Hey! Let's Talk to Ben Levin About His Book "In the Hole" - S03E07

On this episode, we chat with young author Ben Levin about his book "In The Hole", a story of one family's struggle with homelessness. We also dive into the different aspects of homelessness, the research Ben did for this book, his young adult audience and how important storytelling is in children's literature.

Ben has been in love with stories ever since he was a little boy and has written many throughout his life. “Stories just constantly pop into my mind like magic, and I feel a need to share them with other kids,” says the teenager. Born in Lexington, Massachusetts, the New England native currently lives in Montvale, New Jersey with his parents, his little brother, Jake, and their two dogs, Stark and Sherlock. When he isn't writing, Ben enjoys reading, playing sports, hanging out with friends—and listening to the Beatles.

Ben is also proud to be autistic and wants to use his status as an author on the spectrum to be an example of how autism is not a setback, but a gift. He wants other people on the spectrum to know that they are as capable of following their dreams as anyone else. “The label doesn’t matter,” says Ben. “We are capable of making our dreams come true too!”

Ben's Website
In The Hole on Amazon
Jumpmaster Press
Kristin's Website
Ralph's Linktree
Mike Lupica's Website

DISCALIMER:
The views expressed on the Hey Let Me Ask You Something Podcast are solely the opinions of your hosts Kristin Wood and Ralph Andracchio and are based on their years of practical and clinical experience. These opinions do not constitute any kind of advice, diagnosis, or treatment of any mental, physical, or emotional issues. If you are having an emergency or any serious ongoing situations please contact your local hospital or a trusted professional. 

Transcript

The Hey Let Me Ask You Something Podcast
Season 03
Episode 07
Hey! Let's Talk to Ben Levin About His Book "In the Hole"

[MUSIC INTRO PLAYS]

Ralph Andracchio  
Hey friends, it's Ralph and you're listening to the Hey, Let Me Ask You Something Podcast, the show dedicated to inspiring more people to ask more questions and have more interesting conversations. On this week's show, Kristen, and I welcome 18 year old author Ben Levin to talk about his book "In the Hole." It's the story of an eight year old boy and his family as they struggle with homelessness. We also talk with Ben about the different aspects of homelessness, his young adult audience and the importance of storytelling and young adult literature

Ben Levin  
So I started doing interviews with people who work with the homeless as well as a couple of women who have faced homelessness. There are too many luxury apartments that are empty and people who are homeless in the same states that's not okay. It's actually more expensive to feed people facing homelessness than it is to have apartments that are empty.

Kristin Wood  
If we were housing our people, caring for them and not leaving them on the streets, then then all the different medical problems and medical emergencies that take place with our homeless will not all be happening.

Ralph Andracchio  
The best way for you to help us inspire more conversations and easily find more of our killer episodes is to hit that subscribe button and share this show with your friends. And check us out on YouTube and Instagram as well. And remember, we love that you're listening but this show is for entertainment and we are not your therapist or your coach. We are not providing professional advice either from us or our guests. Give that full disclaimer in the show notes a once over for more info on that Alright my friends, let's start the conversation 

Kristin Wood  
Hi. Welcome back. 

Ralph Andracchio  
Welcome back to my house to my little slice of heaven it's so hot today. 

Kristin Wood  
Hot 

Ralph Andracchio  
I am maybe because I'm at a certain age. I'm getting a hot flash. I don't know.

Kristin Wood  
I think that happens for me not you. It's warmer, but I was not hot by any means.

Ralph Andracchio  
Yeah, no, I mean, well, it's been like 10 degrees. So it's 50 degrees today. So for me that's it's a balmy 50 degrees out right now. How have you been this past week? 

Kristin Wood  
Pretty good. 

Ralph Andracchio  
It's Valentine's Day. That just happened.

Kristin Wood  
Yes. I wore my heart sweater on Valentine's Day. It was so appropriate I felt. 

Ralph Andracchio  
Adorable yeah, I don't. I don't have anything with hearts on it. I don't think 

Kristin Wood  
You should look into that.

Ralph Andracchio  
I know maybe I just need to make some like construction paper hearts and wear that would be like we did on grade school. 

Kristin Wood  
No, 

Ralph Andracchio  
I'd wear a construction paper heart and put my name on it for the day. 

