featured little else. Classic hor- ror archetypes such as haunted houses, mummy’s curses and werewolves figured heavily into the series, which Stine viewed as an homage to the 1950s creature features he and his brother loved as children. Many of the books even featured sensational titles, such as It Came from Beneath the Sink, which riffed on the names of popular horror movies of yore. The series distinguished itself from Fear Street in other ways, as well. “It started with the age of the characters,” Stine
elaborates. “The Fear Street people were all fifteen, sixteen and seventeen. And that makes a big differ- ence right from the beginning when you write be- cause every single character in Goosebumps was twelve. Also, the Goosebumps were pure fantasy, they were all filled with crazy things, haunted masks and monster blood. A lot of the Fear Street stories were supernatural, but they all had to feel real.” The inaugural Goosebumps titles didn’t set any
sales records initially, but by the time the second round of novels hit store shelves in early 1993, the series had exploded. And unlike Fear Street, Goosebumps did raise the ire of certain parental groups, who opposed the books’ occasionally vi- olent content. The series placed fifteenth on the American Library Association’s most frequently challenged books list of the 1990s. If anything, though, the attention only helped Goosebumps ti- tles become more popular. “The success was well beyond anyone’s imag-
ination and was all from word of mouth,” recalls Stine. “It tapped into that secret network of kids telling other kids. There was no hype, no adver- tising and I didn’t do any appearances. I just stayed at home writing. It was an amazing thing.” Suddenly, Stine was the most successful writer
in his field. His Goosebumps series was selling four million books a month, so he diligently set about writing as many horror stories as he could manage. Fresh entries in the series were released at a steady clip and spin-off series such as Goosebumps Series 2000 and Give Yourself Goosebumps were launched. Merchandising took off as well, and grew to include tie-in comic books and video games. Canada’s YTV network even commissioned a televi- sion series based on the books. “You never know what you’re going to get in tel-
evision, and I was so busy writing all of those books that I had no time to write the scripts,” says Stine. “Luckily, there were very smart people involved and they did a wonderful job. I was very happy with it. Al- though, I always liked it when kids would come to me and say, ‘I liked the books better.’” Though never quite as popular as the novels,
the Goosebumps TV series ran for four seasons (1995 to 1998) and was a success in its own right. It adapted tales from throughout the Goose- bumps book series and became an after-school favourite for many Canadian youngsters. The north-of-the-border production also led to a vari- ety of amusing interactions for Stine. “When I did signings in America, kids would al-
ways ask, ‘How do I get on the Goosebumps show?’ I’d tell them, ‘You have to be Canadian.’ And every time they’d say, ‘What’s that?” A trib- ute to our school system,” quips the author.
RM54
Given the mas-
sive success of Goosebumps and its various prop- erties, it’s surpris- ing that the books haven’t yet been adapted for the big screen, despite the many attempts to turn the literary franchise into a filmic one. “Fox owned Goosebumps for a while and Tim
Burton was attached, but nothing happened,” says Stine. “All of the rights to Fear Street are with Disney and they actually had two scripts written, but they never went farther than that. I don’t really understand the movie business. We’re always talking to people, though, and we’ve made a lot of deals over the years.” Though open to the idea of other people adapt-
ing the Goosebumps brand into a movie, Stine has never had much interest in doing it himself. He’s always been far too busy writing his books. “I don’t know how I did it, but I wrote a novel
every two weeks,” says Stine of his output dur- ing the Goosebumps heyday. “It sounds crazy now, and some people thought I was a commit- tee or something. But it was just me. I was home all the time writing. They wouldn’t let me out much. Having that kind of success at that point was so exhilarating that I think it kept me going. I’m still doing a fair amount of writing, but it’s cut down. I’m doing seven Goosebumps Horrorland books this year. For me, that’s really relaxed.” The Horrorland series, aimed at middle school
readers, features adventures set in a supernatural amusement park that the author dubs “the scariest place on Earth,” and maintains the style and tone that Stine developed for Goosebumps, with a few new tricks designed to surprise the next generation. “We did an interesting thing with the first round
of Goosebumps Horrorland books,” he explains. “The first twelve had a continuing serial in the back. I don’t think anyone had ever done a monthly horror serial for kids that continues from book to book. There was a complete new Goose- bumps story at the front of [each] book and then a chapter in the ongoing serial in the back.” Though the Goosebumps hysteria of the 1990s
has passed, with the preteen and young adult sales charts now dominated by a certain boy wizard and a family of emo vampires, R.L. Stine has carved a spe- cial place for himself in the history of children’s lit- erature. He proved that horror has a place in the kids’ section of bookstores and he taught an entire gen- eration the joys of wondering what’s lurking under the bed. He may not have achieved much critical success during his career, but Stine touched count- less young readers, some of whom are now authors themselves. “I’m getting books from quite a few children’s au-
thors now who say, ‘You were my biggest influ- ence,’” he says. “It is quite a thrill.”
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