Show Notes:
Today is part two of two where we are talking to Laura John about her novels. After today you will have heard about starting your writing career as a an adult, writing to help your mental health, letting your characters do the talking, getting your books in audio, navigating your career after chaos, finding the software that works best for you, the importance of building a community, and revealing details in your story when it’s necessary for the story.
Laura’s Website – Laura’s Facebook Page – Laura’s Instagram – Laura’s TikTok – Laura’s Twitter
Laura is a steamy romance author from Alberta, Canada, who melds love and angst together while normalizing mental illness. In her books, you will fall in love with her rock stars, bodyguards, baseball players, and even a hired hit man!
When she’s not writing, Laura enjoys reading, going to concerts, hiking, and experimenting with makeup! Music means everything to her, so make sure to check out her playlists to get a sneak peek into what inspires her!
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Transcript:
Speaker A: Welcome to Freya’s Fairy Tales, where you 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 episode, we will finish off with a 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’m 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 B: Be sure to check out our website.
Speaker A: And sign up for our newsletter for the latest on the podcast.
Speaker A: Today is part two of two where we are talking to Laura John about her novels.
Speaker A: After today, you will have heard about starting your writing career as an adult.
Speaker A: Writing to help your mental health, letting your characters do the talking, getting your books and audio navigating your career after chaos finding the software that works best for you, the importance of building a community and revealing details in your story when it’s necessary for the story summer dreams age is just a number.
Speaker A: Or is it?
Speaker A: Jax growing up, I had it all.
Speaker A: I never had to want for anything.
Speaker A: Everything was great and I had a family who cared.
Speaker A: But getting tangled up with the wrong crowd ruined that.
Speaker A: For years, I lived an addiction, battling the constant need for my next hit and doing shady things.
Speaker A: Someone saw more than that wasted addict and helped me get my life back together.
Speaker A: With dedication and sheer hard work, I’m finally in a good place.
Speaker A: At 40, I own a bar.
Speaker A: My bar and my employees are what keep me focused.
Speaker A: I let nothing come between me and what I treasure until a small man with light and sass threatens everything I believe.
Speaker A: When Kev comes into the picture, though, I realize sometimes addiction and obsession are one and the same.
Speaker A: He works his way into the very fiber of my being.
Speaker A: Burrows in my soul, I’m starting to feel things I thought I had buried years ago.
Speaker A: Coming back to the surface.
Speaker A: I want him, but he’s 21 years younger than me and everything I’m not.
Speaker A: Kevin my plans are set.
Speaker A: The moment I turn 18, I’m off to see anything outside this small NC town.
Speaker A: I’d escape the sleepy closed minds and search for acceptance and love elsewhere.
Speaker A: Funny thing about declaring plans sometimes the universe has other ideas.
Speaker A: Despite myself, I find love, support and even a family amid the small town community.
Speaker A: Finding my forever family, I realized I can’t leave.
Speaker A: They’re helping me grow and be the person I want to be.
Speaker A: Growing my wings, I find Jax grumpy, no nonsense, silver fox bar owner.
Speaker A: He is my opposite, cold, brooding, and distant.
Speaker A: But something about him draws me in.
Speaker A: Unfortunately, he wants nothing to do with me because of my age or maybe because our courtship started with a lie.
Speaker A: Once he finally lets his guard down and pulls his head out of his a**, we start to explore our relationship.
Speaker A: Just as everything starts leading in the direction we both want, our fresh romance has turned on its head.
Speaker A: Can I keep Jax beside me?
Speaker A: Or are we bound to break apart?
Speaker B: See, I’m like so because I do so much royalty.
Speaker B: Share Audiobooks I’m kind of like a few of the authors that I’ve gotten a good relationship with.
Speaker B: I’m like, I’m going to use you.
Speaker B: Like, I’m doing your books for nothing up front.
Speaker B: So if you’re willing to and have the time to, would you please also help me?
Speaker C: Well, and that’s really similar with my relationship with my sensitivity reader.
Speaker C: For my mm romances.
Speaker C: He has done all of my sensitivity reading for free.
Speaker C: And I know that that’s not how most people do it.
Speaker C: He’s just been super amazing.
Speaker C: And this year he has decided he’s right now indie published with an indie publishing house.
Speaker C: But he is going to be starting to do self publishing, which I’m so excited for him.
Speaker C: So he’s going to be self publishing some of his own books.
Speaker C: But he was like, how do I format?
Speaker C: And I was like, I’ve got you.
Speaker C: I will format for you for free.
