Plum elementary student writes his 1st horror book, hopes to make a series

A national writing contest and love of horror has inspired a Holiday Park Elementary student to pen his first book.

Josh Ingram, 11, of Plum recently released “Light: A Forgotten Monster.”

The self-published book tells a story about a group of juveniles at a sleepover. A friend of the main character, Amy Smith, convinces them to summon a monster.

The monster can only be seen with a flashlight and goes on a tear throughout the book. Smith and her friends must figure out a way to defeat it or all is lost.

“I wanted to make a book because my mom was doing this NaNoWriMo online competition, and I decided I’d join her just to see what it’s about,” Josh said. “I started the story and kind of let it flow.”

NaNoWriMo is a charity devoted to helping young writers. It has a challenge every November to write at least 50,000 words of a novel in 30 days, in part, to celebrate National Novel Writing Month.

Josh set a goal of 5,000 words. He ended up writing 7,500 through Google Docs.

His mother, Stephanie Ingram, helped move it into Microsoft Word for editing and used Amazon’s publishing process. The young novelist also had support from his father, Stuart, and older brothers, Sam and Matthew.

“My mom and dad are very proud,” Josh said. “I completed my goal at around half the month. I struggled to see where I was going to end it.

“… I like to write because, unlike other things like programming games, you can get ideas written down faster so you don’t lose interest with your story and characters. I find it really fun to make up the stories. Horror is probably my favorite (genre).”

Josh said 16 copies have been sold since the book’s Dec. 1 release, and he plans to put the proceeds into a savings account.

It’s available in paperback for $5 on amazon.com.

Principal Fran Sciullo read Josh’s book. He said there are elements of a mystery, suspense thriller.

“Josh, certainly, has chased his passion for reading and writing,” Sciullo said. “His imagination has put it to application. We’re really proud of him. That’s what we aspire here with our students is to chase their dreams. Certainly, Josh has done that.

“It’s a shorter read. He touches base on some paranormal things. Josh, one day, might be up there with (horror icon) Stephen King. It certainly is a feel-good story for him and his family (to publish his book).”

Josh said of all the teachers he has learned from in the Plum School District during his young life, John Satterfield in second grade is the one he connected with the most.

“He always made up songs and made jokes commonly in his class to keep your interest,” Josh said.

Josh hopes to write another book or two and turn “Light” into a series similar to “Goosebumps” by R.L. Stine or “Nightmares!” by Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller, or a possible video game franchise.

“I want to do something creative and artsy as a job,” he said.

When he’s not writing or in school, Josh spends his time playing video games such as Fortnite, Spider-Man and indie games like Hello Neighbor and Five Nights at Freddy’s.