George R.R. Martin made a new blog post on Tuesday, updating fans on his writing progress for the first time in months. The author of the books behind HBO’s Game of Thrones gave some hints about what is coming next, though he urged fans to be patient, as he is not as far along as some think. Meanwhile, he assured them that work is still underway on the spinoff TV series House of the Dragon, despite the coronavirus pandemic.
Martin revealed that he is staying “in an actual cabin in the mountains” in order to avoid catching COVID-19, which he has done successfully so far. There, he said, he is “spending long hours every day on THE WINDS OF WINTER, and making steady progress.” However, Martin warned fans that he has “a long way to go” on the book, and they should not expect it to be on the shelves anytime soon. He mused that he simply cannot keep up the pace he had when writing the earlier volumes in the series.
Martin’s post was long and heartfelt, covering many of the author’s public speaking engagements, projects and his hobbies as well. He wrote at length about the coronavirus itself, which he is taking seriously. At the end, he turned to his TV commitments.
“Hollywood has slowed to a crawl thanks to the pandemic, but THE HOUSE OF THE DRAGON is still flying along wonderfully, thanks to Ryan Condal and his writers, and the tireless Ti Mikkel,” Martin wrote. House of the Dragon is a Game of Thrones spinoff coming to HBO, based on Martin’s fictional history Westerosi history book Fire & Blood. Condal is the showrunner on the series, while Mikkel is a member of the writing staff, and a former personal assistant of Martin’s.
House of the Dragon is in the early stages of development, and was not expected to air until 2022 even before the coronavirus delays began. That might actually be good news for the series, since writers can do most of their work from home without hindrance. The showrunner of Amazon Prime’s upcoming fantasy adaptation The Wheel of Time similarly told fans that work was continuing from home on that show.
Meanwhile, Martin confirmed that he is also still working in a producer capacity on another HBO fantasy adaption — Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor — and on a new TV version of his Wild Cards novels. He also has two movies in development: Sandkings, and The Ice Dragon — the latter of which is considered relevant to A Song of Ice and Fire, though it is not canonically in the same universe.
More than anything, however, Martin is working on The Winds of Winter, according to his post. After nearly a decade since the last book in the series was released, fans are anxious to get their hands on Winds, and Martin assures them he will deliver it soon. He ended his blog post with the ominous line: “Now you will have to excuse me. Arya is calling. I think she means to kill someone.”