Speaker B: Yeah, that’s the next thing.
Speaker B: So one of my authors, I’m pretty sure, I haven’t actually asked her, I’m pretty sure she just uses Pro writing aid.
Speaker B: I don’t think she pays an editor.
Speaker B: I’m not 100% on that though.
Speaker B: But she’s learned how to do formatting and stuff like that.
Speaker B: I’m like, I have a mac, so I can do vellum.
Speaker B: I know that’s a thing, but also I have to learn how to use it.
Speaker C: As someone who currently uses Atticus, I would highly recommend Vellum.
Speaker C: I like Atticus.
Speaker C: I do like Atticus, but I find.
Speaker B: It’S a little beta.
Speaker B: It’s not quite developed yet.
Speaker C: Yeah, I got it for a great price because that was the reason that I was like, going between the two.
Speaker C: Because I also have a Mac, so I was like, I can do Vellum, but Vellum is like double the price of Atticus.
Speaker B: I think realistically though, for someone who’s putting out as many books as you are, you’re not paying for it for every single book.
Speaker C: No.
Speaker C: My Love and Sienna Monster in the Shadows and my Sentinel Protection Duology, all of those books were edited by a friend of mine.
Speaker C: And obviously I paid for her editing, but then she kind of threw in formatting for me for free, just kind of like in with my price.
Speaker C: And so she formatted all of my books and she used Bellam and they’re also gorgeous and also amazing.
Speaker C: But then she had to for physical health and mental health reasons, she had to take a step back from editing.
Speaker C: So I found a new editor and then that’s when I started doing my own formatting.
Speaker C: I also think I did a great job.
Speaker C: I’m actually really happy with my Sultry summer series formatting.
Speaker C: I think it’s super cute.
Speaker C: But Atticus likes to give me a headache a lot of the time.
Speaker B: I don’t have time for headaches.
Speaker B: I need the one that’s like well developed.
Speaker B: Well, plus, me and my husband are both writing.
Speaker B: So like pro writing aid.
Speaker B: I paid for the lifetime membership, but on our taxes, we’re going to split that cost because absolutely.
Speaker B: I downloaded it onto his computer and it is on my computer.
Speaker B: They do not as long as it has the same login, we’re in the same household.
Speaker B: That is fine with me.
Speaker B: If they ask questions, I’ll just lie.
Speaker C: Let’s be real.
Speaker C: I mean, it’s accurate though.
Speaker B: Yeah, same household.
Speaker B: He just has my login.
Speaker B: Actually, I use the web version.
Speaker B: He has the downloaded version.
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker C: But yeah, I mean, if somebody didn’t have the money for Vellum, sorry.
Speaker C: I do recommend Atticus.
Speaker C: It is decent and you just have to mess around with it a bit more.
Speaker C: I’m now four books.
Speaker C: Books done on it.
Speaker C: Five books if we include JPS done on it.
Speaker C: So I am figuring it out now and it’s not quite as like I’ve just heard Vellum is a little bit more user.
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker C: And you can also for sure do more things on Vellum.
Speaker C: Like you can insert the fonts that you have paid for.
Speaker C: You can put those into Vellum and use it in the document.
Speaker C: Whereas Atticus, you have to insert images.
Speaker C: Like if you’re going to use a personal, like a font that you paid for.
Speaker A: It makes sense.
Speaker B: I can quite easily tell which ones have been formatted which ways based on how my PDFs copy over into Word or not.
Speaker C: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker B: I’ve definitely had some that word was like, we don’t know what these are.
Speaker C: Words are.
Speaker B: We don’t know what these words are.
Speaker B: These aren’t words.
Speaker B: What are words?
Speaker C: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker C: Because it’s an image, probably.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker B: I have one auth.
Speaker B: So typically in my narrating process, I take mostly I get PDFs from authors.
Speaker B: So I’ll take the PDF and convert it to a word so that I can get the word counts for each chapter.
Speaker B: So I know how many chapters I need to narrate each day to finish on time.
Speaker B: And there’s like one author I’ve narrated for that, I did that conversion thing and occasionally there’s like a couple of words that get changed or whatever, but the word count is going to be mostly accurate.
Speaker B: One author I narrate for, it completely changes all of her words.
Speaker B: None of her words are actual words anymore.
Speaker B: Random letters.
Speaker B: And I’m like, I have no idea.
Speaker B: So she has to provide me the Word counts for her chapters because I’m like, it doesn’t work.
Speaker B: I’ve tried converting it like five different ways, and it just doesn’t reckon.
