George R.R. Martin gave fans another update on his long-awaited next installment in the “Song of Ice and Fire” novel series.
“I’ve seen some truly weird reports about [‘Winds of Winter’] on the internet of late, by ‘journalists’ who make their stories up out of whole cloth,” Martin wrote on his Livejournal. “I don’t know which story is more absurd, the one that says the book is finished and I’ve been sitting on it for some nefarious reason, or the one that says I have no pages. Both ‘reports’ are equally false and equally moronic. I am still working on it, I am still months away (how many? good question), I still have good days and bad days, and that’s all I care to say.”
Martin also said that he is working on a two-volume history of Westeros’ history under the Targaryen dynasty, which is currently titled “Fire and Blood,” with most of the book already “largely written.”
“Whether WINDS or the first volume of FIRE AND BLOOD will be the first to hit the bookstores is hard to say at this juncture, but I do think you will have a Westeros book from me in 2018… and who knows, maybe two. A boy can dream,” he said. He cautioned fans by saying that no publication date has been set for “Fire and Blood” at this point, though he expects volume one to be published in 2018 or early 2019.
Fans have been waiting for “Winds of Winter” since the publication of “A Dance with Dragons” in 2011. Even if the new book is published in 2018, it will still be the longest gap between publications of any novels in the series. The novels serve as the basis for the hit HBO show “Game of Thrones,” with each season roughly corresponding to each novel. However, the show has now surpassed the storyline in the books and will more than likely conclude before Martin publishes what is planned to be the seventh and final novel in the series.
