What will R.L. Stine be on Halloween? Himself. ‘I’m selling books and things.’

Jeremy Siegel: You’re listening to Morning Edition. It is spooky season, the perfect time for scary stories. Scary movies, scary TV.

Rachael Harris [previously recorded]: The Biddle House.

Justin Long [previously recorded]: I did hear the horrible story about the boy who used to live there.

Rachael Harris [previously recorded]: You know, I hear it’s haunted.

Siegel: Well, one week from today, on a Friday the 13th in October, a new show inspired by the kids book series Goosebumps comes out. But before Goosebumps was something you could watch on Disney+, before it was even something you could read, it was just an idea sitting inside the mind of one man: R.L. Stine. I got a chance to talk with the author about what inspired his stories that have scared generations of readers and how it all began when he was just a frightened young boy.

R.L. Stine: I was nine years old. I was this weird kid, and I’d be in my room, nine years old, typing little joke stories. Why? I have no idea. No one in my family wrote or did anything. My parents were totally mystified. They didn’t understand it at all. Typing funny magazines, typing, typing stories. And my mother would stand outside my door and say, What’s wrong with you? Why are you typing all day? Go outside and play. What’s wrong with you? They didn’t get it. That’s incidentally, the worst advice I ever got in my life, right, from my mother telling me to stop typing. I was a very fearful child. It’s a terrible way to grow up. I was afraid, very shy. My family was very poor and we lived on the edge of a very wealthy community in Columbus, Ohio. So I always felt like an outsider. I didn’t feel like I belonged. And I was afraid of a lot of things. It was a terrible way to be a kid. But later on, when I started writing these books, I could remember that feeling of panic. I could remember that fear, and I could try to, you know, bring it into these books.

Siegel: Are there any memories from childhood that have stuck with you as inspiration?

Stine: Well, I remember riding my bike around the neighborhood after dinner, and it would start to get dark and I would bring my bike back and I always thought there was something lurking in the garage, something waiting for me in the garage. And I would take my bike and I would heave it into the garage and go running into the house. See, I have horrible Halloween memories. So when I was a kid, I really wanted to be scary and go out and my parents went out to the dime store and bought us costumes, and they brought it back. And I thought, you know, am I going to be a skeleton, a mummy, something? And I opened the box and it was a fuzzy yellow duck. There was a yellow duck costume. And I had to wear you know, I told you we were really poor. I had to wear it more than one year. It was humiliating to be a duck for Halloween. But later on, I wrote this Halloween book, The Haunted Mask, which I think is my best Halloween story, about this girl who wants to be scary at Halloween time. And I have her parents bring her a fuzzy yellow duck costume. So I got to use it.

Siegel: So thinking about being a child, you have many, many books that are for children. They aren’t just for kids, but many of them are. I think Goosebumps holds a special place in loads of people’s, I don’t want to say hearts, but somewhere.

Stine: Somewhere in them, they are not in their hearts.

Siegel: Why do you think children want to be scared, and why do you think they should be scared?

Stine: I don’t really try to terrify them. I always say, Oh, I just love scaring kids. But that’s not really true. You know, Goosebumps is totally reading motivation. That’s all it is. It’s just tricks to get kids to read. But I do think kids — when I started out doing these, you know, I’d been funny my whole career. I wrote joke books, and I had no idea to be scary. It wasn’t even my idea. And I would go out after my first scary books came out to schools and say to kids, Why do you like these books? And they’d say, We like to be scared. But I realized they like to be scared when they’re at home in their room and they know they’re safe. I always call them safe scares. They’re having these creepy adventures, but they know they’re just home and they’re fine, you know? And I think that’s a big part of it.

Siegel: What was it that led you to begin writing your horror? You said it wasn’t your idea. Where did the idea come from?

Stine: Oh, it’s an embarrassing story. I did a humor magazine called Bananas for ten years, and all I cared about was being funny. And one day I had lunch with this woman, Jean Feiwel, who was the editorial director at Scholastic and a friend. And she just had a fight with someone who wrote teen horror. When she came to lunch, she said, ‘I’m never working with him again. You could write a good, scary novel for teenagers. Go home and write a book called Blind Date.’ She even gave me the title. I didn’t know what she was talking about. What’s a scary book for teenagers? And I went running to the bookstore to see what people were doing so I could figure it out. And I wrote this book, ‘Blind Date,’ it was a number one bestseller. Oh, well, wait a minute. What’s going on here? And next year, I wrote a second one called ‘Twisted,’ a teen horror novel. Number one bestseller. Then I said, forget the funny stuff. I’ve been scary ever since. But it was her idea, it wasn’t mine.

Siegel: Wow. So it is fall. We are officially entering spooky season. Is this a season that you personally celebrate?

Stine: Well, I have to work this season. People always say, What are you dressing as for Halloween? What? I’m always out working. I’m selling books and things.

Siegel: Is there any piece of the October, you know, entrance into fall and Halloween season that you like to partake in in any way? Are you a pumpkin spice latte guy or anything?

Stine: Not at all, no.

Siegel: No.

Stine: No.

Siegel: R.L. Stine, It has been such a joy talking with you. Thank you so much for your time and for all of your work.

Stine: Thank you, Jeremy. I really enjoyed talking with you.

Siegel: R.L. Stine is the author of hundreds of books, including the latest entry to Goosebumps: ‘House of Shivers, Scariest. Book. Ever.’ You’re listening to GBH’s Morning Edition.