WEBVTT - Goosebumps Author R.L. Stine Interview 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:19.200 Hello, My name is Jason Getsepsion, and welcome back to 0:00:19.280 --> 0:00:21.320 x R endition of the podcast where we dive deep 0:00:22.440 --> 0:00:25.680 the dear favorite shows, movies, comics, and pop culture. Coming 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:27.720 to you from My Heart podcast, but we're bringing you 0:00:28.600 --> 0:00:32.479 to action packed episodes a week Tuesdays and Thursdays. In 0:00:32.560 --> 0:00:36.480 today's episode, Rosie and I sit down with the prolific, 0:00:37.280 --> 0:00:43.560 iconic spooky master himself, R. Al Stein, the mind behind 0:00:43.600 --> 0:00:47.840 Goosebumps among many other spooky tones. So without further ado, 0:00:47.880 --> 0:00:49.440 here's our chat with the great R. 0:00:49.440 --> 0:00:49.840 Al Stein. 0:00:52.280 --> 0:00:55.760 Today we are joined by one of the most prolific 0:00:56.160 --> 0:00:59.520 horror writers in the world. He has more than four 0:00:59.600 --> 0:01:03.320 hundred million English language books in print. He is terrified 0:01:03.680 --> 0:01:08.480 and inspired many children with the Goosebump series and many 0:01:08.560 --> 0:01:12.360 Fair Street books. Today, we are so honored to have R. 0:01:12.560 --> 0:01:14.760 L Stein joining us on x ray Vision. 0:01:15.240 --> 0:01:17.440 Thank you very much, Rosie, nice to be here. 0:01:18.080 --> 0:01:19.800 Shark Knight tell us about Shark Knight. 0:01:20.640 --> 0:01:27.440 Shark Knight, It's about sharks was originally called Shark Week. 0:01:28.600 --> 0:01:35.039 Oh at the Discovery channel k Shark Week. No one's 0:01:35.080 --> 0:01:38.440 allowed to use it, wow, So I had to change 0:01:38.480 --> 0:01:43.959 the name to Shark Knight. Basically, it's a It's a 0:01:44.080 --> 0:01:51.320 middle grade scary, funny book like Goosebumps, only longer and 0:01:51.360 --> 0:01:57.160 with illustrations about a boy whose mother is making a 0:01:57.200 --> 0:02:02.120 documentary for the Danger Channel and she's doing a show 0:02:02.200 --> 0:02:06.960 called Shark Knight and her son Leo, ends up on 0:02:07.080 --> 0:02:11.440 the bottom of an enormous tank and they're about to 0:02:11.600 --> 0:02:16.359 lower a hammerhead shark into the tank, and he's supposed 0:02:16.400 --> 0:02:20.280 to interact with the shark for this Danger Channel show. 0:02:20.840 --> 0:02:23.320 But things. I don't want to spoil it here. 0:02:23.160 --> 0:02:26.320 But no, no, no, you don't. 0:02:25.360 --> 0:02:29.760 Go wrong, the wrong shark, the wrong everything. And then 0:02:29.880 --> 0:02:33.960 it gets very, very crazy once he's out of the 0:02:34.000 --> 0:02:37.400 tank and fleeing for his life. 0:02:38.320 --> 0:02:42.160 I really enjoyed Shark Knight. I was lucky enough to 0:02:42.160 --> 0:02:44.680 read it, and I wanted to ask you. You know, 0:02:44.760 --> 0:02:49.320 you've built a career on telling stories for kids. You 0:02:49.360 --> 0:02:52.040 mentioned this is the middle grade story, So why do 0:02:52.120 --> 0:02:56.840 you think it's important to have horror stories that kids 0:02:56.880 --> 0:02:57.320 can read. 0:02:57.680 --> 0:03:05.080 I just like to scare kids. You know, it's a 0:03:05.120 --> 0:03:09.960 living right good job. It's a good job. Hey, we 0:03:10.000 --> 0:03:14.639 all like scary stories, yeah, age, we all like it. 0:03:15.400 --> 0:03:17.519 You know it helps us. You want to be serious 0:03:17.800 --> 0:03:23.760 helps us face our fears realize we can overcome things. 0:03:24.400 --> 0:03:29.760 Kids like scary stories, I think largely because they know 0:03:29.840 --> 0:03:34.640 they're safe while they're reading them. They're having these creepy adventures. 