 |
| Artwork courtesy of Jaz Rodriguez |
As a child, Robert Lawrence Stine would ride his bicycle home as the sun was setting and get an eerie feeling that something was hiding in the shadows. He’d practically hurl the bike into the garage and make it inside before anything reached out and grabbed him. It was that feeling, many years later, that helped him write horror fiction novels for children.
The Chicago Humanities Festival, in collaboration with Music Box of Horrors, welcomed R.L. Stine the day after his 81st birthday to celebrate more than 30 years of his best-selling book series, Goosebumps. The event featured a miniature book fair showcasing Stine’s novels as well as Halloween-themed goodies from locals Festive Collective and The Horror House.
After browsing through the book fair and sipping on a sour apple cocktail, the audience was treated to a screening of the first episode of Goosebumps. The 2023 television series, though based on the book series, abandons the episodic anthology format in favor of a more serialized version of storytelling. A second season was recently announced with a January 2025 release date.
Stine took the stage after the viewing to thunderous applause. With questions from both the audience and a moderator, he shared comical anecdotes about his writing process, inspirations and thoughts on writing for children.
He admits he wasn’t much of a reader as a child, but loved comic books. Every week, he would indulge in Tales From The Crypt comics at his local barber shop. Once, his mother dropped him off at the local library, where the librarian was waiting for him. She knew he preferred comics but wanted to show him something she thought he would like. She walked him to a shelf displaying Ray Bradbury. He credits Bradbury’s short stories for turning him into a reader and showing him how to create an ending with a twist.
The irony is that he never intended to make a career out of the horror genre. He preferred humor, where he wrote joke books and created humor magazine Bananas. It was his wife, publisher Jane Stine, and her business partner at Parachute Press, Joan Waricha, that mentioned there were no horror series for an age range of 7-12. Stine had already dove into the horror genre for teeangers with the series Fear Street, and wasn’t convinced that it was a good idea. He finally relented, saying if he could come up with a good title for the series he would do it. One night, while flipping through the TV Guide, he noticed an ad at the bottom of the page that said, “It’s Goosebumps Week on Channel 11!”
“I just stared at it, and I said, ‘that’s perfect! We’ll call it Channel 11.’ That’s a really bad joke, right? I apologize.”
Stine’s background and love for humor was prevalent throughout the night. With witty one-liners about how much he likes scaring children and how he thinks violence is good for them, he had the audience roaring in laughter as much as he had them on the edge of their seats learning all they could about what went on behind their favorite childhood series.
Stine joked that he did not know what the formula to writing these books was, but he did give multiple examples about why he thinks Goosebumps resonate with his audience. He always starts with creating the title. If he has an idea for a book but can’t think of a good title, he won’t keep the story. He always creates roughly 20 pages of an outline, including dialogue and the end of each chapter. They are (almost) always written in the first person. No one ever dies. There is always a happy ending. There is no moral of the story; just pure entertainment.
They weren’t an overnight success, and it’s unclear how exactly they were discovered. When they did make their way to schools and libraries, Stine was shocked.
“After a while I realized that kids like to have these scary adventures,” he said. “They like to be scared but they know they’re safe at the same time. When they know they’re in their room reading, they’re out fighting these monsters but they know they’re home safe and they know that every book has a happy ending.”
He later added, “I hate it when parents say, ‘your book gave my kid nightmares.’ I hate that. They’re just supposed to get the deep shudders. I don’t really want to terrify kids. The whole idea is to get them reading.”
These days, it is just as much of a challenge to write for a younger audience as it was three decades ago. With more than 300 books, coming up with new ideas and keeping them pertinent to today’s world can be difficult. He credits his grandchildren for helping him keep up with culture. He publishes three Goosebumps stories a year and has recently published Stinetinglers, Shark Night and The Graveyard Club.
Years after becoming a beloved author, Stine attended the Los Angeles Times Book Festival where Ray Bradbury was also a guest. Much like his own fans, he was nervous to say hello. His wife encouraged him to introduce himself.
“Mr. Bradbury,” Stine said. “You’re my hero.”
“Well,” he replied. “You’re a hero to a lot of other people.”
Calling it one of his favorite memories, he remembers bursting into tears. But that is exactly what R.L. Stine is, to audiences of all ages, all around the world. A hero.
