Show Notes:
Today is part one of two where we are talking to TL Combs about her novels. Over the next 2 weeks you will hear about writing from a young age, learning from other authors before you get started, learning how to market, making mistakes and learning from them, working on multiple projects at the same time, her advice to take all advice with a grain of salt and to not lose yourself in the process.
TL’s Website – TL’s Facebook – TL’s Instagram – TL’s TikTok
I spent almost two decades as a classically trained chef, working in multiple restaurants and catering companies. Eventually, I started my own catering company and even worked as a Certified Dietary Manager in a healthcare facility. In 2015, I married the love of my life, M.
Following the birth of our youngest child, L, I made the decision to retire from my career in the culinary industry and become a stay-at-home mother to L and my bonus daughter, K.
We all reside on our little farm in North Carolina where we enjoy raising chickens, cultivating our gardens, and spending time with our beloved Maremma Sheep Dog, Ronan, and tuxedo tabby, Ziggy.
Writing has always been a passion of mine, dating back to my childhood in Pennsylvania, when I would write short stories for my family and friends. That all changed when I began daydreaming about a high fantasy story that morphed into the Bellham Series. With the encouragement of a best friend, H.E.G, I decided to pursue the series and turn my crazy daydream into a reality. I am grateful for the unwavering support of my family and friends. Without them, I could not have achieved this dream.
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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 right 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 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 one of two where we are talking to T.
Speaker A: L.
Speaker A: Combs about her novels.
Speaker A: Over the next two weeks, you will hear about writing from a young age, learning from other authors before you get started, learning how to market making mistakes and learning from them.
Speaker A: Working on multiple projects at the same time.
Speaker A: Her advice to take all advice with a grain of salt and to not lose yourself in the process.
Speaker A: The Audacity of Flower The Carter Sisters series get swept away to another time and place where Poppy Flower Carter’s sheltered life at Murder Manor is turned upside down when her childhood friend Georgie’s actions threaten to ruin everything.
Speaker A: Forced to leave behind all she knows, Poppy takes on a new role as maid for Master Louis Allan Yoon, a man with a mysterious past and undeniable charm.
Speaker A: As she tries to navigate her new life and her growing feelings for Master Yoon, Poppy wonders if she can find true love without compromising her values.
Speaker B: TL.
Speaker A: Combs, author of the fantasy epic The Bellum Realm series, delivers a heartwarming and timeless tale set in a Regency inspired world that will reignite your belief in the power of love.
Speaker B: So the podcast is Freya’s Fairy Tales and that is fairy tales in two ways.
Speaker B: Fairy tales are something that we watched.
Speaker A: Or read or had read to us.
Speaker B: When we were little.
Speaker B: It’s also the journey for you to spend weeks, months or years working on your book, to hold that in your hands as a fairy tale for you.
Speaker C: Yeah, sure.
Speaker B: The question I like to start off with is what was your favorite fairy tale or short story when you were a kid and did that favorite change as you got older?
Speaker C: My favorite as a kid was Little Mermaid.
Speaker C: I wore that tape out.
Speaker C: Yes.
Speaker C: VHS.
Speaker B: Yes.
Speaker B: Back in the day.
Speaker C: Which I still have that tape, actually, and I have the original cover where it had the thing on it.
Speaker C: If you heard about that story.
Speaker B: No.
Speaker C: Okay, so there is a disgruntled, apparently, this is a true story.
Speaker C: There was a disgruntled artist, and before he left, he drew a manhood on the castle front in the original sketches and they went out.
Speaker B: How long did it take them to realize?
Speaker C: I don’t know.
Speaker C: I just know that we have that copy because we’ve compared the two and they’re clearly different.
Speaker B: Okay.
Speaker B: All right, so I guess don’t p*** off the artist.
Speaker B: No.
Speaker C: When they’re the last ones to check things.
Speaker C: But yeah, little Mermaid was my favorite.
Speaker C: I love the music, the songs, the storyline, everything back then.
Speaker C: And then the Swan Princess was a very close, if not equal, second.
Speaker B: I remember that.
Speaker C: Yeah, we watched that soundtrack Fire, and.
Speaker B: I think there were multiple ones, weren’t there?
Speaker C: Yeah, but I only like the first one.
Speaker C: I just love the first one.
Speaker B: Okay.
Speaker B: I remember watching that, like my mom and my sister and me, like, sitting on the couch watching Swan Princess.
Speaker C: Yeah, there’s like 30 sequels afterwards.
Speaker B: Oh, gosh, there’s so many.
Speaker C: And now they have the animation kind of ones that look creepy.
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker C: They’re on Netflix.
Speaker C: Don’t watch that.
Speaker B: Yeah, I haven’t watched it since I was a kid.
Speaker B: I couldn’t even tell you the last time I watched that movie.
Speaker C: At least once a year.
Speaker B: Nice.
Speaker B: So at what age did you start writing at all?