0:03:34.680 --> 0:03:38.200 They're fighting ghosts and monsters, but they're in their room 0:03:38.320 --> 0:03:41.280 reading at the same time. And I think that's one 0:03:41.320 --> 0:03:44.080 reason why my books have been so popular. 0:03:44.680 --> 0:03:47.560 Where do these ideas come from? When do you you know, 0:03:47.600 --> 0:03:51.040 you're sitting around and then get this idea about a 0:03:51.080 --> 0:03:54.720 scary tower in London or a big shark and a tank. 0:03:55.640 --> 0:03:57.360 Where do these ideas come from? And then how do 0:03:57.400 --> 0:03:58.760 you know? Oh, that's that one. 0:03:58.880 --> 0:04:01.840 That book actually came from the Tower of London. I 0:04:01.960 --> 0:04:04.840 was in the tower and the idea for doing that 0:04:04.920 --> 0:04:08.760 Goosebumps book A Night in Terror Tower came to me there. 0:04:09.040 --> 0:04:15.240 I don't know. You don't know your idea possible question 0:04:15.320 --> 0:04:18.880 to answer. Authors all have their pat answers about how 0:04:18.880 --> 0:04:22.360 they get ideas, but you can't really you don't know. 0:04:23.120 --> 0:04:28.040 One day I was, yeah, no, it's true. Or you 0:04:28.080 --> 0:04:30.000 sit down and you think, and you think and you 0:04:30.120 --> 0:04:33.520 think until you have an idea. You don't know a 0:04:33.560 --> 0:04:36.840 lot of authors say, well, you start with the question, 0:04:37.080 --> 0:04:42.480 what if what if this happened? But that's garbage. You 0:04:44.760 --> 0:04:47.560 It's true. You don't start with a question what if. 0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:50.320 If you're asking what if, you already have to know 0:04:50.400 --> 0:04:53.919 what the answer is. One day, I was walking my 0:04:54.040 --> 0:04:58.640 dog in Riverside Park in New York and these words 0:04:58.640 --> 0:05:03.160 popped into my head, say cheese and die. Where'd that 0:05:03.200 --> 0:05:05.599 come from? Where? What? All of a sudden I got 0:05:05.600 --> 0:05:08.760 these words in my head? And then you start thinking. 0:05:09.520 --> 0:05:12.719 Most of my books start with the title. Oh, yeah, 0:05:13.160 --> 0:05:17.160 I'm backwards for most authors, but what if there's an 0:05:17.200 --> 0:05:21.000 evil camera? What if the camera takes pictures of bad 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:24.200 things that happen in the future. What if kids just 0:05:24.440 --> 0:05:27.800 you know? And that leads me. Having that title led 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:31.480 me to the story of say Jee's and Die. Most 0:05:31.520 --> 0:05:35.880 authors come up with an idea for a story, and 0:05:35.920 --> 0:05:38.560 then they write, They write, and later on they think 0:05:38.600 --> 0:05:41.599 of a title. But I have to start with the title. 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:45.160 I always have to. Sometimes I'll have an idea for 0:05:45.200 --> 0:05:47.360 a story and I can't think of a good title, 0:05:47.800 --> 0:05:53.119 so I throw out the idea. 0:05:53.320 --> 0:05:56.320 It's true, Well, that makes sense because all the Goosebump 0:05:56.440 --> 0:05:58.279 stories do have very catchy titles. 0:05:58.360 --> 0:06:03.880 You're good, Yeah, they're a good title. That's my main talent. 0:06:06.279 --> 0:06:10.400 So what was your origin story as a horror writer? 0:06:10.600 --> 0:06:13.440 When did that become something that you wanted to do 0:06:13.480 --> 0:06:16.240 because you started doing humor books, And when did you 0:06:16.320 --> 0:06:19.159 kind of get into the mindset that you're going to 0:06:19.160 --> 0:06:20.159 start scaring choice. 