It Came form Ohio! My Life as a Writer by R.L. Stine (as told to Joe Arthur).

Title: It Came from Ohio! My Life as a Writer.
Author: R.L. Stine (as told to Joe Arthur).
Genre: Non-fiction,.
Country: U.S.
Language: English.
Publication Date: 1997.
Summary: Was R.L. Stine a scary child? Did he have a weird family? Did his friends at school think he was strange? Why does he like to terrify his readers? Where does he get the frightening ideas for his stories? The author goes into the details of his upbringing, his life, and his fantastical career of delighting children and adults with terrifying and classic stories through his Goosebumps and Fear Street books.

My rating: 8/10
My review:


♥ I was born in October 8, 1943, in Columbus, Ohio. My parents called me Robert Lawrence Stine (now you know what the R.L. stands for). One of my earliest memories is a scary one. It's about Whitey.

Whitey was our dog. In pictures, Whitey looks like he was half husky, half collie, and half elephant. He was so big that when we allowed him in the house, he knocked over vases—and the tables they were on! That's why we kept him in the garage.

When I was four, it was my job to let Whitey out of the garage every morning. As soon as I stepped outside, I could hear him scratching at the inside of the garage door.

Slowly, I'd push up the heavy door. And Whitey would come charging out at me. His tail would wag furiously and he would bark like crazy. He was so glad to see me!

Barking and crying, he would leap on me—and knock me to the driveway. Every morning!

"Down, Whitey! Down!" I begged.

THUD! I was down on the driveway.

THUD! Every morning.

Whitey was a good dog. But I think he helped give me my scary view of life. I wonder if I would have become a horror writer if I didn't start every morning when I was four flat on my back on the driveway!

♥ The third floor was an attic. It was strictly forbidden. Mom told us never to go up there.

I asked her why. She only shook her head and said, "Don't ask."

That attic from my childhood is also one of the reasons why I write Goosebumps and Fear Street today.

I used to lie in my bed at night and stare at the ceiling. What terrible thing is up there in the attic? I wondered. I pretended I could see through the plaster. Of course I couldn't see anything. Except plaster. But my imagination sure could.

♥ As I became older, my favorite stations were in New York City.

One New York station had a man named Jean Shepherd on the air every night. Shepherd is a wonderful storyteller. He's the guy who wrote the movie A Christmas Story. I like the scene where the kid gets his tongue frozen to a flagpole. If you see the movie, that's Jean Shepherd narrating it too.

Shepherd's radio show was broadcast live, from midnight to early morning. Shepherd told wonderful, funny stories about his childhood, about his family and friends, and about New York City.

I loved the guy's humor. I loved the way he made up stories. And I started dreaming about someday going to New York. I think everyone dreams of faraway places. I know I did. I couldn't imagine living anywhere but New York City. I still can't.

♥ Late at night, when we were supposed to be asleep. Bill and gave each other goosebumps.

We would lie in our beds, stare up at the shifting shadows on the ceiling, and take turns telling each other scary stories.

Our stories were about ghosts and haunted houses, werewolves and mummies. Some were about walking through the woods near our house. Monsters leaped out from behind trees. Werewolves howled and bats fluttered.

..These stories Bill and I shared in our house in Ohio were a clue to our futures. We both turned out to be writers. And the creatures from the dark woods, the frightening shadows that came alive in our walls, the mummies and the werewolves—they all followed me into my Goosebumps and Fear Street books.

Why did I like scary stories when I was a kid?

I think because I found the real world pretty scary. I was a fearful kid. I wasn't bold or adventurous. I liked staying in my room and writing stories and making little magazines and comics.

♥ The good news is she let me keep the typewriter. I started typing immediately. With one finger.

I suppose later, when I got to high school, I should have taken a typing class and learned to type with more than one finger. But it was too late. I was already typing at lightning speed with just one finger. So I stuck with it.

I might have developed the fastest finger in the Midwest. But at seven years of age I wasn't quite ready to write books. I didn't start my first book until I was twelve.

In the beginning, I wanted to draw comics.

