From the Publisher: The Paper Boy is a young adult paranormal novel from Josiah Golojuh. Get ready for a story that is clever, nostalgic, and terrifying. Inspired by Josiah’s past as a newspaper delivery boy in the greater Pittsburgh area during the mid 1990s.
This novel marks Josiah’s debut as a novelist. He adapted The Paper Boy from his short story The Corpse Boy, published in 2015 by The Opiate Literary Magazine. They also recently published his short story Three Strangers.
More info About The Paper Boy: “Daniel’s paper route is his refuge from the harsh realities of growing up. Navigating a neighborhood filled with unique and often troubling characters, he seeks solace in comic books, action figures, and most of all, his imagination.
When Daniel discovers the body of a young boy hanging from a tree, his world is shaken. Haunted by the ghost, he forms an unlikely bond, teaching his new friend about superheroes and sci-fi. But the truth about the Corpse Boy’s death leads Daniel to a sinister revelation involving Cowboy, a dangerous figure from the trailer park.
As a storm brews, Daniel must confront his deepest fears and face a chilling showdown with Cowboy. In a neighborhood on the brink of chaos, Daniel’s courage will be tested in ways he never imagined.
The Paper Boy is a gripping tale of friendship, loss, and the dark secrets that lurk beneath the surface…”
In City Paper… About the Author: Josiah grew up in the woods north of Pittsburgh, delivering newspapers and reading comic books. The region influenced his novel The Paper Boy (2024). He has a Master’s Degree in Screenwriting from USC where he studied under the late Coleman Hough. A member of the Producers Guild, Josiah wrote and directed an animated short film, The Illuminator. Josiah co-founded and programmed the Graphation Film Festival which ran events in Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, & Seattle, for which he received coverage from CNN and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He recently wrote, directed and produced a feature length documentary on 90s comic character Zen: Intergalactic Ninja. He lives in Huntington Beach, California, with his wife and daughters, where he teaches writing.
Author YouTube Channel “The Paper Boy is a clever and suspenseful contribution to the superhero genre. Josiah Golojuh will keep you guessing and make you think at the same time.” —Tom Perrotta (Oscar Nominated Writer, Little Children, Election, The Leftovers)
“The best horror book you will read, funny, dark, referential and clever, Josiah isn’t clowning around with this very real tale of terror.” —Stephen Chiodo (Writer/Director, Killer Klowns from Outer Space)
“Scary, intriguing and exciting all wrapped up into one amazing debut novel from Josiah. If you love horror, comic book heroes and interesting stories this book will not disappoint. The southwestern Pennsylvania setting lends itself perfectly to the movie that will soon be following the novel we hope!” —Dawn Keezer (Director, Pittsburgh Film Office)
“The Paper-Boy is nothing less than a veritable time machine of nerd culture in the 90s.” —Steven Kung (Writer, Dear White People, Director, Fresh off the Boat)
“There’s a reason Josiah Golojuh calls his YouTube channel, Josiah is Write – this fella can really write!” —Stephen Stern (Co-Creator, Zen: Intergalactic Ninja)
“A nostalgia-drenched meditation on childhood loss, blossoming imagination, and the rich internal worlds we create to give us comfort in an uncomfortable world.” —Nick Marino (Writer, IDW’s Godzilla Rivals: Biollante Vs. Destoroyah, Transformers Beast Wars)
“A beautifully written love letter to the 90s as well as a bravely emotional story about the kids who don’t quite fit in. It’s particularly refreshing to see a story about a young male character dealing with difficult feelings and vulnerabilities.” —April Maguire (Co-writer, Subservience, starring Megan Fox)
“An adolescence shaped by a small town upbringing, a longing for adventure, and a love for all things counter-culture have served Josiah well in his efforts to share his experiences, interests, and gifts with his audience. I hope you enjoy reading his book as much as we all did living it.” —Kim Snair (Childhood crush, Real owner of the Jim Morrison birthday cake)
What was the origin of The Paper Boy? How did your personal background come into play?
The Paper Boy is the story of a newspaper delivery boy in 1996, I was a newspaper delivery boy in 1996. I’d just walk and observe these very unique and interesting people, taking mental notes on characters that would make a great story. One day on the paper route, there were SWAT team members, police etc. as described late in the book. That all happened. I also watched a lot of movies, read a lot of comics and books, so those all sort of enveloped one another.
What were some of those movie, comic, and book influences?
