Fans that have been waiting for over 30 years for Stephen King to reveal what happened to Danny Torrance in "The Shining" have some relief today. King announced on his website Sept. 18 that the sequel to his hugely-successful novel he's been talking about since 2009 now has a release date: Sept.24, 2013.

King's third novel, "The Shining" tells the story of the Torrance family, who move to the Overlook Hotel in the Colorado Mountains where father Jack takes a job as caretaker over one long winter. Jack Torrance becomes possessed by the evil spirits in the hotel, and attacks his family, but Danny - whose psychic abilities have strengthened the hotel's ghosts - and his mother Wendy eventually escape.

Many, many novels, and years later, King's "Doctor Sleep" will take up the story of a middle-aged Dan Torrance, a man who has "been drifting for decades, desperate to shed his father's legacy of despair, alcoholism, and violence", according to the synopsis released by King's UK publisher, Hodder & Stoughton.

Haunted by the inhabitants of the Overlook Hotel where he spent one horrific childhood year, Dan has been drifting for decades, desperate to shed his father's legacy of despair, alcoholism, and violence. Finally, he settles in a New Hampshire town, finds an AA community that sustains him, and a job at a nursing home where his remnant "shining" power provides the crucial final comfort to the dying. Aided by a prescient cat, he becomes "Doctor Sleep."

Dan Torrance comes into contact with a 12-year-old girl, Abra Stone, whose shining is "the brightest ever seen," and must fight a terrifying tribe of quasi-immortal beings known as "The True Knot." The group looks harmless, but on highways across America, The True Knot travel in search of sustenance. They live off the "steam" which children with the "shining" produce when they are slowly tortured to death. Stone's spectacular gift reignites Dan's own demons and summons him to a battle for Abra's soul and survival.

King debuted a chapter of the novel to fans at a reading last year. Speaking of The True Knot he said, "they don't like dogs and dogs don't like them ... You might say dogs see through them - to the sharp and watchful eyes behind the cut-rate sunglasses, to the strong and long muscled hunters' legs beneath the polyester slacks from Wal-Mart, to the sharp teeth beneath the dentures waiting to come out. They don't like dogs, but they like sick children. Yes, they like sick children very much."

Stephen King was born in Portland, Maine in 1947, the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. He made his first professional short story sale in 1967 to Startling Mystery Stories. In the fall of 1973, he began teaching high school English classes at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels. In the spring of 1973, Doubleday & Co., accepted the novel "Carrie" for publication, providing him the means to leave teaching and write full-time. He has since published over 50 books and has become one of the world's most successful writers.

King's publisher says "Doctor Sleep" is "an epic war between good and evil, a gory, glorious story that will thrill the millions of hyper-devoted readers of The Shining and wildly satisfy anyone new to the territory of this icon in the King canon".