Writing Duo E.S. Rosalynn on Music, Memories, and Creative Magic

In this episode of "Conversations with Rich Bennett," Rich sits down with Samantha and Erin, the talented writing duo behind E.S. Rosalynn. They share their journey from childhood friends to co-authors, reminiscing about the days of dial-up internet and AOL. Samantha and Erin discuss their creative process, the inspiration behind their "Mixtape" book series, and the challenges of collaborating from different states. Listen in as they explore the healing power of music, the importance of creative partnership, and the joy of bringing their stories to life. For more information, visit esrosalynnwrites.com.

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Join us for “One Song,” a benefit concert by the Big Infinite to support the Ed Lally Foundation’s mental health and suicide prevention initiatives. This special evening will feature heartfelt music and person stories, fostering connection and well-being among attendees. Come together to celebrate unity and healing through the power of music.

One Song Benefit Concert for the Ed Lally Foundat

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Transcript

Rich Bennett 0:13
So these long time collaborators have been weaving captivating stories together since the days of you ready for this dial up Internet, AOL. Before we started, we were talking about MySpace, and they've been creating a rich tapestry of literary works that have enchanted readers around the globe. So we're going to dive into their creative process, the inspiration behind their books, what it's like to write as a team basically in two different areas. And so book festivals. So welcome to the show, Samantha. Naren, how you doing? 

Erin 0:48
Thank you. Thank you. 

Samantha 0:49
Ever having this. 

Rich Bennett 0:51
Oh, my pleasure. I got to ask first. Now I know because we talked about it briefly. So Aaron's in Ohio. 

Erin 0:59
Yep. 

Rich Bennett 1:00
Samantha's in Marilyn. 

Samantha 1:02
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 1:02
But you guys write together. How did you both meet? 

Erin 1:07
So we actually grew up together in a suburb of Pittsburgh. We've known each other since second grade. So it's been a long time. 

Rich Bennett 1:17
Wow. 

Erin 1:18
Yes, we move. We move. Sam moved in, like, the summer before second grade, and it was. It was like that Step Brothers moment where it was just like, we're best friends now. Like. 

Rich Bennett 1:28
Right. 

Erin 1:29
And we've been pretty much writing ever since. And it's this 

Rich Bennett 1:33
Wow. 

Erin 1:34
blast. 

Rich Bennett 1:34
All right. What you said summer outside of Pittsburgh. 

Erin 1:38
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 1:39
What are you. 

Samantha 1:40
It's. It's in the South Hills. 

Rich Bennett 1:44
It's called What? 

Samantha 1:45
Clairton. It's in the South Hills. Yeah, it's near McKeesport or Jefferson Hills. Duquesne. 

Erin 1:53
By Thomas. 

Rich Bennett 1:56
Neither one of you live there anymore. 

Still, but you're still Steelers fans. 

Samantha 2:03
Yes. 

Erin 2:03
Yeah. Always and forever. 

Rich Bennett 2:08
Even though. 

Erin 2:10
Even. 

I think. 

Samantha 2:13
I can't wait for this. 

Erin 2:15
Purposely because I am in a. 

Samantha 2:17
It irritates the. Yeah. Just want to get on people's nerves. 

Rich Bennett 2:22
Well, technically. But you have two options because, well, although you're closer to Baltimore, you're a little bit further away from Philadelphia. 

Samantha 2:31
I actually lived in Philly for a long time and they didn't convert me. So if they didn't convert me, I'm not. I'm not a. Verdad. 

Rich Bennett 2:39
All right, Now, what about baseball? 

Erin 2:40
There. 

Rich Bennett 2:41
Pirates. 

Samantha 2:42
Care. 

Rich Bennett 2:45
So you don't care about baseball, but you like the National League. 

Samantha 2:48
I do. I love football. We grew up on football. Our our town didn't really have a whole lot to do. And you were mostly ingrained in the football team in some way. So either we're from a town that sends kids to the NFL and we're from a really small town that sends kids to the NFL. So it's really crazy how they've been able to keep this football program alive through such. It's a very poor town. They don't have much, but the football team is really their thing. So either you're in the band or you're cheerleading or you're, you know, being a majorette or something like that. So we really had football ingrained in us since we. 

Rich Bennett 3:30
But I saw something else that really baffles me. 

Samantha 3:34
Sure. 

Rich Bennett 3:34
You guys said you've been busy writing since dial up Internet. You both are even too young to remember AOL. 

Erin 3:45
Oh, 

Samantha 3:45
Not at 

Erin 3:45
I 

Samantha 3:45
all. 

Erin 3:45
love you. I love. Ready. 

remember? 

Samantha 3:52
We are deceptively, deceptively old. 

Rich Bennett 3:57
Well what do they. Well going to. I guess it wasn't too early 2000, wasn't it, 

Erin 4:06
Thousands. 

Rich Bennett 4:06
though? No, not I guess. Yeah, because I guess you still have. Well, maybe not AOL, but I guess you should have people in the country using dial up. 

Erin 4:16
Which is probably 

Rich Bennett 4:16
If they. 

Erin 4:16
what I. 

Rich Bennett 4:19
What? 

Erin 4:21
Probably 

Samantha 4:21
She 

Erin 4:21
what 

Samantha 4:21
says, 

Erin 4:21
I. 

Samantha 4:21
What should we be doing? 

Erin 4:26
Terrible Internet access. 

Rich Bennett 4:27
Air has been having problems with her Internet. So she's she's going to get back to dial up. 

Erin 4:32
Yeah, I think. 

Rich Bennett 4:33
I spoke. 

Erin 4:36
This. 

Samantha 4:38
Yeah, we 

Rich Bennett 4:38
To. 

Samantha 4:39
got into dial up when we were in. I want to say it was like maybe fifth grade when we originally were introduced to dial up, but even. 

Rich Bennett 4:46
Okay. 

Samantha 4:47
When we didn't have the Internet, you know, you had the regular word processors. And so we started writing together in middle school and we would type up the stories and we'd print them out with on the paper, you know, the perforated paper you can like rip down has the holes in it. And so we would like we would live across the street from each other, so we would run across the street with like a stack of papers and edit each other. I mean, we've been doing this a long time. 

Rich Bennett 5:13
You're writing on a word processor. Oh. 

Samantha 5:16
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 5:21
You're both. 

Erin 5:22
I. I love the discipline. 

Samantha 5:24
Not at all. We did we did have some notebooks, too. Like we have some old notebooks and stuff from middle school when you're in school and like, you know, when we were in middle school, they didn't have technology. It wasn't like there were computers in every room or anything. So we had notebooks. We would go back and forth and we would, you know, pass them around. And we still have some of that for middle school. But for the most part, we have been typing to right since I can remember. 

Rich Bennett 5:49
All right. So those of you listening. I want you to do me a favor. Look at their pictures. Both of their photos. You tell me. Because I thought you guys were maybe mid to late twenties. 

Erin 6:04
Yep. 