Speaker C: It was about six when I started writing like, little stories in a notebook that I would make.
Speaker C: And then I made books and stapled them and did illustrations and everything.
Speaker C: I’m trying my darndest to find them.
Speaker C: I don’t know if I ever will, but when I found my sticker book I don’t know if you saw that video on TikTok.
Speaker B: I did not.
Speaker C: I found all my sticker books from second grade.
Speaker B: Nice.
Speaker C: But yeah, I was writing stories ever since I could write, but I never really got into it until I was maybe in my mid twenty s.
Speaker C: Okay.
Speaker C: And then I wrote a duology.
Speaker C: But it was like they’re pretty short, maybe like 70, between 40 and 70,000 words apiece.
Speaker C: But they were like a sister, kind of like his point of view, her point of view kind of stories.
Speaker C: So I did that in 2008, 2009, and I just had them printed for me.
Speaker C: I didn’t sell them or anything.
Speaker C: And after that I kind of went dormant and didn’t begin writing again until what, last year now?
Speaker C: Beginning of last year.
Speaker B: And so you’ve put out because I saw you have quite a few books out now.
Speaker B: That’s all since just last year.
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker B: So you were like, I’m going to hit the ground running and we’re just going to keep writing and going.
Speaker C: It’s like all the repressed creativity just kind of exploded.
Speaker B: Let’s go with the duology.
Speaker B: When you were a kid, that’s different set of story and writing habits and all that.
Speaker B: So the duology that you wrote, how long did it take you to write each of those books?
Speaker C: It was like a full summer that I wrote the two.
Speaker C: The second one was easy because it was just his point of view.
Speaker C: So all I had to do was just write, like reverse of what was happening and add a couple of more scenes.
Speaker C: And that was pretty much it to both of them, rather, was that entire summer, I believe.
Speaker C: And I think it was like my way of healing.
Speaker C: I was in a really bad relationship at the time, and I think that was like my way of coping, kind of creating this fantasy.
Speaker C: Well, it wasn’t a fantasy.
Speaker C: It was a Ya contemporary love story, but it wasn’t real.
Speaker C: Just love and all that kind of crap.
Speaker C: But it was like a definite healing thing, sort of, for me to kind of get through that.
Speaker C: Like I said, I never published it.
Speaker C: I just got it printed and I have the copies actually right there.
Speaker C: And that was it.
Speaker B: I didn’t go through, like, editing or anything like that not real.
Speaker C: I mean, other than my own read through, which I’m sure was garbage.
Speaker B: But you’re like, no one’s ever going to see this, so I don’t need to do all that.
Speaker C: It’s not that serious.
Speaker C: I had no idea of the process of any of that.
Speaker C: I just wanted to get these stories out of my brain and onto paper.
Speaker C: So doing it now, it was a whole new experience because, of course, everything’s different now.
Speaker B: A few years a little.
Speaker C: So it was learning everything and all that kind of stuff, that was the most interesting part of this journey.
Speaker B: So it took you a summer to write those two pretty much the same book.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker B: So the first one that you actually published, did you remember some of that process?
Speaker B: Did that help you shorten the time frame?
Speaker B: Or did it take you about the.
Speaker C: Same length because they were two separate genres?
Speaker C: Because the first book I published officially is Fantasy.
Speaker C: So it’s a romantic, completely different departure of what I had before.
Speaker C: Different dialogue, different types, just interactions.
Speaker C: It’s older now because I’m older, right?
Speaker C: So it was a different dynamic altogether.
Speaker C: So I was going in blind and it was essentially just a random dream that I had and then Maladaptive daydreamed about it later and couldn’t get it out of my head.
Speaker C: And then my friend was like, Write it down.
Speaker C: So I did.
Speaker B: Maybe if you write it down, it will leave you alone.
Speaker B: Yeah, it did.
Speaker C: They persist.
Speaker C: So I wrote books one and two and part of Three that summer.
Speaker C: Oh, gosh, the end of winter into the summer.
Speaker C: And by the towards the end of the summer, I was finished.
Speaker C: So yeah, it was like I said.
Speaker B: So unlike the first version or your first books, when you had these ones you were going to publish, what did you do once you had written the ones you were planning to publish?
Speaker C: I created a book Talk account.
Speaker B: Logical, it just made sense.
Speaker C: And then I googled everything.
Speaker B: I do the same.
Speaker B: I told someone this morning I cheated.
Speaker B: I started this podcast right after I started writing my first book that is not the one getting published soon.
Speaker B: I cheated.
Speaker B: So I talked to authors who have already done the process and find out how they did the process, right?
Speaker C: I asked questions.
Speaker C: I got in.
Speaker C: People’s know.
Speaker C: And I followed Ellie Harper, because when I joined it was only last year, but when I joined, she was really big know, here’s what you do.
Speaker C: Here’s what I’m doing right now.
