Personal life

On June 22, 1969, Stine married Jane Waldhorn, who became an editor and writer and formed Parachute Press with Joan Waricha on April 1, 1983. Their only child, Matthew, was born on June 7, 1980 and works in the music industry

As the 1990s came to a close,Goosebumps fever began to fade. Stine launched a new series in 2000, Nightmare Room, with each title featuring an online component. In 2004, he mixed humor and horror in Who Let the Ghosts Out?, the first book in theMostly Ghostly series.

Stine continues to branch out into new directions, writing about common student fears in 2011's It's the First Day of School ... Forever! and exploring the vampire craze in 2010's Bitten.

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 this Web site. 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 this Web site. If you need other info about R.L. Stine, check out his autobiography-- It Came From Ohio-- published by Scholasti