‘Goosebumps’ Author R.L. Stine: ‘The World Has Gotten Scarier’

Acclaimed Goosebumps author R.L. Stine just celebrated his 80th birthday on October 8, and says he’s having the busiest fall of his life. 

As far as publishing goes, Stine has six books coming out including a comic book for adults, a picture book, a new addition to the Goosebumps series, and even a book of writing tips for adults. Zombie Town, a movie based on Stine’s novel of the same name, started streaming on Hulu starring Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase. Then there’s the Disney+ adaptation of Stine’s iconic and beloved Goosebumps series which starts streaming on Oct. 13 starring Justin Long and Rachael Harris. 

The man is a non-stop working machine, maintaining the same writing schedule he’s kept up for decades of his life: Completing 2,000 words every single morning before 1:00 p.m. like clockwork. From new novels to big and small screen adaptations, the worlds of literature and Hollywood are keeping Stine busy, to say the least. He doesn’t mind the work, though. Stine tells Rolling Stone, “I’m cut out for this.”

“I’ve done everything you can think of and it’s all so far beyond what I ever dreamed,” Stine says. “When we started out I said, ‘Let’s do two or three [Goosebumps books].’ I never dreamed that it would last this long. It’s all a big surprise to me. I’m excited to have a new TV show going [on Disney+] and we’ll probably do more Fear Street movies too, and you know, that’s a thrill for me.”

Stine has reached generations of readers with his iconic Scholastic book series. He published his first novel in 1992 and has kept up a steady pace for the last three decades, publishing more than 200 total books in the Goosebumps series, including spinoffs. The successful series’ foray into horror has extended beyond literature into the realm of adaptations, from the 1995 TV series that aired on Fox Kids to the 2015 film starring Jack Black, and even a three-part Netflix adaptation of Stine’s Fear Street novels that started streaming in 2021. While he’s not heavily involved in the day-to-day making of these TV shows and films, Stine says he loves the fact that these adaptations give his stories a larger platform and help reach a wider audience.

“When we made the original Goosebumps TV show back in the Nineties, I couldn’t really write for the show because I was doing a Goosebumps book every month. But it’s always very exciting to me to see what other people do when they take my work, starting with my story, and then go off in their own direction,” Stine says. “I think that’s wonderful fun.” 

The author adds that when the first Goosebumps TV show came out on Fox Kids, he felt a tremendous surge in the series’ popularity. He says “we started to sell a million more Goosebumps books a month.”

“That’s how powerful the TV show was for selling books,” Stine says. “People sometimes put down television but I say listen, it’s a great force, especially for selling books. It was amazing.”

Over the years, Stine has had to keep up with the changing landscape of literature, entertainment, technology, and general culture since he’s written novels spanning decades and generations of readers. There are some storylines and experiences that are universal no matter the time period, the author explains, but sometimes the details and minutiae have to shift in order to meet readers and viewers where they’re at in the zeitgeist. On a smaller scale, Stine points out that technology has forced him to think about his horror novels differently because cell phones have the potential to “ruin every mystery plot.”

“You can just look at your phone and call for help and your book is over and done,” Stine says. “I spend a lot of time in the beginning of every book trying to get rid of the phones to make sure they don’t interfere.”

Back in March, it was reported that Scholastic made more than 100 edits to Stine’s original Goosebumps books in an effort to use more inclusive language. “For more than 30 years, the Goosebumps series has brought millions of kids to reading through humor with just the right amount of scary,” Scholastic said in a statement at the time. “Scholastic takes its responsibility seriously to continue bringing this classic adolescent brand to each new generation. When re-issuing titles several years ago, Scholastic reviewed the text to keep the language current and avoid imagery that could negatively impact a young person’s view of themselves today, with a particular focus on mental health.”

Deadline reported that some of the changes included Slappy, a ventriloquist dummy character, using a magic spell instead of knocking out a girl and making her unconscious with a “love tap,” removing the word “slave” from a novel, taking out how some schoolgirls in another book had “crushes” on the headmaster, and replacing a descriptor in which aliens abducted large people who had “at least six chins.”

“They update things all the time,” Stine says. “I was surprised [when I learned about the changes] but it was good because you don’t want to offend people. People are a lot more sensitive now and a lot more aware of things, and in these books I definitely don’t want to offend anybody. You want to be careful, although I don’t want to be too careful of course.”

Stine also clarified in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, back in March that he didn’t specifically make any modifications to the books and that Scholastic didn’t show him the changes before republishing the novels.

“It’s not a bad thing to update things if it’s done well,” Stine tells Rolling Stone. “[Scholastic] took out all the fat jokes because it’s not appropriate anymore.”

While specific words, phrases, and sentiments are no longer deemed appropriate to use in Stine’s novels, the longtime author thinks that the core themes and ideas around what makes something scary has and will always remain the same.

“The world has changed a lot,” he says. “I think the world has gotten scarier but as far as writing these books for kids, I don’t think anything has changed much at all. Our fears never change and I don’t think kids have changed that much. In all these years, we’re still afraid of the dark, afraid something’s lurking under your bed, and are afraid of getting lost. Those fears never changed.”

Of all the legacies that Stine has left on the world with his popular book series and subsequent adaptations, he says he wants people to remember this simple but important fact: “I got kids to read.”

“That’s what I’m most proud of. These books aren’t really meant to scare kids, they’re meant to get them reading,” Stine says. “There was always this rule for years that in a children’s book, the characters have to learn and grow and I thought, ‘Why? Why can’t they just be entertaining?’ Adults are allowed to read something just for entertainment. That’s what I’ve tried to do in these books… Goosebumps has no morals at all, there aren’t hard vocabulary words, there aren’t difficult things from the real world in them. They’re total fantasy. I want young people to know you can read just for fun.”

From Rolling Stone US.