Samantha 6:05
We're both going to be 40 next. Put it out. 

Rich Bennett 6:07
Oh, come. 

Erin 6:09
Yes. 

Samantha 6:09
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 6:10
No, 

Samantha 6:10
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 6:10
no, no. I So those of you listening, you look at the photos, you tell me, do you think they're there now? Now the. 

Samantha 6:18
You're now our new favorite person. 

Erin 6:21
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 6:24
Wow. All right. So let me ask you this, because with the books you guys got about two books and a third one coming out. 

Samantha 6:30
Yet. 

Rich Bennett 6:31
Came out. 

Samantha 6:32
Nope. It's coming out August 6th, so we have two out in the third. It's all the same series, and the third one will be out August 6th. 

Rich Bennett 6:40
And when did the first one come out? 

Samantha 6:43
April of 2022. 

Rich Bennett 6:46
2022. So you were both. Yeah. Where you are now? One in Ohio. One here in Maryland. 

Samantha 6:51
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 6:52
How. How do you guys get together to, I guess, Zoom or whatever? But how hard is it to actually collaborate together and write write these books being in different areas? 

Erin 7:05
So Google Docs has been a blessing. 

Rich Bennett 7:08
Oh. 

Erin 7:09
A blessing. We are able we're basically doing the same thing that we did when we were younger, except just online now. So. 

Rich Bennett 7:16
Right. 

Erin 7:18
We like some depending on which store we were working on. One of us would like write a certain chapter and another the other one would write a different chapter and then we would go back and edit and like reread over it. And we've done things like, you know, outline together and things like that. But we will try to get together, you know, a couple of times a year. We pretty much use the book as an excuse, but we just we don't get to see each other that often. So it's like, you know, maybe like four times a year we'll go, Oh, we are going to do a book thing. I mean, usually it is it's usually like a festival or, you know, something of that nature. But we. 

Rich Bennett 7:58
Right. 

Erin 7:58
Been online. It's all has been online. 

Rich Bennett 8:02
Wow. And 

Erin 8:03
Oh. 

Rich Bennett 8:03
tell everybody that. Go ahead. 

Erin 8:05
Sorry and lots of text messages back and forth, like I had this great idea and we're just like, okay, we need to put this down somewhere. 

Rich Bennett 8:16
Text message is faster than your Internet too, isn't it? 

Erin 8:19
It is actually believe. 

Samantha 8:25
We've actually gotten really good at refining our process. The first time that we wrote our first book, we were just kind of all over the place figuring out what worked for us. And we still like to test different ways of writing together to kind of see. 

Rich Bennett 8:40
Right. 

Samantha 8:41
What is best for us. So sometimes we almost always outline together now. But we did start as what's called a panther, which means you're writing by the seat of your pants. And we were just kind of, you know, go for it. And we would call it Kermit fingers. Have you ever seen that gif of Kermit the Frog and like, he's just typing away? And so we would always say that we were getting Kermit fingers and it's kind of become like a silly mascot for us. And so now we're much better. We outline, we write in different perspective to sort of change who writes what chapter. But Erin is also a really talented editor and can make it seem like we are writing seamlessly. So a lot of people are like, I can't believe there's two of you. And I always tell them, I'm like, that It's not me. That is Erin. That is her talent. She is able to sort of go in and smooth out the edges to make it seem like there is one person writing, when in fact I probably put some slop on that paper or I guess on that document. 

Erin 9:47
She she is definitely like undercutting herself. But I mean, I think that is the nice thing about it, because we do this from like different perspectives and it's helpful because our character like we so the first book was from one character's point of view, the second is from two, and the third is going to be from three perspectives. So we kind of like, yeah, we kind of battle back of not battle, but like Samuel say, okay, I'm going to go write our main character, Aria, and I'll go in and say, okay, I'll write the secondary character, Emma. And then it's, it's just I don't even know how to explain it, really. But it's nice because like, she's like the main voice of a certain character. I'm the main voice of a certain character. And then we kind of just work together on the third, but we know enough about where the other one wants to go with it that we can go back in and, you know, 

Rich Bennett 10:41
Right. 

Erin 10:42
edit accordingly. 

Rich Bennett 10:44
So you can read each other's minds. 

Erin 10:46
Yes, 

Rich Bennett 10:47
Pretty go 

Erin 10:47
since 

Rich Bennett 10:47
in. 

Erin 10:48
second grade. 

Samantha 10:50
Yeah. We're very in tune with each other. And we really know especially I mean, we line together too. So there is an outline and there are times even when the outline is annoying because we'll want to go somewhere else with it. But when you're writing a series, it's really hard to do that because by the time you get to the third book, you have really strict rules you have to stick to because the characters are already developed. The story really needs to get where it needs to go. So I think when we were writing that third one, we really did miss some of that creative freedom. And so while we really did refine the process and found something that worked for us, I think that going forward we will continue to try different things and kind of see what works so that it's still fun for us and it doesn't feel. So formulaic and scripted all of the time. Because I do think that you can tell in the writing sometimes when we're feeling super robotic about a scene. 

Rich Bennett 11:44
I says this is a series and the book's called Mix Tape. 

Samantha 11:50
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 11:51
All right. First of all, how did you come up with that title? Seriously? Because when I see mix tape, I think of another podcast called Mix Tape. And then me being a DJ right away, I'm going back 

to the days when we had. 

Erin 12:07
It's okay. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 12:08
We were make a mixtape on cassette. 

Samantha 12:11
Yes. 

Erin 12:11
Well. 

Samantha 12:11
Well, that's. Yeah, that's kind of where we want you to go. Mixtape is set in 2001, and so while the mixtapes in the story are technically on CD, because that's just the era where they are, that's where the title comes from, because the main one of the main characters creates a mixtape for one of the other characters, and it kind of just becomes a thing. There's a lot of music metaphor. There's a lot of early 2000 nostalgia. I mean, it's really set. When we were in high school. So even though it's written for young adults, it is a it's a Y.A. book or Y.A. series, rather. A lot of people in their, you know, same age as us read it and are immediately taken back to high school and just kind of love that about it. 

Rich Bennett 12:58
Okay, 

Erin 12:58
We are using. 

Rich Bennett 12:59
so. 

Erin 13:00
Ms.. AOL Instant Messenger on it. So there is proof. There is proof that we know what we're talking about. 

Rich Bennett 13:10
She said they're using AOL Messenger and the book, not 

Erin 13:14
Yep. 

Rich Bennett 13:14
not to collaborate and write the book. 

Erin 13:17
And the dial up. Okay. And the dial up Internet is there's a nod to that as well. So. 

Rich Bennett 13:25
I saw with the first. I want to I want to go book by book. So what's the premise behind the first book? And I guess your main character, right, Because you said that in the first book. It's 

one character's point of view. Right. And 

Samantha 13:43
Sure, 

Rich Bennett 13:43
then. 

Samantha 13:43
I'll. 

Rich Bennett 13:44
Two. Okay. 