♥ I spent hours and hours on these little magazines. My tools included the typewriter, pens, pencils, crayons, tape, paste, and scissors. The stapler was probably the highest-tech piece of equipment I had.

..I tried to poke fun at everyone in my magazines. People in general and no one in particular. Harvey Poobah, for instance, was a character I made up. In FEEF magazine, "Harvey Poobah fell off the Empire State Building and lived. (Until he hit the ground.)"

In another issue, I warned my readers that "more accidents occur on the basement steps than in any other place in the house. Play it safe! When you go down to the basement, don't use the steps!"

♥ When I was in junior high I created From Here to Insanity. It lasted seven issues. And it was typed on both sides of the paper. The second issue spoofed Robin Hood. I called him "Robin Hoodlum." (Alert readers of "Robin Hoodlum" will notice some spelling and punctuation goofs, and maybe some odd uses of CAPITALS, but I decided to show it to you here just the way I wrote it. That's because it isn't any more fun looking up the rules in a grammar book now than it was when I was in school.)

"ROBERT HOODLUM by Bob Stine"

ROBIN: "Ah, Maid Marian what say you to taking a walk with me thru Sherwood Forest? Wat say you?"
MARIAN: "Not me! The last time we walked together I ended up carrying you home!"
ROBIN: "Well how was I to know I'd step on some cactus!"
MARIAN: "CACTUS in Sherwood Forest?! Baloney!"
LITTLE JOHN: "What sayeth thou to entering the archery contest tomorrow, Robin Hoodlum?"
ROBIN: "Fine. A good idea. Come Maid Marian, I'll practice shooting apples off your head!"
MARIAN: "Oh no you don't! The last time we tried that I had to have eighteen stitches!"
ROBIN: Well, I'd forgotten to chalk my bow! It can't happen twice in a row!"
MARIAN: "I know it won't. I won't be there!"

As you can see, I was a weird kid. I spent so many hours—such a large part of my childhood—alone in my room, typing... typing... typing... just as I do today!

♥ "So, Bob, what do you want to be when you grow up?" the principal asked me when we were both settled comfortably in his office. I think he was a lot more comfortable than I was.

"A school principal," I told him.

"Very funny, Bob." He sighed. "What am I going to do with you?"

♥ In fourth grade, my best friend was a boy named Randy, who lived across the street. Randy and I would spend endless (and I mean endless) Saturday afternoons playing Monopoly on the floor of his room. The games would stretch on for hours, and neither of us would ever come close to winning.

One day, Randy's cocker spaniel chewed the Monopoly board to pieces. Our games came to an end. And so did the friendship.

♥ He also kept two flying squirrels in a cage in his bedroom. One day, I bet him they couldn't really fly. So he opened the cage door, and they came scampering out. They couldn't fly—but they could leap really well.

We couldn't catch them. They started leaping and flinging all over the room. After chasing them for an hour, we shut them up in the room and went out to ride our bikes. They may still be there.

♥ I think that my feeling like an outsider as a kid helped to make me a writer. I always seemed to be standing away from the crowd, watching everyone. I became an observer, which is part of what a writer does.

♥ The senior skit really had then laughing. I had them laughing! Cheering! It was a hit!

Time and again I relived the audience's laughter—laughter at my words—all the way to Rubinos, our favorite pizza restaurant! That's where we usually went with our friends on weekends, or took our dates. First we'd go to a game at school, then out afterward for pizza. Sometimes it was a movie and pizza, or a concert and pizza. That night it was the senior skit and pizza.

Looking back, the one constant in high school was pizza. I've been all over the world. But Columbus, Ohio, still has the best pizza.

High-school graduation was only days away. Life was good.

♥ They sure had a lot of rules. Among them was a curfew for coeds. That's what college girls were called back in those days. This meant on "school nights" the girls had to be in their dorm rooms by 10:30 PM. On Saturdays it was 1:00 AM. Sometimes, for example during homecoming weekend, they could stay out until 2 o'clock! There were no rules for the guys. The guys could stay out all night if they wanted to. Sound unfair? It was.

