Kids always ask me: "Where do you getyour ideas?" That's my most-asked question. And, of course, I don’t knowhow to answer it. Who knows where ideas come from? Sometimes you have to thinkfor hours to get a good story idea-- and sometimes it just pops into your mind。

　　孩子们总是问我：“你的灵感是从哪里来的？”这是我最常被问到的问题。但是我真的不知道该如何回答，谁会知道自己的灵感是从哪里来的呢？有时候你可能需要很长的时间去构思一个故事，可有的时候只是脑子里灵光一现。

　　I get a lot of good ideas when I'm walkingmy dog in the park. One day, I was walking the dog and I got an idea for a verystrange story. I pictured a father and his two kids. The father takes off hiscap-- and instead of hair growing out of his head, he is sprouting LEAVES. Thekids are horrified when they see that their father is slowly turning into aPLANT!

　　我在公园里遛狗的时候经常会想到很好的故事构思。有一天，我正在遛狗，突然就想到了一个很奇怪的故事，一个父亲和他的两个孩子，父亲摘掉自己头上的帽子，他头上不是头发，而是正在发芽的树叶，然后就在两个孩子的面前，这位父亲慢慢的变成了一棵树。

　　Where did this come from? I don’t know. Itjust flashed into my mind. And it became the second Goosebumps book-- Stay Out of the Basement。

　　你说这个构思是从哪里来的呢？我也不知道，只是我脑海中的灵光一现，这就是鸡皮疙瘩系列的第二本书，地下室。

　　Kids everywhere are fascinated by puppetsand dummies. I'm not sure why, but everyone finds the idea of a puppet comingto life very frightening. My most popular villain is a ventriloquist dummynamed Slappy. The dummy walks and talks and bites kids' ears, and insultseverybody, and spews a putrid, green liquid from its mouth. Kids love it. I'vewritten four or five books about Slappy, including Goosebumps HorrorLand numberone-- Revenge of the Living Dummy, the first book in my new series。

　　孩子们永远都着迷于玩偶、模型之类的东西，我不知道为什么，但是每个人都知道那些关于生活中出现的玩偶的构思是很刺激的，我的作品中最受欢迎的一个反面人物是一个会口技的玩偶，名字叫做“啪啪”，啪啪会说话会走路，专咬小孩子的耳朵，他讨厌所有人，还总是从口中吐一些黏糊糊的绿色的液体，孩子们喜欢他。我写了四五本关于啪啪的故事，包括鸡皮疙瘩惊险系列的第一本，活灵偶复仇记，我的新系列的第一本。

　　One day when my son Matt was seven or eightyears old, I watched him trying on a Halloween mask. It was a green rubberFrankenstein mask. Matt pulled it down over his head-- and then he couldn't getit off. He tugged and tugged, but it was stuck to his face!

　　在我的儿子马特七八岁的时候，有一天，我看到他正在试戴万圣节的面具，那是一个绿色胶质的怪物弗兰克斯坦的面具，马特把这个面具从脸上拉下来的时候，他被绊住了，他拉呀拉，但是面具却黏在了他的脸上！

　　I thought: What a great idea for a story!Matt's little problem gave me the idea for what became one of the most popularGoosebumps books-- The Haunted Mask. It's about a girl at Halloween time whotries on an ugly, green mask. The mask is haunted. It sticks to her face. It meltsonto her skin. And it starts to change her, to turn her evil! She's trappedinside it!

　　这是一个多棒的故事创意啊！当时我应该马上去帮助马特，对吧？但是那一天，我不是个好父亲。马特的小麻烦给了我很好的创意，也成就了鸡皮疙瘩系列中非常受欢迎的一本书——面具惊魂。这是关于一个小女孩儿在好莱坞的故事，小女孩试戴了一个绿色的面具，结果面具黏在了她的脸上，融进了她的皮肤里，从此她的生活开始改变，她开始被面具控制，从而走向了邪恶之路。

　　So, where do these ideas come from? Ialways tell kids they come from everywhere-- your imagination, your memory,things you see happen right in front of you, things you read about, andsometimes they just pop into your mind when you're not even trying!

　　所以你看，灵感来自于哪里呢？我经常告诉孩子，灵感无处不在，你的想象，你的记忆，发生在你眼前的事，你读到的故事，还有突然蹦进你脑海里的想法。

　　Now, I'm so proud that my stories will alsobe enjoyed by Chinese readers. I'm so grateful to my publishers here-- my newfriends at the Jieli Publishing House-- for bringing out these new editions ofGoosebumps and Goosebumps HorrorLand。

　　现在，我很自豪中国小读者也喜欢我的作品，在这里我很感激我的中国出版社-接力出版社的朋友们能够把鸡皮疙瘩升级版以及接下来的鸡皮疙瘩惊险系列带给中国的读者。

　　And thank you all so much for coming to mytalk today. I know you must have some questions for me, and I'm very eager to hearthem. Thank you!

　　也谢谢在座的各位能够来到这里听我的演讲，我知道你们肯定有问题想问我，我很喜带你们的提问，谢谢大家！

(编辑：陈辉)

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