Speaker C: And I was like, awesome.
Speaker C: So she was one of the first authors that I followed, and she’s super helpful because I was like and I’m doing that right now.
Speaker C: Okay, let me write that down.
Speaker C: So I had posted notes all over my computer notebooks.
Speaker B: I have screenshots on my phone.
Speaker C: Yeah, same screenshot that so I got to go through and delete some stuff because I got, like, thousands of you’ll.
Speaker B: Be like, I think I downloaded someone talking about this already, but we’re going to do this one too.
Speaker C: That’s too far back.
Speaker B: I don’t know what I right, see, when I joined, it was Golden Angel was the one that I would always see her tips and tricks.
Speaker B: And so I have so many of her videos downloaded for how to do this and how to do that.
Speaker B: And I had her on the podcast last year.
Speaker B: Oh, awesome.
Speaker C: That’s even better.
Speaker C: Yeah, that’s essentially what I did.
Speaker C: And I would reach out to Ellie and ask her like, okay, hi.
Speaker C: What does that look like?
Speaker B: Am I doing this?
Speaker B: So I’ve been absorbing all this information for I joined Book Talk, let’s see, like, September of 21 when I started Narrating.
Speaker C: Okay.
Speaker B: And so I joined it as a different name.
Speaker B: And no one really knows that other name that I used at the beginning.
Speaker B: And so Freya started in January, february of last year.
Speaker B: And that’s the name that everybody knows.
Speaker B: Everybody.
Speaker B: I’m not some big famous person, but that’s the name that most people know me by, you know, building up this name and absorbing all these tips and tricks and all these things.
Speaker B: And so now that I’m in the trenches of my books about to come out and all this stuff, I’m trying to very kindly spread the questions among other multiple authors so that one author’s not getting I was asking.
Speaker B: I have seen videos lately.
Speaker B: I think it’s callista.
Speaker B: I can’t remember her last name right now.
Speaker B: Does beautiful PR boxes.
Speaker C: And so I’m like, invoking the author.
Speaker B: Of so she she does beautiful book boxes.
Speaker B: PR boxes.
Speaker B: And so I’m like, I’m going to ask her, where do you get these printed at?
Speaker B: Because hers are beautiful, absolutely stunning.
Speaker B: And then Nicole oh, my gosh, she has the Gwen St.
Speaker B: James Affair series.
Speaker B: Nicole I can’t remember.
Speaker B: I’m terrible with names.
Speaker B: I’ve asked her more questions than most because we’ve interacted more than I do with Krista.
Speaker B: I don’t know that I’ve ever talked to her before.
Speaker B: Hey, I don’t think we’ve ever spoken before, but where do you get your boxes from, right?
Speaker C: I mean, hey, I get random people now asking me questions like I’ve never talked to before, and it’s like it’s like, okay, I get it’s not weird anymore.
Speaker C: Like, the first one, it was kind of caught me off guard.
Speaker B: I’m like, yeah.
Speaker C: I don’t want to answer that, but just like, there are.
Speaker B: So many so many others you can.
Speaker C: But, yeah, I’ve gotten the vibe of this community, and it’s really awesome.
Speaker C: And like, the friend I was telling you about, it’s a t gober.
Speaker C: I don’t know if you’ve heard, but yes, she’s written Trials of the Heart, and that came out on the second of this month, and she’s been basically my partner in crime and trying to figure this out because we wrote our books parallel to each other.
Speaker B: Okay.
Speaker C: So I published mine in January, and she published hers this month.
Speaker C: And so we’ve just kind of been learning together and trying to figure it all out, trial and error.
Speaker C: And then she’ll ask me, okay, so how’d you do this?
Speaker C: Because I’m doing this now.
Speaker B: So you got your draft?
Speaker B: Your first draft done.
Speaker B: What did you do next?
Speaker C: First draft done of books one and two, and then I read through it with my alpha readers, who, luckily for me, is Hannah, my BFF and my editor.
Speaker C: So it worked out great.
Speaker B: I also conned my BFF into being my alpha.
Speaker C: Yeah, fantastic, isn’t it?
Speaker B: I’m like, hey, will you tell me if this is, like, a book?
Speaker C: Yeah, it’s essentially what we did with each other’s books, is we just send over chapters.
Speaker C: All right, this chapter is done.
Speaker C: All right, this chapter is done, kind of thing.
Speaker C: And then after a while, we just, you know, here’s my you know, here, I’ll just attach you to the document so you can just go in whenever you feel like it.
Speaker C: So that’s where we’re at now.
Speaker C: So anytime I start a new document, just go ahead and add her email.
Speaker B: See, I switched from Google Docs to Scrivener about halfway through the book.
Speaker B: And so she doesn’t have Scrivener.
Speaker B: She’s not a writer.
Speaker B: She’s an avid reader.
