Many latter Stephen King novels have noticeably, mostly pleasantly eschewed all-out horror in favor of directions like romance, impenetrable domes amplifying small-town politicking and neighbor-murdering, and time-traveling adventures in getting JFK un-assassinated. Now King is pressing pause on all that messing about, at least for a moment. “He’s writing a book called Joyland, about an amusement park serial killer,†author Neil Gaiman almost offhandedly notes in an amusing profile in the U.K.’s Sunday Times (transcript here). With so much semi-prestigious (or at least unusual) showbiz goodwill amassing around King lately — Ron Howard’s crazy ambitious plans for The Dark Tower, Ben Affleck’s potential trilogy adaptation of The Stand, John Mellencamp’s King-written stage musical, Showtime and Brian K. Vaughan’s Under the Dome miniseries, Jonathan Demme snagging the rights to 11/22/63, theatrical and Hollywood resurrections of Carrie — we could all use at least one more schlocky horror film based on a bloody work straight out of King’s wheelhouse. (And King’s Shining sequel Doctor Sleep, due in 2013, may even beat Joyland’s return to the murder-y roots.)