Show Notes:
Today is part two of two where we are talking to Bridget Van der Eyk about her novels. After today you will have heard about starting to write just little bits and pieces, taking over a decade to finish your first novel, having people hype up the book before it released, taking inspiration for your characters from friends in real life, stepping out of your bubble to promote your book, accepting criticism even though you’re terrified, getting help to make sure your locations are accurate, and hiring out the things you need help with.
Bridget’s Website – Bridget’s Facebook Page – Bridget’s Instagram – Bridget’s TikTok
Bridget Van der Eyk is an up and coming contemporary romance author – “10 Dates” is her debut novel. She lives in country NSW, Australia on a 5-acre property with her husband (Josh), children (Zoe and Max), and dogs (Kevin and Stella).
Apart from being published, her dream for “10 Dates” is to see it be turned into a Netflix mini-series starring Kendall Jenner and Harry Styles.
When Bridget is not working a full-time teaching job or binging Korean zombie shows on Netflix, she is busy writing her next novel. “3000 Words”, the sequel to “10 Dates”, is due to release at the end of 2023.
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Transcript:
Speaker A: Welcome to Freya’s.
Speaker A: Fairy tales.
Speaker A: 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 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 am also fascinated by talking to authors and learning about their why and how for creating their stories.
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Speaker A: Today is part two of Two where we are talking to Bridget Vander IJK about her novels.
Speaker A: After today, you will have heard about starting to write just little bits and pieces.
Speaker A: Taking over a decade to finish her first novel, having people hype up the book before it released.
Speaker A: Taking inspiration for your characters from friends.
Speaker A: In real life stepping out of your bubble to promote your book, accepting criticism even though you’re terrified, getting help to make sure your locations are accurate and hiring out the things you need help with.
Speaker A: Ten Dates, the Hollywood Socialite Book One.
Speaker A: How far is Libby willing to go to keep her dirty little Victoria’s secret?
Speaker A: Libby Evans is a Hollywood socialite and heiress to her great grandfather’s film production empire, Privileged Pictures.
Speaker A: Shea and her friends are part of the new Hollywood Brat pack.
Speaker A: Anita Yates is a former child star, willa Nelson is an aspiring model and Charlie Niven is a hotel heiress and aspiring fashion designer.
Speaker A: At 22, Libby has all the money in the world, a gorgeous oil air boyfriend and with a Victoria’s Secret Angel contract just within her grasp, her life is perfect.
Speaker A: Unfortunately, Libby’s life takes the wrong turn when she has a little too much to drink at another swanky Hollywood party.
Speaker A: So what happens when Little Miss Perfect wakes up with a pounding hangover and a naked paparazzo, Wentworth Turner in bed with her?
Speaker A: Sounds like a Hollywood scandal if it ever leaks.
Speaker A: Libby is desperate to keep the secret away from the tabloids for the sake of her career and her relationship.
Speaker A: It turns out that Wentworth wants just one thing in exchange for his silence.
Speaker A: Ten Dates.
Speaker B: So what are you have two more books in the series planned?
Speaker B: Hopefully the next one by the end of the year.
Speaker B: Beyond Influencers and stuff, what have you found works best for promoting your books?
Speaker B: Are there any, like I don’t know, because you’ve started pretty much in the days where TikTok was the big thing at the so I’ve I always said.
Speaker C: To my husband, I was oh, I just feel like I’m too old for a I’m a high school teacher.
Speaker C: And if you want to feel old, you become a high school teacher because the kids will make you feel old every day.
Speaker C: They’re always asking me, they’re like, are you on TikTok?
Speaker C: I’m like, no, I barely understand what a meme is.
Speaker C: I feel like I’m just too old for that kind of stuff.
Speaker C: But in the last couple of weeks, I decided I was like, maybe I need to just start reaching out to people on TikTok and just seeing what it’s about.
Speaker C: So I’m very much a TikTok newbie, but that’s kind of where I’ve started heading in terms of a new avenue for marketing.
Speaker C: So I’ve kind of branched out into TikTok now.
Speaker C: But yeah, Instagram is pretty much my primary source of marketing.
Speaker C: So it’s know, I’ve reached out and found people to review the book.