Sundial made major jokes about this. We pictured the Dean of Women as being totally old fashioned. Which wasn't much of a reach since she was.

We were trying to be funny. But I like to think we did our small part in the early 1960s to bring about change. Soon after, the unfair rules were dropped.

♥ I loved practical jokes in those days.

Which is why I ran for student senate president during my senior year in college. The rules said a student had to be a junior to run.

I told the student newspaper: "During the past year, the students of Ohio State have come to expect absolutely nothing from the senate. Since I'm graduating this spring and won't be around next year, I feel I'm in a better position than the other candidates to give the students absolutely nothing."

The slogan on my posters was ELECT A CLOWN FOR PRESIDENT—JOVIAL BOB. We dressed up a couple of Sundial staffers in clown costumes and sent them to the campus. Their assignment? Remind students that all of the candidates were clowns—but only Jovial Bob was clown enough to admit it.

Our media campaign consisted of newspaper ads. Ads like this:

As a Public Service
Jovial Bob
Will Not Speak Tonight
in the Delta Gamma (Sorority) House
Enjoy Yourselves!

In spite of an inspired campaign, I didn't win. Out of the record 8,727 votes cast, I got 1,163.

Pretty good—especially since I wasn't on the ballot!

The university refused to put my name on the ballot simply because I wasn't eligible.

What kind of democracy is that?

So how did I get as many votes as I did? Write-ins. My supporters wrote "Jovial Bob" on their ballots.

Which, I think, explains why we lost. Many of my would-be voters didn't have pencils. And some of them couldn't write.

♥ But here's the worst present Joe ever sent Matt. One Christmas, when Matt was eight or nine, Joe sent him one walkie-talkie!

Matt was furious. Can you imagine anything more useless than one walkie-talkie? I'm sure Joe will think of something....

When Joe and I were in school, we would call each other after dinner just about every night. We would start laughing about something or other, and laugh till we got off the phone. I have no idea what we were laughing about.

Today, I talk to Joe on the phone about three times a week. We still laugh a lot, and sometimes we still don't know why. I guess that's what friends are for.

♥ Before I could make my New York dream come true, I needed some money. Some cash.

So I decided to rob a bank.

Only kidding.

Forget about robbing banks. I found a much scarier job. I became a substitute teacher.

I've written a lot of horrifying scenes. But I can't imagine anything more horrifying than facing a new class of students each and every morning.

..Still, I look back fondly on my one year as a teacher. Even if it was the hardest job I've ever had. I don't know if my students learned anything, but I sure did.

Teaching gave me time to watch kids in action. I was able to listen to what they said and the way they said it. I think my characters' conversations in Fear Street and Goosebumps are more true to life because of my real-life year in the classroom.

I learned that it's important for a writer to hear how people speak. Sometimes when I start a new book, I picture some of my students and think about the way they acted and felt.

It was a good experience.

♥ Picture it: New York's Greenwich Village. Narrow streets lined with brick townhouses and apartment buildings. Crowds of artists, poets, writers. Coffeehouses. Bookstores. Bookstores that stayed open all night!

When I arrived in new York in the autumn of 1966, the city had stores that actually sold nothing but postcards. Racks and racks of them. One store offered every imaginable kind of lightbulb. And nothing else! There was a hole-in-the-wall place called The Last Wound-Up. It sold—what else?—windup toys.

And a novelty shop with rubber chickens. We're talking rubber chickens as far as the eye can see!

I was in heaven!

♥ I figured I could learn anything Institutional Investor wanted me to know, and I could learn it on the job.

I would have to. Kaplan hired me. For $7,000 a year.

Seven thousand dollars!

I was rich! No more bologna on rye. Now I could add lettuce!

♥ I don't want to give the impression that during this time in my life all I was doing was looking for jobs and losing them. I was also looking for girlfriends and losing them.

Until I met Jane.

♥ The new job was at Scholastic Inc. I was hired as a staff writer for Junior Scholastic magazine.

Little did I know when I sat down in my tiny office in December of 1968, that my life was about to change completely.

