National Book Festival

Advocate of Children's LiIteracy

R.L. Stine is the author of more than 50 books, including the "Goosebumps" series (1992) and "Nightmare Hour" (1999), which received a Children's Choices Award.

His most recent books are from the new "Rotten School" series: "The Great Blueberry Barf Off" and "The Smelling Bee" (HarperCollins, 2005).

Stine was online Wednesday, Sept. 21 to discuss his writing appearance at the National Book Festival .

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R.L. Stine: Hi, everyone. Thank you for joining my chat forum today. I hope to meet a lot of you at the National Book Festival on the Mall on Saturday. I'll be speaking and signing there.

I'm on a book tour right now for my (funny!!) new kids' book series, ROTTEN SCHOOL. You can find out where I'll be appearing at http://rlstine.com.

Now to answer your questions....

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Dark Falls: Hello Mr. Stine, I read your books to my son every night. He would like to know what really scares YOU the most?

R.L. Stine: When I was a kid, I was scared of EVERYTHING. I was very shy and frightened of all kinds of things-- afraid someone was under my bed and would grab my ankle when I stood up... afraid to put my bike back in the garage late at night cuz someone might be lurking in there.

Luckily, I can remember that feeling of panic-- and I use it when I write my books.

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Burtonville, Md.: My 12 year old daughter and I have read and enjoyed a number of your Goosebump books over the years and we have spiritedly debated over whether R.L. Stine was a pseudonym for several authors(no offense) or a single author, and whether you were male or female. I took the former on both accounts. can I safely infer that she was correct about the single authorship? May we know what 'R.L.' stands for?

R.L. Stine: Hey, I'm a person! I'm a real guy! There's no committee named R.L. Stine!

Kids always ask what R.L. stands for. And they're disappointed when I tell them it's ROBERT LAWRENCE.

Such a boring name!!

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Twinbrook, Md.: My 7 year old son asks "do you believe in ghosts or other scary creatures?"

R.L. Stine: I have to admit I don't believe in ghosts or the other scary creatures in my books. I have never seen a ghost-- but I keep looking!

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Harrisburg, Pa.: Where do you draw the line at scaring children? Also, isn't there another line where some things as so extreme the children just yawn them off in disbelief? How do you find that perfect line where children are scared and entertained at the same time?

R.L. Stine: That's the hard part. My aim is to never write anything too REAL in my scary books. The kids have to know it's a FANTASY. The real world is a very scary place to kids now. I have to let 'em know that my stories don't take place in the real world.

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Mom of a 9-year-old: What advice would you give to a young aspiring writer? (We love you!)

R.L. Stine: Thank you. My advice is to write something every day. Keep a journal or a blog. You don't have to write more than a paragraph or two. But you need to develop the habit of writing every day.

Also, read read read-- all kinds of books and authors...

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R.L. Stine: My new book series for HarperCollins is FUNNY-- not scary, and I hope my 7-11-year-old readers will enjoy it. It's called ROTTEN SCHOOL-- and it's about a really rotten boarding school and the out-of-control kids who go there.

The first book is called: THE BIG BLUEBERRY BARF-OFF. The second: THE GREAT SMELLING BEE. Which give you an idea of the kind of humor in the books.

Hope they give your kids a laugh!

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Washington DC: I wanted to say hello to Mr. Stine (I was his LC author escort at the Festval last year) and ask a question: You are a frequent participant at the National Book Festival. What is it about this event that keeps you coming back?

R.L. Stine: The National Book Festival has turned into the 2nd best book fair in the country. Such a wonderful location-- the Mall in DC. So spacious and pretty. And 75 authors speaking and signing. And 70-80,000 people who have come to learn about books. It's a wonderful day.

My favorite book festival is the L.A. Times Festival in April, which is spread out over the UCLA campus, has 300 authors attending, and draws about 150,000 people!

I'm honored to be invited to both of them...

R.L. Stine: ok

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Richmond, Va.: When my son, now a top student at James Madison University, was a boy, he really enjoyed your "Goosebumps" series. I took a look at one to see what it was like. I noted that it was written so as to excite without causing the sort of fear which can damage. I'm really glad you wrote this way. There is a lot of stuff in today's media which can cause children to have nightmares or to develop deep and lasting fears. Thank you for an excellent series.