Speaker B: I’m like, here’s screenshots of the random gibberish I’m getting.
Speaker B: These are not words.
Speaker C: Yeah, that’s crazy.
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker C: My new editing team, because I use Word usually to write in, but then also, like, my alphas, we usually use Google Docs to kind of communicate back and forth, like notes and stuff.
Speaker C: But my new editing team, they use Word, but it’s kind of great because then I have, like, at the end of everything, I have a really clean Word document, and then I just upload it into Atticus and it’s great.
Speaker C: But then also, if someone like you needs a Word document, I’m like, I got you.
Speaker C: There’s a clean word.
Speaker C: Document.
Speaker B: I do both me and my husband write in Google Docs so that we can do whatever.
Speaker B: But the version that the other people are commenting on and stuff is like copied version of they’re not in my actual version.
Speaker B: Plus, I have them set up on commenting only, not editing rights.
Speaker C: Right.
Speaker B: So what is the biggest piece of advice I should say I’m going to start doing?
Speaker B: What is the worst piece of advice you’ve gotten and the best piece of advice you’ve gotten?
Speaker C: Goodness, that’s tricky.
Speaker C: I think the best piece of advice I’ve gotten was to make sure, first of all, that you have good editing, but to make sure you build a community, to have people that you can connect with, that you can sound board off of, that are in similar processes of life.
Speaker C: And I know that’s not always the easiest thing to do.
Speaker C: And I have worked my way through multiple different groups of people because I feel like sometimes as you grow, you’ll grow in different directions, and that’s okay.
Speaker C: That’s nothing to do.
Speaker C: That’s not saying we had a fallout.
Speaker C: That’s not saying we’re not friends anymore.
Speaker C: It’s just saying we moved in different directions and life happens.
Speaker C: But having people you can connect with and share this journey with, I think is really important, and it’s been really good for my my mental health.
Speaker A: Oh.
Speaker C: And then I think the worst piece of advice I’ve been given is I don’t know.
Speaker C: I don’t necessarily know what bad advice I’ve been given.
Speaker C: Oh, that’s a tricky one.
Speaker C: I think the worst piece of advice I’ve been given is that it cost $10,000 to do.
Speaker B: Your own research on.
Speaker C: That, but also I didn’t know how to do the research on that one at the time.
Speaker C: And so I think that’s also why it’s great to have community and different people, because then you can go to them because sometimes just googling something doesn’t necessarily give you the information that you need, especially in indie writing circles and stuff.
Speaker C: There are some great blogs that do things, but some people still really like to gatekeep things.
Speaker B: I think TikTok has been the most informative for me.
Speaker B: I’ve only been narrating, like, a year and a half.
Speaker B: And I stumbled into it because I was searching for ways to make money from home instead of sitting on my couch reading, not making money.
Speaker B: And of course, if I’m reading all the time, I’d like to get paid for that.
Speaker B: So I’m like searching for, I don’t know, hashtag like, work from home or something like that, and stumbled across make $1,000 an hour narrating audiobooks.
Speaker B: And I’m like, okay, that’s clearly clickbait.
Speaker B: But then I immediately searched audiobook narrators and found Natalie Noddes and Tom Voiceover And at the time, Paige and Ruthie and all them were all starting about the same time that I did.
Speaker B: So none of us really had any advice for the others, but both Natalie and Tom both had, here’s how to build out your booth and get started on ACX and all of this, the basics of narrating that would help.
Speaker B: And I never am.
Speaker A: Like, I’m a professional because I have.
Speaker B: Like, I don’t even know how many audiobooks, 60 at this time.
Speaker B: I have no idea.
Speaker B: I have a lot of audiobooks.
Speaker B: And last year my roundup was so big, but when I started fiction, I did a lot of novella length ones.
Speaker B: So I’m like, it’s a little deceptive when most of those were, like, 30,000 or less words.
Speaker B: No.
Speaker C: It’S still low.
Speaker C: Like books I mean, it’s like the authors who write those novella length books because there are some authors who only write novella length books, and they’re putting out, like, a book a month.
Speaker C: And their reader base loves that.
Speaker B: For me and my husband’s books, I’m like, it does not matter because neither one of us planned to trad pub.
Speaker B: We were both like, we’re just going to self pub and call it a day.
Speaker B: But I’m like, for both of us, it’s like, it does not matter how big your book is, as long as you have told the story that needs to be told.
Speaker B: You haven’t left things out.
Speaker B: You haven’t added a bunch of written crap in that doesn’t need to be there.