Speaker B: So I would do at the beginning, I had where she was in her own doc, and I would just load it in there, and then it got to where I would write it in Scrivener, and then each weekend I would throw it through pro writing aid real quick and then upload whatever I had finished that week.
Speaker B: I feel like everyone has their own pattern.
Speaker B: Some don’t send it until it’s done to their alpha reader.
Speaker C: Right.
Speaker C: And I just find that so interesting.
Speaker C: I’m like, Wait, you wait literally?
Speaker B: What if they tell you it’s awful early on.
Speaker B: And you spent all this time on it.
Speaker C: Tell me now.
Speaker C: And that’s what’s awesome about having an author as an alpha reader, because she’s like, I thought you were going to do this and that and this, because that’s lacking in here.
Speaker C: And it’s like, oh, and you know it’s coming from love because it’s a BFF.
Speaker C: So she’s like, no, this is gross.
Speaker C: Keep going.
Speaker B: Some of the meanest things that I did to my alpha reader, I sent her like, there’s a couple of decent cliffhangers in the book at the end of chapters.
Speaker B: And so I’d send her like, one cliffhanger, and I warned her like, hey, it’s going to stop at a cliffhanger because I haven’t finished the next chapters yet, right?
Speaker B: And so she waited to read it until I had finished the next chapter.
Speaker B: So the next cliffhanger, I didn’t tell her.
Speaker B: She gets to it, and she’s like, how dare you.
Speaker C: This is the best.
Speaker B: And I was like, I’ll give you the next chapter right now.
Speaker B: Just give me a minute.
Speaker C: I got a comment one time that was just no, I just stopped.
Speaker C: And then he’s like, wait, where’s the rest of it?
Speaker B: So you have the alpha readers go through it, I assume then you cleaned it up based on their stuff.
Speaker C: Right.
Speaker B: And then what happened next?
Speaker C: What happened?
Speaker C: I don’t know.
Speaker C: It’s been like a fever dream.
Speaker C: I paused for a little bit afterwards.
Speaker C: Not much, probably like a week.
Speaker C: Probably should have paused a little longer and marketed the crap out of it.
Speaker B: So what kind of marketing were you doing at that point?
Speaker C: Since it was just TikTok marketing.
Speaker B: TikTok, hey, this is what I’m working on.
Speaker C: Yeah, pretty much.
Speaker C: Just kind of getting a little tiny buzz for it.
Speaker C: And when I say tiny, it was tiny.
Speaker C: And I just got my year anniversary TikTok video and it said it’s like, oh, after I get to 50 followers, I’m going to post my title of my book.
Speaker C: And it’s like, oh, 50, that’s so cute.
Speaker C: Of course I’m being condescending to myself, so it’s fine.
Speaker B: I do the same thing.
Speaker B: It’s okay.
Speaker C: So after I did that, then we went in and got it to beta reader.
Speaker C: I did a call to action for beta readers on TikTok.
Speaker C: And I wanted about five.
Speaker C: And I got that and gave them two weeks to kind of go through it.
Speaker C: So I gave them like the first half and then they did what they needed to do and I gave them the second half and then they wrapped it up and so they were really helpful.
Speaker C: And then my editor had it and she finished it up and I sent it off to arc readers.
Speaker C: After that.
Speaker C: While she was editing, I did a call to action for arc readers.
Speaker C: So I got all the arc readers I needed set up, what I needed to set up.
Speaker C: And of course, I didn’t know about Bookfunnel or any of those type of platforms then.
Speaker C: So I just watermarked it, flattened the PDF, and then just kind of tagged all of the emails that I sent out and I individually sent them so I know which one had which.
Speaker C: So that’s the best way I could do it because I would still know who sent it because it’d be tagged.
Speaker C: So that’s how I did it.
Speaker C: And I didn’t have any stolen until I put it on Ku.
Speaker C: Odly, enough.
Speaker B: I have a whole theory about that.
Speaker B: So I’ve said it many times on here, but I have a theory on Ku pirating.
Speaker B: Okay.
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker B: I’m not taking the Ku route because I don’t want my book pirated, because it is being like, I’m like, we’re starting wide.
Speaker B: And also if I were ever to get picked up trad Pub, I would be wide that way anyway.
Speaker B: So I’m like, why not start out wide from the beginning?
Speaker B: Why not start out with an LLC imprint from the beginning?
Speaker B: Why not all these things?
Speaker B: And my husband, who is how I know who you are.
Speaker B: I don’t think I ever saw your videos until he was like, hey, you should check her out.
Speaker C: Really?
Speaker C: Wait, who’s?
Speaker C: Your husband?
Speaker B: Alex Forechart.
Speaker C: You would know if I know.
Speaker B: I don’t know.
Speaker B: He was like, you should reach out to her.
Speaker B: She does a podcast.
Speaker B: It may have been he just saw your videos.
Speaker B: I don’t know.
Speaker C: Maybe.
