It’s the birthday of R.L. Stine (b. 1943), whose horror books for children have sold more than 400 million copies, landing him on all those bestselling-authors-of-all-time lists. He’s perhaps best known for his Goosebumps series, which my husband hates, and my husband is from Columbus, Ohio, which is why I find it ironic that…

…Stine was born Robert Lawrence Stine in Columbus, Ohio, the oldest of three children. At nine, he found a typewriter in the attic, took it to his room, and started writing stories. While studying at The Ohio State University, he edited the school’s humor magazine, The Sundial, for three years. He graduated in 1965, taught junior high for a year, and went to New York City, where he was an editor for Scholastic Books; he worked on the kids’ humor magazine Bananas. In fact, he wrote more than 40 humor books for kids before transitioning to horror with his novel Blind Date (1986). To quote his web site: “I told myself, Forget the funny stuff. Kids like to be scared!” He began his Fear Street series for kids with The New Girl (1989); it was the bestselling YA series in history. His next series, Goosebumps, launched with Welcome to Dead House (1992) and was adapted for television, becoming the number one kids’ program for several years running. Many more series followed and a couple of short story collections, including The Haunting Hour, which was adapted for television and won three Emmys. He also wrote several novels for adults, including most recently Red Rain (2012).

The Goosebumps Movie came out in 2015 and featured Jack Black as R.L. Stine. The sequel, Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween, will be in theaters in literally FOUR DAYS (October 12). Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha. (I’m sorry, I’ve just got nothing today. Do you ever just, I don’t know, just not feel like making snarky remarks? That’s me, today.)

Stine’s grandson, Dylan, was born in 2014, and this inspired Stine’s first picture book, Little Shop of Monsters (2015), illustrated by Marc Brown of Arthur fame. Isn’t that sweet? I mean, it really is. I got nothing. For more sweetness, go to the About tab at rlstine.com, scroll down to 2014 on the timeline, and you’ll see the sweetest picture of Stine and his wife holding their grandson.

Have a sweet Columbus Day and stay scrupulously honest to the data.