Samantha 13:45
Yeah. I'll go ahead and start with one and she can do two and then we'll kind of give you three at least a little bit of a sneak peek of three, because three is not out yet. So one of the main characters name is Aria Grey. She is a 16 year old musical prodigy. She was on tour with her famous dad for a long time. And he comes back because he's ill and so she has to go back to high school. So she starts her junior year of high school. She's pretty young and naive and beautiful and kind of gets preyed upon by the quarterback of the football team. And so this is a book that's not just, you know, fun and frilly. And it is it's funny and it's humorous. It's got a lot of heart, but it's also about some tough stuff. And so this was inspired by some other books in the same genre. This is actually a really popular topic in which to talk about, you know, sexual assault and just, you know, all kinds of tough stuff. But like what I found while reading in the genre is that a lot of the authors love to dig into the really heavy feelings that go on in and, you know, in their minds while their processing, but then they leave the reader at the end with nothing. I mean, you're just kind of you never get to see the character fully heal and fully come through this tough thing that they went through and, you know, become a full functioning adult where 

Rich Bennett 15:11
Right. 

Samantha 15:11
they you know, where they are, you know, thriving. And so it really I there were probably three or four of them that I read, and it just was it was nagging at me, nagging at me. And I kept saying, we need to you know, we need to do this. We need to fix this. We need to write this story of this girl. And you get to watch her because she is really the main even though we change perspectives, we change stories. We do all that. You really are watching her healing journey throughout the three books. 

Rich Bennett 15:39
Hmm. Who came up with the playlist? 

Samantha 15:44
I mean, both of us, really. 

Erin 15:46
Mostly say. 

Rich Bennett 15:47
So. 

Erin 15:47
More of the music aficionado than I am. But. 

Samantha 15:50
Yeah. I mean. 

Erin 15:52
Sorry. Like, so we even joke about this, like, to ourselves, Like, sometimes, like we will just write scenes, and then we have to go back. 

Rich Bennett 16:02
Right. 

Erin 16:02
Because what we do is we compare a scene or like a chapter. We call them tracks, but we compare the track to a song. And you can like, listen, we created the playlist on Spotify so that the readers, if they wanted to, could follow along with the music that we're correlating with the book. But we always said, like, it's it's odd because sometimes we would write the track and like struggle to find a music or a song to go with it. But other times we're just like in the car or, you know, in our house cleaning. And then the song comes on and we're like, Oh my God, that has to go like, This is the perfect song. It has to go in, you know, this, that and the other. But there have been many text messages back and forth like this. How about this song? Oh, no, that's not the correct year or, you know, you know, whatever the case may be. But I am I am bowing down to Sam because she is she has been the one that is able to go back through and do all of that. So. 

Rich Bennett 16:59
For the first book. The playlist is amazing. 

Samantha 17:03
We're very proud of our playlists. 

Rich Bennett 17:07
You're right. 

Samantha 17:08
We are very proud of our playlists. 

Rich Bennett 17:11
Well, you got. You have some. No, no. You have a lot of good. 

Erin 17:16
Some. Always. Some are okay. Others are like. 

Rich Bennett 17:18
We have a lot of good artists in the. 

No, 

Samantha 17:23
Well, we wanted to include 

Rich Bennett 17:24
I mean. 

Samantha 17:24
a little bit of everything because this is really for young adults and a lot of them love music from this era, but maybe don't know different songs or don't know, like there are some deep cuts in there that maybe didn't make the the, you know, radio or didn't make the popular sound. The other thing about the books is that all of the kids in the book, I call them kids, all of the young adults in the novels are musical or talented in some way. So it's kind of like Glee. It's a little, you know, you know, Glee esque. And so they all do these different activities that have music. So Arias, a singer and a piano player and as a dancer know, as a drummer. They're in musicals. They're in you know, they do all these things. So music is constantly surrounding them. And so finding the right songs for the different scenes and the different activities that they're doing was part of the writing process. And really helped propel some of the scenes. Because sometimes I would hear a song and think, Oh, that would be great if they were doing whatever, you know, while they're listening to that song. And so you're getting a mix of everything because you're really seeing these songs that follow them throughout the year of doing different things. 

Rich Bennett 18:30
So it's like Glee meets Rock of Ages, but put in book form. 

Samantha 18:35
Yes. Yeah. Yeah. 

Erin 18:37
Yeah. And so another big thing that we wanted to hit home was like, music heals. And so like a lot of the things that we do is like process our emotions or, you know, whatever we're going through, we can just turn on a song whether it's, you know, a crazy rage anthem that you need to scream out all your anger to or I just met the love of my life. I need all the gushy, mushy songs like you can relate to these these songs that other people have created in the music that they've created and really relate it back to your life and what you're going through. 

Rich Bennett 19:09
So the first book, How long is it? 

Samantha 19:12
Oh. 

Rich Bennett 19:13
If you sat down and read it page to page, how long would it take you to read? 

Samantha 19:18
So that would depend on your reading speed. It is young adults. 

Rich Bennett 19:21
Well, 

Samantha 19:21
It's not written. It's not like it's not literary fiction. It's not hard to read. It's not it's written very much at a at a teenage level. So the first 

Rich Bennett 19:31
okay. 

Samantha 19:31
book might take you, I don't know, a couple of days, if you're giving it a couple of hours at a time, maybe maybe eight or 9 hours, I would say 

Rich Bennett 19:39
Okay. 

Samantha 19:39
the second one is longer because we added in the second perspective and we honestly had so many scenes that we wanted to include. We had such a hard time editing it down. We could not edit, edit that thing down, and that would take you probably a little longer, I'd say maybe 15 to 16 hours ish. 

Erin 19:55
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 19:56
Wow. Okay. 

Samantha 19:58
And the third 

Rich Bennett 19:58
All right, 

Samantha 19:58
one 

Rich Bennett 19:59
So. 

Samantha 19:59
is shorter. 

Rich Bennett 20:01
The third. 

Erin 20:02
Yes, there's there's 

Samantha 20:02
Yes. 

Erin 20:03
a reason behind that. 

Samantha 20:04
We've ever written. 

Rich Bennett 20:05
Okay. 

Erin 20:06
They talked about it like they're it's so it's funny because it is from the three perspectives but it is the shortest. And if we would divulge why, it would ruin part of the story for you. 

Rich Bennett 20:18
Well, they don't tell us why. 

Erin 20:20
Okay. I won't do it. You can't make. 

Rich Bennett 20:23
We don't want you to ruin the story. 

Erin 20:28
Especially before it's out, Right. 

Rich Bennett 20:31
Yeah. On average, he actually went. 

Erin 20:35
Chile's Lippi. 

Rich Bennett 20:36
Save for the third book. Do you know yet? 

Samantha 20:38
Yes. The third book is coming out August 6th. Yep. 

Rich Bennett 20:42
August six. Okay. 

Samantha 20:44
Right before the the book festival in air. It was all done very, very carefully. 

Erin 20:51
Very strategically. 

Rich Bennett 20:52
Oh. 

