Benjamin has created the “Noah and Logan” children’s book series to provide a helping aid for children with autism to easily learn the social and life skills that he struggled with as a child. This book series covers various important life skills topics like learning to share, making new friends, and many more. He has also written a book of poetry titled “Finding My Voice” that focuses on his adult life experiences. Benjamin also shares his views on movies, books, video games, and television shows including professional wrestling on his blog.

What inspired you to come up with the “Noah and Logan” children's book series?B: I wanted to help children on the autism spectrum have an easier time with mastering the social and life skills I struggled to learn when I was growing up. These included the themes of my books: cleaning my room, sharing, tying my shoes, taking care of my pet cat, and making new friends. The challenges I faced in these endeavors and how I learned to accomplish them form the basis of each story. I also had a desire to create a children’s book series similar to the ones I enjoyed reading when I was young. Reading a good book and learning something new from it was a thrilling experience to me, and I want my readers to have that same feeling as they learn with Noah and Logan.

What is your most memorable writing project and why?B: A few projects stick out in my mind for special reasons. In terms of the “Noah and Logan” series thus far, the most memorable story I’ve worked on has been “Noah and Logan Learn to Tie their Sneakers.” The process of tying my shoes and sneakers was next to impossible for me for many years. I had poor fine motor skills, so tying a solid knot with my shoelaces was a grueling prospect at best. I wore Velcro sneakers for several years, and for a long time afterward, my parents would have to tie my sneakers for me. Eventually, after a lot of practice, I found a reliable method for tying my own sneakers, the same process outlined in the “Noah and Logan” story. The illustrations for this book were the hardest my mother and I have ever worked on for the series. She took photos of me as I performed each step in my sneaker-tying method and translated that into astonishingly detailed drawings, made a bit trickier by the necessity to replace my adult hands with Noah and Logan’s smaller ones. I am still amazed we captured every step as perfectly as we did.
I also greatly enjoyed working on my book of poetry, “Finding My Voice,” in which I examine many parts of my life on the spectrum. I touched upon experiences I had not thought about in ages, and discovered many enlightening personal truths. I personally enjoy the poem, “Out of My Depth,” which looks back upon a local swim program I attended as a child and my fear of jumping into the shallow end of the pool. I wanted to capture all that I felt in that moment with this poem.
I am currently working on a novel about a professional wrestling league and the men and women who compete in it. This is a special project for me due to my love of professional wrestling. A friend introduced me to the sport when I was a teenager, and since then, my fascination with this “sports-entertainment” has blossomed. I wanted to translate my love for this quirky spectacle into a story. This novel has been an interesting experiment, and I hope to see it published soon.

What challenges did you face during your school days? How did you motivate yourself to face those challenges?B: As a child, I had a hard time sitting still and paying attention in class; distractions such as the world outside the classroom window, and thoughts of other things besides my lessons continually invading my mind. I also had tremendous sensory processing difficulties. Loud noises, children milling around the room, poor depth perception, and sensitivity to being touched all were factors that made my day almost intolerable at times. Adding to this were my gross motor and fine motor issues. I found it hard to do the most basic tasks such as holding a pencil and zipping my own pants. I lost my balance a lot and could easily fall, running was difficult, and I had weak muscles making it difficult to play on the playground with my friends. Fortunately, I had a one-on-one Teaching Assistant who was with me all day that kept me engaged and on task and helped me to learn good behavior and sound study habits. She also helped me physically navigate the classroom, hallways, gym class, and recess. She has remained a good friend all these years later, and I am eternally grateful for all that she did.
When I was young, I did not motivate myself at all; I had to be motivated at all times by others including my parents and teachers. As I became older, my love of books and learning took over and school turned from being a challenge to a great joy. I was able to read fluently at a very young age and, as I grew, this ability opened up countless doors of interest for me. The world became a more exciting place, and I wanted to be part of all of what I read. It also helped me to be home-schooled from fourth grade onward. Being at home freed me from many of the distractions and issues I dealt with in the schoolroom setting.
By the time I entered college, learning for me was a natural part of my daily routine and I excelled in most of my classes.

