HorrorLand stories contain lots of unexpected laughs

If you were one of the most popular writers of horror stories for kids, what would give you goosebumps?

How about running out of ideas?

"Oh, don't say it!" author R.L. Stine begs.

Although he's spent more than 20 years writing for kids and teens, Stine isn't finished yet.

The newest addition to his Goosebumps lineup is HorrorLand, a series of 12 books with two stories in each. One story features familiar Goosebumps characters; the other puts those characters in HorrorLand, a freaky new theme park.

Here's the really cool part: The second story in each book is ongoing and won't conclude until Book 12.

The first two HorrorLand books -- "Revenge of the Living Dummy" and "Creep From the Deep" -- came out this month. The rest will follow at two books per month.

As a scary theme park, HorrorLand lacks for nothing, including zombies and frozen eyeballs on a stick. Yum!

To create this creepy place, Stine drew from his own experience with amusement parks.

"I love theme parks," he says in a phone interview. "I would like to live at Disney World."

After visiting the Florida theme park many times, Stine had a fairly good idea of what he wanted in his park. Before he even began writing, he drew a map of HorrorLand and made detailed notes.

Kids often ask Stine how he deals with writer's block, a condition in which authors can't think of anything creative to write. He tells them that preparing before writing -- by making maps and detailed outlines, for example -- is one way to start.

With more than 300 books to his name, Stine says there is no formula for writing a good story, but some themes are common. As with his other books, HorrorLand stories contain lots of unexpected laughs.

"I think there is a very close connection between humor and horror," he says. "That's why there is so much of both" in my stories.

Another common theme in his books is kids triumphing over evil -- without their parents.

"Parents are useless," Stine says. "Either they don't believe the kids or they aren't any help."

His stories "are all about normal kids facing horrible, frightening problems" and "using their own wit and ... imagination" to figure things out.