Speaker C: I found my beta readers on Instagram, so they’re currently working on helping me through the manuscript for the sequel.
Speaker C: And yeah, just reaching out to people.
Speaker C: I’ve got a couple of articles coming out in some US magazines and a couple in some Australian magazines as well.
Speaker C: So it’s just kind of being creative, I think as an indie author and trying to find new and different ways to market your book.
Speaker C: But it is all about how creative you can be as to where to look for those marketing opportunities.
Speaker C: So, yeah, podcasts, whether it’s podcasts or whether it’s reviewers, whether it’s magazines, it’s just yeah, it’s constantly trying to be as creative as you can be and then reaching out.
Speaker C: I’ve had a couple of local libraries in the last couple of weeks want to stock my books, so in Australia I’ve been reaching out to smaller libraries and they’re not buying like hundreds of copies of my books, but they’re buying books directly through me, which is nice.
Speaker C: And yeah, it’s nonstop, it’s ongoing and just trying to promote your book as best you can.
Speaker C: I’m definitely not an expert at it in the slightest, so learning every day and trying to talk to other authors and figuring out what’s worked really well for them and just trying to pick other people’s brains about what was successful for you, what wasn’t, what kinds of things I can try.
Speaker C: So yeah, it’s different every day.
Speaker B: It’s the same with podcasts.
Speaker B: They’re also very different to promote and of course one of the hardest types to promote is entertainment style.
Speaker B: So ones that deal with authors or daily fiction podcasts?
Speaker B: Yes, the hardest ones.
Speaker B: That one I like somehow, even with my terrible early narrating somehow fell into a listenership and that one has done great.
Speaker B: This one I’m still built.
Speaker B: I mean, it depends on the author.
Speaker C: Yeah, of course.
Speaker B: How many other author shows are out there?
Speaker B: The reason I started the daily fiction one, every single other fiction, classic novel podcast that I could find was they would do like a book and then the podcast was over and they would start a whole new podcast.
Speaker B: So your links are going to change and everything’s going to change for this second podcast.
Speaker B: And I’m like, why does no one do like an ongoing there was a couple kids bedtime ones that are ongoing storytelling ones, but for the most part for old classic novels like Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, Frankenstein, like those kind of books, it would be like one book and done type situation.
Speaker B: So mine is like an ongoing every single day there’s a new chapter of a classic novel.
Speaker B: You do a whole book, you finish that book, you start another book on the same podcast.
Speaker B: Yeah, sure.
Speaker B: So I fell into a listenership that likes that and continues to listen and has heard my progression of getting better and learning, which I love in podcasts where you hear you can tell they’re all just like sitting around their kitchen table, dorking around recording these podcasts and then suddenly it’s like, oh, this sounds professional.
Speaker B: Now, I love hearing that progression.
Speaker B: Same with authors.
Speaker B: I love that first book from ten years ago that they wrote just out of high school and you could tell that they had no life experience.
Speaker C: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker B: And then ten years later writing these, they get trad pub and get these big book deals because whatever.
Speaker C: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker C: It’s amazing how much it changes.
Speaker B: Yes.
Speaker B: Even in just a few years, it doesn’t even take ten years to improve.
Speaker B: Just from like one book to the next can improve drastically.
Speaker B: You learned something with the first book.
Speaker C: That’s right.
Speaker C: It’s a big learning curve.
Speaker B: So how did you find editors and then how did you find I know formatting is another big thing authors have trouble getting done.
Speaker B: How did you go about finding the people for that?
Speaker C: So with ten dates, I made the decision to primarily do it all by myself.
Speaker A: Okay.
Speaker C: And that was very interesting because I read the manuscript at least 800 times, right.
Speaker C: And I think a lot of the time when you are doing that and it’s just your perspective, you can overedit it and you’re like, cool, I’ve just changed this to this.
Speaker C: But then I’ve changed it back and it gets really messy.
Speaker C: But I did get one of another indie author that I know lives in the same town as me.
Speaker C: So she offered to read my manuscript and she printed it off in hard copy and actually went through with a red pen and fixed a lot of it.
Speaker C: And that was the very first time that I’d let anyone actually read my writing.
