George RR Martin

Seriously though, how do you write so fast Stephen King? Go to 50:08 for the moment!

George RR Martin announced that he won't be attending San Diego Comic Con this year (as well as World Fantasy Con) because he's staying home to focus on writing Winds of Winter.  Hear that?  That's the sound of the bevy of "why isn't he writing?!" complaints you were going to hear during con season getting quashed in the background.  GRRM did add however, that if he finishes the novel before the con (ha!) he reserves the right to change his mind and attend afterall.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!

A new sample chapter for the next novel in the Game of Thrones series has been released, and it's from the perspective of Alayne.  In the books, we last left Alayne plotting to retake Winterfell with Petyr Baelish.  He intends to marry Alayne off to the next heir of the Eyrie, Harrold Hardyng, before revealing her true identity and retaking her birthright.  The chapter GRRM has released picks up with Harrold (Harry) arriving for a tournament designed to appoint a kingsguard for Lord Robert.

Here are the first few lines:

    She was reading her little lord a tale of the Winged Knight when Mya Stone came knocking on the door of his bedchamber, clad in boots and riding leathers and smelling strongly of the stable. Mya had straw in her hair and a scowl on her face. That scowl comes of having Mychel Redfort near, Alayne knew.

   “Your lordship,” Mya informed Lord Robert, “Lady Waynwood’s banners have been seen an hour down the road. She will be here soon, with your cousin Harry. Will you want to greet them?”

    Why did she have to mention Harry? Alayne thought. We will never get Sweetrobin out of bed now. The boy slapped a pillow. “Send them away. I never asked them here.”

    Mya looked nonplussed. No one in the Vale was better at handling a mule, but lordlings were another matter. “They were invited,” she said uncertainly, “for the tourney. I don’t… “

    Alayne closed her book.  “Thank you, Mya. Let me talk with Lord Robert, if you would.” Relief plain on her face, Mya fled without another word.

    “I hate that Harry,” Sweetrobin said when she was gone. “He calls me cousin, but he’s just waiting for me to die so he can take the Eyrie. He thinks I don’t know, but I do.

Martin's publisher, Random House, confirms that the account is indeed real. Here's to Martin having a new distraction to keep him from finishing his books!

In a recent long-winded, tell-all blog post the creator of Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin delivered some heavy felt news; we won't have our hands on the 'Winds of Winter' for some time now.

This means Martin's missed another crucial deadline, and perhaps almost worse, season six of the show will now air before it's original source material hits shelves.

Martin explains a bit on what's going on in the following excerpt from his 1800-word long blog post:

Believe me, it gave me no pleasure to type those words. You're disappointed, and you're not alone. My editors and publishers are disappointed, HBO is disappointed, my agents and foreign publishers and translators are disappointed... but no one could possibly be more disappointed than me. For months now I have wanted nothing so much as to be able to say, "I have completed and delivered THE WINDS OF WINTER" on or before the last day of 2015. But the book's not done. Nor is it likely to be finished tomorrow, or next week. Yes, there's a lot written. Hundreds of pages. Dozens of chapters. (Those 'no pages done' reports were insane, the usual garbage internet journalism that I have learned to despise). But there's also a lot still left to write. I am months away still... and that's if the writing goes well. (Sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn't.) Chapters still to write, of course... but also rewriting. I always do a lot of rewriting, sometimes just polishing, sometimes pretty major restructures.

Let's just keep our fingers crossed the unexpectedly long wait is worth it.