Despite fans' excitement, it seems like George R.R. Martin is not yet ready for a "Winds of Winter" release date.
In a recent report from Winter is Coming website, the highly acclaimed author seemed to have accepted the fact that the HBO series "Game of Thrones" is most likely going to move forward without "Winds of Winter."
"The show is moving forward like a locomotive, or sometimes a jet locomotive. They're writing 60-page scripts, I'm writing 1,500-page novels. So who the hell knows?" Martin said when asked at the Sasquan Sci-Fi Convention about "Game of Thrones" fast pace.
"There was a period where I was worried about that," he admittedly continued referring to the series and the way how his novel is taking long to process. "Then I said, to hell with that. Worrying about it isn't going to change it one way or another. I still sit down at the typewriter, and I have to write the next scene and the next sentence ... I'm just going to tell my story, and they're telling their story and adapting my books, and we shall see."
Could George R.R. Martin been hinting fans that "Winds of Winter" release date will be further delayed?
"I can write one script per season if I choose to, and I did for the first four seasons, I scripted one episode every season," he explained. "So the last two seasons I have not done that, simply because I am too busy with the book."
As opposed to "Game of Thrones," where there are a lot of writers and producers to make an episode, George R. R. Martin finds himself alone to finish his latest opus.
"There are a lot of people working on the TV show, a lot of very talented people. But I am the only one that can do the books," he added.
Moreover, George R.R. Martin tried to enlighten fans that despite the connection, the series and the novel are different things.
"You have to separate the two," he explained. "You have to realize they have similarities but they are two different mediums, they are two different versions of the same story."
However, despite the release date delay, Martin has promised that "Winds of Winter" will be packed with "great twists."
"This is going to drive your readers crazy but I love it. I'm still weighing whether to go that direction or not. It's a great twist," he said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.
The author continued saying, "It's easy to do things that are shocking or unexpected, but they have to grow out of characters. They have to grow out of situations."
"Otherwise, it's just being shocking for being shocking. But this is something that seems very organic and natural, and I could see how it would happen. And with the various three, four characters involved... it all makes sense."