Speaker B: For example, the book I’m currently writing is a Christmas based book.
Speaker B: Like, it is going to start at Christmas time.
Speaker B: And so there’s a bunch at the beginning of what you would expect from a Christmas book.
Speaker B: Her reminiscing about Christmas is past and pulling out the decorations and decorating the house, like things you would expect in a Christmas book.
Speaker B: And also like, I’m pulling a lot from my life for that.
Speaker B: What did I love about Christmas growing up?
Speaker B: So there’s two very short chapters on them decorating the house.
Speaker B: But it also draws into the like, how does she get a hold of this journal that’s going to whatever, right?
Speaker B: It’s there for a purpose.
Speaker B: So I’m like, if you can tell your story in 30,000 words, great.
Speaker B: If it takes 100 and 5200 thousand words to get your story.
Speaker B: Done.
Speaker A: Do that.
Speaker C: I am of the same mindset.
Speaker C: I have always said I don’t want to add words, just add words.
Speaker C: I don’t like adding fluff.
Speaker C: That’s not my writing style, and I don’t like it.
Speaker C: I also in what I consider I think most people fall into two categories.
Speaker C: Usually in their writing, you’re either an underwriter or an overwriter.
Speaker C: So overwriters are the people who write so many words and then their editor.
Speaker B: Tolkien, cuts the crap.
Speaker C: Done.
Speaker C: Tolkien?
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker C: You write so many words, and then when it gets to editing, your editor is like, don’t need this, don’t need that.
Speaker C: Cut, cut, cut, cut.
Speaker C: Whereas I’m an underwriter, so I typically forget to put in extra descriptions and this kind of stuff.
Speaker C: So when it gets to editing process even or, like, my Alphas, they’re like, can we have more?
Speaker C: Can we have descriptions here?
Speaker B: How did she feel here?
Speaker B: What did he do there?
Speaker B: From book one that I paused to book two, that’s book one was, like, dialogue, dialogue, dialogue, dialogue with, like, no, the description was so basic of, like, you had to know what the building looked like to make this scene make sense.
Speaker B: Whereas this other book, it’s like I’m sitting in the dust on the floor in the attic, digging through, like, the Christmas ornament boxes to decide, do we want to do this one or that one?
Speaker B: Or, like, it’s a lot more.
Speaker B: I’m, like, telling my husband, I’m, like, I’m 1000 words in and I haven’t used any dialogue yet.
Speaker C: And see, as a reader, obviously description is necessary.
Speaker C: But then I feel like some people over describe things.
Speaker C: Yeah, I don’t care that there’s a tiny dent in the wall unless maybe.
Speaker B: Pertinent to the story.
Speaker C: But it’s like, most of the time, I don’t care about that.
Speaker C: So why are you telling me about that?
Speaker C: And as a reader, I skim those parts.
Speaker C: And so as an author, I want to put a ton of that in.
Speaker C: But then my readers are like or editors are like, no, we definitely need that here.
Speaker C: And I’m like, fine.
Speaker B: I’m trying to ride the line of, like, there needs to be enough description where you know what the character is feeling and doing and all of that.
Speaker B: So that needs to be there.
Speaker B: But then I’m like, we’ve talked about the dad and how he’s, like, his own boss and all this.
Speaker B: And then I’m a little ways in before I even decide to pick, like, what does the dad’s job do?
Speaker B: And then it needed to be there for something I was about to say in the story.
Speaker B: So it’s like, what job would work well for this whole thing that I’ve described so far?
Speaker C: Right.
Speaker C: I’ve also done things like that.
Speaker C: Even with my most recent book that I’m currently working on, I clearly had set up that there’s, like, this crazy thing happening in the background of the story.
Speaker C: And in my head.
Speaker C: I had kind of figured out who the bad guy was going to be, but I didn’t have their motive yet.
Speaker C: And I was getting to a part in the story where I’m like, okay, I really need their motive or I can’t continue forward because why are they doing there has to be a motive.
Speaker B: Yes.
Speaker B: My daughter picked my bad guy because fairytale based.
Speaker B: So my daughter picked the fairy tale villain we’re going to go with for the series.
Speaker C: That’s so amazing.
Speaker B: I’m like explaining it to her and my husband and she’s like, what about this one?
Speaker B: And I’m like, that would be great, but it’s like one, I won’t reveal who it actually is until several books into the series same the creepy cackly laugh or something glimpses until it needs to be revealed who it is.
Speaker C: Well, even after I reveal who the bad guy is in the book, another bad guy ends up being like the bad bad guy.