Kristin Wood  
I would support you but I might be judging you from afar. 

Ralph Andracchio  
That's really all I ask for is for people to support me from afar. Just don't judge me at all. You know what else is good in this weather? 

Kristin Wood  
What? 

Ralph Andracchio  
Readin' books. See, I see I put that...

Kristin Wood  
I like how you did that. I did read a book this week. 

Ralph Andracchio  
I did as well. It's a it was a pretty good book I have to say and I'm excited because we have the author here.

Kristin Wood  
Yes. This is our first time having a real life author

Ralph Andracchio  
Right? We're that we've graduated into some weird new upper echelon of podcast hosts. 

Kristin Wood  
Absolutely. 

Ralph Andracchio  
I don't know I don't know what that entails

Kristin Wood  
I don't either. Especially a young author because that's to me even more impressive. that you can publish a book at a young age.

Ralph Andracchio  
Yeah, young age. aimed at young readers. It's and I'm super interested because the book we read, tackles a lot of really hard topics. So I'm and it handles the topic so well and I'm excited to talk to the author and find out more about so. Without further ado author of "In The Hole". Please welcome to the show. Ben Levin is here. Hello, Ben. 

Kristin Wood  
Hey, Ben. 

Ben Levin  
Hi 

Ralph Andracchio  
So glad you're here. We're very excited to talk to you.

Ben Levin  
I'm excited to be here. 

Ralph Andracchio  
Nice. Excellent. How are you? How was your week? How was your Valentine's Day week? 

Ben Levin  
It was good.

Ralph Andracchio  
Yeah, any special Valentine's?

Ben Levin  
No? 

Ralph Andracchio  
Me neither good. 

Ben Levin  
Although my friend is really excited about a different holiday, which is more for friends called Random Acts of Kindness Day which is tomorrow. 

Kristin Wood  
Oh, wow. 

Ralph Andracchio  
What that so February 17 is Random Acts of Kindness Day. When did that start? How did that start?

Ben Levin  
I don't know. You'd have to ask him.

Ralph Andracchio  
We'll have him on next week.

Kristin Wood  
I love that.

Ralph Andracchio  
I like that idea.

Kristin Wood  
I think I'm just try to do some random acts of kindness tomorrow even though I just do that in my everyday life.

Ralph Andracchio  
Alright, let's dial it back to a four. No, I think there should be more holidays like that. I appreciate that. So everybody listening February 17 Random Acts of Kindness Day put it on your calendar.

Ben Levin  
I don't know if it's the same day every year.

Kristin Wood  
Okay, 

Ralph Andracchio  
Well, we can start it off on the 17th and whatever happens happens. I love that. So Ben, we're excited to have you here because Kristin and I both read your book "In The Hole"

Ben Levin  
Yes! 

Ralph Andracchio  
Little synopsis. It's about David Kimball and his family. He is it he's a 10 years old when the story starts? and he's 

Ben Levin  
Eight 

Ralph Andracchio  
He's eight when the story starts, sorry any ages a few years, and it's about him and his family. Kind of hitting a hitting a rough patch and becoming homeless and how they deal with that and their struggles and how they eventually come out the other end. We're curious. Well, first of all, let's begin at the beginning. How did you become an author in the first place because this is such a great book and has such a great message. I'm curious how you ended up where you're at author wise.

Ben Levin  
I love making up stories from an early age. And typically I just rewrote stories. When I was 10, my mom kept referring to one story I made up as a book and I after she did that multiple times, I thought maybe I could turn it into a book so it gave writing a try. And it turned out to be something I had a lot of fun doing and something I knew I was meant to do.

Kristin Wood  
Is this the story that is "In the Hole" the story you wrote when you were 10 Or is that one of your other publications?

Ben Levin  
I wrote in the hall when I was 15 and 16.

Ralph Andracchio  
Okay, because you are you're an acclaimed author you are. What's the word where people do write a lot of stuff. I'm missing the word the not fluent there's a word for 

Kristin Wood  
You're putting the pressure on me Ralph 

Ralph Andracchio  
I know right? I'm sorry. 

Kristin Wood  
I don't know, sounds like 

Ralph Andracchio  
You have a lot of stories and books under your belt and a lot of them are geared towards younger readers is what was the inspiration to focus on young readers for your stories.

