By Brian De Los Santos, Mashable, SouthFloridaReporter.com, Jan. 3, 2016 – Blame Jon Snow.
Maybe it’s because of that nephew’s wedding, or maybe it’s because of distractions from other projects. But whatever the case, Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin wants you to know that his latest novel The Winds of Winter is — still — not finished, and he penned all his reasons in a remorseful 1,800-word blog post on Saturday.
That means Martin has missed yet another key deadline (the original deadline was on Halloween) that would have allowed for his latest novel to be published prior to HBO airing the sixth season of Game of Thrones in April. So, put shortly, the captivating, blood-drenched fantasy drama will air prior to its source material being available on bookshelves.
But, let Martin explain:
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.
So actually it could be some time before The Winds of Winter will be available. You can chalk that up to a variety of potential reasons, one being that Martin has never been great with deadlines, dating back all the way to his days at Northwestern University, he says.
If you’re the type of GoT fan who loves to be caught up with the novels prior to watching heads roll in Westeros on TV, Season 6 might be a bit of a struggle. But don’t worry, Martin did leave fans with one assurance in his grand, sprawling blog post.
“WINDS OF WINTER should be pretty good too, when it comes out,” he wrote.
Or shall we say, “if” it comes out. Let’s hope, George. Let’s hope.
