BREAKING NEWS: Book. Published. Available. Now.
It has been a long road spanning one-quarter of my life. It has put my life on hold, indirectly preventing me from moving forward. If I were to divide my life into segments, they would go: Pre-Cancer Ben (0-16 years old), Cancer I (16-17), Pretending Like Cancer I Never Happened (17-18), Cancer II (19), Cancer II’s Aftermath (19-22), Book (20-26). Writing and trying to publish my book has been an extension of cancer, in that I cannot move forward until this process is complete.
Expectations are powerful, and I feel for college athletes who believe they are destined for fame and riches. I expected the writing and publishing process to take less than a year. And so I pushed opportunities away, claiming that success would be easier and rejection less likely after becoming a published author. I foolishly pushed life away for six years.
I knew that I was resisting the lesson I had already learned when I became cancer-free in September, 2001: that no matter what happens, life just keeps moving along. Life is pretty much the same at 20 years old as at 21, at 8% body fat as at 15%, and, in many ways, being a survivor isn’t a whole lot different than having cancer. Life’s linear path keeps moving forward. But it became convenient to wait and wait and wait until my book was published.
The wait is over. My cancer memoir, titled TWICE: How I Became a Cancer-Slaying Super Man Before I Turned 21, has been published and is available for purchase. On the surface, TWICE is about dealing with and surviving cancer. But really it is about a boy who sees something special in himself. He embraces it, and uses it to his advantage. What he doesn’t realize is that his faith in this special trait holds him back in life. TWICE is a story of struggling to grow up from adolescence into adulthood in the face of deadly challenges.
I am overjoyed to share my story with you, and I thank you so much for your support.
TWICE can be purchased through my website, CancerSlayingSuperman.com
Hear what others are saying about TWICE:
Jonathan Kellerman, 33-time New York Times bestselling author
Library Journal by Jodith Janes, Cleveland Clinic Library
Don't forget to join my Facebook Page.
Expectations are powerful, and I feel for college athletes who believe they are destined for fame and riches. I expected the writing and publishing process to take less than a year. And so I pushed opportunities away, claiming that success would be easier and rejection less likely after becoming a published author. I foolishly pushed life away for six years.
I knew that I was resisting the lesson I had already learned when I became cancer-free in September, 2001: that no matter what happens, life just keeps moving along. Life is pretty much the same at 20 years old as at 21, at 8% body fat as at 15%, and, in many ways, being a survivor isn’t a whole lot different than having cancer. Life’s linear path keeps moving forward. But it became convenient to wait and wait and wait until my book was published.
The wait is over. My cancer memoir, titled TWICE: How I Became a Cancer-Slaying Super Man Before I Turned 21, has been published and is available for purchase. On the surface, TWICE is about dealing with and surviving cancer. But really it is about a boy who sees something special in himself. He embraces it, and uses it to his advantage. What he doesn’t realize is that his faith in this special trait holds him back in life. TWICE is a story of struggling to grow up from adolescence into adulthood in the face of deadly challenges.
I am overjoyed to share my story with you, and I thank you so much for your support.
TWICE can be purchased through my website, CancerSlayingSuperman.com
Hear what others are saying about TWICE:
Jonathan Kellerman, 33-time New York Times bestselling author
Benjamin Rubenstein is a gifted story-teller and the story he tells in TWICE is riveting. This is a stunning page-turner of a memoir, devoid of the mawkishness that often mars the genre. TWICE is brutally honest, sometimes rib-achingly funny and all the more profound for the author’s brave exploration of himself.
Library Journal by Jodith Janes, Cleveland Clinic Library
It is estimated that only 150 diagnosis of Ewing's sarcoma are made annually and only two-thirds of these patients survive more than five years. Rubenstein was diagnosed with Ewings's at 16, but was determined not to be a "Sick Kid" for "I would never be able to discard the Sick Kid label." Writing with wit and humor, he chronicles his fight with this terrifying disease. Rubenstein's belief in the superhuman ability to fight his cancer gave him the courage to face chemotherapy and its devastating side effects, bone biopsies, a second cancer (leukemia), a stem-cell transplant, more chemotherapy, infections, hemorrhagic cystitis, weight loss, and osteoporosis. In spite of invasive diagnostic tests, treatment set-backs, and demanding physical therapy, he never fears he will lose his battle. The strong support of his family is documented with love and occasional frustration at what he sees as over-protectiveness. A University of Virginia economics degree is testament to his survival and entry into young adulthood.
Verdict: An inspiring and fascinating personal account of a long and often painful journey that would appeal to other patients and their families.
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