“Goosebumps” author R.L. Stine visited Callahan Intermediate School Friday. Several authors visited area schools via the Amelia Island Book Festival.
Although Stine’s job as a writer is to “give kids the creeps,” he wasn’t at all creepy. Instead, Stine gently answered children’s questions, engaged the crowd and shared anecdotes from his childhood, including how he began beating out stories at age 9 on an old typewriter he found in his home’s attic.
The New York Times Best Selling Author was in western Nassau to speak about his latest books and projects. He and wife Jane Waldhorn extended their visit.
“I’ve never been to Amelia Island before,” he told the Record. “It’s wonderful. We’re going to take a day to relax and return Monday.”
During the school presentation, Stine told how he began writing stories and joke books while growing up in Columbus, Ohio. One Halloween, he and younger brother Bill went trick-or-treating on their own for the first time. The boys wore sheets with cutout eyes to become ghosts. They carried “big shopping bags and silly string” to accommodate their candy and antics.
As they walked through the neighborhood, their shopping bags bulging with candy, they passed Mrs. Dawson’s house, which stood dark. Later when they returned, a light shone at the woman’s house.
“But it wasn’t a light, it was a big jack-o’-lantern,” Stine said. “It had big grin and it was lit.”
When Stine knocked on the door, the jack-o’-lantern’s face changed from a smile to a scowl amid a red glow. Mrs. Dawson appeared in a long gray nightgown that fluttered in the wind, calling out, “Why did you wake me? Why did you wake me?”
He asked her about the jack-o’-lantern and how she made its face change.
“Jack-o’-lantern? I don’t have a jack-o’-lantern,” she replied.
After breakfast the next morning, Stine decided to visit Mrs. Dawson’s house and apologize. But movers were loading furniture onto a moving truck. Mrs. Dawson didn’t live there anymore – she had died two weeks earlier.
“That’s my true ghost story,” Stine quipped. “Thank you very much. Do you think I made up part of that true ghost story?”
Stine has written his share of horror stories for children and teens and now comic books, having resurrected “Man-Thing,” the Marvel comic book character created in 1971. Stine has given voice to the formerly mute swamp creature in a special five-issue Marvel comic series that will be released next month.
Also, new “Goosebumps” offering “SlappyWorld Slappy Birthday to You,” about young Ian Barker and his ventriloquist dummy Slappy is available.
These offerings just add to Stine’s largesse. He has written more than 300 books, with more than 350 million copies sold worldwide.
Always open to creative ideas, Stine said book titles get in his head first, then the stories start from there. He notes that his favorite “Goosebumps” book is “The Haunted Mask.” The storyline originated from watching son Matt wrestle with a green Frankenstein monster mask that was stuck on his head and wouldn’t come loose.
“I was a bad parent that day,” Stine joked.
Instead of helping, he began taking down notes for a new book idea.
An idea came to fruition for Florida author Marlaena Shannon with “Bad Day for Baby Duck.” The book tells of the cruelty of nature and humans and the difficulty of survival. A disclaimer warns readers that the book is written for older audiences: “This story book is not for children.” The colorful illustrations, also by Shannon, outline a gruesome yet humorous story about a brood of ill-fated ducks.
She has also written and illustrated “Black and White Cat, White and Black Dog” and “Creatures Real and Imagined.” She is a President’s Book Awards winner according to her Facebook page. She visited West Nassau High School students to highlight “Bad Day for Baby Duck” in April Eason’s art class Friday afternoon.
A fixture in western Nassau for many years, former WNHS teacher Bobby Hart asks the question, “Karaoke Singing Camels?”
Through photos and stories, the book recounts his deployments to the Middle East in the early to late 2000s. The U.S. Army veteran visited the JROTC classroom Friday to reminisce about his exploits.