Speaker C: And it was the most terrifying thing that I’ve ever done in my life.
Speaker C: Especially because she wanted to sit down with me for a couple of hours and go through all of the red markings.
Speaker C: And I remember just sitting there going, I’ve never been so terrified in my entire life and it was such a good learning experience because I still to this day when I’m writing, I still use so much of the feedback that she gave me about my writing in there, but it was terrifying.
Speaker C: So I would recommend it, but at the same time wouldn’t recommend it because it kind of crushed my soul a whole bunch when she did that.
Speaker B: No, it’s going to be rough, but if you actually listen to the criticism yeah, exactly.
Speaker B: There’s a difference between people that just leave negative reviews and people that leave constructive criticism reviews.
Speaker B: So that’s like with Narrating, I said at this point the only coaching that I’ve had is for breath control and vocal health kind of stuff.
Speaker B: So I actually went to singing lessons for all of that, which never actually did any singing, but I knew that that would be good for the breath control and the throat health.
Speaker B: And then I’m like, well, we’ll just look at our reviews and see if there’s any big glaring oh dear God, go get coaching to fix that issues and beyond.
Speaker B: Oh my God, I can’t stand her voice.
Speaker B: Which I can’t change with coaching.
Speaker C: Fix that, can’t fix that.
Speaker B: Any other comment has been like, oh gosh, I had one on a book that I did back at the beginning that was like all the characters in this book were really annoying, but the narrator did a great job with all the annoying voices.
Speaker B: I’m like, hey, that’s great, I did something right.
Speaker B: But I feel like it’d be the same with criticism on as long as it’s constructive and helpful as opposed to just being rude for no reason.
Speaker C: You definitely get used to it.
Speaker C: It is definitely a big leap of faith that you’re taking the first time you show anybody anything you’ve written.
Speaker C: But yes.
Speaker C: So for this sequel I decided know I was going to reach out.
Speaker C: I had some Alpha readers and I’ve had some beta readers primarily though because my books are set in the US and I’m from Australia and in the second book we are strongly set within the US college system and I didn’t go to college in the US.
Speaker C: So I want to make sure that a lot of these things that I’m putting in here are accurate.
Speaker C: So people that aren’t reading it are being like, well that doesn’t happen at like, who is this girl?
Speaker C: She has no idea.
Speaker C: And it’s kind of like me reading.
Speaker C: And I’ve read a couple on a couple of ebooks of US authors trying to write Australian characters and it’s so cringey because they use expressions and I’m like, no one says that here.
Speaker C: We don’t talk like that in I.
Speaker C: So I’m trying to avoid that because being an Australian author in Australia I can’t know jet off to New York and get some and do my research there.
Speaker C: So I’ve got to rely on a lot of research I do on the internet, but also reaching out to people that have that experience in the US college system or that live in New York and being like, is this the way that this is done?
Speaker C: Or am I completely off base?
Speaker C: Please help me.
Speaker C: So that is primarily where I’m kind of reaching out to other people and also inconsistencies in my story because I feel like that’s something I have really big problems picking up, where we talk about this, and then either the character’s name will change or something will completely change throughout the book.
Speaker C: And they’re like, that’s not consistent with the start.
Speaker C: I have a really hard time picking that up.
Speaker C: So it’s really helpful to get other people to read it because they pick them up much better than I do.
Speaker B: I’ve had that happen with Narrating books.
Speaker B: I have one that I’m doing now where they change the spelling of the guy’s name.
Speaker B: So it changed from, like I don’t remember what the name was, but say it changed from, like, A C on the end.
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker B: The name was Eric and it was Eric, and then they changed it to E-R-I-K.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker B: And then I had one where the mailman character’s name is David, and then all of a sudden, it was clearly referring to David, but it had some other name there that was not David.
Speaker B: And I’m like, that name has not been mentioned anywhere else in the book, and it was clearly referring to the male main character.
Speaker B: So I’m like, we just gonna say David instead of random whatever that was.
Speaker B: Whatever that name was.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker B: So, yeah, I’ve had a couple of those with Narrating where it’s like, what’s happening?
Speaker B: Who’s this person?
Speaker B: And the author I’ll ask the author, who is this person?
