We got our first look at the trailer for Season 5 of Game of Thrones today, so I guess this is as good a time as any to ask…
Hey, George R.R. Martin and/or George R.R. Martin’s publisher at HarperCollins, Jane Johnson… got any updates on when that next book in the series Game of Thrones is based on, A Song of Fire and Ice, is hitting shelves? Sometime this year, maybe?
[Martin’s publisher at HarperCollins, Jane] Johnson confirmed that The Winds of Winter, the next novel in the series that has been filmed by HBO as A Game of Thrones, is not in this year’s schedule. “I have no information on likely delivery,” she said. “These are increasingly complex books and require immense amounts of concentration to write. Fans really ought to appreciate that the length of these monsters is equivalent to two or three novels by other writers.” [Guardian]
Frick. Although “not in this year’s schedule” and “no information on likely delivery” are a lot different than “it will not be released in 2015,” so hope lives on, I suppose, at least until George R.R. Martin decapitates it at its own wedding.
Anyway, Martin touched on some of this himself in a blog post from December, back when diehard fans started playing Tarot card reader around the holidays.
A few weeks ago, Raya came to me and said the folks at Random House wanted to do a special promotion on Twitter, a “Twelve Days of Christmas” with a Westerosi twist. Did they have the green light? It sounded fun, and funny, so I said sure, and thought no more of it. It was just a little Christmas celebration.
But then, somehow, from somewhere, the rumor arose that the “12 Days” were actually a countdown… not to Xmas, but to the publication of THE WINDS OF WINTER, or the announcement of its completion and/ or pub date.
Sorry. Not true. Look, I’ve said before, and I will say again, I don’t play games with news about the books. I know how many people are waiting, how long they have been waiting, how anxious they are. I am still working on WINDS. When it’s done, I will announce it here. There won’t be any clues to decipher, any codes or hidden meanings, the announcement will be straightforward and to the point. I won’t time it to coincide with Xmas or Valentine’s Day or Lincoln’s Birthday, the book will not rise from the dead with Jesus on Easter Sunday. When it is done, I will say that’s it is done, on whatever day I happen to finish.
I don’t know how I can make it any clearer.
“Right. We hear you. But is it done, though?” replied thousands of pushy fans.