Speaker C: Yeah, I don’t do a podcast.
Speaker C: That’s awesome that he makes that, though.
Speaker B: Maybe I should.
Speaker B: I don’t know.
Speaker B: Anyways, yeah, he was like, you should reach out.
Speaker B: She does this thing, and I’m like, okay, and he may have gotten you confused with someone else.
Speaker B: I have no idea.
Speaker B: It worked out for me, though, because you were like, hey, I don’t but my friends do.
Speaker B: And both of them, I’m on the schedule with them for fantastic at some point.
Speaker B: That’s good.
Speaker C: I’m glad it could work out that way.
Speaker B: At the beginning, before it had been through editors and stuff, were you telling people the plot of the book, or were you telling them about the characters or kind of what were you talking about?
Speaker B: In those early days, I did character.
Speaker C: Intro videos and just kind of gave them different characteristics of them.
Speaker C: Of course, Pinterest really loved me because that’s where I got my pictures from and still kind of do.
Speaker C: Then I would give like, little snippets here and there of different quotes and kind of judge up the love story, kind of showcase that in it.
Speaker C: And then for the guy side, I put a little bit more action.
Speaker B: For.
Speaker C: The Femme Fatale show that she’s a boss lady and mothers out there, she’s a mom.
Speaker B: It’s diverse.
Speaker C: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker C: And then just try to play all the angles, basically, that I didn’t know existed until I started trying to market the book.
Speaker C: And I looked up a couple of things of how to market a book and not in depth, please.
Speaker C: I’m not an expert in any capacity.
Speaker B: I’m sure I finally I was like, people kept telling me, like, you have to put more of yourself into it.
Speaker B: And I’m like, that’s not my personality at all.
Speaker B: So I’m like, 30 day schedule for, you know, what, I found, like, four or five months worth.
Speaker B: So I’m like, we’re just going to cycle through.
Speaker B: We’re just going to cycle through.
Speaker C: Right?
Speaker C: So it was just like, okay, so what do I do next?
Speaker C: But, yeah, that’s basically what I was doing and was listening to all those marketing people on TikTok and saying, okay, well, how can I set this up?
Speaker C: And I had a schedule on still do what I’m posting today and kind of alternate and then just kind of went from there.
Speaker C: But, yeah, it was mostly just introducing them to the characters because they don’t know them, letting them know I had a broody.
Speaker C: MMCE.
Speaker C: And they didn’t like each other when they first met, and everybody loved that.
Speaker C: So I just kind of played off of the trophy situations, and I guess that’s what you have to do when you have a book.
Speaker C: I wasn’t planning on telling people it was a happily ever after, but apparently you have to tell people that it’s a happily ever after because they don’t like being surprised if it’s not.
Speaker B: Yeah, I know.
Speaker B: That’s, like, for romance, that’s, like, one of the requirements, right?
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker C: So I informed them of that, and I was like, oh, that’s so great.
Speaker C: I had people ask because I didn’t put it in the beginning, is it an HEA?
Speaker C: I’m like, what is an HDA?
Speaker B: That’s where I feel like doing so mine is a Retelling.
Speaker B: It’s a Beauty and the Beast retelling, and so that ends happily.
Speaker B: So I feel like I haven’t been asked that probably because the question I get, it’s a slow burn.
Speaker B: So the question I get is, is there spice?
Speaker B: And I’m like, well, it’s slow, so not till the end, but it’s there, right?
Speaker C: And so I don’t write spice.
Speaker C: So I had to let people know it’s slow burn vanilla spice.
Speaker C: It’s not necessarily closed door, but it’s not explicit either.
Speaker C: But I’ve had people describe it as closed door.
Speaker C: I’m like, well, it’s not.
Speaker C: I tell you what’s happening, but I don’t tell you what’s happening.
Speaker B: And I had a beta reader that was like, you’ve described it this much.
Speaker B: Say the word.
Speaker C: Yeah, no, I’m not going to do that.
Speaker B: Well, mine, it was like, you may as well have because of how descriptive everything was.
Speaker C: It was, I got you.
Speaker B: Just name the body part.
Speaker C: I’m like, okay, it’s not that descriptive.
Speaker C: I called it the Song of Solomon love scenes is what I called it.
Speaker B: Poetic.
Speaker C: Very poetic.
Speaker C: More just about the feeling in which the act gave rather than the act itself.
Speaker C: So I just find I’m more comfortable writing that.
Speaker C: However I will read a dark romance.
Speaker B: Listen and enjoy every bit of it.
Speaker B: One of my real life friends, like people that I know for real here, not just social media friends, was like commented on one of my videos where it was like, I’ll answer almost any question, right?
Speaker B: And she’s like, was it weird narrating Spice for the first time?
Speaker B: And I’m like, actually, no, because I’ve been reading spicy books pretty much my whole adult life.
Speaker B: The first live that I narrated with Spice, I was like, my face was bright red and I got a three day ban.