Speaker C: You don’t see that coming.
Speaker C: Kind of tell like way farther on.
Speaker C: And then I still do like crazy things.
Speaker C: I just made my alpha reader cry.
Speaker C: And I was like, I’m sorry.
Speaker C: She’s like, no you’re not.
Speaker B: I’m like, that is I did my job correctly.
Speaker B: We’re good.
Speaker C: Exactly.
Speaker C: I guess her kids came into the room and they’re like, are you okay?
Speaker C: Are you crying?
Speaker C: And she’s like, leave me alone.
Speaker B: So I left chapter two, like I said, off on a cliffhanger of like and then I opened the journal up or whatever and the exact reaction that I wanted was, what’s in the journal?
Speaker B: That’s exactly what my best friend said.
Speaker B: And I’m like, we got it.
Speaker C: Well, that was like so Summer Dreams that just released two days ago is a little bit more suspenseful than the rest of the books in the Sultry summer series.
Speaker C: And like I said, my alphas get the book chapter by chapter.
Speaker C: So at the end of one chapter, they’re just like, oh my goodness, this is the biggest cliffhanger ever.
Speaker C: And then I got sick.
Speaker C: So then they had to wait three days to get anything else because I.
Speaker B: Was like, why are you waiting like a week or two for chapters to like a few days?
Speaker C: Well, they normally, like, when I’m actively writing, get at least one to two to sometimes more chapters a day for them few days.
Speaker C: And especially like leaving them on a cliffhanger.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker C: I’m not an author who writes cliffhangers in my books because they’re all interconnected standalones.
Speaker C: Every book that I have written has a happily ever after all of them.
Speaker C: But the joy that I got from leaving them on a cliffhanger like my alpha readers, I was like, maybe one day I will write series with a cliffhanger.
Speaker B: I will get into thriller and suspense just for one series.
Speaker C: Or like dark, right?
Speaker C: Like dark romance.
Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
Speaker B: My relationship is definitely not dark romance.
Speaker B: But I do like me a good dark romance doesn’t.
Speaker C: I love a good dark romance.
Speaker C: I mean, I only have one written, and I don’t know if I will go back into writing dark, but I definitely am kind of going into slightly more suspenseful just to give people a little bit more thrills.
Speaker C: And it’s been super fun writing it.
Speaker B: To keep them reading, too, if there’s something that they’re trying to figure out that helps move the story forward as well.
Speaker C: Exactly.
Speaker C: And it’s been super fun to write.
Speaker C: I kind of have loved the suspense aspects in the last three books that I’ve written, and I’m just trying to find, I guess, my happy place again.
Speaker C: Because the Sultry Summer series, at least the first three books in it, were a lot more, like, light and fluffy with still a lot of spice.
Speaker C: Like, don’t get me wrong, this is not a sweet romance.
Speaker C: None of my books are closed door.
Speaker C: You are getting full spice, but they were, like, lighter and fluffier.
Speaker C: And then well, the first two are extremely light, fluffy, super spicy.
Speaker C: But I would say not a lot of super angst or super crazy things happening.
Speaker C: Summer Memories, it was definitely a lot more emotional, a lot more angsty.
Speaker C: And then Summer Dreams was angsty and suspenseful and kind of crazy.
Speaker C: And I think people are going to be like, what?
Speaker C: But I also think they’re going to really love it.
Speaker C: I’m slightly concerned, though, that people are going to start with Summer Dreams and then go to read Long Summer Nights and be like, wow, this is I mean, you have to have that.
Speaker B: If they’re interconnected, you have to have like they can’t all be the same relationship.
Speaker B: You have to change it up.
Speaker B: They’re all different people.
Speaker B: Some people are more angsty than others.
Speaker C: Exactly.
Speaker C: And I think that that was my goal in this series, too.
Speaker C: Also, writing a small town that people would actually kind of want to live in was like, my goal with that series as well.
Speaker C: Yeah, there’s a few people who are, like, bigots and jerks and homophobes because that’s life.
Speaker C: But the core people and the core people that we follow in this story, they’re just, like, super loving and super accepting, and they don’t care who you are or who you love or what color your skin is.
Speaker C: And people I would want to be friends with because that’s kind of who I am.
Speaker C: I don’t judge you based on any of those things.
Speaker C: I will, however, judge if you don’t put your shopping cart away or if you don’t tip at a restaurant.
Speaker C: Those are the things I’m judging on.
Speaker C: Okay?
Speaker B: If you don’t tip at a restaurant, that just tells me you’ve never worked in a service job before.
