This is a story I've been anxiously waiting to read, and it's finally was announced and is being written! Back in November of 2009 it was announced that Stephen King was planning a sequel to his incredibly terrifying novel The Shining. Today that sequel was officially announced and the title of the book will be Dr. Sleep... and it involves vampires, but not the kind of vampires you are expecting... this is pretty freakin' cool read on for the details.

It’s now official–Stephen is working on Dr. Sleep, the sequel to The Shining. This weekend Steve read an excerpt from this at his appearance at George Mason University. They have given us permission to post their taping of the event here on Steve’s site which we will do as soon as we receive the file. Dr. Sleep’s plot includes a traveling group of vampires called The Tribe which is part of the passage he read from.

You will find the clip of the reading below. We previously reported that the story would focus on what happened to Danny Torrance, after they crazy winter vacation he had up at the Overlook Hotel. "The last time readers saw Danny he was recovering from his ordeal at the Overlook Hotel at a resort in Maine with fellow survivors Wendy Torrance and chef Dick Halloran (who dies in the Kubrick film version). King remarked that though he ended his 1977 novel on a positive note, the Overlook was bound to have left young Danny with a lifetime’s worth of emotional scars. What Danny made of those traumatic experiences, and with the psychic powers that saved him from his father at the Overlook, is a question that King believes might make a damn fine sequel. In King’s still tentative plan for the novel, Danny is now 40 years old and living in upstate New York, where he works as the equivalent of an orderly at a hospice for the terminally ill. Danny’s real job is to visit with patients who are just about to pass on to the other side, and to help them make that journey with the aid of his mysterious powers. Danny also has a sideline in betting on the horses, a trick he learned from his buddy Dick Hallorann."

Here’s a bit of what King had to say about the new novel, while appearing at GMU. If you're fan of King like I am I think you're going to love what he is doing with this story.

This is an idea that I’ve had for some time. I wrote a novel in the ’70s called The shining… I always wondered what happened to that kid, Danny Torrance, when he grew up… and this story started to form. The book isn’t finished yet, it’s called Dr. Sleep. This kinda goes back to... what’s the worst thing you can think of? I knew that there were bad people in this story that were like vampires, only that what they sucked out was not blood, but psychic energy from special people like Danny Torrance. And I came to realize that these people were called The Tribe and that they move around a lot. Their leader is a woman called Rose [unintelligible] they all have these kinda pirate names, because pirates is sort of what they are.

Watch and listen to King below ans he talks about the book and reads part of whats he's written so far. Check it out below and let us know what you think about this new story!