All right. So when you show at the at the book festival, you guys have to find one of the old boom boxes. 

Erin 21:03
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 21:04
Right. Have that on your table with all somehow another tie Spotify into so you can play all three playlists at the same time. 

Samantha 21:13
What do you see? Abel We use all of that imagery in all of our marketing materials, so we have like, stickers that are CDs. We have, like, music stickers. We have all of our book covers, have music all over them. So you can really see everything is, is very tied together. 

Rich Bennett 21:30
Now, are you. Are you both. I keep forgetting you're under one is Roslyn. Roslyn. Roslyn. 

Erin 21:39
Roslyn. There you go. 

Rich Bennett 21:40
Bosley? Yes. Actually. How did you come of that? S Roslyn? I mean, first of all, I know e Aaron se Samantha, right. 

Erin 21:48
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 21:49
The Roslyn. 

Erin 21:50
So that's a combination of our middle names. Samantha's middle name is Rose and mine is Lin. So we did we just kind of like. Try to smash them together. 

What 

Rich Bennett 22:03
Well, 

Erin 22:03
creative 

Rich Bennett 22:03
like. 

Erin 22:04
dirt it. 

Rich Bennett 22:09
That's okay. I didn't know if it was like a another friend of yours that, you know, that just gave you the ideas but couldn't write or. 

Who knows? A character that you thought of but couldn't use because it was part of a song and they said, No, you're not allowed to use her name. 

Samantha 22:29
We had a lot of. No, you're not. Lots of things we tried to use 

Rich Bennett 22:34
Really? 

Samantha 22:34
part of. Yeah, we tried to put lyrics at the beginning of each chapter and we're talking these are songs from the nineties and early 2000. So these are not, you know, today's Justin Bieber whatever people are listening to songs 

I. 

Erin 22:46
They'll be. 

Samantha 22:47
Made a face when I said Justin Bieber. 

We reached out to a lot of a ton, actually. I mean, Aaron had a spreadsheet going of all of the artists that we use in the first book. So when you're looking at the playlist, we reached out to most of them to ask if we could use a line or two of Lyric and the amount of. 

Rich Bennett 23:07
They know. Oh, you reached out to Elvis Presley, who's on the first playlist. 

Samantha 23:11
Actually, we reached out to the estate. Yeah. 

Erin 23:14
Yep. Yep. So I. Believe it or not, there's like three different websites that if you type in a song or whatever, you can see who owns the rights to them, the copyrights 

Rich Bennett 23:24
Right. 

Erin 23:25
to them. So sometimes that's one person, sometimes that's an estate, sometimes that's like five or six different companies. Like there is no like happy little middle ground. And so I was sitting there writing emails out to all of these all of these companies and like saying, Hey, this is the song we want, here's the lyric that we want, can we use it? Some of them we heard back from trying to charge us an astronomical amount of money to do it. Yes, some of them are like, Yeah, you know, you can have so many copies for free, but after, you know, since you're starting out or whatever, but after you hit so many sales, we want a piece of it kind of thing. And then there was one one lovely, lovely person out of all of all of this, all of the companies that we contacted that said, yes, we could use their lyrics. And so we absolutely kept them in the book and huge shout out 

Rich Bennett 24:19
While. 

Erin 24:19
to. And Daryn, I don't know if you remember that song, but it's called Crazy for This Girl by Evidence. 

Rich Bennett 24:24
What song was? 

Erin 24:25
It was the most like 

Rich Bennett 24:26
Oh. 

Erin 24:27
crazy for this girl. By Evan and Jaron. Yep. Huge, huge shout out to them. They are wonderful human beings. Like, they're just like, Yeah, sure. Just send us a copy of your book. I was like, I love you. 

So. 

Rich Bennett 24:41
The thing is, I mean, you guys played it smart. You contacted these people. I'm sure there's books out there for lyrics that never contacted. 

Erin 24:49
And that's just 

Rich Bennett 24:50
Yeah. 

Erin 24:50
it. And it's funny because you have to do like all the research because you don't want to go into something and then immediately get sued by someone who is going to definitely just like, you know, bully you over. So we were trying to do the right thing and trying to find like the the legality of it all and seeing how much we could 

Rich Bennett 25:08
Yeah, 

Erin 25:08
use, how, you know, some of them say that you can use up to like ten words a line before you get like, you know, slapped on your wrist kind of thing or it's 

Rich Bennett 25:16
right. 

Erin 25:16
like a line that's only like ten words or less or whatever. So it that whole thing was a nightmare. But luckily, like, we just decided, you know what, we can say, here's the song that we like, here's the artists that it belongs to, here's a playlist. You listen to the Spotify playlists, and that's how we try to connect to our readers. So with it. 

Rich Bennett 25:37
I love that, though, because I'm saying the thing is, I play the playlist while reading the wall. For those that can read the book, read a book and listen to the playlist at the same time. Try it. I can't do this. I'll get lost. You know. 

Erin 25:54
I can actually like. Music is constantly playing in the background, whatever I'm doing. Music is a part of it. So I like if I am reading, music will be on, if I'm cleaning, music will be on. Thankfully, 

Rich Bennett 26:06
Right. 

Erin 26:06
nobody hears me singing along to it. But yeah, it's just it's, it's. Oh, it's life. Music is life, honestly. So. 

Rich Bennett 26:16
And it's therapy. It does. It helps a lot. Now, I mean, now I can if it's jazz, classical, whatever, something with no lyrics. I can read a book and listen to that same time. 

Erin 26:28
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 26:28
But when it comes to music of lyrics, I can't because. With my music background, I'm so focused on listening to the lyrics because I want to hear the story of the song, 

Erin 26:40
Yep. 

Rich Bennett 26:41
which is something that's missing nowadays from a lot of music 

Erin 26:44
Yep. 

Rich Bennett 26:44
out there. It doesn't tell stories. 

Samantha 26:48
Yeah, I'm the same way. I can't listen to anything while I'm writing or working or doing any. 

Rich Bennett 26:53
Yeah. 

Samantha 26:54
But what I like to do, especially because a lot of books like to release playlist at this point, and they'll tell you which song goes to which chapter. So sometimes I'll read the chapter and stop and then go and listen to the song or whatever they want you to listen to. And it's a really cool experience to be able to go back and forth and kind of, you know, get into the characters that way. 

Rich Bennett 27:15
So mostly it reminds me of like, you guys probably don't remember this. Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. Put that on while watching The Wizard of Oz. 

Samantha 27:28
Yes, we've heard of that. 

Rich Bennett 27:30
I was just. I've never. I've never done it yet. 

Erin 27:35
I've heard. 

Rich Bennett 27:35
I want to 

Erin 27:35
I've. 

Rich Bennett 27:35
try. I just want to make sure. Think before you do that. 

Erin 27:40
No, no, no, no. We're not condoning anything. 

Samantha 27:45
Wrong audience. 

Rich Bennett 27:47
Now, are you guys actually self-published? I don't know. I'll be. Are you guys that. You. 