Speaker B: Because I have to say, I was a kid when I worked in my first service job.
Speaker B: I mean, I was like 18 or 19 when I started, which I consider a kid technically.
Speaker B: I was an adult, but you have so much more of an appreciation for it if you have worked in a service related job before other ones.
Speaker B: I’m just like, anytime we go anywhere now at that time, it’s not like I’d been a whole lot of places by myself at 19, but nowadays, me and my husband is still in a service job.
Speaker B: We tip everywhere we go because it’s like we’ve experienced that our job, relying on our livelihood, relying on tips.
Speaker B: I tell my daughter that too.
Speaker B: I’m like, she’s eight right now.
Speaker B: But I’m like, I think it’s important that you work in my husband worked in a grocery store for a long time.
Speaker B: He’s worked in food for a long time now.
Speaker B: And I’m like, I think it’s important that everyone should work in one of those two locations at some time in their life.
Speaker B: Some grocery doesn’t have to be for a long time, but long enough to where you experience what a service related job is like.
Speaker B: So you’re a decent human being towards other service people.
Speaker C: 100%.
Speaker C: I’m, like a big advocate when my kids get well, even now, I mean, my kids are seven and five, soon to be six and eight, but they need to stop growing.
Speaker C: But yes, I’m pretty big on teaching them that they have to work for things, that nothing is free.
Speaker C: So when they become teenagers or whatever and they want something expensive, it’s like, okay, well, then you’re going to need to get a job because you’re going to have to pay for it.
Speaker C: Or you can do extra jobs around the house, not including what you have to do just because you live here and you are supporting the house.
Speaker B: We do an allowance, so we do not pay for anything for her other than clothes and food.
Speaker B: We pay for those.
Speaker B: But if you want a game or if you want a toy, or if you want something else beyond a birthday or Christmas time, you have to pay for those out of your allowance.
Speaker B: So she has her things she has to get done, and she earns so much a day if she’s done those things.
Speaker B: We have a calendar up with where I check mark or cross it off if she didn’t clean her room that day or whatever, right?
Speaker B: And so she’ll be like, Which, I saw that idea on TikTok, by the way, and she was like, oh, that’s.
Speaker C: Such a good idea.
Speaker B: And then literally the next month we started doing it, and she was like, I hate this.
Speaker B: Can we go back to where I just got free money?
Speaker B: And I’m like, well, no, because the house was a disaster.
Speaker C: Well, that’s kind of something.
Speaker C: We similar, so we have certain things that they have to do.
Speaker C: Just because they live here, they don’t get paid for it.
Speaker C: So putting their clothes in their laundry habit, keeping the room tidy, but then there’s certain things that they could do around the house to earn money, or for a while, it was to earn to color a box, because they were working up to buy a Nintendo Switch.
Speaker C: So each box was worth, like, I think, $5.
Speaker C: So it was like, okay, what can I do to earn a box today?
Speaker C: And I was like, okay, what do I think would be worth, like, $5?
Speaker C: Right?
Speaker B: Right.
Speaker C: Or if I picked, like, a really big thing, I’d be like, you can color two or three boxes.
Speaker B: Right?
Speaker C: Just kind of trying to keep it fairly fair.
Speaker C: And it worked really well, and I think it helped teach them that it wasn’t for free.
Speaker C: We do occasionally buy certain things, maybe for the family.
Speaker C: We buy amusement park passes for the year, those kinds of things.
Speaker C: But then we also tell them or remind them, I guess you’re lucky to have something like this and don’t brag about this, because not everybody can afford this.
Speaker C: Heck, we can barely afford it.
Speaker C: We’re more experienced people than physical items, so we like to do things with our kids, which is why we’ve done those passes and stuff for the year.
Speaker C: But, yeah, it’s like kids need to know the value of a dollar, because I think some kids are never taught that, and I hope to teach my kids that.
Speaker C: And they’ll probably work at a grocery store because that’s usually where most kids in our town work, either Walmart or a lot of times, like, Sobeys is our grocery store here.
Speaker C: So they’ll work there and either run a till or bag some groceries or.
Speaker B: Work in a restaurant doing the dishes or waiting tables.
Speaker B: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker B: There’s always something, and that also like the fact that you’re like, an author in ours, too.
Speaker B: I’m like, in my house, growing up, it was like, you need to go to college for whatever purpose.
Speaker B: Well, I dropped out after a year and a half, so I didn’t get a degree.
Speaker B: So I’m like, I don’t care if you go to college, but whatever job it is that you want to do, if that requires college, you have to go to college.