R.L. Stine: My aim is always to give kids SHIVERS but not nightmares. Kids are very smart. They know when they're ready for scary books, and when they're not. I always put a lot of HUMOR in my books to keep them from getting too intense.

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Washington, DC: I am an aspiring novelist for the teenage set and was wondering if you could share with me how you broke into the publishing world. Did you get an agent first? Self-publish? Other?

R.L. Stine: I broke into publishing by moving to NYC from Ohio and getting a bunch of publishing jobs. I landed at Scholastic, where I met many editors who went on to different houses. After a while, I had friends who were book editors all over town. I never needed an agent!

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Washington, D.C.: "The Great Blueberry Barfoff" provided many people with Christmas gift ideas on what to give Gene Weingarten. Did you get most negative reaction over the name of the book, or do you think most people understood it?

washingtonpost.com: Bob, Gene Weingarten is a humor columnist at the Post, fyi.

R.L. Stine: So far, I think people get the joke about ROTTEN SCHOOL and its basically gross, 10-year-old-buy humor. I'm having so much fun doing a funny series and trying to gross kids out in all new ways!

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Huntington Beach, Calif.: From where do you get your motivation. And which is your favorite sries of books? And why?

R.L. Stine: I think my motivation is that I wouldn't know what else to do all day!

I've been writing for kids for 30 years, and I still look forward to starting a new book.

My favorite series is GOOSEBUMPS. I guess I'll always be known for that. But I'm very proud of my two current book series: MOSTLY GHOSTLY and ROTTEN SCHOOL.

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Arlington, Va.: I recently bought a book that included four of Edgar Allan Poe's short stories. It's a new collection, nicely illustrated, and we sat down to read. Well, I guess I forgot just how gory Poe's stuff is. We read "The Black Cat" and then "The Masque of the Red Death." My 11-year-old son liked the first but was freaked out by the second. My question: Was he too young for Poe? What age do you think young people should read Poe? I suppose it depends on the kid, but I fear we started too soon.

R.L. Stine: I think I read Poe in jr. high, but I was really into horror by then, devouring the EC comic books. It really does depend on the kid. I have two nephews-- one adored Goosebumps; the other was terrified of it!

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Kensington, Md.: What children's/young adult books did you read as a kid that just stayed with you...i.e, you can practically conjure them up now? (I always love to hear what inspires the authors who inspire 'us'!)

R.L. Stine: When I was a kid, there wasn't much publishing for kids-- not like today. My first reading excitement came from the short stories of Ray Bradbury. They were so creative and surprising, he really turned me into a reader. I started picking up other sci-fi guys-- Asimov, Sheckly... And then I started reading Greek myths, Norse legends... Grimm fairy tales. I was hooked!

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Arlington, Va: What is and is not being done to deal with children's literacy rates? And what would say, if it were one thing, why children should read. Thanks.

R.L. Stine: I know it's a minority opinion, but I'm very encouraged by children's reading habits these days. When I started out, children's publishing was less than one-tenth of what it is today. That means kids are buying books. Popular series bring them into the bookstores by the millions. Despite all the other distractions kids have, they do turn to reading. My career is all about showing them you can open a book just for entertainment.

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Cincinnati, Ohio: Mr. Stine, when not writing yourself, who is your favorite author to read?

R.L. Stine: My favorite author is P.G. Wodehouse. He wrote 93 books, and I think I've read almost all of them. I also read a lot of mysteries, preferably British ones, and a lot of current fiction. I just started the new Doctorow book yesterday.

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R.L. Stine: I hope everyone will check out my brand-new web site.

http://rlstine.com

It has info about all my different series; info for kids doing book reports; my tour schedule; and a lot of other fun stuff.

And if your kids go to: http://rottenschool.com, they can hear my son Matt perform the Official Rotten School Song, which he also wrote.

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R.L. Stine: Thanks for your questions, everyone. I'll be traveling to a whole bunch of cities on my ROTTEN SCHOOL book tour, and I hope to meet many of my readers!

Bye for now.... R.L.

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