Speaker C: Oh, no.
Speaker B: Yeah, it was one of those.
Speaker B: A lot of narrators at the time had been getting banned for violent content and bullying and explicit content.
Speaker B: And so it was like, I know it’s going to happen, but where is the line?
Speaker C: Right?
Speaker C: Because I think was it Corbin or Corbin rather, was reading Callista’s book and he was the Russian dude, and it wasn’t even that bad of what he was saying.
Speaker C: But as soon as he finished, immediately got booted off.
Speaker C: And it wasn’t even explicit.
Speaker C: It was just a paragraph.
Speaker C: And he was just saying how much he wanted to, but nothing explicit.
Speaker C: And he got booted right away.
Speaker C: And it’s just like, I’ve seen people pretty much full on full Monty on here.
Speaker C: You see the outline of everything.
Speaker C: And that’s okay.
Speaker C: Like, come on.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker B: I am convinced that most likely someone watching it reports you.
Speaker B: And that’s whatever mine at the time because it was like the first live I had ever done and gotten permission to do.
Speaker B: And so it was like a bunch when you first start doing lives and you get like a flood of viewers because they don’t know who’s going to like your stuff.
Speaker B: Who knows what it was that got me flagged, but it was like his hand was grazing across her.
Speaker B: I’m banned now.
Speaker B: When I prep a book, I will flag chapters as like, hey, you’ve got some stuff in here.
Speaker B: Like, for my book.
Speaker B: It’s slow burns.
Speaker B: There’s like nothing.
Speaker B: Nothing.
Speaker B: And then like a couple of chapters before the end, there’s like two that are basically straight smut chapters.
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker B: So I’m like, I just won’t do those live at all because the entire chapters are not going to be okay.
Speaker C: So what’s your book called?
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker B: Currently looking for Arc readers.
Speaker C: You got my email?
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker B: So you send it out to I’m guessing you formatted it before you send it to Arc readers.
Speaker B: Or did you not format well, you said it was in PDF.
Speaker C: It was in PDF form.
Speaker C: I had it semi formatted of how I was going to end up the final look, essentially, and sent it out that way through email.
Speaker C: And then I did like a drawing out of my Arc readers and three of them got a physical copy in a book box kind of thing.
Speaker C: And so I did it that way.
Speaker C: Trial and error of printing because never done it before.
Speaker C: I had a different size initially and hated it when I got it.
Speaker C: I ordered, like, five like an idiot instead of ordering one to see if I liked it.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker C: And I’m looking at them like, well, crap, I hate every single one of these.
Speaker C: And of course, the formatting for the picture was all wrong because I thought the line meant it had to be within that line, not that that was cut off line.
Speaker C: And so we had a white line all the way around a white border.
Speaker C: It was so terrible.
Speaker C: And I think I did a seven by ten.
Speaker C: And I’m like, why is this so awful looking?
Speaker C: So luckily, they got used in some kind of way.
Speaker C: My BFF Hannah, she took one and she’s like, can you send me a couple of your messed up books?
Speaker C: Books?
Speaker C: I was like, Why?
Speaker C: She’s like, just because So I sent them to her and she made them into these beautiful pictures.
Speaker C: They’re like this eleven x 14.
Speaker C: So she tore them up, made flowers out of some of the pages, and it was gorgeous.
Speaker B: See, that’s a great way to use those.
Speaker C: That’s how you could do that.
Speaker C: Yes.
Speaker C: It wasn’t a waste at all, but yeah, so you live and learn.
Speaker C: Six by nine is the life now.
Speaker B: So this morning, a couple of hours ago, I was ordering stuff that’s going to take a while to get here for PR boxes.
Speaker B: So, like, the storage unit itself is going to take a couple of weeks to get here because I need somewhere to store all of these things and then like, BOOKMARKS and stuff.
Speaker B: I’m not terribly concerned if it’s a little bit off on those things, but the book boxes, like the PR boxes themselves, are expensive.
Speaker B: Like, you’re spending almost as much per one of those when you’re having it custom done as on the book itself.
Speaker B: So originally I was like, oh, I’m just going to order like, 50 at one time, and then if people don’t buy them, that’s fine.
Speaker B: I only paid for 50.
Speaker B: And then it was having an issue loading the final previewer where you like, yes, I approve that design.
Speaker B: It looks good, right?
Speaker B: So I’m like, okay, we’re not going to order 50 when I haven’t actually seen the final markup.
Speaker B: So I’m like, we’re going to drop the extra, like $40 to have one box shipped to me, but then I’ll know for sure whether it’s good or not before I drop several hundred dollars on more.
Speaker C: Exactly.
Speaker B: I’m like, oh my gosh.
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker C: We have not ventured into the printing of the custom made boxes because I saw that price tag and I’m like, Better not.
Speaker B: I am extra.
