it’s shining again: Danny Torrance grew up... so did his demons

A raging Jack Nicholson chopping through the door and thrusting his head in while a terrified Shelley Duvall screams on the other side — the poster of the 1980 movie based on Stephen King’s The Shining is unforgettable. And now the King of Horror is back to scare us some more with a sequel to the 1977 novel, to be released on September 24.

Titled Doctor Sleep, the story moves on from the year at Overlook that left five-year-old Danny Torrance (Jack’s son) with a dead father and the knowledge of his pre-cognitive gift — a shining, that enables him to see non-living souls.

A 15-second teaser for the book (www.stephenking.com /promo/doctor_sleep/) released recently shows the familiar writing of ‘REDRUM’ in lipstick on the bathroom mirror — a good enough premonition of what to expect. The evils of the Native American burial ground on which the Overlook was built in Book 1 finds its way into the sequel too, only this time it is an entire tribe called The True Knot.

Danny moves about for decades fighting off an alcoholic and violent nature inherited from his father, before settling down in New Hampshire and getting a job at a nursing home where his remnant shining helps soothe the dying and earns him the name “Doctor Sleep”. He comes across the brightest shining ever in 12-year-old Abra Stone and soon they both realise that The True Knot are not just an old harmless tribe but partially immortal people who sustain themselves on the “steam” generated by the children with the shining as they are slowly tortured to death.

Published by Scribner, Bookworm is slightly worried, for there is no news yet on when we in India will get our hands on the book.

red hot: Have you met this geeky little red dude yet? He’s Red Turtle, the brand ambassador for Rupa’s children’s imprint. Bookworm can’t get enough of this little fellow’s antics on his website (www.redturtlebooks.com/) .

Celebrating its 75th year in 2013, Rupa Publications has launched the children’s imprint with authors like Ruskin Bond, Paro Anand, Gulzar, Musharraf Ali Farooqi and Derek O’Brien on board.

Red Turtle is also conducting a Young Author’s Hunt for 8 to 15-year olds. Winners will not only get a chance to see their stories in print but also win a Kindle e-book reader. It’s time to do the “write” thing, kids!

bank on me: Speaking of mascots, the black-and-white bird is “banking” on some racy reads this year. That’s because Penguin India has just signed up corporate thriller Ravi Subramanian for a multi-book deal. Known for bestsellers like The Bankster, The Incredible Banker and If God was a Banker, Ravi’s books have sold over half-a-million copies.

His new book will be published by Penguin India later this year, set in Mumbai, Coimbatore and Boston. The story is based in one of the world’s best universities, where Cirisha Naraynan, a high-flying professor, stumbles upon a cryptic message. Aditya Raisinghania, her banker husband, sets up one of the most innovative financial scams in India. Her father harvests Australia’s largest bird — the Emu — in India. In the midst of all this, the American elections are on and the debate on gun control has reached firing point.