Speaker B: On page, whatever, thinking like, oh, maybe it’s someone from a later book that’s popping up.
Speaker B: And they’ll be like, yeah, there’s a typo.
Speaker B: Okay.
Speaker C: Pretty big one.
Speaker B: It happens, I guess.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker B: I don’t know.
Speaker B: For my own stuff, I try to keep things, like, for the characters.
Speaker B: I’m terrible at imagining characters in my head.
Speaker B: So I went through Canva to find inspiration pictures for my main characters so I could describe based off of a picture instead of having to make it up in my head.
Speaker B: But then the downside is, sometimes the picture in your head, you can’t find someone exactly like that.
Speaker C: That’s true.
Speaker B: You have to kind of go with the picture that so mine is like a Beauty and the Beast retelling, and I was thinking in my head, I’m like, OOH, Vikings.
Speaker B: But then I couldn’t find a good Viking girl that I liked that didn’t look, like, very mean.
Speaker B: Yeah, sure.
Speaker B: So I’m like, all right, let’s look for Beauty and the Beast inspiration and find this.
Speaker B: Really?
Speaker B: The girl is a little too girly for me, but I can live with her.
Speaker B: But the guy is, like, super disfigured.
Speaker B: And so I had to go rewrite into her getting introduced to him that he has some kind of acid burns or something on his face.
Speaker B: Because I’m like, you would definitely mention that if you meet someone and they have in your head, you’re going to be like, what happened to their face?
Speaker B: There’s no way you wouldn’t think that at some point.
Speaker B: So I’m like, we got to go add a line to say something about that.
Speaker B: Yeah, the things that you’re like, it has to be continuous.
Speaker B: And also you can’t have inspiration picks with something like acid face and be, like, not mention it anywhere.
Speaker C: We just don’t talk about it.
Speaker B: We didn’t think about it.
Speaker B: So I had to go away from Vikings and go to this other set of people that had pictures of them together.
Speaker B: And it fits anyway.
Speaker C: It just wasn’t a long process, though, isn’t it?
Speaker C: Writing a book is just so many different steps, and the steps are all intertwined and everything happens.
Speaker C: You want it to happen in a nice straight line, but everything kind of happens all over the place and you’re going back and forth.
Speaker C: But yeah, I think until I wrote a book, I didn’t realize how much goes into writing a book.
Speaker B: Yeah, well, and I don’t know if you’re this way, but when I’m working on it, I don’t plan things out ahead of time.
Speaker B: So I’ll be explaining, like, oh, the dad gets to be home for Thanksgiving, but he always schedules himself to work so that he doesn’t have to help with the decorating, the house, part of things and all of this.
Speaker B: And then I’m like, what kind of job?
Speaker B: Like, two or three chapters in, I’m like, what kind of job could the dad have that would fit with all of these other descriptions that I’ve given for the job?
Speaker B: So then my husband’s like, it would have to be blue collar.
Speaker B: And so then I’m like, googling blue collar jobs.
Speaker B: Jobs.
Speaker B: I was working on a different book where I had to do a similar set of like I was trying to narrow down a percentage of the population.
Speaker B: So it started with, like, what is the world population?
Speaker B: What is the percent of the world population that this has happened to and then that has happened to?
Speaker B: And like, all these things.
Speaker A: It’s very weird.
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker C: With ten dates, I initially tried to just write it on the fly, and it’s possible it will probably take 800 times longer.
Speaker C: So I figured out that I just write best when I actually map out exactly what’s going to happen.
Speaker C: And I have to do it meticulously down to the date so I can be sure that I’m like, cool.
Speaker C: So what day of the week is this particular date?
Speaker C: What season are we in?
Speaker C: What temperature would it be as to what the characters would be wearing and things like that.
Speaker C: So I found that it’s much easier for me to write if I plan that meticulously each chapter, it feels like I’m writing journal entries.
Speaker B: Yeah, see, mine, the book I’m working on now, previous one, I totally pantsed and have no plan whatsoever other than I know what the big thing in the middle is going to be.
Speaker B: But the one I’m actively working on, I paused that one because the other one took over my brain.
