The coronavirus pandemic may have brought a lot of things to a halt this year, but not for the Game of Thrones writer George R.R. Martin who has confirmed to fans that he’s ‘moving ahead’ with the next instalment: Winds of Winter.
Yes, the 71-year-old has locked himself away once again to complete the new novel, after setting himself the deadline of July 29, 2020.
And with many places still closed to help stall the spread of Covid-19, when else would there be a better time for the saga’s creator to hunker down and power on through the next chapter?
Taking to his blog, the writer has provided us all with an update on his life, which he has called ‘very boring’ since the lockdown measures were put in place.
‘I am back in my fortress of solitude again, my isolated mountain cabin,’ he explained when setting the tone for the rest of the upload. ‘I’d returned to Santa Fe for a short visit, to spend some time with Paris, deal with some local business that had piled up during my months away, and of course fulfil my duties to CoNZealand, the virtual worldcon.’
The star continued: ‘But all that is behind me now, and I am back on the mountain again… Which means I am back in Westeros again, once more moving ahead with Winds of Winter.
‘I sleep. The next day, I wake up, and do the same. The next day, the next day, the next day. Before Covid, I would usually get out once a week or so to eat at a restaurant or go to the movies. That all ended in March.’
George went on to say how he barely interacts with other people and rarely leaves his cabin unless he goes to speak with whoever is on duty.
‘I lose track of what day it is, what week it is, what month it is,’ he stated. ‘The time seems to go by very fast. It is now August, and I don’t know what happened to July.
‘But it is good for the writing.’
This isn’t the first update George has given his fans throughout the past few months, as back in June he revealed he’d been making ‘steady progress’ on the sixth book in the A Song Ice And Fire series.
‘I finished a new chapter yesterday, another one three days ago, another one the previous week,’ he shared when reassuring us that things were well underway – you know, after spending 10 whole years on the project.
‘But no, this does not mean that the book will be finished tomorrow or published next week,’ he went on. ‘It’s going to be a huge book, and I still have a long way to go.’
Until then, we have the spin-off show House of the Dragon to look forward too – although George has said he won’t be picking up any scripts until he has ‘finished and delivered’ Winds of Winter.
We guess it’s just a waiting game.
Game of Thrones is available to stream on NOW TV.
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