What are your other hobbies?B: As I mentioned, I am a big fan of pro wrestling, mainly WWE, but I have interests in other wrestling shows as well and keep up with general news across the entire business. Every month, my friend, and occasionally my cousin, and I watch the latest WWE pay-per-view; a fun “boys’ night in.” Due to the pandemic, however, we have not been able to get together, but we still watch the show “virtually” using ZOOM. I hope we can watch in person again soon.
I enjoy playing the piano and hope to get back to taking lessons as soon as I can. I love reading! I am a reader in the truest sense of that word, with a general preference for a physical copy over a digital e-book. I love all types of books; I enjoy classical novels with a good sense of wit, such as L. Frank Baum’s “Wizard of Oz” and Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” to comic books. My range of reading interests extends far and wide.
Movies and television have played a prominent role in my life as well. I am convinced one of my first words must have been “Disney,” and I grew up with “Sesame Street” and “SpongeBob.” Again, I have a wide range of interests when it comes to movies and television. I find them both highly entertaining.
I also like playing board games with my family and friends. I have a large extended family filled with aunts, uncles, and cousins. When we get together, a board game usually comes out and the fun really takes off.

What is your favorite place to visit? What do you love about that place?B: I love to frequent bookstores or the book/magazine section of a supermarket for at least a few minutes. The thought that some book or magazine issue might match my interests excites me, and I usually find more than I expected.
I also love visiting different types of museums. I really enjoy all types of topics and themes that the exhibits present. If there is an exhibit of special interest to me in my area, I try to see it.

What is your suggestion for families of children with disabilities to empower their children?B: Never give up on them or their dreams. Dedication to determining a person’s potential and working toward the ultimate realization of that potential is, I feel, the most vital part of helping your child. It might take a different approach to get them where they need to be, but there is certainly boundless potential just waiting to be acted upon. The right therapies and services need to researched, made available, and implemented. This was something my mother did for me during my most challenging growth period.
My mother told me a story about when I was first diagnosed with autism. The doctor told her that I “did not comprehend anything.” She never accepted that or gave up on me. She was always searching for new resources that could help me grow or become a better person, even when the rest of the world told her such searches were pointless.
I think I have done fairly well in my life, and I certainly have hope that everyone can do just as well, even better.

What tips/advice do you have for those in our community who are interested in writing?B: The well-worn phrase, “Write what you know,” has a high degree of truth to it. I think working with a subject you love or are most familiar with tends to garner more favorable results than something outside your comfort zone or that you have never experienced firsthand. For instance, my poetry deals with my own life on the spectrum, and my pro wrestling novel is based on a subject I am passionate about. A lot of what I think is the best writing was also based on the author’s life or things they liked, and their enthusiasm for the subject at hand tended to show through their writing and made my reading experience much more satisfying.
If you feel you need to take a break while writing and have the opportunity to do so, by all means, take it. Some of my most productive moments as a writer have come during inopportune times when I opted to go for a short walk or needed to run errands. During these times away from whatever I was working on, I often came up with ideas about the next part of the story or thought of ways I could make an unsatisfying section flow better on the page. When I came back and made the necessary additions or changes, I thought the work became that much better. Taking such pauses also helped me not become too stressed, a problem many writers have dealt with at times.
Speaking of pauses, one great writing tip I have always kept in mind regards the punctuation mark, the comma. Have you ever read an absurdly long sentence and wished the writer would wrap it up or get to the point? Perhaps if they had stuck a comma or two in there, preferably between each independent or self-sufficient idea in that sentence, it might have been much easier to read and digest. To a reader, seeing a comma is an invitation to take a breath, fully appreciate what they have just read, then continue with the next part of the sentence somewhat refreshed. A well-placed comma can help a reader maintain good endurance throughout a work. I love and agree with that sentiment.

Any special message for our community?B: My personal motto is something my mother instilled in me at a very young age: Never give up! I think I would have missed out on a lot of good things had I decided to give up or never even try in the first place. Never be afraid to try something new, and once you do, unless you have a perfectly good reason to stop, try to see it through to its completion. As Chaucer said circa 1374, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”