Karyne (00:00:07) - Hi fantasy readers. This is Karyne Norton, your fellow book binger, and you are listening to the Finding Fantasy Reads podcast where you can test out a new fantasy story every single week to find your next favorite author.

You'll want to stick around for today's story if you like dragons and portals. It's written by Jenelle Leanne Schmidt, who first fell in love with stories through her father's voice reading books aloud each night, which is actually a great reminder for me to get back into the habit of reading chapter books to my kids before bed. Jenelle still hopes to find a passage to Narnia, but in the meantime, she makes up fantastical realms of her own. She lives in Wisconsin with her knight in shining armor, and their four hobbits, and when she's not writing she homeschools said hobbits and helps them along on their daily adventures, which she says makes her a wizard.

Stick around to the end or check out today's show notes to see where you can find more from Jenelle. For now, please enjoy Dragon Ward by Jenelle Leanne Schmidt.

Karyne (00:01:26) -  Dragon Ward is read by Karyne Norton OR Paeter Frandsen. Due to copyright, the full transcript of the story cannot be included here. Please go to WEBSITE to get your free ebook copy of the short story.

Karyne (00:44:37) - I hope you enjoyed listening to Dragon Ward by Jenelle Leanne Schmidt, narrated by Karyne Norton. If you want to read more by Jenelle, go to Jenelleschmidt.com to find more of her books. I will also have a direct link in the show notes to where you can subscribe to her newsletter to get this short story for free, along with another short freebie which is a Jack and the Beanstalk retelling with kind of evil but cute kittens.

Some of you have been listening since the show started, and others have been recently binging all the episodes. Either way, I love getting your messages telling me how much you love the podcast and knowing that the handful of hours I spend on this each week is doing so much good. If you have an extra minute, please consider leaving a review so others who are hunting for fantasy podcasts can get a sense of whether or not they'll love Finding Fantasy Reads. If you're not sure how to leave a review, check out today's show notes for some easy instructions.

Think of it as your birthday gift to me. I turn 41 on Sunday, so we can aim for 41 reviews, right? No, not really. I think we're at like 14 or something. But seriously, every single one makes my day a little brighter. So if you've enjoyed the podcast, go leave a review.

Thank you all for listening and happy reading.