R.L. Stine, author of Goosebumps. The Hub airs his “The Haunting Hour” show. Credit to Edward Liu
This week, we’re celebrating R.L. Stine’s birthday!
Robert Lawrence Stine, also known as R.L. Stine, was born on October 8, 1943. You might know him from his various Goosebumps novels that were so popular for children.
“Read. Read. Read. Just don’t read one type of book. Read different books by various authors so that you develop different style.”
R.L. Stine first started writing horror novels in 1986 after writing a string of humor and joke books. His first teen novel was Blind Date (1986) which became a bestseller. Goosebumps came soon after in 1992.
“When I write, I try to think back to what I was afraid of or what was scary to me, and try to put those feelings into books.”
2017 marked the 25th anniversary for the Goosebumps series. Goosebumps has sold over 400 million copies and his books have been translated into 35 other languages. Stine boasts that he has written over 300 novels.
R.L. created many other scary novel series like The Nightmare Room and Mostly Ghostly. He has also published two short story collections, The Nightmare Hour and The Haunting Hour.
“If you want to be a writer, don’t worry so much about writing. Read as much as you can. Read as many different writers as you can. Soak up the styles.”