An Afternoon With Horror Writers Justin Cronin and R.L. Stine

This weekend I went to the Central Free Library in my lovely city of Philadelphia to see the author Justin Cronin as he is touring to promote his book The Twelve. The library set it up so that he would be addressing the audience along with infamous child horror author R.L. Stine. Honestly, I was only going for Cronin because my Goosebumps days were behind me but it turned out to be an extremely interesting mix. What was toted as a horrifying discussion became something funny.

Cronin started the event by addressing his love for Philadelphia before reading to an eager crowd. He told the audience about how his daughter (who was 8 years old at the time) was the one to push him to write something scary and have a girl be the one to save the world. Now that is some awesome father-daughter bonding time.

Cronin also informed the audience that when he researches, he researches to the fullest extent. His dentist taught him how to shoot, a former student helped him write a military order, and social media gained him information on a certain type of aircraft. To top off his great connection with his fans, he promised a Christmas card to the first person to ask him a question during the Q & A! For a man that has written chilling post-apocalyptic novels, he is one charming and sweet man.

When it was Stine’s turn at the podium to discuss his adult book Red Rain, he discussed how he never really planned on becoming a horror writer. He loved telling jokes, which I think is evident in his pick of villains for the Goosebumps books (I mean honestly, there was an evil sponge!). But one day he was asked to write a scary book for young adults and the rest of his career took off.

Stine told the audience that he never researched until Red Rain where he found countless creepy myths about twins, which formed his novel. Seriously, look up twins on Google. There are some weird legends. But his main motivation for writing the novel was that he wanted to appease his fans that grew up on the books that terrified them.

Both authors are reachable on Twitter @jcronin / @RL_Stine and love hearing from their fans. So send them a tweet (if you’re not too scared) after reading their novels!