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker B: So I’m like my whole philosophy for this entire thing.
Speaker B: So I started writing a book last year.
Speaker B: It’s on pause.
Speaker B: This one took over my brain.
Speaker B: We already discussed that happening.
Speaker B: Yeah, this one coming out this year.
Speaker B: But I’m like, I will do everything I possibly can to make sure that this book does as good as it can do.
Speaker B: So I way ahead of time, started talking about it and getting beta readers and arc readers and street team set up and good to go, my poor street team, because I also narrate other people’s books and I do podcasts and I’m like, whatever you want to help with.
Speaker B: You don’t have to help with everything, right?
Speaker B: If you don’t like podcasts, don’t promote my podcasts.
Speaker B: Right?
Speaker B: But I started all of that back in probably May, and I didn’t finish writing the book until August, and so I started way in advance.
Speaker B: And then now I have someone helping me build my arc team, and my beta team is finished with edits and I’m still building.
Speaker B: People are still asking to be on my beta team.
Speaker B: And I’m like, I don’t have another book yet, guys.
Speaker B: Yeah, I knew from the beginning, I was like, I want to do PR boxes, at least for this first book.
Speaker B: If it’s a huge flop, I won’t do it going forward.
Speaker B: But usually those do really well.
Speaker B: I plan to give away some and then sell some as well.
Speaker C: Yeah, I sold a couple of them and after a while, because people love them, apparently, I’m like, oh, yes, I hated doing them, so I stopped.
Speaker B: So all of the prints that I’m buying, like all of the character art and stuff, you have to buy a minimum quantity of 100.
Speaker B: So I’m like, wow, fully.
Speaker B: And plus, my book is a Christmas time book that’s releasing right before Christmas.
Speaker B: So I’m like PR boxes with little gifts and stuff that are themed with the book.
Speaker C: Right.
Speaker B: I’m like, those will probably do really well, but I probably won’t order more than the 100.
Speaker C: Right?
Speaker C: It’s intense, man.
Speaker C: Like, all the little details that you didn’t know existed until you decided to do this.
Speaker C: And it’s just amazing to me.
Speaker B: I wasn’t going to do a PR box, and then one of my beta readers was like, you have to do a PR box.
Speaker B: And I’m like, okay, what do I include in this PR box?
Speaker B: I had my characters already picked out because I’m terrible at making up descriptions of people.
Speaker B: So I had picked the characters ahead of time from canva.
Speaker B: So I’m like, well, I can just use that character art for the character art, right?
Speaker C: That’s what we all had to do back in the day.
Speaker C: Like I was telling you.
Speaker B: It is what it is.
Speaker B: You said your first book actually released in January, right?
Speaker C: Yeah, January of this year.
Speaker B: And you had the first one and the second one done about the same time.
Speaker B: So how long did you wait before.
Speaker C: You released number two?
Speaker C: Six months, because my editor was on other working on other projects and stuff, so I waited six months.
Speaker C: So it came out July of this year.
Speaker B: You have more than two out now, don’t you?
Speaker C: Or are you just immediately after that?
Speaker C: Because I had the whole summer to do.
Speaker C: You can’t just leave me alone in a room with a computer.
Speaker C: Okay.
Speaker C: So I was writing my third book.
Speaker C: I was getting stressed out because I was like, oh, great, I got time to finish book three.
Speaker C: And I stressed myself out because this is the final book in the series.
Speaker B: Is it going to be good enough?
Speaker B: Right?
Speaker C: A lot of pieces are coming together.
Speaker C: I don’t want to say goodbye to these characters.
Speaker C: So a whole lot of emotional turmoil I didn’t expect to happen because I’m like, I don’t do this, but I’ve never done a series like this before, right?
Speaker C: So it’s really in depth and just a lot of pieces of the puzzle that have to come together.
Speaker C: And I’m trying to make sure I remember all of them and have everything written down.
Speaker C: I think I burned myself out with that situation.
Speaker C: And so Hannah and I were both in the same boat and we just like, you know what?
Speaker C: Let’s step back.
Speaker C: Let’s write something fluffy and cozy and fun.
Speaker C: And so that’s when I wrote Audacity of Flower in two weeks.
Speaker C: And I was like, you know what?
Speaker C: I’m just going to publish it right after the second book.
Speaker C: Why not?
Speaker C: So I did that and I didn’t do beta readers or all that kind of stuff.
Speaker C: I just here, go ahead and edit that.
Speaker C: Thank you.
Speaker C: And it was out in August.
Speaker B: So do you regret not doing the beta readers for that one?
Speaker C: No.
Speaker B: Okay.
Speaker C: I love that book.
Speaker C: I don’t care.
Speaker C: It wasn’t meant to be in depth or anything.
Speaker C: It was just a simple book, cozy, cute and Regency inspired, but fantasy because it’s not really Regency.
Speaker B: Tail combs liked.
Speaker A: The Little Mermaid growing up.
