George RR Martin

George R. R. Martin, creator of worlds and professional grumpy pants, took to his Livejournal June 10 to try and plead for some sanity regarding the fan reactions over the last couple Game of Thrones episodes that aired this season on HBO.

In his huffiest tone, Martin tries to explain that he only can control his books and to please stop trying to get him to change things in the show.

Meanwhile, other wars are breaking out on other fronts, centered around the last few episodes of GAME OF THRONES. It is not my intention to get involved in those, nor to allow them to take over my blog and website, so please stop emailing me about them, or posting off-topic comments here on my Not A Blog. Wage those battles on Westeros, or Tower of the Hand, or Boiled Leather, or Winter Is Coming, or Watchers on the Walls. Anyplace that isn't here, actually.

Yes, I know that THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER named me "the third most powerful writer in Hollywood" last December. You would be surprised at how little that means. I cannot control what anyone else says or does, or make them stop saying or doing it, be it on the fannish or professional fronts. What I can control is what happens in my books, so I am going to return to that chapter I've been writing on THE WINDS OF WINTER now, thank you very much.

If you're not caught up on the show, we won't spoil anything for you, but let's just say that some serious sh*t has gone down which was not included in Martin's writings. People got mad about it.

With the season 5 finale airing on June 14, we can only guess whether the send off will mollify or further infuriate the fan base. Either way, you should probably leave Martin alone. If only to give him time to finish theses damn books already.

Conan O'brien is on a post-Comic Con streak, here. Especially since he was able to gain access to George R. R. Martin's home camera system. 

And lo, we all learn what keeps Mr. Martin busy while his characters remain in some sort of literary limbo.

Beware: Contains Game of Thrones season 4 spoilers.

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.

The sixth book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series that Game of Thrones is based off of still doesn't have a release date, but you can now get a small taste of what's to come. This chapter isn't exactly new, though. It was done years ago but has never been fully released until now. If you want to read it for yourself, click here. 

In an interview with EW, George RR Martin reveals his one regret with regards to A Song of Ice and Fire: not writing Winds of Winter sooner.  After having just finished A Dance With Dragons in 2011, Martin says he was writng Winds of Winter, and writing quickly, but he ran out of steam:

I was red hot on the book and I put it aside for six months.  I was so into it. I was pushing so hard that I was writing very well. I should have just gone on from there, because I was so into it and it was moving so fast then. But I didn’t because I had to switch gears into the editing phase and then the book tour. The iron does cool off, for me especially.

DON'T SAY THINGS LIKE THAT, GEORGE.  You'll only fuel my waiting-rage!

Martin is now concerned with getting the book out before season 6 of the show begins, though he hopes to be finished by the end of this year and has canceled convention appearances to give himself the time to do so.  He also teased that he's come up with an entirely new plot twist that he'd never considered before that would have a major effect on a character:

I’m still weighing whether to go that direction or not. It’s a great twist. 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. But it’s nothing I’ve ever thought of before. And it’s nothing they can do in the show, because the show has already—on this particular character—made a couple decisions that will preclude it, where in my case I have not made those decisions.

I've read all the books, and to be honest, I have no idea who he could be talking about, but consider me terrified.

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.