0:06:20.160 --> 0:06:25.480 It's embarrassing. It's an embarrassing story. Now, it wasn't my idea. 0:06:26.200 --> 0:06:30.400 That's my idea to write scary books. Almost everything that's 0:06:30.400 --> 0:06:34.760 happened to me has been an accident in there, stumbled 0:06:34.760 --> 0:06:38.719 into it. All I cared about was being funny humor 0:06:38.800 --> 0:06:44.480 magazine for kids for ten years called Bananas. I wrote 0:06:44.600 --> 0:06:48.320 dozens of joke books, and I just, you know, that 0:06:48.480 --> 0:06:52.760 was my life's dream, having my own humor magazine because 0:06:52.800 --> 0:06:54.880 I was a huge, mad fan. And you know, when 0:06:54.880 --> 0:06:59.719 I was a kid, and after Bananas folded, I thought 0:06:59.760 --> 0:07:02.960 I coast the rest of my life. I figured I'd 0:07:03.000 --> 0:07:06.560 done it. I had no idea what was in store. 0:07:07.360 --> 0:07:10.720 I'd always liked horror. When my brother and I were 0:07:10.800 --> 0:07:14.440 kids back in Ohio, we would go to this little 0:07:14.440 --> 0:07:17.800 movie theater every Saturday morning. They had a Tom and 0:07:17.880 --> 0:07:22.320 Jerry cartoon festival and a horror movie, so we saw 0:07:22.360 --> 0:07:25.280 all the great horror movies back then, The Brain that 0:07:25.360 --> 0:07:29.840 Wouldn't Die and Walks among Us, A Creature from the 0:07:29.880 --> 0:07:35.120 Black Lagoon and Taratal, all those films, and I'd always 0:07:35.200 --> 0:07:38.920 enjoyed horror. I never planned to write it. And one 0:07:39.000 --> 0:07:42.000 day I was having lunch with my friend Jeane Fiwell, 0:07:42.560 --> 0:07:47.120 who was the pub editorial director at Scholastic, and she 0:07:47.400 --> 0:07:52.040 arrived at lunch angry and she said she'd had a conversation. 0:07:52.120 --> 0:07:55.000 She'd had a fight with someone who wrote te in horror, 0:07:55.520 --> 0:07:59.000 who show remained nameless. She said, I'm never working with 0:07:59.120 --> 0:08:02.480 him again. You could write a good teen horror novel, 0:08:02.600 --> 0:08:07.480 go home and write a book called blind Date, right. 0:08:07.640 --> 0:08:10.760 She even gave me the title, and I didn't know 0:08:10.800 --> 0:08:14.520 what she was talking about. Had no what's a teen 0:08:14.560 --> 0:08:17.320 horror novel? I didn't know, but I was at that 0:08:17.480 --> 0:08:20.600 point in my career where you know, you say yes 0:08:20.680 --> 0:08:26.040 to everything, let me say no no. I ran into 0:08:26.120 --> 0:08:30.120 the bookstore and I bought books by Christopher Pike, and 0:08:30.160 --> 0:08:35.560 by Lois Duncan and Diane Howe and Richie Tankersley Cusick. 0:08:36.000 --> 0:08:39.480 They were all writing teen horror novels, and I read 0:08:39.480 --> 0:08:42.640 their books to find out what it was all about. 0:08:43.360 --> 0:08:45.200 And then I tried to figure out what I could 0:08:45.240 --> 0:08:48.920 do a little different so I wouldn't be just like them. 0:08:49.480 --> 0:08:53.119 And I decided to be a little younger and cleaner 0:08:53.320 --> 0:08:56.760 and not have you know, they had like cocaine and 0:08:56.800 --> 0:09:00.600 things in their book, and I decided, you know, I'm 0:09:00.600 --> 0:09:08.240 from Ohio, right, I don't, And I wrote Blind Day. 0:09:09.320 --> 0:09:12.600 It took me three months. I can't imagine spending three 0:09:12.679 --> 0:09:16.160 months on a book. You handed it in and it 0:09:16.240 --> 0:09:20.400 was a number one best seller. That wait, what I 0:09:20.559 --> 0:09:23.559 never read on the bestseller list. And then a year later, 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:27.080 Gene Firewall asked me to do another one, and I 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:30.160 wrote a book called Twisted and it was a number 0:09:30.160 --> 0:09:38.320 one bestseller and I thought, forget the funny stuff, forget that. 0:09:39.040 --> 0:09:41.960 And I've been scary ever since. But it's kind of 0:09:42.000 --> 0:09:44.160 embarrassing since it wasn't my idea. 0:09:45.040 --> 0:09:47.440 Well, you know, sometimes you need you need a little 0:09:47.440 --> 0:09:50.400 direction to understand what it is that you're really really 0:09:50.400 --> 0:09:50.680 good at. 0:09:51.559 --> 0:09:54.360 And I didn't know, you know, I went into schools 0:09:54.400 --> 0:09:56.800 and I'd say to kids, why do you like these books? 