(This article, reprinted with permission, featuring R. L. Stine, class of 1961, appeared in The Columbus Dispatch on March 26, 2008)  4/20/08

'Goosebumps' rises from literary grave

A dozen new titles coming in series

By Brian Stelter
THE NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE

 Author R.L. Stine, who set his series in a horror theme park

When R.L. Stine's characters confront a creepy villain, they might gasp, shiver or even cringe.

Mostly, though, they shriek.

"That's when I started to scream" might be the most used chapter ending in the hugely successful "Goosebumps" children's horror series.

For the first time in eight years, during which Stine tried his hand at creating other series, he is back with a fresh "Goosebumps" book. Can he resuscitate the dormant brand?

"Maybe it'll be hard to do a second time," he said. "Maybe it'll happen again. Right now, I don't know."

Stine devotes considerable effort to the cliffhangers that dare you to stop reading. For years it paid off with a sizable following of children, for whom the series was a sensation just before Harry Potter.

Stine's publisher, Scholastic, hoping to reach another generation of young readers, is releasing the first of 12 books in a series called "Goosebumps HorrorLand."

In the new books, Stine intends to link the scary stories of "Goosebumps" with a serialized tale set inside an evil amusement park called HorrorLand.

The children in the first book are invited to the park, where they discover a werewolf petting zoo, a quicksand beach and other wicked attractions. Their misfortunes will be chronicled in serial form in 30-page installments at the end of the subsequent books, which will focus on different characters. At the same time, the stories will continue online on two companion Web sites for the theme park, enterhorrorland.com and escapehorrorland.com.

Stine said his goal has always been to draw children to books.

"I don't really want to terrify kids," he said. "I want them to have a good time reading."

He got his start writing funny stories. Under the name Jovial Bob Stine, he was the author of dozens of joke books in the 1970s and '80s. Influenced by the surprise twists of Ray Bradbury's novels and devoted to comic books, he came to appreciate the way some writers combined humor with the macabre. He found early success with a teenage horror series called Fear Street.

"I was having a good time killing off teenagers," Stine said, when the co-owner of Parachute Press, Joan Waricha, persuaded him to aim at a younger demographic, and "Goosebumps" was born.

The books, with titles such as Monster Blood and How I Got My Shrunken Head, were major hits in the early '90s. For three consecutive years, USA Today named Stine the best-selling author in America.

"It was far beyond anyone's dreams," he said. "You know how it changed my life? I had to work harder."

Holding a copy of the first "HorrorLand" book, Revenge of the Living Dummy, Stine admired the flashy cover displaying a theme-park entrance and a suspicious-looking ventriloquist's dummy.

"They're so shiny," he said. "They've got to be shiny now. I'm just waiting to see if kids will pick them up again."
 

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