Speaker B: And so I have all the chapters, like all the titles picked and what’s happening in the major plot point that has to happen in that chapter for the book that’s all planned.
Speaker B: But then it’s a Beauty and the Beast retelling.
Speaker B: And in the French original version, she would go to sleep and would be in the world with the human version of the beast.
Speaker B: And so mine is kind of reversed where when she goes to sleep, she’s in the fantasy world.
Speaker B: Okay, but I had to think, okay, she’s asleep.
Speaker B: So after I’d written several chapters, I’m.
Speaker A: Like, what day is it?
Speaker B: I have no idea what day it is at this point, so I had to go figure out, okay, it starts the day after Thanksgiving, and then she’s awake for a while, and then she goes to sleep.
Speaker B: I had to go back and figure out, what day are we on?
Speaker B: She has to go back home.
Speaker B: She’s like, with her parents for the beginning of the book.
Speaker B: She has to go back to her job at some point.
Speaker B: What day are we on?
Speaker B: Let’s think.
Speaker B: Day after Thanksgiving is a Friday.
Speaker B: On Monday.
Speaker B: She should probably be back at work on Monday.
Speaker B: The ridiculous you’re like, now had, I thought I didn’t even think about that prior to getting to it and going maybe I’m, like seven, eight chapters in, and I’m like, what day is it?
Speaker B: She needs to go back to work soon, just quit her job to live with her parents forever.
Speaker C: Yes, it happens.
Speaker B: My book, I can do what I want to.
Speaker B: So what are things that you have planned?
Speaker B: So you’re working on this book.
Speaker B: Do you have any other big things planned over the next I mean, between now and the end of the year is a long time.
Speaker B: Any other things coming up between now and then?
Speaker C: So I’m really trying to put all my energy into this sequel.
Speaker C: Okay, so I’ve got the story finished, but it also means that now my creative brain is kind of trying to switch off into the next book, which is making it really hard because I want to dedicate all the time that I have to getting this sequel done but at the same time I have to keep Jotting down ideas for this next book that it’s already kind of floating around in my head.
Speaker C: But yeah.
Speaker C: So focusing on that sequel, I’ve got the new Ten dates cover coming out July 1 on Amazon.
Speaker C: So that’s got brand new cover.
Speaker C: I’ve also included a sneak peek chapter into the sequel so that’s at the very end of that new book coming out July 1.
Speaker C: So that’s pretty much what I have planned continuously marketing.
Speaker C: I’m going to be looking for Arc readers and reviewers for the sequel probably in the next couple of months.
Speaker C: So that’s a pretty big process as well.
Speaker C: Just trying to get the word out there that I’m looking for those people that are willing to read and review and reaching out to people that have read the first book, because you don’t really need to have read the first book to read this sequel.
Speaker C: But everything would just make much more sense if you did trying to find people that have read the first book or would be willing to read the first book before they read the second and things like that.
Speaker C: But yeah, that’s kind of what the rest of the year is going to look like for me, and then next year it’s going to be fully into writing that last part of the three part series.
Speaker B: All right, so final question I’ve got.
Speaker B: What is the best and worst piece of advice that you’ve gotten?
Speaker C: The best and worst piece of advice I’ve ever been given, probably the best as an indie author, was to not take your reviews too personally and to not respond to negative reviews.
Speaker C: Yes.
Speaker C: Sometimes it’s really tempting, especially when you think that someone that has reviewed it has been way off base with something they’ve said negatively about it, and you’re like, oh, I just want to go and correct them and tell them, no, you’re wrong.
Speaker C: So not engaging with negative reviews is probably the best advice I’ve ever been given because I have seen some authors do it and it’s just completely blown up in their face and it’s kind of like a car crash where the comments just keep coming and coming and coming, and you’re like, oh, no, they’ve started something that they shouldn’t have started.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker C: So I think that’s the best piece of advice.
Speaker C: I’m trying to think about what the worst piece of advice would have been.
Speaker C: I think someone once told me that to save costs, you should design your own cover.
Speaker C: And I think that I would never be game to 100% design my own cover because I love the idea of it looking beautiful, and I don’t think I would be able to do it justice.
Speaker B: I think one of the biggest things with any creative thing at all is learn the things that you are good at and the things that you can’t pull off.