Ben Levin  
I just love kids books and they children's books defined my childhood and they're so important. I want to help add to the happiness they bring.

Ralph Andracchio  
Oh God absolutely. I agree. 1,000% I think children's books and young adult books where your your kind of focus is are so important because that's when we're forming our ideas about ourselves and our friends and the world. And so stories like yours, I think are really necessary for kids and young adults to sort of read and to get a kind of a a glimpse into different ways of life.

Kristin Wood  
Yes, yeah. Because when you're young, you really only know for most people what you're surrounded by. You don't have a lot of exposure to different things. And so by reading and especially reading a novel, like "In the Hole", a young adult or Yeah, a young adult that has no knowledge of what homelessness is like and how it would affect the family and an 8, 9, 10, 11 year old boy whatever it is. It opens up their eyes and gives them that that insight into something that might be totally different for them and they would have maybe years before they would ever have any exposure to it or perhaps never.

Ralph Andracchio  
Yeah, agreed. So the story of "In the Hole" is it. Is it something inspired by something that happened in your life or somebody else you know, or was it totally a work of fiction for you?

Ben Levin  
It was a work of fiction for me something which I didn't realize until too late and someone had to point it out for me, well, almost too late, that it was dangerous for me to publish this book without doing additional research into homelessness. So I started doing interviews with people who work with the homeless as well as a couple of women who have faced homelessness. And "In the Hole" was actually inspired by a class at religious school in eighth grade. My Rabbi showed me and my class a video about children in Florida who are facing homelessness and after reading, I mean after seeing the video I wanted to help

Ralph Andracchio  
And what better way to help them to write a great novel about you know one one family's struggle with it. And you know, it's the best way to get the word out there sometimes is to tell the story. You can tell you can repeat statistics until you're blue in the face but making it personal and telling a really great story like you did I think will reach a lot more people. Anything interesting that you found doing your interviews with, with the people about homelessness.

Ben Levin  
There are a couple of things and warning. I am about to rant about something kind of controversial 

Kristin Wood  
Okay. 

Ben Levin  
There are a couple of injustices people facing homelessness face which really disappoint me. The first is there are too many luxury apartments that are empty and people who are homeless in the same states. That's not okay. I they need to apart luxury apartments need to be willing to meet at least halfway. So people who are facing homelessness can have somewhere to go it's it's so wrong. They have to deal with that when if houses just lower their rates. I understand that it's not completely realistic for the economy, but if they met at least partway like they lowered and also, people facing homelessness don't have enough jobs available to them. So it's not like they can just get more money. They try to but it's not that simple. I think we're both everyone's looking for the solution but we currently have is not okay, And the other thing is, people facing homelessness before they are before they're able to house again often have to go through tests with someone who decides whether or not they're ready to be housed again. I mean, is that honestly, okay? Especially since people were already housed don't have to take it I mean, babies were never housed and they still are brought home.

Ralph Andracchio  
A great analogy. Please come on and rant anytime you want. I loved everything you just said.Keep going 

Ben Levin  
These types of things. Both completely disgusts me and he's and I really want to help fight against these.

Ralph Andracchio  
Absolutely. I agree with you 1,000% It it does aggravate me as well. Like we live in Philadelphia. And I know like I look outside and look at the skyline and I know not all of those apartments. Not all those windows have people behind them living there and there's a lot of empty space in big cities. 

Ben Levin  
Something I forgot to mention it's actually more expensive to feed people facing homelessness than it is to have apartments that are empty.

Ralph Andracchio  
Yeah. It's it's it costs less to actually house people who are homeless than it is to keep them homeless and and treat them where they're at yep. 

Kristin Wood  
Especially when you think about all those although all the programs that are trying to feed them, as well as more importantly, the medical world. If we were housing our people and caring for them and not leaving them on the streets, then then then all the different medical problems and medical emergencies that take place with our homeless would not all be happening. But by people 

Ben Levin  
Oh my god yes. 

Ralph Andracchio  
Right. 