Speaker B: I don’t know.
Speaker A: I have no idea.
Speaker B: If you want to be a vet, you have to go to school to be a vet.
Speaker B: You can’t just be a vet.
Speaker C: No.
Speaker B: If you decide that you don’t want to go to school, I am still paying on my student loans ten years later.
Speaker B: I’m like, I would not like, no.
Speaker C: Don’T do it just because, yeah, I’m the same way.
Speaker C: Say you want to be a doctor.
Speaker C: Then obviously you got to go to school, a lot of school.
Speaker C: And the money that we have been putting away for our kids probably is not going to pay for all of that.
Speaker C: So we’ll pay a bit, but the rest you’re going to have get loans for probably if you’re going to be a doctor.
Speaker C: But, like, other things, you have.
Speaker C: To go to school for what you want and that’s really what you want, then do it.
Speaker C: But if you don’t know what you want to be, don’t go to school.
Speaker C: Just test.
Speaker B: Or you could go to community college.
Speaker A: And spend a whole lot less money.
Speaker B: While you think about it.
Speaker C: Yeah, but even taking a gap year to figure out what you need and saving up more money or whatever, that’s great.
Speaker C: I never went to college.
Speaker C: I did take some courses to do, like, a few things.
Speaker C: Like I’m a certified makeup artist, but I’m also no longer doing that.
Speaker B: You write books now?
Speaker C: I write books now.
Speaker C: I’m also a certified event planner.
Speaker C: I’ve never planned an event except, like, birthday parties.
Speaker B: I would help you with book events, though.
Speaker C: I would think that’s if I ever get to book events, I mean, I could plan on my own, but then who’s going to come to these?
Speaker C: And I also realized after I did it, I don’t really like planning events.
Speaker C: I thought I did.
Speaker B: I went to school for high school english deaf student education.
Speaker B: And I’m like, I would have gone crazy teaching high school students.
Speaker B: Why on earth did I do that?
Speaker C: I don’t want to go to school to be a teacher, but I learned in high school because I did work experience in a classroom, and I learned real quick that I don’t think I could be a teacher.
Speaker B: Well, thank you so much for your time today, and have a good rest of your Saturday.
Speaker B: I got to go get some lunch really quick.
Speaker C: Yes.
Speaker C: Have a good day.
Speaker B: You have a good day, too.
Speaker C: Bye.
Speaker C: Bye.
Speaker A: Laura liked Little Red Riding Hood growing up and still likes it today.
Speaker A: Little Red Riding Hood is a European fairy tale about a young girl and a sly wolf.
Speaker A: Its origins can be traced back to several pre 17th century European folktales.
Speaker A: The two best known versions were written by Charles Peralt and the Brothers Grimm.
Speaker A: The story has been changed considerably in various retellings and subjected to numerous modern adaptations and readings.
Speaker A: Other names for the story are Little Red Cap, or simply Red Riding Hood.
Speaker A: It is number 333 in the ARN Thompson classification system for folktales.
Speaker A: Today we’ll be reading The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids.
Speaker A: Another grim fairy tale.
Speaker A: Don’t forget we’re reading Lemoret de Arthur the Story of King Arthur and the Snowball Knights of the Roundtable on our patreon.
Speaker A: You can find the link in the show notes.
Speaker A: The wolf and the seven little kids.
Speaker A: There was once upon a time an old goat who had seven little kids and loved them with all the love of a mother for her children.
Speaker A: One day she wanted to go into the forest and fetch them food, so she called all seven to her and said, dear children, I have to go into the forest.
Speaker A: Be on your guard against the wolf.
Speaker A: If he comes in, he will devour you all skin, hair and everything.
Speaker A: The wretch often disguises himself, but you’ll know him at once by his rough voice and his black feet.
Speaker A: The kid said, dear mother, we will take good care of ourselves.
Speaker A: You may go away without any anxiety.
Speaker A: Then the old one bleeded and went on her way with an easy mind.
Speaker A: It was not long before someone knocked at the house door and called open the door, dear children, your mother is here and has brought something back with her for each of you.
Speaker A: But the little kids knew that it was the Wolf.
Speaker A: By the rough voice.
Speaker A: We will not open the door.
Speaker A: Cried they, you are not our mother.
Speaker A: She has a soft, pleasant voice, but your voice is rough.
Speaker A: You are the wolf.
Speaker A: Then the Wolf went away to a shopkeeper and bought himself a great lump of chalk, ate this, and made his voice soft with it.