Speaker A: Today we’ll be reading another Hans Christian Anderson story, the Loveliest Rose in the World.
Speaker A: 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 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, Little Match Girl and Thumbelina.
Speaker A: His stories have inspired ballets plays and animated and live action films.
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 loveliest rose in the world.
Speaker A: There lived once a great queen, in whose garden were found all seasons the most splendid flowers and from every land in the world she specially loved roses and therefore she possessed the most beautiful varieties of this flower.
Speaker A: From the wild hedge rose, with its apple scented leaves to the splendid province rose.
Speaker A: They grew near the shelter of the walls, wound themselves round columns and window frames, crept along passages and over the ceilings of the halls.
Speaker A: They were of every fragrance and color.
Speaker A: But care and sorrow dwelt within these halls.
Speaker A: The queen lay upon a sick bed and the doctors declared that she must die.
Speaker A: There is still one thing that could save her, said one of the wisest among them.
Speaker A: Bring her the loveliest rose in the world, one which exhibits the purest and brightest love.
Speaker A: And if it is brought to her before her eyes close, she will not die.
Speaker A: Then from all parts came those who brought roses that bloomed in every garden.
Speaker A: But they were not the right sort.
Speaker A: The flower must be one from the garden of love.
Speaker A: But which of the roses there showed forth the highest and purest love?
Speaker A: The poet sang of this rose the loveliest in the world, and each named one which he considered worthy of that title.
Speaker A: An intelligence of what was required was sent far and wide to every heart that beat with love to every class, age and condition.
Speaker A: No one has yet named the flower, said the wise man.
Speaker A: No one has pointed out the spot where it blooms in all its splendor.
Speaker A: It is not a rose from the coffin of Romeo and Juliet or from the grave of Wahlberg, though these roses will live in everlasting song.
Speaker A: It is not one of the roses which sprouted forth from the blood stained fame of Winkleride, the blood which flows from the breast of a hero who dies for his country is sacred and his memory is sweet.
Speaker A: And no rose can be redder than the blood which flows from his veins.
Speaker A: Neither is it the magic flower of science to obtain which wondrous flower.
Speaker A: A man devotes many an hour of his fresh young life in sleepless nights in a lonely chamber.
Speaker A: I know where it blooms, said a happy mother who came with her lovely child to the bedside of the queen.
Speaker A: I know where the loveliest rose in the world is.
Speaker A: It is seen on the blooming cheeks of my sweet child when it expresses the pure and holy love of infancy.
Speaker A: When refreshed by sleep, it opens its eyes and smiles upon me with childlike affection.
Speaker A: This is a lovely rose, said the wise man.
Speaker A: But there is one still more lovely.
Speaker A: Yes, one far more lovely, said one of the women.
Speaker A: I have seen it.
Speaker A: And a loftier and purer rose does not bloom.
Speaker A: But it was white like the leaves of a blush rose.
Speaker A: I saw it on the cheeks of the queen.
Speaker A: She had taken off her golden crown.
Speaker A: And through the long jury night she carried her sick child in her arms.
Speaker A: She wept over it, kissed it and prayed for it, as only a mother can pray in that hour of her anguish.
Speaker A: Holy and wonderful in its might is the white rose of grief.
Speaker A: But it is not the one we seek.
Speaker A: No.
Speaker A: The loveliest rose in the world.
Speaker A: I saw at the Lord’s table, said the good old bishop.
Speaker A: I saw it shine as if an angel’s face had appeared.
Speaker A: A young maiden knelt at the altar and renewed the vows, made it her baptism.
Speaker A: And there were white roses and red roses on the blushing cheeks of that young girl.
Speaker A: She looked up to heaven with all the purity and love of her young spirit, in all the expression of the highest and purest love.
Speaker A: May she be blessed, said the wise man, but no one has yet named the loveliest rose in the world.
Speaker A: Then there came into the room a child, the queen’s little son.
Speaker A: Tears stood in his eyes and glistened on his cheeks.
Speaker A: He carried a great book, and the binding was a velvet with silver clasps.
Speaker A: Mother, cried the little boy, only hear.
Speaker B: What I have read.
Speaker A: And the child seated himself by the bedside and read from the book of him who suffered death on the cross to save all men, even who are yet unborn.
Speaker A: He read, greater love hath no man than this.
Speaker A: And as he read, a rosiet hue spread over the cheeks of the queen.
Speaker A: And their eyes became so enlightened and clear that she saw from the leaves of the book a lovely rose spring forth a type of him who shed his blood on the cross.
Speaker A: I see, she said.
Speaker A: He who beholds this the loveliest rose on earth shall never die.
Speaker B: Thank you for joining Freya’s fairy tales.
Speaker A: Be sure to come back next week for the conclusion of T l.
Speaker A: Combs’journey to holding her own fairy tale in her hands and to hear another of her favorite fairy tales.