I spent the next sixteen years at Scholastic, writing and editing magazines—my life's dream.

♥ We'd be (1) planning one issue, (2) writing another issue, (3) editing an issue, and (4) proofreading a finished issue—all at the same time.

Today, people ask me how I can write so many books so quickly. They can't believe that I write two books a month.

I always tell them that books are slow compared to magazines!

Magazine writing was the perfect training for me. I learned to write fast—and move on to the next piece. I'm a very lucky writer. I've always been able to write quickly, and it usually comes out the way I want it on the first try.

Kids always ask me what I do about writer's block I have to confess that I've never had it. I can always sit down and write. When you are writing for magazines, there's no time for writer's block!

♥ Soon after, I started a very crazy humor magazine for teenagers called Bananas. Bananas is hard to describe. It had such articles as: HOW TO TURN YOUR UNCLE INTO A COFFEE TABLE and HOW TO TELL IF YOU ARE AN ALIEN FROM OUTER SPACE and HOW TO TURN YOUR POEMS INTO DOG FOOD.

The magazine had an advice column written by a dog. And a page each month starring a really ugly fly named Phil Fly, who begged readers not to swat him.

My good friend and art director Bob Feldgus and I had the time of our lives trying to make Bananas more and more bananas each month! We ran ads for "Light Water" (fifty percent fewer calories) and for ice cream that you wore on your face! And we ran helpful articles, such as: 20 THINGS YOU CAN DO WITH A RUBBER CHICKEN.

It was a happy time for me. All those hundreds of little magazines I had put together in my room when I was in grade school had led to this. My own national humor magazine. My life's dream.

♥ "My name is Ellen Rudin," the voice on the other end of the line said. "I'm a children's book editor at E.P. Dutton."

A children's book editor? Why would a children's book editor be calling me? I wondered.

"I think your magazine is very funny," she continued. "I'll bet you could write funny children's books."

"Huh? Children's books?" I stammered. "I've never thought about it."

"Well, why don't you think about it?" she replied. "If you come up with a good idea, I'd love to publish it."

People always ask me how I got started writing kids' books. That phone call was how I got started.

♥ The book was also filled with tips on how to be funny in school:

The 10-Step Classroom Bumbling Entrance

As a special favor to the author of this book, Harrison Babble, 13, winner of 17 awards for classroom disruption, has greed to set down for you here all 10 steps to his world-famous Clumsy Classroom Clown Entrance. Here is exactly how he performs it, in his own words:

"I wait until they're all in their seats. Then, just as the final bell rings, I step up to the doorway and I (1) bang my head on the door frame, which causes me to (2) drop my books. I (3) bend over to pick up my books and (4) all the change falls out of my shirt pocket. Then (5) leaning down to pick up the change, I (6) rip my pants, (7) stumble over my math book, and (8) break my glasses, causing me to (9) walk into the wall and (10) fall headfirst into the wastebasket."

Of course Babble's ten-step entrance (which he hopes to someday turn into a feature-length movie) will go down in history as one of the great clumsy routines of all times. But as wonderful as it is, many of babble's classmates with he wouldn't do it every single morning.

♥ Kids stared at me too. None of them would come over. I don't think they liked the idea of seeing a grown man in a bookstore wearing bunny ears.

It turned into a very long afternoon. Guess how many books I autographed and sold?

One.

I decided maybe next time I'd leave the bunny ears at home....

At my most recent book signing at a mall in Virginia this year, more than five thousand kids showed up. As I stared at the wonderful crowd, I thought about that first book signing and the one kid who bought a book.

People have good days... and they have bad days, I decided.

♥ Here are a few of the things I wrote during this part of my life:

- eighty bubblegum cards for a funny card series called Zero Heroes.
- Two computer magazines for kids—even though I didn't own a computer!
- Indiana Jones and James Bond "Find-Your-Fate" Books, with twenty-five different endings in each book.
- G.I. Joe adventure novels, even though I didn't know a rifle from a golf club!
- Mighty Mouse and Bullwinkle coloring books. Hey—somebody has to write the words at the bottom of the coloring-book pages! I received five hundred dollars per coloring book, and I wrote two a day. Not bad!
- Many, many joke books!
- Perhaps my lowest achievement? A series of books I wrote about the Madballs—a bunch of rubber balls with faces!

