: And I’m going, yes, that’s kind of because it’s a romance book and that’s what happened.
Speaker C: And you follow it?
Speaker B: Yeah, that’s kind of the way it works.
Speaker B: It got a good review, but I was just I thought that was funny.
Speaker B: I’m like, okay, you’re expecting not to have kind of how it’s going to go along with you.
Speaker B: Okay, I don’t know what else you’re reading, but romance is a thing.
Speaker B: It just kind of follow the trope.
Speaker C: Now, if you have it categorized in a different genre and someone’s not, you have it categorized to something not romance and then it ends up being a romance.
Speaker C: That’s poor category placement.
Speaker C: But if you pick up a romance, you should expect a romance out of that, right?
Speaker B: Exactly.
Speaker B: I just got finished reading one and it was in romance.
Speaker B: It must be in a romance.
Speaker B: And it was a clean romance, which is fine, a lot of people do those really well.
Speaker B: But I was reading the majority, and it’s a very short book.
Speaker B: And majority of the book was this woman’s father is being threatened to be the BA and his father’s being threatened and people are coming after her and the family trying to get him not to prosecute this guy.
Speaker B: And it was interesting.
Speaker B: Some things she doesn’t one of those I never picked up a gun thing, she’s right about baby seals.
Speaker B: But okay.
Speaker B: But there was very little romance and it was clean on top of that.
Speaker B: So I’m like, okay.
Speaker B: I don’t think I would actually call this a robot.
Speaker C: More action and adventure.
Speaker B: Action adventure, yeah, something like that.
Speaker B: Versus the romance.
Speaker C: Mafia is a category.
Speaker B: Oh yeah, that’s a big category.
Speaker B: You get lots of virgin tropes in Mafia, too.
Speaker C: I don’t know.
Speaker C: I haven’t quite figured out.
Speaker C: The one will clearly be Mythology, which is a subgenre of fantasy.
Speaker C: The other one, I haven’t quite figured out what genre that one’s going to be.
Speaker C: Whenever I get back in that headspace.
Speaker B: I know you have to figure it out.
Speaker B: And then Amazon, of course, has all the secret categories that you don’t know about, but I didn’t know about until I got what is it?
Speaker B: Publisher rocket.
Speaker B: I.
Speaker B: Think that’s what it called, kind of an app that gives you tells you you can go on and see where all these other people where they’re placed under what.
Speaker B: And there’s stuff like Southern fiction, there’s Southern women’s fiction, there’s medical drama, there’s all these things you’ve never heard of because they let you pop up with like three of them.
Speaker B: Contemporary romance, women’s fiction, women’s literature, Chicago or whatever.
Speaker B: But they don’t give you all those.
Speaker B: I found like a whole giant list of things you can add your books to, which is a trick to Amazon.
Speaker C: Sounds like an annoying trick.
Speaker B: It is an annoying trick.
Speaker B: And then they don’t give you that list.
Speaker B: When you pull up your book to see where your rank is, you can only see the ranks that they decide to show you.
Speaker B: Yeah, so I can be in twelve different categories, but I’m only going to see whatever, the top three that they.
Speaker C: Want to show you.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker B: Who knows how this on work?
Speaker B: And every time you try to think, you figure it out, change it.
Speaker C: That’s how everything works, though.
Speaker C: When you figure it out and they change the algorithm and you’re like, well, how do I do it now?
Speaker C: I don’t know.
Speaker B: I know I just learned how to do that.
Speaker B: Messing it up.
Speaker B: What’s going on?
Speaker C: My approach to all social media, I should say, is I’m just going to be me.
Speaker C: And either people are going to like that and follow me, or people are not going to like that and not follow me.
Speaker C: Like, at the end of the day, I don’t have the time to learn how to do something else.
Speaker B: Yeah, I know, but it’s really frustrating because they do they change the algorithms or something, or they change how many hashtags you change and you’re going, okay, I don’t have a full time social SEO person to keep this up for me, so I just got to kind of float along, do what I do, and hope it works.
Speaker B: Just like that.
Speaker C: Wait until I get an alert saying you’re doing it wrong.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker B: Somebody to tell me, we should do this now.
Speaker B: Okay, let’s try that.
Speaker B: I’ll do that when I go.
Speaker C: Some of those I don’t know to believe them or not, because like some I feel like they could just be trying to get you to do worse than ever.
