If you’ve been a horror fan as an adult, chances are you’ve been exposed to (and bound to be scared by) the genre thanks to the author R.L. Sting. The prolific author has a long list of children’s and young adult series such as goosebumps and fear street Filled with jump scares, wild characters, hair-raising moments, and age-appropriate scares to get your preteen’s blood boiling.
As a lifelong horror fan, I’m extremely excited to be in New York Comic Con 2024.
DEANNA DESTITO: How is the contracting going for NYCC?
RL Sting: This is me as a child of the 90s. What a blessing. We just captured all the ’90s kids. It’s very gratifying to me because they come up and say, “You were my childhood, or, thank you for getting me through a difficult childhood. Or, I wouldn’t be where I am today without your books.” Librarian. This is very gratifying.
Destito: I was goosebumps.
Sting: Turns out you’re fine! Despite those books, you’re doing great.
DESTITO: I have two kids and I’m giving them my books. Do you understand a lot? The passing of books from generation to generation?
Sting: Yeah, I’m old. I’ve scared the living daylights out of many generations. That’s what I’m afraid of. They come up and say, “My grandmother loved your book.” I’m waiting for that. So far, this has not happened. That’s when I’m done. My grandchildren are ten and five years old. My son, he is famous because he has never read any books goosebumps Book. Wouldn’t that be bad? It’s just a natural way for kids to do it.
DESTITO: Maybe he’s reading them secretly, but he’s not telling you.
Sting: No, that’s what a good guy said. This is not true. My grandson Dylan continues the tradition. About a month ago, I did a book signing at Barnes & Noble Union Square, and Dylan came and he was reading while I was talking there wings of fireother people’s stuff. And I said, Dylan, do you like my ghost story? He said, I liked it very much when you talked about it last year.
DESTITO: I owe my success as a huge horror fan to your books and Scooby-Doo. To me, scary stuff is safe because I know it’s fake.
Sting: We always call them “security fears.” You know there will be a happy ending.
destination: Is that why you chose to do more with younger readers, to make it a safe space?
Sting: I’ll tell you the truth. I don’t want to do it Goosebumps. That’s the kind of businessman I am. I’m doing fear street Books, they’re doing really well because I’m killing teenagers every month. People like that. They love it when you kill teenagers. Why?
DESTITO: There are a lot of teenagers.
Sting: My wife and her partner own a company called parachute pressmy book is browsing them. They said no one had ever written a horror series for 7 to 12 year olds and we should give it a try. I said, no, I don’t want to do it because I don’t want to screw it up fear street. I don’t want to disturb the old audience. They’ve been following me, they’ve been following me. Finally, I said, okay, if we come up with a good name for the series, we could try two or three. Here we are. 32 years later. These things are 32 years old.
DESTITO: Are you a fan of horror movies or have you ever fallen into one?
Sting: No one is listening, right? I don’t really like horror. Don’t tell anyone. I read mostly mysteries and thrillers. But I’m a huge Stephen King fan. People can’t ask me questions about horror. I won’t do too well.
DESTITO: How did you feel when you were writing the TV show and writing the novel?
Sting: Well, television is completely collaborative. You have to cooperate with everyone. “Let’s see what the people in the mailroom think about this.” I don’t like it. Everyone has the right to vote. I don’t like it very much. I like to be alone in a room.
DESTITO: How about writing comics?
Sting: BOOM! Studio, I had a lot of fun. I was a comic book fan as a kid. That’s all I read. When I was a kid, horror comics were everywhere. I just love them. I had a great time. I’ve done three…I’ve done a middle grade graphic novel series called Just beyond. Then I did some adult horror comics called Nightmare stuff. That’s fun. What a scary thing for adults. Now my new series has just come out. It’s a YA graphic novel series called graveyard club. I had a great time.
DESTITO: Do you have an audience preference?
Sting: The middle audience is my audience. They’re a great audience. I have them from 7 to 12 o’clock. They’re 12 years old, they’ve discovered sex, they have to be cool. They’re gone. You’ve lost them. Those teenagers. Yes, you have lost them.
DESTITO: That’s why we kill them.
Sting: Exactly.
DESTITO: What about writing for adults? Do you find it freer?
Sting: Oh, of course. You don’t have to have a security scare. But no one wants me to write for adults. I’ve written four novels for adults, horror novels, and no one noticed. On Twitter, people would say, “Why don’t you write something for us? We’ve grown up. I wrote this book for Simon & Schuster called red rain. Where did they go? They wouldn’t even answer my phone calls at Simon & Schuster. That’s how bad it is.
They didn’t want me to write for adults. I’m very nostalgic. It took me a long time to get used to this. I do book signings and I have people who are 10, 20 and 30 years old.
DESTITO: Is there anything you’ve always wanted to do but haven’t done yet?
Sting: Well, what happened to me was far beyond my dreams. Look how lucky I am. I never dreamed about all the TV series and movies, jack black Play with me. He’s great. He is also one of my favorite people. He is a very nice person. We had a wonderful time together. He was just a very generous man. That was a good experience. This movie is very good.
DESTITO: You made cameos in some of them. How about being an actor?
Sting: I am Mr. One Shot. We did this at the end of the first one goosebumps In the movie, Jack comes out and says, “Hello, Mr. Black,” and I say, “Hello, Mr. Stann,” and they did it 25 times. Oh my gosh. It’s lunch time. I’m really hungry. He came 25 times. I said, Jack, if I had to work like this, I would kill myself.
Stay tuned for more coverage of NYCC ’24 beat.