♥

This is the cover of the very first scary book I ever wrote. Now I can't stop...

♥ "Maybe younger kids would like to be scared too," Joan suggested. "Maybe you could write a series of scary books that are also funny. You know. Plenty of thrills and chills, without the gore and the blood."

It sounded like a good idea to me. But once again, I couldn't start without a title.

This time it didn't come easy. I thought about titles for the new series day and night. But nothing came to mind.

Then one morning I was reading the TV listings in TV Guide. (I read them every morning. I get a lot of good ideas for titles in them.) An ad caught my eye. The ad said Channel 11 was running a whole week of scary movies. What really held my attention was the headline in bold type. It read:

"It's GOOSEBUMPS Week on Channel 11!"

"Here it is!" I called out to Jane. "Come here! Quick!"

Jane came running to see what the fuss was all about. I shoved the magazine into her hands and pointed to the ad. "The title for the new book series!" I cried. "We'll call it Channel 11!"

Just kidding. Of course we called it Goosebumps.

I wrote Welcome to Dead House, the very first Goosebumps book, in a little over ten days.

I wanted Goosebumps to have the same kind of feeling you get on a roller-coaster ride. Lots of thrills. Lots of wild twists and turns. And a feeling of being safe the whole time.

I wanted each book to be as exciting as riding the fastest, scariest roller coaster. I always think of the time I rode The Beast at Paramount's King's Island near Cincinnati. The Beast is one of the longest, fastest roller coasters in the U.S.

My son, Matt, and I were strapped into the front seat of the first car. Matt was loving every moment of it.

"Put your arms up, Dad!" he screamed.

I screamed too. But for a different reason.

What am I doing up here? I asked myself as we neared the crest of that monstrous first hill. Stop this thing! I want to get off!

It didn't stop, of course, and I didn't get off. But for a few moments there, as the coaster started down, I thought, I'm a dead man—this is it!

It wasn't. What it was, was a safe, unforgettable thrill. The feeling I hope I achieve in every Goosebumps.

♥ One of my favorite letters came from a boy who wrote:

"Dear R.L. Stine, I've read forty of your books—and I think they're really boring!"

♥ Susan Lurie and Heather Alexander are two of my Goosebumps editors. They work very hard to make sure each story is as good as the last. They tell me when a story is too scary. And they tell me when a story isn't scary enough. And they tell me when a story isn't a story at all!

♥ The first Goosebumps we turned into a TV show was The Haunted Mask. This story came from something that happened in real life.

One Halloween, my son, Matt, tried on a green rubber Frankenstein mask. He pulled it down over his head—and then he couldn't get it off!

He tugged and tugged, but the mask wouldn't come off. I suppose I should have helped him remove it—but instead I ran to my desk and started writing notes. I knew it would make a great plot for a story!

In the TV show, a wonderful actress named Kathryn Long played the part of Carly Beth, the girl who puts on the terrifying Haunted Mask. Kathryn is a very serious young actress, and she worked very hard to make each scene real.

In an early scene, two boys are teasing Carly Beth. At lunchtime, they give her a sandwich with a worm in it. Carly Beth doesn't see the worm. She takes a big bite of sandwich, chews it, and swallows it.

When we filmed that scene, we planned to use a rubber worm in the sandwich. But Kathryn said no. "We need a real worm," she insisted. "I can't really play the scene right unless we use a real worm."

So we put a real worm in the sandwich. And Carly Beth bit into it, chewed it up, and swallowed it.

Do you think that's disgusting?

Here's the worst part: We had to shoot the scene twelve times!

(But that's show biz—right?)

♥ Last year, I appeared at a bookstore in Dallas, Texas. A boy of about nine approached shyly. His mother was right behind him. Gently, she pushed him forward.