Kristin Wood  
Yeah, but people living like that, of course, they're gonna have more medical conditions going on because they're not even sheltered. let alone any pre existing conditions

Ralph Andracchio  
And a large section of the homeless population are people who really do need the help it's veterans, LGBTQ teenagers who have been kicked out of their homes, people who have really do have nowhere else to go and not a lot of options in terms of finding help. So you know, there's there's other societal issues to address that go into why the homeless population in one of the richest countries in the world is so ridiculously large.

Kristin Wood  
I want to make one quick point, and then wanna let Ben talk more but I like when you were saying about trying to wanting to get a good job and trying to get a job. The one thing I know there's many obstacles that get in the way of that for them. But the one thing is very basic. They don't have an address. They don't have a home address. That alone can prevent them from being able to apply for a job. Just that and I know there's probably 20 more things, but that I do know is a big obstacle. And that's just literally after you write your name on an application what you have to put down.

Ralph Andracchio  
Yeah, yeah, if you don't have a home address, it's really difficult to do anything. Specifically for the story of "In the Hole", was any of that is that kind of a conglomeration of stories you heard when you were doing your research or was there one specific story somebody told that you you base the story on

Ben Levin  
The story... It's kind of hard to say some things about David and his family and friends came from out of the blue and others were kind of I did read one book about homelessness before "Almost Home". I don't remember what the book was about, but I do remember that that protagonist is a girl named Sugar. And, and I also saw at least one video beforehand about homelessness Plus, I'm not sure if either of you have seen Glee, but in Glee during one of the seasons, one of the members of the Glee Club Sam is homeless for a period of time. And those three things were my main were the video Glee and "Almost Home" where I got most of my knowledge from. But I will like say that they were kind of insufficient. I feel like they did help me on a good start.

Kristin Wood  
Yeah, well, they were if they were impactful, they were impactful or if they laid the groundwork for you, then that's significant to your writing process, I'm guessing

Ralph Andracchio  
And also when I was reading it, the what struck me It stuck out to me the most about the story was the support system that David had. And it kind of reminded me of other stories I've read like, "Stand By Me" or you know, those those those stories where there's this group of friends that no matter what have each other's backs, and will follow each other and support each other no matter what and that that would for me was kind of like the the heart of the story. So can you talk a little bit more into the friendships that David had and the story and how they helped him?

Ben Levin  
Yeah, the friendships. I loved coming up with the friendships, especially. My favorite question to ask readers actually is whether or not they like, which friendship they prefer between David and Justin or David and Gloria.

Kristin Wood  
Ah, that sounds very a provocative question

Ralph Andracchio  
Yeah, that is an interesting Well, what is that a question who have asked or do you want to ask people?

Ben Levin  
It's a question. It's my favorite question to ask people after they read "In the Hole".

Ralph Andracchio  
Oh, and is there like a percentage either way, like which one which friendship is winning?

Ben Levin  
Everyone everyone prefers Justin except for that teacher, except for one of my teachers who couldn't decide. I can understand why since. Justin, stuck by David for a really long time and Gloria and David's friendship since they were both homeless. was a little more normal, I guess.

Kristin Wood  
Justin was there were just friends longer. That's why I would pick Justin not the the relationship with Gloria wasn't very significant and strong and, and supportive. It was a great friendship. But it was you know, Justin had all those years and then you got Justin's whole family supporting and helping the Kimball Kimballs right? Justin was the O'Malleys. The O'Malleys helping the Kimballs I mean there was just like so much love. They were like family.

Ralph Andracchio  
Yeah, and well Gloria, I'm gonna I'm gonna defend Gloria now, because I want to. It's nice that David found Gloria at camp because it's nice to have somebody who knows what you're going through. And even though Justin and David had such a great friendship for so long, Justin couldn't really understand David's situation like Gloria could. So it was nice that David not only had Justin but additionally had Gloria to kind of fill that space of you really know what I'm going through. You know?

Ben Levin  
Yeah, those two were David's main friendships. They were his best friends but he I also loved envisioning, and even I couldn't develop David's other friends. Elliot, Max, Nick, Robbie, Otto, Lewis, Sam, Will and Peter that much other than maybe family and what sports they played, and etc. And a few minor scenes, but David, but David definitely appreciate all of them. And I loved coming up with those bonds.