0:09:57.559 --> 0:10:01.360 And they all said, we like to be scared, we 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:03.600 like to be scared. I didn't, you know, I just 0:10:03.640 --> 0:10:07.440 didn't know, and it was a great It was a 0:10:07.480 --> 0:10:09.240 great thing to find out, believe me. 0:10:10.280 --> 0:10:15.720 Right, Oh, you're so amazingly prolific. And here you are 0:10:15.760 --> 0:10:21.560 with a new book, Shark Knight, just released earlier this month. 0:10:22.400 --> 0:10:24.720 What is your process like? How do you how do 0:10:24.760 --> 0:10:28.160 you manage to churn out so much material? 0:10:28.280 --> 0:10:31.640 I'm just a machine. No, I just love it. I 0:10:31.679 --> 0:10:35.200 still love it. I've written book. I still it's the 0:10:35.240 --> 0:10:37.959 best part of my day every you know, I'm like 0:10:38.000 --> 0:10:41.240 a factor. I write every day from ten to one. 0:10:41.440 --> 0:10:46.560 Those are good hours, right, you'd kill hours ten to one? Sure, 0:10:47.480 --> 0:10:49.960 and I write, you know, I make sure. I used 0:10:49.960 --> 0:10:53.120 to write two thousand words a day, and it's like 0:10:53.200 --> 0:10:55.959 ten pages. I can't quite do that. I've slowed down. 0:10:56.480 --> 0:10:59.959 But I can do seven maybe, and just do it 0:11:00.200 --> 0:11:02.960 every day and not quit until I've done my pages 0:11:03.000 --> 0:11:05.320 for the day. But as I say, it's the best 0:11:05.320 --> 0:11:08.520 part of my day. The rest of my life's pretty horrible. 0:11:10.000 --> 0:11:13.960 You can laugh, I'm being serious. You can laugh. But 0:11:17.880 --> 0:11:21.200 that's how I do it. And I wouldn't know what 0:11:21.360 --> 0:11:23.640 else to do all day. If I didn't write in 0:11:23.720 --> 0:11:27.720 the morning, what would I do? I wouldn't know. I've 0:11:27.760 --> 0:11:30.839 done it for so long. Yeah, that's how That's how 0:11:30.880 --> 0:11:33.000 I do it, and I just you know, I do 0:11:33.040 --> 0:11:35.559 it because I love it, And now that I'm really old, 0:11:36.440 --> 0:11:38.600 I do it to prove to myself that I can 0:11:38.679 --> 0:11:44.760 still do it. I just signed on for six more 0:11:44.800 --> 0:11:48.240 Goosebumps books. There I'm going to be one hundred and twelve. 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:54.080 I'll still be writing for ten year olds. The dam Yeah, 0:11:55.520 --> 0:11:57.440 I don't know where I'll be sending them from, but 0:12:00.120 --> 0:12:04.680 six more. And now I'm doing these books for Blackstone, 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:08.520 my new publisher. Shark Knight is the second book I've 0:12:08.559 --> 0:12:12.160 done for them. I did one last year called Slime 0:12:12.280 --> 0:12:12.880 Doesn't Pay. 0:12:15.480 --> 0:12:19.360 Still gonna have those titles, Yes, very good title. So 0:12:19.480 --> 0:12:23.400 something that's been I mean, is another unique part of 0:12:23.679 --> 0:12:27.360 your success with Goosebumps. In your book, You've gotten to 0:12:27.400 --> 0:12:30.200 see these things come to life in all these different formats. 0:12:30.240 --> 0:12:33.920 There's been movies and video games, and you yourself have 0:12:34.040 --> 0:12:38.280 gotten to write comic books. And what was that like, 0:12:38.480 --> 0:12:42.440 that transition from doing pros to comic books. Was that 0:12:42.480 --> 0:12:44.360 something you'd always wanted to do? Were you a fan 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:46.840 of comic books? Or was it just another step in 0:12:46.880 --> 0:12:48.600 the well got to keep writing? 