TRADE THE DAY Guest Author: R.L. Stine

By - August 19, 2013

On August 23, starting at midnight, I will be hosting a special event called Trade the Day: Spotlight on Team Alaina. During this twenty-four hour blog-a-thon, proceeds from sales of my new book, The Trade, made on my publisher's website at stairwaypress.com will go to benefit Team Alaina for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society. In the weekdays leading up to the big event, I will continue to introduce you to two of the day's scheduled special guests, some which will be guest blogging, some who will be hosting giveaways of autographed books and other goodies, and some who will be doing both!  Get to know this fantastic group of people right here, and come back on August 23 to join us for a day of 24 hours, 23 guest authors, and 1 goal...a cure.

I'm so thrilled to introduce the next guest author (who probably needs no introduction):

R.L. STINE

ABOUT R.L. STINE

R.L. Stine says he has a great job: "My job is to give kids the CREEPS!" R.L.'s books are read all over the world. So far, he has sold over 350 million books, making him one of the best-selling children's authors in history. He was born in Columbus, Ohio in 1943. His mother, Anne Stine, was a homemaker and his father, Lewis Stine, was a shipping clerk. He has a younger brother and sister-- Bill and Pam. No one in his family ever called him R.L. Everyone calls him Bob.

When Bob was nine, he found an old typewriter up in the attic. That discovery changed his life. He carried it down to his room and started typing stories and little joke books. His mother begged him to go outside and play. But Bob always said it was too boring outside. He stayed in his room typing away-- and he has been writing ever since. In school, Bob was not a great student. He got mostly B's, but he never studied very hard.

He spent most of his time writing stories and joke magazines. He was terrible in math, and he hated gym class. The only sport he was ever good at was ping pong! After graduating from Ohio State University in 1965, Bob headed to New York City to become a writer. He wrote dozens of joke books and humor books for kids. And he created Bananas, a zany humor magazine which he did for ten years. In those days, he wrote under the name Jovial Bob Stine.

He married Jane Waldhorn in 1969. Jane became an editor and writer, and they worked together on several children's books. Later, Jane and her partner formed their own publishing company, Parachute Press, and helped create all of R.L.'s most popular book series.

In 1986, R.L. turned scary!

He wrote his first teen horror novel, Blind Date, which became an instant best-seller. Many scary novels followed, including Beach House, Hit And Run, The Babysitter, and The Girlfriend.

In 1989 he created the Fear Street series, the best-selling young adult book series in history. He has written about 100 Fear Street books about teens facing all kinds of terror. Goosebumps began in 1992. The book series quickly became a hit around the world. Translated into 32 different languages, it made R.L. a worldwide publishing celebrity. The Goosebumps TV show was the number-one kids' show in the U.S. for three years in a row. The episodes are still shown at Halloween time. Many of the shows are on DVD.

Other R.L. Stine book creations include: Ghosts of Fear Street, Give Yourself Goosebumps, The Nightmare Room (also a TV series), Mostly Ghostly, and Beware!, a collection of all his favorite stories, poems, comics and illustrations. Rotten School was a series of funny books about the rottenest school on earth. R.L. has published two creepy short story collections-- The Nightmare Hour and The Haunting Hour. Also, two teen vampire novels-- Dangerous Girls and Dangerous Girls II: The Taste of Night.

These days, R.L. is busier than ever. He's working on many books, including the Goosebumps HorrorLand series. You can find out more inside info about new books on his website. R.L. lives in New York City with his wife Jane and his dog Minnie. His son Matthew is a composer, musician, and sound designer. You can see them all in the PHOTO GALLERY section of his website. If you need other info about R.L. Stine, check out his autobiography-- It Came From Ohio-- published by Scholastic. 

ABOUT A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S SCREAM

It was a horror movie that turned into real horror--three young actors lost their lives while the camera rolled. Production stopped, and people claimed that the movie was cursed.

Sixty years later, new actors are venturing onto the haunted set. In a desperate attempt to revive their failing studio, Claire's dad has green-lit a remake of Mayhem Manor—and Claire and her friends are dying to be involved.

At first, Claire laughs at Jake’s talk of ghosts and curses. He’s been too busy crushing on her best friend Delia to notice that she’s practically been throwing herself at him. What does he know? And anyway, this is her big chance to be a star!

When shooting starts, though, the set is plagued by a series of horrible accidents—could history be repeating itself?

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT R.L. STINE AND A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S SCREAM

Visit R.L. Stine's Website 
Follow R.L. Stine on Twitter

OR

Click Here to buy A Midsummer Night's Scream on Barnes and Noble now!

Be sure to come back August 23 to read an interview with R.L. Stine and have your chance to win an autographed copy of a Goosebumps book and an autographed copy of A Midsummer Night's Scream!  Both the interview and giveaways will take place at 2:00 p.m., when R.L. Stine kicks off the FOUR HOURS OF FRIGHT segment of TRADE THE DAY!