Kristin Wood  
Yeah, and one of the things that I was talking to Raph about before we got on today was one of the main points that your book illustrates is the I mean, I guess this makes sense, but the importance of support, the importance of support and a supportive community in general. But specifically when you're going through something like that, because that family, they had a lot of stuff going on, especially when dad started drinking. Obviously they don't have any money. So that's a problem. But they had such a great community amongst David's friends, and Julia's friends a little bit but also

Ben Levin  
Julia's friends a lot actually. 

Ralph Andracchio  
Yeah. All of them just like 20 something people showing up to the hospital for her. That was great. I love that. 

Kristin Wood  
But I think it's important. You know, I mean, points that would they have made it with the Kimball's have made it with all that because they had a lot on their plate, especially when dad started drinking and kind of checked out.

Ralph Andracchio  
Right. Yeah, they a lot of people the Kimball's were kind of fortunate in the fact that they did have a support system that stuck with them. Because a lot of the friends they had their neighbors in town, stuck with them through through their their years of homelessness. So a lot of people who are homeless don't have that support system. So it's one thing that's really necessary, I think, for people who are struggling with homelessness to have is finding that support system that can help them because it makes it easier to you know, lift yourself up. What do you think, Ben?

Ben Levin  
I agree, in the review. Do you guys know who Maria Foscarinis is? 

Ralph Andracchio  
No.

Kristin Wood  
I do not no. 

Ben Levin  
She. She worked she runs... I think she's with the national board with homelessness or something I don't remember but she was one of my first reviewers. And she pointed that out in a seven paragraph book review. She said this book also as some usually good resources, often not available and people who have was there who I mean, who lose their homes, they have some finance they have a network of financially secure friends who offer a network of sorts and they also have an inn which gives, which they can use seemingly without conditions or time limits still does. This does not detract from the significance of the book and highlights the use of the resources.

Ralph Andracchio  
Yeah, yeah. I and I think Kristin and I, and in what we do, both together on the show and in our own practices is that's one thing we tell our clients is, what's your social circle of support look like? Who can who is there that you can connect with talk to count on be accountable to you know, help each other out? Because any any kind of change or or anything you want to do in life is much easier when you have people who can support you and help lift you up. And even if it's just to talk to, you know, somebody to bounce ideas off of it's we can't do it alone. So yes, having that support is really important.

Kristin Wood  
The other thing that jumped out at me, Ben that I wanted to bring up is I guess David's maturity that I thought you illustrated really, really well when you start off in the beginning of the book. very beginning when he wanted something I forget what it was and his mom said we don't have money for that and he kind of threw up a little tantrum 

Ben Levin  
The baseball hat? 

Kristin Wood  
The baseball hat yeah, 

Ralph Andracchio  
Ah, yes, yes yes. 

Kristin Wood  
And then it's the Xbox is gone. And, you know, you see David grow and mature. Whereas he starts off as a typical eight year old that would but then he at the end of the book, I think evolves into a very mature 11 year old right he's 11 at the end of the book. 

Ben Levin  
Twelve. 

Kristin Wood  
But still, like super mature. Like he learned things through that experience that most kids his age, would never have, have experienced. And I think he matured so much. And I noticed that throughout that and then that appreciation and that humbleness and that gratefulness that he developed. Again at an age where children do not develop that at that young of an age but so it is difficult as it was and as it forced David to grow up quickly it also, I think probably made him into a very grateful, humble, sensitive, young man very young.

Ben Levin  
Absolutely.

Ralph Andracchio  
And also, I want to reiterate that it was nice to have a look into inside his head when he was going through everything because I think the way he'd spoke to himself about the issues and kind of talked his self through them was good, I think, for young readers to to hear and see because that's something that isn't taught as much as I feel like it could be in schools is that positive self talk. And if something really negative does happen to you how you can talk yourself through it and look at it from different points of view. And I think David did that really well during the course of the whole book? Yeah.

Kristin Wood  
Also, I was thinking too. Do you mind if I

Ralph Andracchio  
Yeah, no, go ahead. I'm looking I have some I have some questions written down just in case. I want to make sure I cover everything. Go ahead.

