George R.R. Martin Basically Gave His Winds of Winter Update

Surprise! The Winds of Winter is not done. George R.R. Martin didn’t even write a fresh LiveJournal post about it; he simply replied to a comment instead.

Last week, the Internet had a relatively civil discussion about whether or not George R.R. Martin absolutely had to update all of his many fans about whether or not he’d finished The Winds of Winter. (Yours truly came down on the side of “no”, for the record.) Apparently, GRRM himself leans towards that side as well, as evidenced by his latest update. Before you speed over to that now-infamous LiveJournal, just wait a moment. He just wrote a comment about it on his last post, which is about football.

A fan proposed that he effectively tell us about the production of the book, how long it might be, and all of that good stuff without actually putting any sort of release date on this purported update. Here’s GRRM’s response, in full:

"“If you think a “tell all” or update on WINDS OF WINTER would stop fans from asking about it… well, I love your optimism, but my own decades of experience suggest otherwise.There are only two things that will stop people asking me about WOW:(1) my finishing and delivering the book, or (2) a giant asteroid hitting the Earth and destroying human civilization.As I have no control over (2), I am working on (1).However, I know perfectly well that the moment I announce the completion and delivery of THE WINDS OF WINTER, I will start to get emails demanding to know how A DREAM OF SPRING is coming.So it goes…”"

It’s tough not to read a note or two of resignation in there. Now, it’s easy to argue that GRRM may very well have brought this on himself a little bit. He had quite some time to release The Winds of Winter before Game of Thrones beat him to it in the form of Season 6, and he missed that goal. It’s entirely possible that we’ll see Season 7 before he even finishes Winds.

At the same time, though, we wonder if it would be possible for fans to just leave GRRM alone for a little while. Let the man mourn over the Green Bay Packers stomping all over the New York Giants in yesterday’s wild card NFL playoff game and write a little if he feels like it.

Next: Review: Nine of Stars, Laura Bickle

The Winds of Winter will arrive eventually.