Speaker B: But yes, it’s always like I said, it’s a giant the whole marketing thing is a giant learning curve that I just did not have any clue about or expect when I started writing.
Speaker B: So how did you figure out?
Speaker C: Did you like Google to figure it out?
Speaker C: Or how did you end up figuring it out?
Speaker B: Once I got on, you know, the basics, you got to see the Facebook page on Instagram.
Speaker B: So I started looking at other people’s stuff and see what they’re doing.
Speaker B: And then when I got into some groups and started meeting other authors and stuff.
Speaker B: I’m like, hey, I saw you did this.
Speaker B: How did you do that?
Speaker B: And they tell me how to do it or what app they did it on or how to make it happen.
Speaker B: So that’s been the most helpful because I’ll just be sorry, newbie questions.
Speaker B: How do I do that?
Speaker B: What is that, and how do I do it?
Speaker B: Where do I find it?
Speaker B: Yeah, and then go figure it out.
Speaker B: And that’s been the biggest help.
Speaker B: It’s just other authors helping me figure it.
Speaker C: You must be in the helpful Facebook groups, because, like, I’ve heard some nightmare stories about authors not being helpful.
Speaker B: And really?
Speaker B: Like I said, I’m not on Facebook that much.
Speaker B: I’m in several groups, but I’m not in it much.
Speaker B: Mostly your Instagram groups that I’ve gotten through there, especially.
Speaker B: There’s a small town romance lover group that I somehow got into.
Speaker B: I’m not even sure how I got into it to begin with, but I’m so glad I did some really great people and helpful people through there that we’re doing Countdowns to release.
Speaker B: We’re doing pre arc reading.
Speaker B: We’re making beta groups.
Speaker B: We’re doing all these things.
Speaker B: The first book, but I had no idea.
Speaker B: But it just takes time.
Speaker B: You can’t learn it overnight.
Speaker B: You’re not going to.
Speaker B: And you can just do what you can do.
Speaker B: It’s only so many hours in a day.
Speaker C: Right?
Speaker B: And even I’ve heard even the people that are traditionally published these days have to do a lot of their own stuff, too.
Speaker B: Yeah, I’ve heard that.
Speaker B: It’s not like it used to be where the publisher sends you out on a book tour.
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker B: Pays for everything.
Speaker B: And Sandra Bullock in Lost City, they don’t send you out to market your book and pay for everything.
Speaker B: And you have a publicist even now, even if you’re a traditionally published author, they’re not spending the money and the time to do that for you.
Speaker B: Unless you’re somebody famous.
Speaker C: Yes.
Speaker C: Unless you’re already big.
Speaker B: Right?
Speaker B: Unless you’re already big.
Speaker B: If you’re diana gave a total fan girl over, they’re going to love.
Speaker B: I mean, I met her once.
Speaker B: She’s like the most famous person I’ve ever met.
Speaker B: And I met her once in Richmond at a book saying they have every year there.
Speaker B: She’s getting some award of giving a talk.
Speaker B: And I went in there and saw her standing there, and I literally teared up.
Speaker B: I thought I was going to be able to speak.
Speaker B: I was like, oh, my gosh, it’s her.
Speaker B: I’ve read these books for 20 years, and there she is.
Speaker B: It’s herself.
Speaker B: I was a big dork, but she was so gracious and so nice.
Speaker B: That’s who I want to be when I grow up someday.
Speaker B: But not right.
Speaker B: Thousand word books that take ten years between books to come out.
Speaker B: Yeah, definitely.
Speaker C: I didn’t get into it until the show was a couple seasons in, and then I watched the show and had to buy the books to see how.
Speaker B: The books yeah, don’t even get me started on the show.
Speaker C: And so, like, I pretty much treat every and this is for every single book to movie to TV show.
Speaker C: I just treat them as separate entities and then I don’t get mad.
Speaker B: So hard, though.
Speaker B: And you’ve been reading something for a long time and you know, you read it multiple times.
Speaker B: We have huge discussions over, okay, that didn’t happen.
Speaker B: Why is he still alive?
Speaker B: He died the first book.
Speaker B: Why is he there?
Speaker B: That didn’t happen.
Speaker B: Why she’d be in such a b****?
Speaker C: Because I usually come across the TV show or the movie first.
Speaker C: So then I’m always like, let me read the book to see how it compares to what I’ve already seen.