Kristin Wood  
I think it also illustrates the importance for children to have extracurriculars. Whether it's sports or it's chess, or it's debate, whatever, who cares. Like something that the child is involved in which I was raised this way, and I still do believe that that's important, whatever it is, that he had that established, and that was something that was an escape. That was something that was fun. It was something that built his confidence. And so I think that that's also a part of what the book shows is that that to me, it kind of just solidified or cemented. How incredibly important for so many reasons that stuff is for kids.

Ralph Andracchio  
Yeah, yeah. How into baseball and basketball are you Ben?

Ben Levin  
Not that much. Not nearly as much as David was. I used to be crazy about basketball. I mean, I used a lot of shooting hoops. I was never that much into teams. But here's the truth. But then I love writing about sports and I used to play basketball for a year but I never played baseball and trust me I'm the only things I'm really into sports wise, are is sports literature.

Ralph Andracchio  
Got it because you you not only wrote really in depth about the the games that kids played both baseball and basketball, but you also name checked Mike Lupica a lot who I know is like a famous sports writer. So are you a fan of him?

Ben Levin  
I love Mike Lupica. Yes I still read a lot of his books even though I'm a senior in high school.

Ralph Andracchio  
It has he had does he know you love him so much. And has he reached out? 

Ben Levin  
No.

Kristin Wood  
Darn it. Come on. Come what's his name? 

Ralph Andracchio  
Mike. Lupica, 

Kristin Wood  
C'mon Mike Lupica.

Ben Levin  
Maybe that would be a great publicity thing to mention how much David enjoys his books.

Ralph Andracchio  
Hey, we I will personally tag him in this episode and if he reaches out I will let you know immediately.

Ben Levin  
That would be incredible thank you!

Kristin Wood  
That would make my my year for him for Ben

Ralph Andracchio  
What, before I forget, does the name of the book "In the Hole" have any significance that like did you hear it somewhere? Did somebody share it in one of their stories? Where did that come from?

Ben Levin  
It's uh, I don't remember, but it's supposed to represent how living in poverty is like being in a hole. 

Kristin Wood  
That you can't get out of. 

Ralph Andracchio  
Right. Okay. 

Kristin Wood  
Or it's difficult to get out of 

Ralph Andracchio  
Difficult to get out. All right. Just making sure because it's such a it's such a good title that kind of encapsulates the whole story. So it was nice to the the all the all the food and the recipes and stuff in the book, or is that are you a secret cook or was that just for the book?

Ben Levin  
That was just for the book.

Ralph Andracchio  
Cuz you went in depth some pretty good recipes in there too.

Ben Levin  
I had to do a lot of research with with burger making

Ralph Andracchio  
That hamburger making Yes, I am actually going to try that recipe.

Kristin Wood  
It really made me want a hamburger at one point

Ralph Andracchio  
It was, it sounded really delicious. Alright, good. I just wanted to make sure. And you also have a lot of what I thought was interesting was there a lot of really good study questions in the back. So like, do you encourage people to read this in groups and use those those questions to like start good discussions about it?

Ben Levin  
Absolutely. This is how we need to have a conversation about homelessness and this is how it is made.

Kristin Wood  
Absolutely. I mean, that's a great thing. piece that you added at the end. Yeah. That's very, really speaks to a young adult audience of being able to sit down and have these not that older people can't do it too. But 

Ralph Andracchio  
No, just the young people. 

Kristin Wood  
I think it's a it's a really good way for people to sit discuss your book, and and hopefully get things percolating in their head of what they can do to make a difference.

Ralph Andracchio  
Yeah, and the other thing I like about it is that it it fosters conversation, you know, too often, adults as well, but young people especially can get lost in their own selves and their phones and their you know, social media accounts and like, yes, you're kind of connecting with people, but it's through a screen rather than like face to face talking about interesting stuff. So anytime we can encourage people to sit down together in a group and talk about something like this, I think is a good thing. So I appreciate that. You did that. as well. 

Kristin Wood  
I have a question for ya 

Ralph Andracchio  
Oh, all right. Go ahead.

Kristin Wood  
So has your entire senior class read this book? Was this on the required reading list or what.

Ben Levin  
I wish. Honestly, even though I know people in my school have read it. I'm not sure anyone in my class has I have to check. 

Kristin Wood  
I just wondered.

Ralph Andracchio  
So you're a senior in high school, right? 

