R.(Robert) L. (Lawrence) Stine
1943 -

Robert L. Stine is a writer who turns out short, popular best sellers almost monthly. Between 1988 and 1993, he had over fifty books published under his name, most of them teen thrillers. His thriller series, Fear Street, is among the most popular in all YA fiction, spinning off series like The Cheerleaders, Fear Street Saga, Fear Street Super Chillers, and Goosebumps. All of his books have a series of cliffhanging scenes that create a "safe scare."

His Life:

Although he never experienced terror first hand, he did enjoy reading about it. “When I was a kid, there were these great comic books called "Tales From The Crypt" and "The Vault of Horror". They were gruesome. I discovered them in the barbershop and thought they were fabulous. I used to get a haircut every Saturday so I wouldn't miss any of these comic books. I had no hair at all when I was a kid!”

His ideas came from two sources: his memory and his imagination. “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.” He also keeps a tribal mask and a skeleton hanging in his writing studio to provide eerie surroundings. Although he handles the writing by himself, Stine says he gets “lots of help from my editors, my readers, and my friends.”

Stine started writing when he was 9 years old! He would write stories and jokes on an old typewriter and hand them out at school. “The teacher would grab them and take them away,” Stine says, “but I kept doing it.” He wrote for his high school newspaper in Columbus Ohio. After graduating from Ohio State University, he moved to New York City, where he worked on a variety of writing jobs.

Although his books are fun and exciting, writing them is serious stuff. He treats writing “…like a job.” To unwind after work he enjoys playing the pinball machine conveniently located in his own apartment.

For aspiring authors, Stine feels reading is as important as writing. He offers this advice: “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. You can learn all kinds of ways to say things.” As a boy he read Norse legends, Greek myths, Edgar Allan Poe and baseball stories. “And "Mad Magazine" changed my life” His favorite thriller? Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury.

His First Books:

Blind Date is an almost perfect thriller containing all the elements of the mix: a teenage boy with a secret in his past, some mysterious phone calls, lots of scenes set in school filled with realistic teen dialogue and concerns, and a scene where Kerry shows up for his date only to have the girl's mother tell him "she's dead." The book then kicks along briskly as Kerry gets into more trouble, there are more cliffhangers and red herrings, and finally the big "saved just in the nick of time" finish where the killer's identity is revealed.
Twisted is more of the same including the switched identity ending, but this time the setting is in a sorority rather than a high school.

The Book Series:

Fear Street

Set in the town of Shadyside, the Fear Street series is held together only by a common location. Some, of course, are better than others, but rarely does Stine fail to entertain and/or frighten.

From the early creepiness of The Surprise Party or Missing (a truly scary book), to the more bared down stalking of The Knife or The Cheater, Stine loads every book with false endings, "it was only a paper maché severed hand" gross outs, and "so it was you!" endings, thus supplying his audience with their daily minimum requirement of chills.

While the plots are fantastic, the characters are very real high school age kids. They worry a lot about grades, friends, dating, being popular and the like. That realistic backdrop of anxiety sets up wonderfully for high anxiety as Stine turns every day worries into outlandish thrillers. If being a teenager is about fitting in, then Stine writes books where "fitting in" is translated into being "singled out" for terror.

In addition to the Fear Street series, Stine also writes Fear Street Super Chillers, which are fifty pages longer. His Cheerleaders series is also spun off from Fear Street. Choosing cheerleaders to be the victims and the villains shows Stine knows his audience, plus he adds even more supernatural happenings.

Goosebumps rarely contains any real violence or body counts since they are aimed at younger readers. Chapters are less than five pages and almost everyone has a cliffhanger. The scares are more cartoonish and the humor is also more evident.

The Goosebumps Series casts a spell upon children by transforming even the most reluctant students into avid readers. Despite the fact that almost every book has a different collection of characters, the series has one common element that kids can't get enough of: THE AUTHOR!

Kids reading Goosebumps may be looking for a scare, but the laughs they get are no accident. Before he was R.L., he was Jovial Bob, author of such works as 101 Silly Monster Jokes, and Bozos on Patrol and editor of "Bananas" magazine. His ability to know what kids will laugh at , as well as what will frighten them, makes the Goosebumps series all the more enjoyable for his readers.