Speaker C: Now, I haven’t gotten through the BS because I like plot.
Speaker C: So this was last Christmas.
Speaker C: Before last is when I got all the books.
Speaker C: And so I read through them.
Speaker C: But those are big books, so it took me a long time to read.
Speaker B: You always have to reread them because.
Speaker C: You miss stuff every day when bees came out.
Speaker C: And I haven’t gotten through bees yet because I had just plowed through the other eight books.
Speaker C: I’m like, I need a break.
Speaker C: I’m still on a break.
Speaker B: Something is coming out.
Speaker B: But the trick is when you know something is coming out, kind of when she’s going to have the next one out, you go back and start rereading the one before.
Speaker C: Yeah, eight before at one time.
Speaker C: And now I’m listening to the audio books because it’s like one of the top rated audio books of all time or whatever.
Speaker B: I have to be heard that event, too, to be a porter.
Speaker B: Yeah, she’s just amazing.
Speaker C: Yes, I’m listening through book one right now, but yes, I’m listening to the audiobooks and hopefully I’ll get through them all.
Speaker C: I’m listening through on Scribe, so sometimes the books get pulled down before I finish them.
Speaker C: But we’ll see because they just went up at the beginning of the month, so I might get lucky.
Speaker C: But they’re like 30 hours.
Speaker B: Yeah, I think I have it all on Audible somewhere that I just hold on to by getting a mood.
Speaker B: I started listening to them when they were all on CD.
Speaker C: Oh, yeah.
Speaker B: And we had to put CDs in the car.
Speaker C: Yeah, I started Harry Potter that way.
Speaker C: I was delivery driving at the time, and my car had the CD player in it.
Speaker C: So I would buy with my tip money from delivery driving.
Speaker C: I would buy the next book and I would listen to that while I drove.
Speaker B: Oh, I know.
Speaker B: She’s a wonderful person, too.
Speaker B: She was there and very much but yeah, I just love listening to anything.
Speaker B: I don’t know.
Speaker B: I don’t even know what else she married other things.
Speaker B: I’m sure she does, but I’ve only ever heard of reading outlander.
Speaker B: I looked it up.
Speaker B: I love her she’s the one that I don’t think about too much.
Speaker B: The only thing that bothers me is her American accent.
Speaker B: She does not do a good American accent.
Speaker B: The one main character is from Boston.
Speaker B: Brianna is from Boston and says, I have a Boston accent.
Speaker B: And I’m like, no, I love divina, but no, not pulling out everything else.
Speaker B: The men, the women, all over different things she does, but that one thing.
Speaker C: Well, I need to get off.
Speaker B: That’s fine.
Speaker B: No problem.
Speaker C: But I wanted to say thank you very much for coming on here, and.
Speaker B: Thanks for having me.
Speaker B: Well, thanks so much.
Speaker B: I appreciate it.
Speaker C: No problem.
Speaker C: You have a good rest of your Saturday.
Speaker B: You too.
Speaker B: Take care.
Speaker C: Bye.
Speaker B: Bye.
Speaker B: Bye.
Speaker A: As she got older, Dallas liked Mulan, which she read with her kids because she was such a strong person.
Speaker A: Huang Mulan is a legendary folk heroine from the Northern and Southern Dynasties era, fourth to 6th century Ce.
Speaker A: Of Chinese history.
Speaker A: According to legend, Mulan took her aged father’s place in the conscription for the army by disguising herself as a man.
Speaker A: In the story, after prolonged and distinguished military service against nomadic hordes beyond the Northern frontier, mulan is honored by the emperor, but declines a position of high office.
Speaker A: She retires to her hometown, where she is reunited with her family and reveals her gender, much to the astonishment of her comrades.
Speaker A: Scholars generally consider Mulan to be a fictional character.
Speaker A: Hua Mulan is depicted in the Wu Shuang Poo by Jiangu Julian.
Speaker A: Today we’ll be reading The Homecoming, a story featuring another strong female, Athena.
Speaker A: 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.
Speaker A: You can find the link in the show notes.
Speaker A: The homecoming now.
Speaker A: All these 20 years in the island of Ithaca, penelope had watched for her husband’s return, at first with high hopes and then in doubt and sorrow when news of the great war came by some traveler.
Speaker A: She had waited, eager and constant as a young bride.
Speaker A: But now the war was long past.