Ben Levin  
Yeah, 

Ralph Andracchio  
Right now? is this. I'm curious because I never was published as an author when I was looking at colleges does it does it affect like what schools you're looking for? If you're looking at all to go into university after this, is it affecting where you look or who's interested in you?

Ben Levin  
No, all I know is that I do need to study creative writing in college. I am actually I do actually have my school and apparently Dickinson University. 

Kristin Wood  
Oh, yeah. I almost went there. I know that school. Very good school. Excellent. Are you have you already applied? I don't know where you are with this process. I guess you already have right? Have you, can you find out? Where are we?

Ben Levin  
Yeah, I got an early admission. 

Kristin Wood  
Oh, excellent Ben. Congratulations!

Ralph Andracchio  
Congratulations! That's awesome. 

Kristin Wood  
So you're all set and ready to.. aw good for you. That's great 

Ralph Andracchio  
Man. So jealous I Well, first of all, yes, I feel old but also I'm jealous because I did not have my life this together in my senior year.

Kristin Wood  
Oh my gosh. That's what I was thinking listening to him I'm like, I was like filling stuff. I was like, I have no idea on these like things, even picking classes when I got into school. I have no idea what I'm doing here. Good for you. 

Ralph Andracchio  
Yeah, congratulations.

Kristin Wood  
This is just the beginning 

Ben Levin  
Thank you

Ralph Andracchio  
What's next any other new books percolating in your in your head?

Ben Levin  
Publication, writing or both?

Ralph Andracchio  
Oh, well throwin it right back in my face, Ben. Yeah, both.

Ben Levin  
So I am going to get my first books of my Nellie's Friend series published this spring.

Kristin Wood  
Excellent.

Ralph Andracchio  
And what can you tell everybody a little bit about what Nellie's Friends is?

Ben Levin  
Nellie's Frends is about this girl who moved from New York to Illinois after she loses all her friends in the process. Making new friends becomes her favorite thing to do. There are 44 books in the series and in each one she makes a new friend and they have an adventure together.

Kristin Wood  
44 books? How long are these books? 

Ralph Andracchio  
I don't even know 44...

Ben Levin  
I will. I will let you in on a secret. 

Ralph Andracchio  
Yes, please. 

Ben Levin  
With the exception of the first six because I already meaded them out. Most of them are more skeletons of stories. 

Kristin Wood  
Okay. 

Ralph Andracchio  
Oh okay, 

Kristin Wood  
So like more short stories. 

Ben Levin  
Yeah, which which I need after the first five are published. I'm going to need to meade out seven through ten. 

Kristin Wood  
Got it. Well, I was I was worried You weren't sleeping with that many books. I was like does he even rest? My gosh. 

Ralph Andracchio  
Okay, so if anybody and I encourage everybody listening, please read "In the Hole" because it's a really great story. If anybody is interested in reading "In the Hole", where can they find it?

Ben Levin  
Jumpmasterpress.org. 

Ralph Andracchio  
Excellent. I found mine on on Amazon as well. Is that okay to say? 

Ben Levin  
Yes.That's fine. 

Ralph Andracchio  
Okay. Okay, great. Anything. Do you have any other questions?

Kristin Wood  
No, this has been so great though. I mean, I was already excited to meet you but you're so well spoken and so just impressive. 

Ralph Andracchio  
I mean, yeah. If I if I could have my 18 year old self here, and I would say look, look what you can do. What did you do with your life? This has been great. Any final thoughts for anybody listening

Ben Levin  
Keep on dreaming and embrace who you are. That's my message.

Ralph Andracchio  
I love it. That's amazing. All right. Ben Levin, thank you so much for being our guest. I hope you had fun today. 

Ben Levin  
I did. 

Ralph Andracchio  
This was a really great conversation. Oh I'm sorry go ahead.

Ben Levin  
And I'm gonna say something off the record after we're done.

Ralph Andracchio  
Well, then everybody listening you're not going to hear it. So again, everybody, please go out get "In the Hole" by Ben Levin. It's available on Amazon and jumpmasterpress.org check everything out there all those will be in the show notes. Thank you again, Ben for being here. Stick around. We'll talk after the show. Thank you, everybody for listening. See you next time.

[OUTRO MUSIC PLAYS AND FADES]

[END OF EPISODE] - 36:56