R.L. Stine never imagined he'd carve out a successful future for himself by writing a horror book series, which he started by accident. "I'm very proud of the millions of kids I have scared over the years and proud that millions of kids were encouraged to read because of my books," Stine told IANS in an email interview.

Born as Robert Lawrence Stine, he started writing when he was 9 and has been penning down his creative thoughts since then. Back in the early 1990s, he resisted the idea of writing Goosebumps, which is now one of the best-selling children's series of all-time, because he already had "Fear Street", a horror book series for adults, to his credit.