Samantha 27:54
So, yes, we are we are self-published or indeed published. We did query quite a bit our first book, but I actually have a business background and so after we got through all of the 

mess that is querying a traditional publisher, we found out that it just say it again. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 28:15
Samantha, If you want to say bullshit, you can say bullshit. 

Samantha 28:22
I was 

Rich Bennett 28:22
So I want 

Samantha 28:23
like. 

Rich Bennett 28:23
you to. 

Erin 28:24
Text messages. 

Rich Bennett 28:27
I say this goodbye. Could you just say what you mean? 

Samantha 28:32
I mean, you know, bless people who are traditionally published. They they. I definitely have a time and a place. If you get to a certain place and you need that kind of reach and you need that kind of help. A traditional publisher definitely is the way to go. But for us, we we just didn't need that and we wanted to really keep more of our profit and more control over what we do. We didn't want anyone telling us, You have to change this. We have to do that. And the fact that you have to do all of your own stuff anyway, I mean, you have to do all your own marketing and you have to do all of your own everything, even if you're traditionally published. So we just decided the best thing for us was to go ahead and and do it and get our work out there. We didn't want to be waiting ten years for people to read our book. So, you know, if in the future we get some kind of offer that might, you know, look decent for them, a traditional publishing house, we could go that route. We're not against it. We just we really like having the control. And, you know, there's already two of us were already splitting per book anyway, so it's kind of like. If we already know how to do you know what they're going to make us do anyway, so we might as well just do it ourselves. 

Erin 29:37
Martinez whether it's Martinez, what we have to do anyway. I can't even get my internet to work, so. 

Rich Bennett 29:47
And the good thing, especially, you know, for you, Samantha, of your business background, I'm sure the marketing of it, the marketing of them, probably was a lot easier for you, right? 

Samantha 29:56
Yes, I'm actually a teacher by trade. I was a teacher for 15 years. And while I was teaching. I know. 

Erin 30:03
You're blowing his mind. 

Samantha 30:05
I'm sorry. 

Rich Bennett 30:07
Yeah. 

Samantha 30:08
Yeah, but I, I taught for a long time, and then at the tail end of my teaching career, I started a business selling lesson plans for teachers. And I became. 

Rich Bennett 30:16
Wow. 

Samantha 30:16
Sort of obsessed with learning how to do it. And now that's kind of what I do full time. That's my my day job, if you will. And just fell in love with the business side of it. It's so, you know, creative and kind of fun, 

Rich Bennett 30:30
Yeah. 

Samantha 30:30
learning how to connect with people and learning how to. It's kind of a fun game for me. So I kind of applied what I knew 

Erin 30:38
That's 

Samantha 30:38
for 

Erin 30:38
all. 

Samantha 30:38
doing that to Roslyn and actually looking to maybe do some more of that in the future and help other authors who are self-published get their stuff out to a wider audience. So that may be a path I start taking here soon because I really enjoy the work. I think it's really fun and authors want to write. So if you're self-published and you don't love all the marketing part and you can get somebody to help you, I could be that person. So. 

Rich Bennett 31:09
I just had a young lady on it that does that. 

Samantha 31:12
Oh, really? 

Rich Bennett 31:12
He's been helping be bullish for 53 years. 

Samantha 31:15
That's amazing. What's the name? 

Rich Bennett 31:18
Michel de Filippo. 

Samantha 31:19
Oh, that's awesome. 

Rich Bennett 31:21
This. That's an error. And why you point to yourself, what were you pointing to yourself about? 

Erin 31:26
So like I said, that's awesome. I'm the. 

Rich Bennett 31:29
Okay. 

Erin 31:30
It's like throwing into it like, you know, editing and streamlining everything and stuff like that. And Sam will say, I need you to do this. And I'll be like, okay, I'm on it. But she is the master mind behind all of the business and marketing and everything, because that's just I'm like, How do I log into this again? Like what? What am I doing? And I, like I always told her, I said, the funniest part about this is it's like growing up because we eat like we grew up when the internet started exploding, right? Or older than Google, which hurts. But like. It hurts a lot. 

Rich Bennett 32:03
Wait a minute now. 

Erin 32:04
Yeah, right. Like, I was like, I swear up and down, I'm never going to become my mom. I'm never going to become my dad. I'm going to know technology as it grows and this, that and the other. And I just ask Sam to help me with my microphone and camera because I can't. I can't do it. Like like that's that's us in a nutshell. 

Samantha 32:24
Well, then. 

It's funny how like much we balance each other out, we really have things that we're and it makes us a good writing duo because the things she loves to do, I absolutely cannot do. I cannot line edit, I cannot. She's really good at all of the copy and all of that stuff. And I just I can't stare at it like that. It drives me insane. And I love all of the marketing and business and learning how to, you know, get your books where they need to be and all of that. And I love networking with other authors and, you know, doing that kind of stuff. So it's it's been really good. 

Erin 33:01
She meets. 

Samantha 33:05
She does. 

Erin 33:06
I do. I love me. The people she meets, it's like she's like my buffer. She finds all the cool kids, and I just join in later. Like, this is the best friend that I have to take her around with me all the time. That's me. 

Samantha 33:22
We have such a rich network of local authors who really are. 

Rich Bennett 33:26
Oh, God. Yeah. 

Samantha 33:26
They're doing their stuff. And I've had a great time meeting people, becoming really friendly with people. And, you know, it's been a great source of support trying to, you know, get a network here. 

Rich Bennett 33:40
With the books. Any plans on doing audio versions of them? 

Samantha 33:47
So we just started talking about this. It's actually really expensive to do audio and our books are very long, so 

Rich Bennett 33:54
Right. 

Samantha 33:54
you're talking probably thousands of dollars, but we. 

Rich Bennett 33:57
Why? 

Samantha 33:59
Because so audiobook narrators or narrators in general charge by the hour. And they charge so that the longer your book is, the more you're going to end up paying. So a rookie narrator for an hour is probably around 300 ish, and we probably need for the first book at least, I don't know, nine or 10 hours. And then the second book would be longer with two different narrators. So you're talking a good bit of money for something right now that isn't giving us that return on investment. So that's why we don't have audio right now. But. 

Rich Bennett 34:38
Both the. 

Samantha 34:39
We have talked about probably trying to plug in the microphones and go for it. But we have. 

Rich Bennett 34:44
Yeah, why not? 

Erin 34:47
And first, like, don't rush. 

Samantha 34:49
It's Internet. 

Rich Bennett 34:51
You don't have to 

Erin 34:52
I 

Rich Bennett 34:52
just, 

Erin 34:52
didn't 

Rich Bennett 34:53
you know, record 

Erin 34:53
dial up. 

Rich Bennett 34:54
it through the Internet. 

Erin 34:55
It. 

Rich Bennett 34:56
Recorded through the Internet, just recording it into your computer and then you can send it. You can send it to Samantha through your AOL messenger. 

Erin 35:08
I. 

