Hermiston, OR – Benjamin Armstrong is a Junior at Hermiston Senior High who recently had his short story published. On October 20, the school held a book signing for Armstrong. Parents, teachers and fellow students gather to take pictures and get their copies signed by him. Not only did the school celebrate his accomplishment but they also celebrated his seventeenth birthday.
His piece is named “Sleigh 54,” one of fifteen short stories in the anthology of Horror stories. The book, “What Remains,” was edited together by Dakota Rayne and published by Inked in Gray. The book is an overall culmination of a contest in which over 300 writers participated. Ben Armstrong is among the final fifteen whose pieces were chosen.
Ben’s writing career began when he was told to write a story about elves finding jobs during the holiday season. Since then, he’s been creating stories and wanting to tell them any way he could whether that be in a YouTube video or creating films. He said that when he was younger he remembers going to his grand-mother’s house over summer where she would help him expand his writing skills.
Eventually, Armstrong’s writing began to expand and now his work is published in a novel. “I thought it would be in a magazine… I never though it would be in a novel,” Armstrong said, ” I was quite excited to see my name in the table of contents and my own copywrite.”
Although he’s constantly sending his work to publishers, he also follows and Email Letter that sends writers like himself, advice and publishers look for work every week.
Currently, Benjamin Armstrong is going to continue writing short stories but knows he wants to expand into novellas, maybe even a novel.
The Hermiston Senior High showed their support for Armstrong and even purchased three copies of the novel to have at the school library.
Benjamin’s short story is a scary story for the collection but made sure to note he is not planning on limiting himself to one genre. He follows a website that gives him prompts in every style of writing and even has stories ready to go when the time comes. He’s written pieces in different genres such as humorous, sad, romance, and well HORROR.
Benjamin says he hopes to become a history teacher while continuing to write his stories.
Armstrong enjoys reading YA authors, historical fiction authors such as Alan Gratz; and fantasy authors such as JRR Tolkien and GRR Martin.
