Anyone who follows the world of Game of Thrones closely knows that it has been 13 years since George R.R. Martin published the last book in what was supposed to be a seven-book series, A Dance with Dragons. Fans have been eagerly waiting for Martin to publish the sixth book, The Winds of Winter, and Martin himself has pushed the timetable for publication back over and over again.
Now, Martin has offered an update on the novel that is both encouraging and a little disappointing. On his Not a Blog page, he announced that he had written new pages for both The Winds of Winter and Blood & Fire, his latest anthology book. At the same time, though, Martin admitted that he was disappointed that he hadn’t done more.
“Writing came hard, and though I did produce some new pages on both The Winds of Winter (yes) and Blood & Fire (the sequel to Fire & Blood the second part of my Targaryen history), I would have liked to turn out a lot more,” he wrote.
Martin added that the reason for the delays was mostly related to his various TV commitments, which include Game of Thrones spin-offs like A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms as well as other projects outside of his signature universe.
Martin didn’t offer any indication of when the novel may actually be released, but fans have grown accustomed to sporadic updates, and many have resigned themselves to the fact that the next novel may never come out at all. What’s clear, though, is that many fans wish he would spend more time writing it and less time worried about season 2 of House of the Dragon.