Prolific author R.L. Stine is celebrating Halloween a little early this year by publishing his latest story entirely on Twitter.
Stine, who has introduced entire generations of children to the horror genre, recently resurrected his "Fear Street" series with the new book "Party Games," thanks in large part to a Twitter campaign that went viral.
On Tuesday night, the social network became the home of his latest work, distributed in "chapters" of 140 characters or less:
I am going to try to write a story live on Twitter now. The story is called "What's In My Sandwich?"...
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) October 29, 2014
People call me a loser, but that's going to change. I was in a little diner downtown and I ordered an egg salad sandwich…
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) October 29, 2014
..I was about to bite down on it when I noticed something moving in the egg salad. Was I imagining it? No…
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) October 29, 2014
..I saw a hairy, three-fingered claw push a clump of egg out of the way. I saw two round black eyes. A fur-covered face…
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) October 29, 2014
..The creature poked out of the sandwich, sending egg salad tumbling onto the plate. It was the size of a fat beetle…
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) October 29, 2014
..But it wasn't an insect. It had a furry head and eyes that peered into mine. Before I could react, a second creature poked out…
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) October 29, 2014
..And then a third. My sandwich was infested. My stomach lurched. "Is everything okay?" the waitress asked…
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) October 29, 2014
.."Yes. Fine," I said. "Could you wrap this sandwich to go?" Finding hairy things in your sandwich is gross…
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) October 29, 2014
..But I knew this sandwich would make me a winner. The sandwich would turn my life around…
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) October 29, 2014
..Discovering a new life form had to make me rich. I carried the sandwich home carefully and set it on a table…
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) October 29, 2014
..I didn't hear my son Willy come home. When I finally saw him, he had egg salad on his face…
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) October 29, 2014
..Yes, he ate the sandwich. If only I could have stopped him. Now the creatures are biting holes in his stomach…
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) October 29, 2014
..They are biting holes in Willy from the inside, poking their furry heads out of his stomach, chewing his flesh…
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) October 29, 2014
..Okay. A minor setback. But I'm not giving up. Willy is screaming in agony. The poor guy is terrified…
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) October 29, 2014
..I'm so excited. Where is my camera? Willy is going to make me rich. ##
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) October 29, 2014
There you have it, a mini R.L. Stine masterpiece, delivered in 15 tweets (including the title).
Stine has had some practice doing this. In February 2012, he tweeted the story of a haunted kitchen. And on Halloween that same year, Stine tweeted a spooky story complete with instructions on how it should be read aloud.
On Thursday, Stine will be taking over Scholastic's social media accounts to chat with fans via Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and more.
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