Speaker A: Her young son Timachus had come to manhood, and as for Odysseus, she knew not whether he was alive or dead.
Speaker A: For years there had been trouble in Ithaca.
Speaker A: It was left a kingdom without a king, and Penelope was fair and wise.
Speaker A: So suitors came from all the islands round about to beg her hand in marriage, since many loved the queen and as many more loved her possessions and desired to rule over them.
Speaker A: Moreover, everyone thought or said that King Odysseus must be dead.
Speaker A: Neither Penelope nor her aged fatherinlaw lairtes could rid the place of these troublesome suitors.
Speaker A: Some were nobles and some were adventurers, but they all thronged the palace like a pest of crickets and devoured the wealth of the kingdom with feasts in honor of Penelope and themselves and everybody else.
Speaker A: And they besought the queen to choose a husband from their number.
Speaker A: For a long time she would hear none of this.
Speaker A: But they grew so glamorous in their suit that she had to put them off with craft.
Speaker A: For she saw there would be danger to her country and her son and herself unless Odysseus came home someday and turned the suitors out of doors.
Speaker A: She therefore spoke them fair and gave them some hope of her marriage to make peace.
Speaker A: Ye princely woers, she said.
Speaker A: Now I believe that the king Odysseus, my husband must long since have perished in a strange land and I have besought me once more of marriage.
Speaker A: Have patience, therefore, till I shall have finished the web that I am weaving.
Speaker A: For it is a royal shroud that I must make against the day that Lairties must die.
Speaker A: The father of my lord and husband.
Speaker A: This is the way of my people, said she and when the web is done, I will choose another king for Ithaca.
Speaker A: She had set up in the hall a great loom and day by day she wrote there at the web.
Speaker A: For she was a marvelous spinner, patient as Arachne, but dear to Athena.
Speaker A: All day long she would weave, but every night in secret she would unravel what she had brought in the daytime so that the web might never be done.
Speaker A: For although she believed her dear husband to be dead yet her hope would put forth buds again and again.
Speaker A: Just a spring that seems to die each year will come again.
Speaker A: So she ever looked to see Odysseus coming three years and more she held off the suitors with this while and they never perceived it for, being men, they knew nothing of women’s handicraft.
Speaker A: It was all alike, a marvel to them both the beauty of the web and this endless toil in the making.
Speaker A: Ask for Penelope.
Speaker A: All day long she wove but at night she would unravel her work and weep bitterly because she had another web to weave and another day to watch.
Speaker A: All for nothing, since Odysseus never came.
Speaker A: In the fourth year, though, a faintless servant betrayed the secret to the wars.
Speaker A: And there came an end to peace.
Speaker A: And the web too.
Speaker A: Matters grew worse and worse.
Speaker A: Tomacus set out to find his father and a poor queen was left without husband or son.
Speaker A: But the suitors continued to live about the palace like so many princes and to make mary on the wealth of Odysseus while he was being driven from land to land and wreck to wreck.
Speaker A: So it came true that prophecy that in the herds of the sun were harmed odysseus should reach his home alone in evil plight to find sorrow in his own household.
Speaker A: But in the end he was to drive her forth.
Speaker A: Now, when Odysseus woke, he did not know his own country.
Speaker A: Gone were the Phoenicians and their ship.
Speaker A: Only the gifts beside him told him that he had not dreamed while he looked about.
Speaker A: Bewildered, Athena, in the guise of a young country man, came to his aid and told him where he was.
Speaker A: Then, smiling upon his amazement and joy, she shone forth in her own form and warned him not to hasten home, since the palace was filled with the insolent suitors of Penelope, whose heart waited empty for him as the nest for the bird.
Speaker A: Moreover, Athena changed his shape into that of an aged pilgrim and led him to the hut of a certain swineherd Umaus, his old and faithful servant.
Speaker A: This man received the king kindly.
Speaker A: Taking him for a travel worn wayfarer and hold him all the news of the palace and the suitors.
Speaker A: And the poor queen.
Speaker A: Who was ever ready to hear the idle tales of any traveler.
Speaker A: If he had aught to tell of King Odysseus now.
Speaker A: Who should come to the hut at this time but the prince Telemachus.
Speaker A: Whom Athena had hastened safely home from his quest?
Speaker A: You may have received his young master with great joy, but the heart of Odysseus was night of bursting, for he had never seen his son since he left him an infant for the Trojan War.
