George R.R. Martin, has apologised to Game of Thrones fans after he revealed on a blog post that the The Winds of Winter is not finished and will not be for some time, meaning for the first time the storyline of the HBO television series will move ahead of the book series.
“The Winds of Winter is not finished,” said Martin.
“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. … But there’s also a lot still left to write. I am months away still… and that’s if the writing goes well.”
Martin had set himself a deadline for Halloween, and then the end of 2015 for the next book in the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series.
“Look, I have always had problems with deadlines. For whatever reason, I don’t respond well to them.”
“I’ve now blown the end of the year deadline. And that almost certainly means that no, The Winds Of Winter will not be published before the sixth season of Game Of Thrones premieres in April (mid April, we are now told, not early April, but those two weeks will not save me).”
“You can blame my travels or my blog posts or the distractions of other projects and the Cocteau and whatever, but maybe all that had an impact… you can blame my age, and maybe that had an impact too…but if truth be told, sometimes the writing goes well and sometimes it doesn’t, and that was true for me even when I was in my 20s.”
Martin has one clear message for disappointed fans.
“Enjoy the show. Enjoy the books. Meanwhile, I’ll keep writing. Chapter at a time. Page at a time. Word at a time. That’s all I know how to do.”
For those worried about book spoilers in the HBO Television adaption sixth season Martin has responded with “yes and no”.
“Inevitably, there will be certain plot twists and reveals in season six of Game of Thrones that have not yet happened in the books. For years my readers have been ahead of the viewers. This year, for some things, the reverse will be true.”