"Go ahead," the mother said, "ask Mr. Stine to sign your book."

The boy looked up. He had a well-worn copy of Monster Blood.

"Are you really R.L. Stine?" the boy asked me.

"I really am," I assured him. "And what's your name?"

He told me. We shook hands and I asked him if he'd like me to sign his book.

He nodded and handed Monster Blood to me. I wrote a short message to him and signed my name.

The boy thanked me, took the book, and stared at my signature. As he moved away, he turned to his mother with a big smile on his face, and I heard him say, "I'm the luckiest man on earth!"

Something about the smile on his face and the way he said those words really moved me. To think that my stories could mean that much to someone!

Well, I had tears in my eyes. I had to turn away and catch my breath.

Moments like those make all the hard work worthwhile.

♥ Yes. That is my most-asked question. Where do you get your ideas?

I find it a really difficult question to answer. I always want to say: "Where do you get your ideas?" Because we all have ideas—right?

These days, I need at least twenty-four book ideas a year. That's a lot. So I find myself thinking about scary stuff all the time.

♥ I could never get enough stories. In elementary school, I read all of the books of fairy tales, Greek myths, Norse legends, and folktales in the library!

The characters in those myths and legends were like superheroes to me. They all had special powers. Many of them could fly. I read entire shelves of these books—then asked the librarian for more.

When she suggested that I read some biographies of real people, I said no thanks. I never liked reading about real people or real events. I only like reading made-up stories. To me, the real world just isn't as interesting or exciting.

♥ HOW MANY BOOKS HAVE YOU WRITTEN IN YOUR LIFE?

About two hundred and fifty. About one hundred scary ones. The rest were joke books, funny books, adventure books, choose-your-own-ending books, etc. I read an article recently about a writer in South America who has written over a thousand books! Sometimes he writes three books a day! My hero!

♥ WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE AUTHOR?

I have two favorites, both British: P.G. Wodehouse, who wrote the hilarious Jeeves and Wooster novels, and Agatha Christie, who wrote seventy-nine really clever, tricky mysteries.

♥ HOW DO YOU KNOW SO MUCH ABOUT KIDS? WHAT'S YOUR SECRET?

I work very hard at keeping up with kids—what they wear, how they talk, what they're into. I spend a lot of time with my son and his friends. I have two young nephews, Dan and Sam, who help keep me in touch. I read a lot of the two thousand letters I get every week from kids. I watch MTV. I read a lot of kids' magazines and teen magazines. I think it's very important that the kids in my books be REAL!

♥ HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO WRITE A BOOK?

Ten days for a FEAR STREET. Eight days for a GOOSEBUMPS. I also spend two to three days outlining each book first.

♥ HAVE YOU EVER GOTTEN A STORY IDEA FROM A DREAM?

Never! And what a shame. I would love to wake up one morning with an idea in my head. But my dreams are very boring. And almost never scary.

♥ WHAT DO YOU DO IN YOUR SPARER TIME WHEN YOU'RE NOT WRITING?

..Whenever Matt and I both have some spare time, we like to fly down to Disney World. My wife, Jane, is SICK of it. Sometimes Matt and I go THREE times a year! We both want to LIVE there!

♥ WHAT SCARES YOU?

I don't scare easy. But a few things have scared me. I'm not really scared of spiders, but the movie Arachnophobia made me scream. I also found Jurassic Park really scary. I enjoy Stephen King books, but they seldom really make my jumpy. The scariest book I ever read was Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury. That book really gave me goosebumps.

♥ WHAT ADVICE DO YOU HAVE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE WHO WANT TO BE WRITERS?

My advice is kind of boring, but I think it's good. It's that you should read, read, read. Don't think about writing things and sending them off to publishers. Publishers really aren't interested in publishing works by kids. The important thing is to read as much as you can by as many DIFFERENT authors as you can. That way, without even realizing it, you build a good vocabulary—and you pick up all different ways of saying things, different styles, different ways to describe the world, to describe people. I don't think anything is as important for someone who wants to be a writer as reading books by many different authors.