0:12:50.120 --> 0:12:52.360 No, I love it. When I was a kid, I 0:12:52.440 --> 0:12:56.480 was a comic book fanatic. People always ask me what 0:12:56.679 --> 0:12:59.440 my favorite children's books. When I was a kid, I 0:12:59.480 --> 0:13:04.400 didn't read books. I like comic books. And my friends 0:13:04.400 --> 0:13:07.959 and I would carry around big stacks of comics and 0:13:08.040 --> 0:13:10.439 we would read them under a tree in my front 0:13:10.520 --> 0:13:14.200 yard and trade. We're always training comics and carrying our 0:13:14.280 --> 0:13:17.360 comics around. And when I was a kid, there were 0:13:17.400 --> 0:13:22.520 these easy horror comics that I looked from the Crypt 0:13:22.600 --> 0:13:25.960 and the Vault of Horror. I just I love those 0:13:27.360 --> 0:13:31.080 and I've always I didn't start reading books till I 0:13:31.160 --> 0:13:34.400 was like nine or ten. And I tell this story 0:13:34.440 --> 0:13:39.280 about my mom dropped me off at a little library 0:13:39.320 --> 0:13:42.960 on main Street in my town in Columbus, and the 0:13:43.000 --> 0:13:47.480 librarian was waiting for me and she said, Bobby, I 0:13:47.559 --> 0:13:50.640 know you like comics. I have something else here I 0:13:50.679 --> 0:13:53.400 think you will like. And she took me to a 0:13:53.480 --> 0:13:58.160 shelf of Ray Bradbury's stories, and that changed my life. 0:13:58.760 --> 0:14:03.199 Those stories were so imaginative and so beautifully written, and 0:14:03.360 --> 0:14:07.400 all had great twist endings and great Bradbury really and 0:14:07.520 --> 0:14:11.120 that librarian really turned me into a reader. That's when 0:14:11.160 --> 0:14:15.960 I first started, you know, reading stuff, but now to 0:14:16.040 --> 0:14:22.240 be able. These people from Boom Studios came to me 0:14:22.360 --> 0:14:26.480 and we were talking, and for me, it's you know, 0:14:26.480 --> 0:14:29.280 I've always loved comics and be able to write them. 0:14:29.720 --> 0:14:33.960 I've been doing horror comics for adults. Oh you see 0:14:34.000 --> 0:14:39.000 horror comic type stuff called stuff of Nightmares, and it's 0:14:39.040 --> 0:14:42.840 been it's just fun. And I'm doing a new series 0:14:43.360 --> 0:14:48.880 for them called The Graveyard Club, which is ya horror 0:14:49.560 --> 0:14:52.520 and that's that's coming out in September, the first one. 0:14:53.160 --> 0:14:56.440 So it's just fun. And comics are easier to write 0:14:56.440 --> 0:15:05.120 than books because you don't have to describe anything. I'm 0:15:05.240 --> 0:15:08.440 terrible a description. I have no writer's eye. I don't 0:15:08.480 --> 0:15:12.200 know flowers, I don't think these, I don't know anything. 0:15:13.360 --> 0:15:17.440 But when you're writing a comic book, you say he 0:15:17.520 --> 0:15:21.880 walked through the jungle. The artist has to do the jungle. 0:15:24.120 --> 0:15:26.800 You don't have to describe the plants or what's going 0:15:26.840 --> 0:15:29.640 on in the jungle. The artist does it. And so 0:15:29.760 --> 0:15:32.720 it's kind of like writing a TV script or a 0:15:33.160 --> 0:15:36.320 script because mainly you write the dialogue and then the 0:15:36.440 --> 0:15:39.680 artist has to fill it all in. So it's fun. 0:15:40.280 --> 0:15:43.040 We'll be back with more spooky conversations with ral Stein. 0:15:43.840 --> 0:16:02.160 A quick word from our sponsors. Do you remember what 0:16:02.280 --> 0:16:06.880 the first thing either you read or you saw that 0:16:07.000 --> 0:16:08.560 really scared you was. 0:16:09.320 --> 0:16:11.600 Yeah, see, you're not gonna believe You're too young to 0:16:11.680 --> 0:16:16.160 believe this. I grew up with radio. See, you can't 0:16:16.200 --> 0:16:19.680 tell that to people now. You can't tell people, you know. 0:16:19.720 --> 0:16:23.240 I didn't have television until I was nine, and I 0:16:23.280 --> 0:16:27.720 would listen to all the dramas and horror stories and 0:16:27.840 --> 0:16:31.600 cowboy stories on the radio. I'm