There were many. Tom Perrota’s Little Children. Tom gave me advice and guided the project. Stephen Chiodo and Killer Klowns from Outer Space who said the book is “… funny, dark, referential and clever.” Tolkien and Lord of the Rings, the chapter titles reference that. Peter David’s run on X-Factor in the early 90s. I could go on, but the biggest single influence was Guillermo del Toro’s film The Devil’s Backbone. I discovered it as I was writing the early version as a screenplay. It was more “adult” than my story but yet this grown up scary thing that sort of loomed over children.
How do you begin to develop the story?
In graduate school, while getting my Master’s in Screenwriting at USC, I took a class with Coleman Hough (who collaborated with Stephen Soderberg and sadly just passed away earlier this year). She had me do a writing exercise that revived that memory. I wrote a scene, in screenplay format, of a paperboy walking through all these SWAT team members in a trailer park.
This project started as a screenplay? How did that impact things?
It helped structure the project. It gave it a framework to build on. Coleman also really challenged me in my expectations. I wrote it to be a much more straightforward project and her push helped create the paranormal element to the story. She helped me find a number of things I would have missed otherwise, but the form of the screenplay felt limiting to the story.
How did Coleman Hough help it become paranormal?
The story had Daniel and some of his interactions with other characters, but that was all. It lacked The Corpse Boy. She pushed and pushed and pushed some more. The result was a boy hanging from a tree. It was dark and scary, but it was what the story needed. It needed tension and terror. The looming threat of evil out there. The bad guy for the super hero to defeat.
This is a cautionary tale for young readers?
Yes, but also an inspirational one. Writer Tom Perotta advised me in that direction and helped me figure out where I needed to go. Tom was nominated for adapting his own novel Little Children, which inspired me early in the process. The things that we love can lead to our downfall, but can also save us. They can be manipulated to destroy or bring us friends to save us. I have two young daughters and we have been watching every Disney film, in order of release and while not explicit, there’s a lot of darkness there. The darker the villains, the more real in that sense, the scarier–I wanted that. I wanted to overcome a very real evil. To issue a very real warning. To confront a very real super villain.
The genre is paranormal fiction with elements of horror but you see it as a superhero story?
There’s a scene early in the story where Daniel gears up. He gets his headphones on, brandishes his paper bag, puts on his uniform, the very specific jeans and sweatshirt he’d wear for his route. That to me is the stereotypical—at least thanks to modern cinema—suiting up sequences we’ve come to know. I guess since the Batman movies and Iron Man made them particularly iconic. I want almost an uniconic inverse of that in a book. Not because he sees himself a superhero, because he doesn’t… at least not in a practical sense, but in his imagination. There, he is a superhero. He has to become one to help his friend, The Corpse Boy. It was quite cool when I later reached out to Tom Perrota for a quote as he just got that it was in fact a superhero story.
Your book is full of pop culture references, including a lot that you created…
When I wrote the early version as a screenplay, I had this opening narration that was always meant to be from The Corpse Boy. It was him telling the origin of various superheroes: at first he told you about Spider-Man and the like. As the story grew, as it became a novel, I realized I needed characters that paralleled the specifics of my story. I created twin brother superheroes and villains, the Grim and the Ghoul. The Ghoul is featured on the cover. Then I created a world of comics, characters and related pop culture. One example is Young Zombie. Before I found my publisher, Stag Beetle Books, I created an issue of Young Zombie. The origin of Young Zombie. The idea at the time being a unique thing to bring to the table along with my novel, hey there’s also this other stuff.
Stag Beetle Books published the novel but you’ve created the comic yourself?
I wrote and worked with artist Cai Willis. We have a cover by 90s comic artist Bill Maus most famous for Zen: Intergalactic Ninja, which I did a feature length documentary on by the way. You can find that on my YouTube channel, Josiah is Write. I’m also in the Producers Guild, that feels like this whole other me. The most popular cover of Young Zombie is a variant by my 7-year-old daughter Penny that you can only get at in-person events.
What’s next for The Paper Boy?
It was funded via Kickstarter and The Borough is the next one. It is the superhero story. Imagine Pittsburgh as the historical hub for superheroes and that’s the comic. The back cover of Young Zombie number 1 has a preview of it. That is where we will introduce the Grim and the Ghoul in superhero form as well as other superhero characters referenced in the novel. Down the line plan is for short stories and more, but The Borough is coming early 2025.
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