Speaker A: When Uma’s left them together, he made himself known, and for that moment Athena gave him back his kingly looks, so that Telemachus saw him with exultation, and they two wept over each other for joy.
Speaker A: By this time, news of her son’s return had come to Penelope, and she was almost happy not knowing that the suitors are plotting to kill Telemachus.
Speaker A: Home he came, and he hastened to assure his mother that he had heard good news of Odysseus, though for the safety of all, he did not tell her that Odysseus was an Ithaca.
Speaker A: Meanwhile, Eumes and his aged pilgrim came to the city and the palace gates.
Speaker A: They were talking to a goat herd there, where an old hound that lay in the dust heap neared by, pricked up his ears, and stood his tail feebly, as had a wellknown voice.
Speaker A: He was the faithful Argus, named after a monster of many eyes that once served Juno as a watchman.
Speaker A: Indeed, when the creature was slain, juno had his eyes set in the feathers of her pet peacocks, and there they glistened to this day.
Speaker A: But the end of this Argus was very different.
Speaker A: Once the pride of the king’s heart, he was now so old and infirmed that he could barely move.
Speaker A: But though his master had come home in the guise of a strange beggar, he knew the voice, and he alone, after 20 years, Odysseus seeing him, could barely restrain his tears.
Speaker A: But the poor old hound, as if he had lived but to welcome his master home, died that very same day.
Speaker A: Into the palace hall went the swine herd and the pilgrim among the suitors, who were feasting there now.
Speaker A: How Odysseus begged a portion of meat, and was shamefully insulted by these men.
Speaker A: How he saw his own wife and hid his joy and sorrow, but told her news of himself, as any beggar might.
Speaker A: All these things are better sung than spoken.
Speaker A: It is a long story.
Speaker A: But the end was near.
Speaker A: The suitors had demanded the queen’s choice, and once more the constant Penelope tried to put it off.
Speaker A: She took from her safe treasure chamber the great bow of Odysseus, and she promised that she would marry that one of the suitors who should send its arrow through twelve rings ranged in a line.
Speaker A: All other weapons were taken away by the care of Telemachus.
Speaker A: There was nothing but the great bow and quiver.
Speaker A: And when all was ready, Penelope went away to her chamber to weep.
Speaker A: But first of all, no one could string the bow sooner.
Speaker A: After suitor tried and failed, the sturdy wood stood unbent against the strongest last of all, odysseus begged leave to try, and was laughed to scorn.
Speaker A: Telemachus, however, as if for courtesy’s sake, gave him the bow, and the strange beggar bent it easily, adjusted the cord, and before any could stay his hand, he sped the arrow from the string, singing with triumph, it flew straight through the twelve rings and quivered in the mark.
Speaker A: Now for another mark.
Speaker A: Cried Odysseus.
Speaker A: In the king’s own voice, he turned upon the most evil hearted suitor.
Speaker A: Another arrow hissed and struck, and the man fell pierced.
Speaker A: Telemachus sprang to his father’s side.
Speaker A: Uma stood by him, and the fighting was short and bitter.
Speaker A: One by one they slew those insolent suitors, for the right was theirs, and Athena stood by them.
Speaker A: And the time was come.
Speaker A: Every one of the falsehearted wooers they laid low, and every corrupt servant in that house.
Speaker A: Then they made the place clean and fair again.
Speaker A: But the old nurse, Yuri ClayA, hastened up to clean Penelope, where she sat in fear and wonder, crying, odysseus has returned.
Speaker A: Come and see with thine own eyes.
Speaker A: After 20 years of false tales, the poor queen could not believe her ears.
Speaker A: She came down into the hall, bewildered, and looked at the stranger as one walking in a dream.
Speaker A: Even when Athena had given him back his youth and kingly looks, she stood in doubt, so that her own son reproached her, and Odysseus was grieved in spirit.
Speaker A: But when he drew near and called her by name, entreating her by all the tokens that she alone knew, her heart woke up and sang like a brook set free in spring.
Speaker A: She knew him then for her husband.
Speaker A: Odysseus, come home at last.
Speaker A: Surely that was happiness enough to last them ever after.
Speaker A: Thank you for joining Freya’s fairy tales.
Speaker A: Be sure to come back next week to hear AK Mulford’s journey to holding her own fairy tale in her hands, and to hear one of her favorite fairy tales.