Speaker B: Pay someone to do that or trade things.
Speaker B: Maybe you’re really good at editing and your Budy’s really good at making covers like trade services or something.
Speaker B: But if you’re not a good graphic person at all, please do not try to make your own cover.
Speaker C: Absolutely.
Speaker B: It won’t do well.
Speaker C: Well, that bit of advice was kind of tied in with someone saying that only marketing you’ll get is the stuff that you paid for.
Speaker C: And on Instagram, you are constantly bombarded with people saying, I’ll promote your book.
Speaker C: It’s going to cost you this much money, and things like that.
Speaker C: And to me, that’s kind of red flags.
Speaker C: There are some services that I’m 100% happy to pay for, but marketing is not really one that I feel like I have the expendable cash to be able to do that.
Speaker C: My book’s not selling a million.
Speaker C: Let’s be real money.
Speaker B: I get the same for podcasts where people would be like, I’ll promote your podcast, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker B: And I’ll be like, but how much does it cost?
Speaker C: Because exactly.
Speaker B: Let’s think about it.
Speaker B: Do I really think that the person that is spending all of their time reaching out to people on Instagram is going to be the best at no.
Speaker A: No, they’re not.
Speaker B: I’m going to go find the person that is well reviewed has been recommended.
Speaker B: Like all of these other things.
Speaker B: Not pay me $5 for me to go get a bunch of scammy reviews.
Speaker B: Person that’s right.
Speaker B: I did that once for my first podcast and realized it did not translate to listeners at all.
Speaker B: And so I did not do it again.
Speaker B: Now I have heard nightmares of people that paid for reviews and then they got slammed afterwards because they, I don’t know, responded badly.
Speaker B: I was just like, listen, I can’t keep paying you because I can’t keep paying you.
Speaker B: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker B: I mean, I’m seeing that you’re not downloading my to have that’s going to hurt me at some point when Apple realizes that those aren’t real reviews.
Speaker B: So I only did it once.
Speaker B: One time.
Speaker B: It was like five then.
Speaker B: Yeah, I was like it was like $5.
Speaker B: But I’m like, I wouldn’t do it again that way.
Speaker B: I’ve done much better with my posting daily, everywhere, stuff that I do, of.
Speaker C: Course, with the illustrators and things like that.
Speaker C: When someone told me not that you shouldn’t be paying for an illustrator, I just remember doing my research and having a little look.
Speaker C: And there’s such big price differences between what you can actually get an illustrator to do.
Speaker C: Like, obviously you’re really big ones that are illustrators that are doing your Tessa Bailey covers and covers, you know, they are on the upper end of the scale.
Speaker C: But there are lesser well known illustrators that are much within your budget.
Speaker C: So I’ve tried to go for the top notch, the really well known illustrators, and I was like, wow, that’s way outside my budget.
Speaker C: Let’s try and look for something well within my budget.
Speaker C: But I don’t think it’s a bad thing to look and outsource and pay for that outsourcing.
Speaker C: But I think it’s just a matter of figuring out whether or not that is going to be worth it.
Speaker C: And I don’t think for me, reviews, like paying for reviews and paying for a promotion is worth it for me per se.
Speaker B: You can get in trouble for it too.
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker C: Whereas me commissioning and paying for illustrators and things like that, that’s something I’m willing to do because it is worth it for me.
Speaker C: So I guess it’s different every author.
Speaker C: But yeah, that’s where I’d rather invest my money and things like that, as opposed to other avenues.
Speaker B: I’ve had authors that hired their cover artist on Fiver.
Speaker B: So when I was looking for someone to professionalize my podcast logo, I went through I just went on Fiver and I searched podcast cover art.
Speaker B: And I searched through and I would recommend this if you’re trying to do a cover through there too.
Speaker B: I searched through and found one who had his style was the same style that I wanted.
Speaker B: There’s a lot at the time that I was doing this, there was a lot of comic book looking artists up there.
Speaker B: And I was like, I don’t want mine to look like a comic book.
Speaker B: So it was finding someone whose style looked like that is the style I want it.
Speaker B: And then his job was really easy because I’m literally like, here’s my podcast cover.