still to this day. 0:16:31.640 --> 0:16:36.920 I love radio. And I had this little radio by 0:16:36.960 --> 0:16:41.680 my bed and I would listen at night. I'd have 0:16:41.760 --> 0:16:45.600 it on and then this voice would come on, this 0:16:45.800 --> 0:16:48.760 deep voice that I'd be lying there, I'm a little kid, 0:16:49.160 --> 0:16:56.520 and this voice would say, and now tale calculated to 0:16:56.720 --> 0:17:02.040 keep you in suspense, this horrible, frightening voice. And I 0:17:02.120 --> 0:17:04.640 turned the radio off and said, oh no, no, no, 0:17:04.720 --> 0:17:07.280 turn off and turn it off. That's the first time 0:17:07.359 --> 0:17:10.879 I was scared by something, that voice on the radio. 0:17:11.880 --> 0:17:16.960 You mentioned your your two thousand words a day from 0:17:17.000 --> 0:17:21.159 ten to one again, wonderful better than bankers hours. Yes, 0:17:22.760 --> 0:17:26.120 How do you, as someone who is so prolific, how 0:17:26.119 --> 0:17:29.200 do you manage to not to just keep going. How 0:17:29.200 --> 0:17:31.960 do you manage to not stop and let me read 0:17:31.960 --> 0:17:32.400 that back? 0:17:32.440 --> 0:17:32.879 And oh no? 0:17:32.960 --> 0:17:34.960 And then and then how do you manage to keep 0:17:35.000 --> 0:17:36.359 pushing the plot forward? 0:17:36.400 --> 0:17:40.440 And I don't read it back? Yeah, you don't go back. 0:17:41.520 --> 0:17:47.080 You keep going. I don't know. I you know. I. 0:17:47.320 --> 0:17:50.040 It's just you have to love it. You have to 0:17:50.080 --> 0:17:55.920 love it and keep going. And I love being prolific. 0:17:56.600 --> 0:17:59.920 I mean, I'm very proud of that. A lot of 0:18:00.119 --> 0:18:04.720 people take that as a criticism, but I love turning out. 0:18:04.760 --> 0:18:09.840 I worked in magazine when I was a scholastic. I 0:18:09.880 --> 0:18:13.639 worked in weekly magazine. I got used to that pace. 0:18:14.240 --> 0:18:18.240 And for me, the pace of getting a book out 0:18:18.359 --> 0:18:22.240 is very slow. You know, a little Goosebumps book, right, 0:18:22.240 --> 0:18:25.640 one hundred and twenty page book takes some nine months 0:18:25.680 --> 0:18:26.400 to get it out. 0:18:27.119 --> 0:18:30.439 Yeah, that's ridiculous, No, it is. 0:18:30.840 --> 0:18:33.439 We did Shark Knight. This is why Shark Knight was 0:18:33.720 --> 0:18:39.359 a miracle, because they came to me at Anthony at 0:18:39.400 --> 0:18:42.879 Blackstone and he said, we'd like to do a second 0:18:42.920 --> 0:18:46.400 book with you, and we'll bring it out in twenty 0:18:46.520 --> 0:18:49.880 twenty five. I said, Anthony, I'm not sure I want 0:18:49.920 --> 0:18:54.320 to live that long. I have to live. Had long 0:18:54.359 --> 0:18:56.719 to see the book. Can't we bring it out in 0:18:56.760 --> 0:19:01.199 twenty twenty four? And I, I mean, I don't know 0:19:01.200 --> 0:19:03.879 if you'll be impressed by this or not, but I 0:19:04.000 --> 0:19:07.480 handed the book in on April first, and the book 0:19:07.520 --> 0:19:10.720 came out on July second, which powerful. 0:19:11.320 --> 0:19:11.639 Wow. 0:19:11.760 --> 0:19:15.960 Yes, unbelievably fast. And look at it. It's fully illustrated. 0:19:16.920 --> 0:19:20.639 It's great. The covers. Fact, it's a great package, filled 0:19:20.680 --> 0:19:26.679 with illustrations. Used good paper, rare you don't get you know, 0:19:26.720 --> 0:19:31.879 you look, post Bumps is on toilet paper. I didn't 0:19:31.920 --> 0:19:38.720 say that, did I. No one's listening, right anyway, that's 0:19:38.760 --> 0:19:43.280 a miracle these days, well to July, and it shows 0:19:43.320 --> 0:19:46.200 that can be done. Books can be published. You don't 0:19:46.240 --> 0:19:48.600 need nine months to do a little well. 0:19:49.000 --> 0:19:51.600 You can do more books. Speed it up and you 0:19:51.600 --> 0:19:52.840 could be even more prolific. 