I think that's something I could hit all through MySpace, isn't it? I don't know, I guess. 

Samantha 35:15
Heard. 

Rich Bennett 35:15
There are offers. Are authors that do the road. 

Samantha 35:19
Yeah, No, we've definitely talked about it. 

Rich Bennett 35:21
There are some authors that shouldn't be doing the. 

Erin 35:24
That's what I'm worried about. I don't want to be one of those authors. 

Rich Bennett 35:29
But your most energetic. 

Samantha 35:32
We. 

Rich Bennett 35:32
More. I'm governor. 

Erin 35:33
Elapse after this, like I want you to 

Samantha 35:34
Right. 

Erin 35:34
do. I've been sipping tea, I've been drinking water. I'm going to collapse after this like I'm done for the rest of the day. Get. 

Samantha 35:43
I'm not. I got to work. 

Erin 35:45
The tears away. I'm glad that this is good. 

Rich Bennett 35:49
ICE's Samantha writes Lessons for Teachers store today Air. What do you actually do since you're both not full time entrepreneurs? 

Erin 35:59
So technically right now I am at I am a stay at home mother of two beautiful boys who are keeping me on my toes. 

Rich Bennett 36:08
They can't teach you about a microphone and Internet. 

Erin 36:12
They look at me like I am from another planet. And it's like the look that I gave my parents growing up. Like, are you serious? Like, now I don't have time to waste on you right now. But I graduated with an applied mathematics degree. I have a 

Rich Bennett 36:28
Wow. 

Erin 36:28
background in business and. 

Computer science, actually, but like more coding? Not. Where do I plug my microphone in? I guess that's. 

There's a difference. Darn it. Like. 

Samantha 36:46
I would just like to say that he's really laughing. Like, really laughing. 

Erin 36:50
You know, like the tears are being wiped away. So I know I'm doing my job, but, like, I will actually help Sam write some of the things that she ends up selling. We're talking about four things that I could do to, like, help her with her store. But honestly, these books and these kids are enough right now. So 

they're getting out of school tomorrow. And I'm not prepared. Like summer is not supposed to be here yet. 

Rich Bennett 37:18
Okay, so. 

Could. 

Erin 37:22
The transition is wonderful. 

Rich Bennett 37:26
I saw something very important. Tell everybody where they could find mix tape Volume one, Mix tape, Volume two, a mix tape, Volume three. When it comes, it will Volume three When to Gel. 

Samantha 37:36
So the best place to follow us is going to be Instagram and Facebook. And you can find us at Roslyn. And then on Amazon you can find our books. Mixtape Volume one and Mixtape Volume two and Mixtape Volume three will be out on August 6th. 

Rich Bennett 37:50
But you guys also have a Web site, right? 

Samantha 37:52
Sure we do have a website. It's easy. Roslyn writes dot com s r s a l y. And then. 

Rich Bennett 38:00
You guys. 

Samantha 38:00
Right. 

Erin 38:01
You are. 

Samantha 38:02
We do. We're not very good at newsletter ing. 

Rich Bennett 38:06
Well, it's still trying to get through AOL. I mean, that's. 

Erin 38:09
Yeah. Come on, 

Samantha 38:12
Yeah. It's 

Erin 38:12
boy. 

Samantha 38:12
stuck out in the stuck out there somewhere. But yes, we do. And we try to give our newsletter subscribers like sneak peeks and stuff like that. Like we're going to send them a couple chapters or tracks, if you will, of mixtape three early. So we do, you know, when we're doing something, we're much better at newsletter thing, but when we're not, it's like, Oh, I don't know, I'm sorry. 

Rich Bennett 38:35
It's good that you got a newsletter. The only thing you have to change is the email address, because a lot of people that are getting a newsletter from Aaron at AOL.com, they go right into spam 

Erin 38:48
I love. This is associated 

Rich Bennett 38:49
or. 

Erin 38:49
with me. 

Samantha 38:50
Right now. Can you imagine if Aaron at AOL dot com was still available though like. Jackpot. 

Rich Bennett 38:58
I 

Erin 38:58
That's 

Rich Bennett 38:58
still 

Erin 38:58
my. 

Rich Bennett 38:59
get people that use 

Erin 38:59
Trademark 

Rich Bennett 38:59
a. 

Erin 39:00
copyright and whatever else might. 

Rich Bennett 39:03
God. 

Samantha 39:04
I like how we went from him not believing that we were as old as we were to now him making fun of us for like aol ing I. 

Rich Bennett 39:11
Well, what? 

Samantha 39:12
I like the transition we've made. 

Rich Bennett 39:14
I am not making fun of you some. 

Samantha 39:16
Oh, I think that. Oh, just Aaron. Okay, well, then that. 

Rich Bennett 39:19
No. Oh. Oh, 

Erin 39:21
It's fine. 

Rich Bennett 39:22
I. I'm making fun of Aaron. 

Erin 39:27
I'm making fun of myself, too, so that's okay. You're just joining in on the fun, and that's all that it is. 

Samantha 39:32
I think I might have accidentally set the stage for this because when we were first logging on, I was trying to get unflattering photos of you to post to our Instagram. Funny. And he was 

Erin 39:42
Rudolph. 

Samantha 39:42
like. I know. And he was like, Are you doing that to your best friend? I was like, Sure I am. So I think I might have. 

Erin 39:50
That's right, everybody. 

Samantha 39:51
The Bentley. 

Erin 39:52
Them. 

Samantha 39:55
I might have accidentally done this. 

Erin 39:56
Let me. Listen, I already embarrassed myself enough by all these, like, reels and crap that you have to do a post on Instagram. It's bad enough there. Let's get unflattering photos of me with my son's head set. And, you know, I'm not worth. 

Samantha 40:11
Well, he was the one who said when you got the headset go and that I really needed to get pictures of you. So. 

Erin 40:18
That's fair already. 

Samantha 40:19
That was him. 

Rich Bennett 40:22
That was my evil twin. 

Erin 40:26
Yup. 

Samantha 40:26
He has an evil twin do. 

Rich Bennett 40:28
It was my evil twin that was not me. 

Samantha 40:31
Well. 

Rich Bennett 40:32
It was 

Erin 40:33
It just. 

Rich Bennett 40:33
all right. Oh, God. All right. So you're going to be down here for the book festival in August. 

Erin 40:41
I will be. Yes 

Rich Bennett 40:43
They come to this. 

Erin 40:45
yes. Uncle Sam does her jam with the book fair. 

Rich Bennett 40:48
I'm going to do my best to find one of those old AOL C.D.s. 

Erin 40:55
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 40:56
We bring it to you? 

Erin 40:58
Please. 

Rich Bennett 40:59
Have your dial up Internet back. 

Erin 41:01
Oh, my God. We're. 

Samantha 41:02
She needs that. 

Erin 41:04
I do. You have to, like, stick the CD in the drive and, like, download everything. Listen, if we put me back in the early 2000s, I'd still be better Now they're better then than I am now. So. 

