The master of horror has not one, but two new books coming out in 2018. Stephen King this week announced that after his new murder-centric novel — The Outsider — comes out in May, he’ll have another new book out in October called Elevation, but it doesn’t seem like it’s going to be a familiar King horror story. Instead, King’s latest will find characters battling something scarier than killer cars: homophobia.

On Tuesday, King quietly announced the impending release of a new novella called Elevation on his blog. The news. According to the synopsis, Elevation is “a timely, upbeat tale about finding common ground despite deep-rooted differences.” That’s right, even though this new King book will come out the day before Halloween, it’s not going to involve killer clowns, murders, or supernatural cars.

Instead, the story seems to center on characters in the town of Castle Rock figuring out how to get woke and accept that gay people live there, specifically a guy named Scott. As the synopsis reads “The people of Castle Rock want no part of a gay married couple, and the place is in trouble. When Scott finally understands the prejudices they face – including his own — he tries to help.”

For casual readers of King, it might some odd that the horror master is writing something like this. But, for longtime aficionados, King doing books that have more tender and socially relevant themes is nothing new. From The Green Mile to The Shawshank Redemption, King has told smaller, more heartfelt tales for decades.

Stephen King’s next book, The Outsider is out on May 22, 2018. His novella Elevation will be out on October 30, 2018. A new anthology TV series based on King’s stories, Castle Rock, will debut on Hulu this summer.