Speaker A: Then he came back, knocked at the door of the house and called open the door, dear, dear children.
Speaker A: Your mother is here and has brought something back with her for each of you.
Speaker A: But the Wolf had laid his black paws against the window, and the children saw them and cried we will not open the door.
Speaker A: Our mother has not black feet like you.
Speaker A: You are the wolf.
Speaker A: Then the Wolf ran to a baker and said I have hurt my feet, rub some dough over them for me.
Speaker A: And when the baker had rubbed his feet over, he ran to the miller and said strew some white meal over my feet for me.
Speaker A: The miller thought to himself, the Wolf wants to deceive someone, and refused.
Speaker A: But the Wolf said if you will not do it, I will devour you.
Speaker A: Then the miller was afraid and made his paws white for him.
Speaker A: Truly, this is the way of mankind.
Speaker A: So now the wretch went for the third time to the house door, knocked at it and said open the door for me, children.
Speaker A: Your dear little mother has come home and has brought every one of you something back from the forest with her.
Speaker A: The little kids cried, first show us your paws, that we may know you are our dear little mother.
Speaker A: Then he put his paws in through the window, and when the kids saw that they were white, they believed that all he said was true and opened the door.
Speaker A: But who should come in but the Wolf?
Speaker A: They were terrified and wanted to hide themselves.
Speaker A: One spring under the table, the second into the bed, the third into the stove, the fourth into the kitchen, the fifth into the cupboard, the 6th under the washing bowl, and the 7th into the clock case.
Speaker A: But the Wolf found them all and used no great ceremony.
Speaker A: One after the other he swallowed them down his throat.
Speaker A: The youngest, who was in the clock case, was the only one he did not find.
Speaker A: When the Wolf had satisfied his appetite, he took himself off, laid himself down under a tree in the green meadow outside, and began to sleep.
Speaker A: Soon afterwards the old goat came home again from the forest.
Speaker A: What a sight she saw there.
Speaker A: The house door stood wide open, the table, chairs and benches were thrown down, the washing bowl lay broke into pieces, and the quilts and pillows were pulled off the bed.
Speaker A: She sought her children, but they were nowhere to be found.
Speaker A: She called them one after another by name, but no one answered.
Speaker A: At last, when she came to the youngest, a soft voice cried, dear mother, I’m in the clock case.
Speaker A: She took the kid out, and it told her that the wolf had come and eaten all the others.
Speaker A: Then you may imagine how she wept over her poor children.
Speaker A: At length, in her grief she went out, and the youngest kid ran with her.
Speaker A: When they came to the meadow, there lay the wolf by the tree and snored so loud that the branches shook.
Speaker A: She looked at him on every side and saw that something was moving and struggling in his gorged belly.
Speaker A: Ah, heavens.
Speaker A: She said.
Speaker A: Is it possible that my poor children whom he has swallowed down for his supper, can still be alive?
Speaker A: Then the kid had to run home and fetch scissors and a needle and thread, and the goat cut open the monster’s stomach, and hardly had she made one cut.
Speaker A: Then one little kid thrust its head out, and when she had cut farther, all six sprang out one after another and were all still alive and had suffered no injury whatever, for in his greediness the monster had swallowed them down whole.
Speaker A: What rejoicing there was.
Speaker A: They embraced their dear mother and jumped like a tailor at his wedding.
Speaker A: The mother, however, said, now go and look for some big stones, and we will fill the wicked bee’s stomach with them while he’s still asleep.
Speaker A: And the seven kids dragged the stones thither with all speed and put as many of them into his stomach as they could get in.
Speaker A: And the mother sewed him up again in the greatest haste, so that he was not aware of anything and never once stirred.
Speaker A: When the wolf at length had had his fill of sleep, he got on his legs, and as the stones in his stomach made him very thirsty, he wanted to go to a well to drink.
Speaker A: But when he began to walk and to move about, the stones in his stomach knocked against each other and rattled.
Speaker A: Then cried he, what rumbles and tumbles against my poor bones?
Speaker A: I thought, twas six kids, but it feels like big stones.
Speaker A: And when he got to the well and stooped over the water to drink, the heavy stones made him fall in, and he drowned miserably.
Speaker A: When the seven kids saw that, they came running to the spot and cried aloud, the wolf is dead.
Speaker A: The wolf is dead and danced for joy round about the well with their mother.
Speaker A: Thank you for joining Freya’s fairy tales.
Speaker A: Be sure to come back next week for Morgan’s journey to holding her own fairy tale in her hands and to hear one of her favorite fairy tales.