Rich Bennett 41:16
Yeah, but the scary thing is a lot of your computers don't even come with a CD or DVD player. 

Erin 41:22
Hey, hey, hey. Mine has it in it. So take with that what you will. 

Rich Bennett 41:30
Aaron, to tell the truth, you're really using the Commodore 64 right now, aren't you? 

Erin 41:37
I do not appreciate you outing me. That is so rude. 

Rich Bennett 41:44
That was my first computer. 

Samantha 41:46
I was going to say that I don't even know what a. Where is. 

Erin 41:50
I was going to say. Your age now. 

Rich Bennett 41:53
Oh, I in. I'm old. Well, I play Santa Claus professionally, so. Yeah, I'm old. 

So the book festival, because this is very dear to me, I've been wanting to do this for years because, you know, down here we have the the Authors and Artist Show, but we don't have a true author show, just authors. What made you guys, you know, come up with this idea? 

Samantha 42:24
So we have been actually attending book festivals for the past few years. And the last one we were at, I was looking around and I was like, I could do this. And because it kind of crosses over with some of my other business adventures, I am super entrepreneurial. I'm always getting myself into some mess and I probably need to slow it down. I really I'm out of control, to be honest of. 

Erin 42:53
So I'm like, how about to like, let's let's wine that down a little. 

Samantha 42:58
So my my dream eventually would be to have a brick and mortar bookstore in the area. And I would love to do that someday. But in the meantime, because that costs a lot of money that I don't currently have. I decided to start venturing into some book events, and the book fair is one of them. So I'm hosting the Book Fair at Air on August 10th from 12 to 4 at the Bel Air Armory. And there's going to be 30 different vendors of all different types. So we have we have authors from every genre, every walk of life you can think of. And then we have lots of vendors as well that are selling different bookish merchandise, lots of really cool, fun, different things. And then I'm trying to make it super family friendly. So there's going to be some. 

Rich Bennett 43:48
Right. 

Samantha 43:48
Kids stuff. There's, you know, there's like craft stuff, there's Pete the Cat that's going to be there and face painting and just lots of other fun things that the whole family can come out and find, you know, support some local authors, buy some books for all ages and so that's going to be fun. We're going to have a really great baker who's going to have different baked goods that will be for sale and just a ton of really fun stuff to celebrate books in the area. And I really hope people can come out and support it. 

Rich Bennett 44:25
Baked goods. 

Samantha 44:27
Yes. Baked goods. She's awesome. Her name is. Her name is Kayla, and she owns a business called the Mixing Spoon. And she is so incredibly talented. Her stuff is so good. 

Rich Bennett 44:39
I'm just thinking, know, because here it is. It'll be August. And I've started growing this now because I got to play the big fat guy in the red suit in September ever for a fundraiser. I need something to get my belly going. Baked goods will work. 

Samantha 44:56
Help you out. 

Erin 44:57
Yeah. Only if you bring me the whole city, though. Mike, that's. 

You better get on it. 

Rich Bennett 45:06
They had. 

Very hard. Geez, smoke it. So can vendors and authors still sign up for this? 

Samantha 45:15
No, we're full for this. 

Rich Bennett 45:16
Are you really? 

Samantha 45:16
But I'm hoping. Yeah, we're full. I'm. I'm really hesitant to add any more just because of the space. And this is our first year, and I'm, you know, I'm not sure. So I capped it at 30 and, you know, hopefully we'll get in there, figure out how it goes and everything, and then see if we can't fit in some more next year. So if anyone is still, you know, is interested, they can follow the social media is book there at Bel Air, both on Instagram and Facebook and then after you know, the show or the fair is done this year, I'll put out an interest forum for next year and then hopefully, you know, if it goes well, we'll be able to put some more in there next year. 

Rich Bennett 45:53
And all these artists are from Harvard County. 

Samantha 45:57
Not all of 

Rich Bennett 45:58
Okay. 

Samantha 45:58
them. They're not all from Harford County, but a good bit of them are, especially I specifically reached out to a lot of moms in the area. 

Rich Bennett 46:06
Right. 

Samantha 46:06
Like that was kind of one of my goals was to support moms in Bel Air. And so I, I personally reached out to some I posted in the moms groups looking for specifically for women owned mom owned businesses. So a lot of the vendors are local moms who are creating all kinds of different wares. 

Rich Bennett 46:27
Okay. 

Samantha 46:28
And the authors are I don't know where the furthest one would. I guess Erin is technically the furthest one from Ohio. Yeah, I don't think we have anyone coming in from farther than Ohio, but some of them are from Pennsylvania, southern Maryland, a couple from New Jersey. I think they're just there from the area. And we've got a real mix of both, you know, indie published and traditional published author. Some are both. We have some authors coming who I know we have one. She does Why traditionally publish and she does adult books self-published. So we've really got a mix of all all genres, all ages, all everything, lots of different authors and people to come out in support. 

Rich Bennett 47:12
I'm looking at all the authors authors now and there's, I reckon, well, all art, let me rephrase it. I recognize four of them. Two of them being, you, because, of course, you're on the. But the only other two I've had on the show so far is Ashley. Ashley Riehle and 

Samantha 47:32
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 47:32
the Chili Pepper Lady 

Samantha 47:34
And Christie. 

Rich Bennett 47:35
Christy. 

Samantha 47:36
We love Christie. 

Erin 47:37
Forever calling her that now you're that she's like the red hot chili pepper lady. 

Rich Bennett 47:41
You have to yell at these authors and tell them, well, not just to get on my podcast, too, because it's it's free marketing. 

Samantha 47:52
For sure. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 47:53
But get on podcasts throughout the world. Speaking of which, before we start recording, did you say you're going to start a podcast? 

Samantha 48:03
Yeah my business that I where I sell teacher lesson plans is called Samantha in secondary. And so I'm launching a podcast in the fall where I'm going to teach ELA teachers and librarians how to use choice reading in their classrooms. So it's a pretty specific podcast. 

Rich Bennett 48:22
Good. 

Samantha 48:23
Excited about. 

Rich Bennett 48:24
Good for you. And if you need any advice, tips, or whatever. Feel free to ask me. I've been doing well. Come on. Cut. Yeah. In this after dial up stories. I've been doing this since 2015. 

Samantha 48:40
That's great. 

Rich Bennett 48:41
But I got my degrees actually, in radio, which I started back a while ago. Oh, my God, I. Radio while again. 

Erin 48:51
All right, do the math. Wait. It's five. 

Rich Bennett 48:52
No, I don't want to do the math. I thought of the year. And it's like, Oh my God, in 1989. Now, is that right? 

Samantha 49:03
Wow. That's. 

Rich Bennett 49:03
Now, 86. I'm sorry. 886, 1986. 

Erin 49:06
86 that we're one. We were one. 

Rich Bennett 49:08
Shut up. Hey. 

Erin 49:12
I. 

Samantha 49:13
I wasn't going to say it. I'm being the good one. 