Speaker B: Make it look professional.
Speaker B: That was it.
Speaker B: And it took, like two tries because I have this, like, you can’t really tell with my headphones on.
Speaker B: I have really big, wavy hair.
Speaker B: And so the first version he sent me had this super straight brown hair.
Speaker B: And I was like, no, I’m like, it’s based off of me.
Speaker B: Here’s a picture of me with my hair gigantic like it normally is.
Speaker B: And he was like, okay.
Speaker B: And so then he redid it.
Speaker B: That was like the only issue that I had was, like, hair, too.
Speaker B: Like, I’m like you don’t understand when I say I have big hair.
Speaker B: I have a ton of hair.
Speaker B: I’m not like the Texas big teasing it up hair.
Speaker B: There’s a lot of it.
Speaker C: There’s a lot of it.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker B: All right.
Speaker B: Well, good luck.
Speaker B: I’m going to go get some air conditioning.
Speaker C: Sounds good.
Speaker C: I’m going to go tend to my children.
Speaker B: Have a good rest of your it’s Sunday for you, right?
Speaker C: Yes, that’s right.
Speaker B: Have a good rest of your Sunday.
Speaker B: Thanks for talking to me.
Speaker C: No worries.
Speaker C: Thanks for having me on.
Speaker C: Bye.
Speaker C: See ya.
Speaker B: Bye.
Speaker A: Bridget liked The Little Mermaid growing up and still today, The Little Mermaid, also known in English as The Little Sea Maid, is a literary fairy tale written by the Danish author Hans Christian Anderson.
Speaker A: First published in 1837 as part of a collection of fairy tales for children, hans Christian Anderson was a Danish author.
Speaker A: Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales.
Speaker A: Anderson’s fairy tales, consisting of 156 stories across nine volumes, have been translated into more than 125 languages.
Speaker A: They have become culturally embedded in the West’s collective consciousness, readily accessible to children, but presenting lessons of virtue and resilience in the face of adversity.
Speaker A: For mature readers as well.
Speaker A: His most famous fairy tales include the Emperor’s New Clothes, the Little Mermaid, The Nightingale, The Steadfast, Tin Soldier, The Red Shoes, The Princess and the Pea, The Snow Queen, The Ugly Duckling, The Little Match Girl and Thumbelina.
Speaker A: His stories have inspired ballets plays and animated and live action films.
Speaker A: Today we’ll be reading The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Anderson.
Speaker A: Don’t forget we’re reading Les Mort de Arthur.
Speaker A: The Story of King Arthur and of his noble knights of the roundtable on our Patreon.
Speaker A: You can find the link in the show notes.
Speaker A: The Little Match Girl.
Speaker A: Most terribly cold.
Speaker A: It was.
Speaker A: It snowed and was nearly quite dark in the evening, the last evening of the year in this cold and darkness.
Speaker A: There went along the street a poor little girl, bareheaded and with naked feet.
Speaker A: When she left home she had slippers on, it is true, but what was the good of that?
Speaker A: There were very large slippers which her mother had hitherto worn, so large were they, and the poor little thing lost.
Speaker B: Them as she scuffled away across the.
Speaker A: Street because of two carriages that rolled by dreadfully fast.
Speaker A: One slipper was nowhere to be found, the other had been laid hold of by an urchin, and off he ran with it.
Speaker A: He thought it would do capitally for a cradle when he someday or other should have children himself.
Speaker A: So the little maiden walked on with her tiny naked feet that were quite red and blue from cold.
Speaker A: She carried a quantity of matches and an old apron, and she held a bundle of them in her hand.
Speaker A: Nobody had bought anything of her the whole live long day.
Speaker A: No one had given her a single farthing.
Speaker A: She crept along, trembling with cold and hunger.
Speaker A: A very picture of sorrow, the poor little thing.
Speaker A: The flakes of snow covered her long fair hair, which fell in beautiful curls around her neck.
Speaker A: But of that, of course, she never once now thought from all the windows the candles were gleaming, and it smelt so deliciously of roast goose.
Speaker A: For you know it was New Year’s Eve.
Speaker A: Yes, of that, she thought, in a corner formed by two houses of which one advanced more than the other, she seated herself down and cowered together.
