It seems that Stephen King has been hard at work on a sequel to his epic 1977 tome of supernatural terror The Shining (which was made into a classic horror film in 1980 by Stanley Kubrick starring Jack Nicholson in one of his most iconic performances) called Doctor Sleep. Last Friday King appeared at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA, to accept the Mason Award at the school’s Fall for the Book event and during his appearance he entertained his audience by reading a chapter from the forthcoming novel. You can watch a video of the reading here below.

The plot of Doctor Sleep follows Danny Torrance more than three decades after the horrors he and his mother Wendy faced at the Overlook Hotel (the most frightening of which was seeing his father Jack go slowly insane and try to murder them). Now in his 40s and working as an orderly at a hospice, Danny uses his psychic powers (called “shining” by the Overlook’s head chef Dick Hallorann) to help terminally ill patients pass away peacefully, but he finds himself in for an even greater battle than the one he faced as a child when he encounters a gang of psychic vampires who gain their power by feeding off the energy of their victims.

Three days after King gave the reading at George Mason, the author’s official website confirmed that he was at work on the novel. Almost two years ago King polled his readers as to which book he should write next — Doctor Sleep or the next book in the Dark Tower series, tentatively titled The Wind Through the Keyhole. Doctor Sleep won by 49 votes.

As of now Doctor Sleep does not have a target release date.

Video

[Source: Lilja's Library via io9 ]