0:19:53.000 --> 0:19:54.760 Yeah, right right. 0:19:56.040 --> 0:20:00.159 You mentioned the cover for Shark Knight. I think one 0:20:00.200 --> 0:20:05.040 of the things, as an avid reader of Goosebumps, one 0:20:05.080 --> 0:20:07.719 of the very first things that attracted me to your 0:20:07.720 --> 0:20:11.359 books were the covers. Yeah, these really spooky covers, the 0:20:11.480 --> 0:20:16.439 wonderful lettering and the bumps and the bumps and the bumps. 0:20:16.440 --> 0:20:20.280 Of course it was and so what was that process 0:20:20.480 --> 0:20:23.400 like of developing that art style. How much of us, say, 0:20:23.440 --> 0:20:25.520 did you have and what would appear on the covers 0:20:25.520 --> 0:20:26.040 of your books? 0:20:26.119 --> 0:20:32.399 They didn't. Tim Jacobis painted the first hundred Goosebumps covers. Wow, 0:20:32.880 --> 0:20:36.159 he's amazing, he's the best. He's just and you know 0:20:36.280 --> 0:20:38.639 the covers were much scarier than the books. 0:20:41.119 --> 0:20:42.600 Yeah, yeah, I know. 0:20:42.720 --> 0:20:44.600 Some kids told me they had to turn the book 0:20:44.640 --> 0:20:49.159 upside down at night so the cover show. You know, 0:20:49.280 --> 0:20:52.879 they wouldn't see the cover. But Tim and I actually didn't. 0:20:52.960 --> 0:20:55.640 They try to keep the author and the artist apart. 0:20:56.280 --> 0:20:58.919 And I didn't meet Tim for three years. We've been 0:20:59.000 --> 0:21:02.320 working Wow, three years. I finally met him. We're good 0:21:02.359 --> 0:21:08.919 pals now and we actually do bookstore talks together. But 0:21:09.359 --> 0:21:11.360 the way it worked would be I would be writing 0:21:11.400 --> 0:21:17.280 a book and I would send him a little paragraph, say, 0:21:18.000 --> 0:21:20.920 this book is about it takes place in the Everglades 0:21:21.000 --> 0:21:24.480 in Florida, a kid suspects that one of the neighbors 0:21:24.560 --> 0:21:27.800 is a werewolf, and then he would paint the cover 0:21:27.920 --> 0:21:31.280 from that. We working side. That's all. You would have, 0:21:32.640 --> 0:21:36.159 just a little thing. And he got it right every time, 0:21:36.600 --> 0:21:42.359 every except once, always got it right, and it was 0:21:42.640 --> 0:21:46.200 you know amazing, and Jim is the only Goosebumps artist 0:21:46.240 --> 0:21:50.080 we ever had cover art who got that it wasn't 0:21:50.200 --> 0:21:54.080 straight horror, that it was right for me, and his 0:21:54.800 --> 0:21:58.719 had the humor as well as the horror. We've had 0:21:58.800 --> 0:22:01.879 other good artists, and we have someone new now. You know, 0:22:01.960 --> 0:22:07.080 Goosebumps is now called Goosebump's House of Shivers. Only once 0:22:07.200 --> 0:22:10.119 Tim didn't get it right, and that was in the 0:22:10.160 --> 0:22:15.280 book Say Cheese and I. It was about an evil 0:22:15.359 --> 0:22:20.040 camera taking these pictures, and his cover painting came in 0:22:21.080 --> 0:22:24.040 and it was a scene of skeletons barbecuing. 0:22:24.840 --> 0:22:25.960 Yes, that's the one. 0:22:26.320 --> 0:22:29.360 I reminder it so nothing to do with the book. 0:22:31.359 --> 0:22:34.719 I thought the idea was like somebody had taken the picture. Yes, 0:22:35.320 --> 0:22:37.560 and then they saw that. I think once you read 0:22:37.560 --> 0:22:38.840 the book, it made said no. 0:22:39.119 --> 0:22:44.760 Well I had no, it didn't and they couldn't ask 0:22:44.880 --> 0:22:48.080 him to change the painting right. So they called me 0:22:48.200 --> 0:22:50.879 up and said, Bob, can you add a scene of 0:22:50.920 --> 0:22:58.800 skeletons barbecuing in the book? Right? So I added a 0:22:58.880 --> 0:23:04.040 dream sequence that the boy goes to sleep and he 0:23:04.160 --> 0:23:08.800 dreams about skeleton's barbecuing. And that's how that's how we 0:23:08.840 --> 0:23:13.240 made all the other covers are