Speaker A: Her little feet she had drawn close up to her, but she grew colder and colder, and to go home she did not venture, for she had not sold any matches and could not bring a farthing of money from her father.
Speaker A: She would certainly get blows, and at home it was cold too, for above her she had only the roof through which the wind whistled, even though the largest cracks were stopped up with straw and rags.
Speaker A: Her little hands were almost numbed with cold.
Speaker A: Oh, a match might afford her a world of comfort, if she only dared take a single one out of the bundle, draw hot against the wall, and warm her fingers by it.
Speaker A: She drew one out reach.
Speaker A: How it blazed, how it burnt.
Speaker A: It was warm, bright, flame, like a candle as she held her hands over it.
Speaker A: It was a wonderful light.
Speaker A: It seemed really to the little maiden as though she were sitting before a large iron stove with burnished brass feet and a brass ornament.
Speaker A: At top.
Speaker A: The fire burned with such blessed influence.
Speaker A: It warmed so delightfully.
Speaker A: The little girl had already stretched out her feet to warm them too.
Speaker A: But the small flame went out, the stove vanished.
Speaker A: She had only the remains of the burnt out match in her hand.
Speaker A: She rubbed another against the wall.
Speaker A: It burned brightly, and where the light fell on the wall, there the wall became transparent like a veil, so that she could see into the room.
Speaker A: On the table was spread a snow white tablecloth.
Speaker A: Upon it a splendid porcelain service.
Speaker A: And the roast goose was steaming famously with its stuffing of apple and dried plums.
Speaker A: And what was still more capital to behold was the goose hopped down from the dish, reeled about on the floor with knife and fork in its breast till it came up to the poor little girl.
Speaker A: When the match went out and nothing but the thick, cold, damp wall was left behind, she lighted another match.
Speaker A: Now there she was sitting under the most magnificent Christmas tree.
Speaker A: It was still larger and more decorated than the one which she had seen through the glass door in the rich merchant’s house.
Speaker A: Thousands of lights were burning on the green branches, and gaily colored pictures such as she had seen in the shop windows, looked down upon her.
Speaker A: The little maiden stretched out her hands towards them.
Speaker A: When the match went out, the lights of the Christmas tree rose higher and higher.
Speaker A: She saw them now as stars in heaven.
Speaker A: One fell down and formed a long trail of fire.
Speaker A: Someone is just dead, said the little girl.
Speaker A: For her old grandmother, the only person who had loved her and who was now no more, had told her that when a star falls, a soul ascends to God.
Speaker A: She drew another match against the wall.
Speaker A: It was again light.
Speaker A: And in the luster there stood the old grandmother, so bright and radiant, so mild and with such an expression of love.
Speaker A: Grandmother.
Speaker A: Cried the little one, oh, take me with you.
Speaker A: You go away when the match burns out.
Speaker A: You vanish like the warm stove, like the delicious roast goose and like the magnificent Christmas tree.
Speaker A: And she rubbed the whole bundle of matches quickly against the wall for she.
Speaker B: Wanted to be quite sure of keeping.
Speaker A: Her grandmother near her.
Speaker A: And the matches gave such a brilliant light that it was brighter than at noonday.
Speaker A: Never formerly had the grandmother been so beautiful and so tall.
Speaker A: She took the little maiden on her arm and both flew in brightness and in joy so high, so very high and then above was neither cold nor hunger nor anxiety.
Speaker A: They were with God.
Speaker A: But in the corner, at the cold hour of dawn sat the poor girl with rosy cheeks and with a smiling mouth leaning against the wall, frozen to death on the last evening of the old year.
Speaker A: Stiff and stark sat the child there with her matches of which one bundle had been burnt.
Speaker A: She wanted to warm herself, people said.
Speaker B: No one had the slightest suspicion of.
Speaker A: What beautiful things she had seen.
Speaker A: No one even dreamed of the splendor in which, with her grandmother, she had entered on the joys of a new year.
Speaker A: Thank you for joining Freya’s fairy tales.
Speaker A: Be sure to come back next week for Neil’s journey to holding his own fairy tale in his hands and to hear one of his favorite fairy tales.
