NEW YORK – You might think of the author of “Goosebumps” as the unofficial mayor of Halloween, but R.L. Stine never cared much for the holiday.
Yet, you wouldn’t know that stepping into his home office. From the entrance, Stine’s apartment is unassuming, save for some killer hardwood floor paneling. But step down the hall and you’re in a Halloweentown of his own design.
It’s an odd mixture of office supplies and the spooky memorabilia that got Stine his fame – a giant plastic cockroach opposite a desk where he writes his novels. Slappy the Dummy dots the office in many forms from masks to dolls, but there’s also a practical bin labeled “mail + stuff to deal with." He has a life-size skeleton that his Scholastic publishers sent him for a big “Goosebumps” bestseller list milestone. He assembled the pieces himself, he grumbles, so one of the knees is backward. On the walls hang posters of his cover artwork. The ceiling and walls are connected with spidery shelving brackets, decorated in the same style as the black webby legs of his desk.
It’s a rainy day in New York, the dreadful kind of sideways pour that gives Stine’s office an even spookier glow. His rambunctious puppy, Lucky, stumbles into the office with a towel in his mouth after a failed attempt to dry him off post-walk. On Halloween night, Stine will pass out candy and books to a small group of kids in his building. They mostly take the candy, he tells USA TODAY.