fine. 0:23:13.480 --> 0:23:15.480 What does R. L. Stein read? Now? 0:23:15.840 --> 0:23:19.280 What are the things that I read? Most mysteries and 0:23:19.359 --> 0:23:26.800 thrillers mostly I'm in International Thriller Writers. Actually, I was 0:23:26.840 --> 0:23:30.320 on the board of the Thriller Writers for eleven years, 0:23:30.920 --> 0:23:33.439 and I got to hang out with the Lee Child 0:23:33.520 --> 0:23:37.360 and Michael Connolly and they're all friends of mine. Harlan Coben, 0:23:37.880 --> 0:23:39.800 those are the people I read, and I know them 0:23:39.800 --> 0:23:43.560 all now, which is really wonderful. I was talking. I 0:23:43.600 --> 0:23:47.320 was down on Saint Croix on the beach, and this 0:23:47.359 --> 0:23:50.119 woman said, oh, what did you bring to read? And 0:23:50.160 --> 0:23:53.119 I said, well, I brought this Nero Wolf mystery, and 0:23:53.200 --> 0:23:57.320 I brought this old British mystery and I brought She said, oh, 0:23:57.440 --> 0:24:02.680 beach reading. I realized that's what I read all year. 0:24:05.040 --> 0:24:06.800 I read. 0:24:07.920 --> 0:24:08.600 A Good Way to Live. 0:24:08.680 --> 0:24:10.960 The best thing I read all summer is a book 0:24:11.000 --> 0:24:15.480 called Shanghai by an author named Joseph Cannon k A 0:24:15.880 --> 0:24:23.560 N O. N. He's just an amazing uh spy author, 0:24:23.720 --> 0:24:28.480 spy novelist, thriller writer. Now that the car has gone, 0:24:28.960 --> 0:24:34.760 Joseph is the best we have. I it's it's just you. 0:24:34.840 --> 0:24:38.080 It's hypnotic when you read it. It's an amazing book. 0:24:38.680 --> 0:24:45.600 I just I just purchased it. 0:24:46.000 --> 0:24:48.960 Get your commission, you get. 0:24:50.560 --> 0:24:54.000 Well Back in a moment. More spooky talk with R. L. 0:24:54.080 --> 0:25:06.800 Stein. 0:25:11.040 --> 0:25:16.440 So you read thrillers, you read, you know, mysteries. Do 0:25:16.480 --> 0:25:19.879 you read any horror or is that more saved for 0:25:20.000 --> 0:25:20.560 what you write? 0:25:21.560 --> 0:25:24.960 We're just talking between us, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm 0:25:24.960 --> 0:25:31.440 not really into horror. I know. It's really true though, 0:25:31.520 --> 0:25:36.080 I mean, I don't really read I'm a big Stephen King. Yeah, 0:25:36.400 --> 0:25:41.119 maybe one out of every three Stephen King books. But 0:25:41.240 --> 0:25:45.320 I don't read other horror. It's not what I'm you know. 0:25:45.520 --> 0:25:50.679 I like detective novels, and you know, I like old mysteries, 0:25:50.760 --> 0:25:54.400 old British mysteries and that kind of thing. I don't 0:25:54.440 --> 0:25:55.640 really read much horror. 0:25:56.440 --> 0:25:59.879 Yeah, just terrorize children with your own imagination. 0:26:00.440 --> 0:26:06.240 But right now, it's no, It's true. Most people don't 0:26:06.359 --> 0:26:06.919 like horror. 0:26:08.560 --> 0:26:09.200 I know. 0:26:09.440 --> 0:26:11.879 Listen, this is strange. I mean, if you think about 0:26:11.960 --> 0:26:16.560 mystery writers on the bestseller list, there are dozens of them. 0:26:17.000 --> 0:26:20.879 People tell a lot of you know, right, thrillers, the 0:26:21.000 --> 0:26:28.600 Michael Connolly's and Karen Slaughter, But how many best selling 0:26:28.720 --> 0:26:33.960 horror writers can you name? They're only four. No, it's 0:26:34.000 --> 0:26:38.720 strange though, dozens of mystery writers that do well, but 0:26:38.760 --> 0:26:42.240 they're only four or five horror writers that do well, 0:26:42.920 --> 0:26:46.320 which is it's interesting to me. I don't know if 0:26:46.359 --> 0:26:50.840 anyone is interested. But you know, once you get past 0:26:50.840 --> 0:26:56.840 Stephen King and Dean Koonts and King's son and maybe 0:26:56.920 --> 0:27:02.280 a couple other people, that's it. There's people don't read them. 0:27:03.480 --> 0:27:07.320