What scares a horror book writer? Goosebumps author R.L. Stine says there’s not much that terrifies him, especially after all these years of creating scary stories.
“Nothing scares me,” the famed author, 78, tells J-14 exclusively. “Either something’s missing in my brain — and, when I read a scary book or I go to a scary movie, I’m the one who’s laughing. Horror makes me laugh. I never get scared.”
Since debuting the first-ever Goosebumps novel in July 1992, R.L. — whose real name is Robert Lawrence Stine — has written hundreds of spooky novels for kids, some of which have been turned into movies or TV shows. His latest series is Just Beyond, which premiered via Disney+ on October 13. The eight-episode anthology series tells a different story with each installment, based on the writings of R.L. But before Goosebumps became a massive franchise, the Ohio native had no intentions of writing the novels.
“I didn’t want to do it. That’s the kind of businessman I am,” the author jokes. “I was writing Fear Street books for teenagers, killing off teenagers every month, and it was great. It was going really well and my editors came to me and said, ‘We should do a younger horror series. No one has ever done it before.’ And I said, ‘No, I don’t want to.’ Can you imagine? I didn’t want to mess up Fear Street. I thought it would mess up that older audience.”
At first, he only wanted to write “two or three” books, but only if he could “think of a good name.” Now, 30 years and one hugely successful career later, the one topic that’s off-limits for Goosebumps books are zombies.
“I don’t like to write about zombies because they’re so unsophisticated and there’s so little you can do with zombies. You can’t have a surprise at the end,” R.L. explains. “They’re so obvious. They just stagger around, eat brains and you hit them with things. So, I’ve written very few zombie books.”
When it comes to picking which book is his favorite, R.L says, “People always ask me: what’s my favorite Goosebumps book. Every time I give a different answer … The Haunted Mask.”
As for his Halloween costume this year, the writer “never” dresses up.
“I’m always out working. This is my holiday,” he explains. “This is my busy time of year. I’m always out being me.”
All eight episodes of Just Beyond are now streaming via Disney+.
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