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Hiero. Hello and good morning,
Terry. How are you doing. Hi,

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I'm good. Thank you. I'll
tell you I'm so blessed to have

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the opportunity to talk with you,
because you have this way of getting inside

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the imaginations of all readers, not
just why A readers, but all readers.

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And I almost feel like that every
book that you release has got to

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come with one of those Batman kind
of announcers, like, Meanwhile, Anthony

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and Leah face more surprises and obstacles
and Lee and Terry has the story.

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I love that. I mean really, I mean Anthony and Leah really they're

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they're they're like the odd couple,
but yet I love them together. They

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are every Ying and Yang. I
mean they are so perfect together. Yeah,

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yeah, thank you. I actually
did a blog post that alluded to

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Ying and Yang, so I appreciate
that to do this though, I mean

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because I mean, first of all, it's it's very odd that they would

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come together, but yet but they
do, and it's it's it's an unexpected

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frame. And we like stories like
that because it makes us want to look

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around us to see if if there's
something like this with us. Yeah.

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Absolutely, I love unlikely friendships.
I love writing about it. I love

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experiencing it. I've had unlikely friendships
in my life that always turn out great.

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I have an unlikely friendship just within
my own marriage, pretty opposite.

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So it seems so I get that, and this particular Imyan Friends is so

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up to date because you do add
bullying to the storyline because you're keeping it

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in the conversation. And I think
that's where we need to be. We

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need to have it in our stories
so that we can keep it out here

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in the real world and confront it. Yes, yes, absolutely, Yeah.

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I've tackled different types of bullying and
other books in this series, but

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they tended to be more under the
radar type of bullying incidents for even ghosting

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or excluding things of that nature,
or even sometimes cyberbullying a little bit.

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But this is different. This is
outright physical bulling, which unfortunately still occurs

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in this day and age, and
yeah, and we have to unfortunately learn

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to deal with it or navigate it. So hopefully that's what this book helps

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kids do. But see what happens
is though, is that Anthony and Leah,

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for listeners, they need to understand
that they go together to dig into

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this where most people would try to
walk away from it and ignore it.

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Oh it's not happening, But Anthony
and Leah get into it. Yeah,

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they do. They do, and
that's kind of what makes the story because

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Anthony, he's witnessing two of his
basketball teammates doing the bulling, and so

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that kind of catches him in the
middle because he doesn't want to tell on

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them, but yet he also wants
to do the right thing. And then

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Leah has had bullying in her life
in the past, and so she has

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another like kind of physical, visceral
reaction to that. So the two of

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them are sort of at odds,
so it really kind of tests their friendship

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and you get to see how this
all plays out. There's a huge lesson

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in this book, and I hope
that readers really do listen to it because

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I know what you know with with
the bullying, that that that is something

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they have in common. But when
they do bring up that subject of what

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do we have in common? Inside
my mind as I read that, I

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thought, you have each other,
You have each other in common, that's

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what needs to be focused on.
I love that, Yes, that's absolutely

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true you and it's it's great to
have friends and rely on each other and

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kind of navigate it together and hopefully
ultimately that's what they learn. Yeah.

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I can relate with Leah because you
know, I was that person that was

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very shy, didn't want to get
out. I mean, I created a

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radio station in my bedroom so I
didn't have to go outside and play.

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So I read. And I know
that Lee and I are not the you

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know, we're not the only ones
that go through this, and so I

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hope this sir as an open door. Thank you. I hope it does

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too. And I'd like to just
point out that even though it deals with

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such a serious subject, all my
books have so much humor in them,

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so I hope, and so hopefully
there's a good balance between the two,

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between the seriousness and the humor,
and hopefully that's what we'll keep kids and

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their parents engaged. Yea, you
and I have something in common. We

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are proud members of the TPFW Too
Popular for Words O tps OTPFW. Yes.

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Yes, oh wow, Well this
is a first for me. I

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love it. Where can people go
to find out more about you and give

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you a lot of love because teachers
need to know where your books are.

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Sure, Oh my gosh, and
how I appreciate teachers and librarians and booksellers.

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I wouldn't be anywhere without them.
So yeah, I always say,

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if you can get to your local
books store. I love indie bookstores,

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but any local bookstore would be great. They should have copies of Always Anthony,

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and if they don't, they should
be able to order them without without

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any problem. You could also go
online and order them. I always say.

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I have links to uh to two
stores on my website as well,

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so if you go to Terry Leevinson
dot com you could even order it from

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there. I can't wait to talk
to you again in the future. Please

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come back to this show anytime.
I would love to thank you so much.

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Will you'd be brilliant today. Thank
you