Erin 49:16
I did. Listen. I did. I'm 

Samantha 49:19
See. 

Erin 49:19
getting. Sort as a back. 

Samantha 49:21
He's getting your back. Mm hmm. 

Rich Bennett 49:25
You know what? I'm used to it. 

I can edit that out, but I won't. 

Erin 49:34
Right. 

Rich Bennett 49:35
I wouldn't do that to you. 

Erin 49:37
Arthur gets a zinger in there. 

Rich Bennett 49:39
I would. 

Samantha 49:40
That's not fair. 

Rich Bennett 49:42
You're right. 

Samantha 49:42
If you edit that out, you have to edit all of yours out too and pretend that you guys haven't been. Picking at each other the entire time. 

Rich Bennett 49:51
I would not do that. So now. 

Samantha 49:53
Do you see my mom? My mom voice in my mom face or Come in. 

Erin 49:58
My best friend. 

Rich Bennett 50:01
Richard, you better behave. You'd be nice to. 

Erin 50:06
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 50:06
Meanwhile, Aaron, sitting back there at the register, get on the. 

Erin 50:14
And I'm like. 

Samantha 50:15
See. I can pick on her, but you can't pick on her. 

Erin 50:19
Yes. See? 

Rich Bennett 50:20
I'm not picking on her. I'm. She and her. 

Samantha 50:26
Oh, that's what that is. 

Rich Bennett 50:28
Yes. Ask me anything 

Samantha 50:29
Oh. 

Rich Bennett 50:29
that you thought I picked on Herbert, and I'll tell you how it was a lesson. 

Samantha 50:33
I have three letters for you, AOL. 

Rich Bennett 50:36
Okay, because. Don't use an. She needs to get high speed. 

Erin 50:41
Not. 

Rich Bennett 50:42
You're not. 

Erin 50:43
I should be using it, but I'm not using. 

Rich Bennett 50:45
I thought he showed your Internet. I thought he showed your Internet speed was turtle. 

Samantha 50:51
It did. 

Erin 50:52
But that's. 

Samantha 50:55
Hurt. Your feelings hurt. 

Erin 50:56
Now. It's now but we have to mobile and it's like that. It's just it's funny because like we have crappy internet and just like four or five houses in the area and you go down the street and they are like blowing up with Internet. Like it's, it's insane. I'm like, I, I feel like I feel like I have some calls to make, 

so. 

Samantha 51:19
I agree. 

Rich Bennett 51:20
So one thing. 

Erin 51:21
Maybe next time. Maybe by the time of the book fair, I'll have good Internet. 

Rich Bennett 51:24
See. See, That's a man for sure. That was not picking on her. It was teacher lessons. She's going to contact the source. 

Samantha 51:35
Where to go with that. 

Erin 51:36
I like this. There's a serious staredown happening, right? 

Rich Bennett 51:39
Oh, I see. I feel like Samantha's getting ready to punish me. I'm going to be put all the time out or something here. 

Erin 51:48
There will be. 

Samantha 51:48
My. 

Erin 51:49
For you, sir. 

Rich Bennett 51:51
The teacher. The teacher is coming out. And her. 

Samantha 51:54
It did. It came out real quick. 

Rich Bennett 51:56
Richie Garrett. 

Erin 51:59
Let's just go sit in the corner with your dance hat. Right. 

Rich Bennett 52:03
Hey. 

Erin 52:04
Is that what you guys said in. 

Rich Bennett 52:05
I'm not that old now. 

Erin 52:06
Back then 

write your lines and chalk on the chalkboard. 

Rich Bennett 52:11
No, no, no, no, no. Now that one room schoolhouse. We did not know I was dying. 

I'm not saying I'm old, but we did have to write with a stone and chisel. 

Samantha 52:28
Which is a. 

Rich Bennett 52:31
Oh, God. On that note, is there anything you ladies would like to add? 

Samantha 52:37
I think we have hit everything we would have liked to talk about and so much more. How about you, Aaron? Do you feel good about this conversation? 

Erin 52:47
I do. You know, aside from the fact of how much I got picked on, I. Appreciate you having us. 

Samantha 52:56
We are very. 

Erin 52:57
There will be a continuation of this. When. 

Rich Bennett 52:58
Well. 

Erin 53:00
To the Bel Air Book Fair. 

Rich Bennett 53:01
There has to be. You guys need to come back. 

Erin 53:03
Oh, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 53:04
A couple of reasons. Because. 

Erin 53:06
Okay. 

Rich Bennett 53:08
You guys are going to be working on another book if you haven't already. Right. So you got to come on and talk about that. Samantha's going to have to come on to talk about her podcast. When she 

Samantha 53:20
Awesome. 

Rich Bennett 53:20
does that. And Aaron, you got to. Well, yeah, I. Come on again. 

Samantha 53:26
Just so he could make fun of you for. 

Rich Bennett 53:28
Now when you get wood, you get high speed Internet. We can understand what the hell you're saying. 

Erin 53:34
All right. I'll get high speed Internet when you get a game. How about that 

serious look that just happened? 

Samantha 53:46
Okay. This is. Get me now. 

That was not nice. 

Rich Bennett 53:52
Right. On that note. 

Erin 53:54
Offer you one cupcake. How about that? 

Rich Bennett 53:57
One cupcake ain't going to give me big enough to be Santa Claus. 

Samantha 54:01
Kaitlyn will have plenty of cupcakes for you. 

Rich Bennett 54:03
Better be a Smith Island seven layer, huge cupcake or something. 

Samantha 54:09
I'll let her know. I'll pass on the information that we need. Lots of baked goods. Because you need to be Santa Claus. 

Rich Bennett 54:15
Yes, please do. 

Samantha 54:17
We'll 

Rich Bennett 54:17
But 

Samantha 54:17
do. 

Rich Bennett 54:17
I'm not where I am. I'm not wearing the suit in August or in. 

Samantha 54:21
All right. All 

Erin 54:22
It'd 

Samantha 54:22
right. 

Erin 54:22
be 

Samantha 54:22
That's 

Erin 54:22
too hot. 

Samantha 54:22
that's fair. 

Rich Bennett 54:25
Samantha and I want to thank. Watch. This has been fun. I haven't laughed this hard in a long time. 

Samantha 54:35
Since the Chili Pepper conversation, probably. 

Rich Bennett 54:37
You didn't make me 50 shades of red like Kayla and Christy did. Well, 

Samantha 54:42
That 

Rich Bennett 54:42
you made 

Samantha 54:42
one. 

Rich Bennett 54:42
me read from laughing. You've been so. 

Samantha 54:48
We always have to tell people before they get on with us that we just giggle a lot. Like every time somebody we are either on a podcast or somebody, you know, gets on Instagram live with us or whatever, I'm like, I'm sorry. We laugh a lot. We just it's it's our thing is our trademark. 

Rich Bennett 55:02
Well, thank you both so much. And stick around because I got something to tell you guys, too. 

Erin 55:07
Perfect. Thank you.