George R.R. Martin just offered a cryptic update on The Winds of Winter ... or did he?

Christian Holub
·3 min read
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George R.R. Martin just offered a cryptic update on The Winds of Winter ... or did he?
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Though most 2000s-era bloggers have since transitioned to newer social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, George R.R. Martin is still blogging... even though he never really meant to in the first place.

His web journal has long been called "Not a Blog," and in his latest update the Song of Ice and Fire author explained its journey from joke to reality: "What I had intended as a occasional pleasure and a way to stay in touch with my readers has become a Blog (ironically, at the same time as everyone else was abandoning their blogs for Facebook and Twitter), complete with a sense of obligation."

Martin continued, "And when a lot of stuff happens very fast, I fall further and further behind. I am hugely behind right now, and the prospect of trying to catch up is feeling increasingly oppressive."

Avid fans of Martin's series A Song of Ice and Fire probably perk up at those lines. Is this an update on the sixth book in the fantasy novel series, The Winds of Winter? Apparently... not? Nowhere in the blog post, in fact, does Martin mention his progress (or perhaps, lack thereof) on the long-awaited novel in the series that inspired HBO's Game of Thrones.

The last time we heard from Martin about The Winds of Winter was back in February, when he said he had been able to write "hundreds and hundreds of pages" of the novel while stuck inside during 2020. He also noted that he still had "hundreds more" pages to finish in 2021, and no longer wants to give specific deadlines or goals so that fans don't react badly if he misses them again.

Bantam

Martin has a lot of other stuff to deal with in the meantime. In the new post, Martin talks about positive updates in his other literary and TV work: "I have a new five-year deal with HBO, to create new GOT successor shows (and some non-related series, like Roadmarks) for both HBO and HBO Max." He's also fully vaccinated, so we can all breathe a sigh of relief about that. Unfortunately, Martin adds that "I have now lost six friends since November," including his long-time editor Kay McCauley. After more than a year of the COVID-19 pandemic, there's a lot of good news and bad news for everyone.

Even though Martin doesn't directly mention The Winds of Winter (perhaps because of his reluctance to give fans specific expectations, as he explained in February), the image at the top of the post looks like a House Stark insignia of a wolf next to their motto: "Winter is coming."

He also just happened to post this during the ongoing Game of Thrones 10th anniversary that HBO is celebrating this month. Much to think about, eh...? Without getting their hopes too high, maybe fans should be cautiously optimistic that they'll get to see Martin's version of how A Song of Ice and Fire will unfold sometime in the near future.

A representative for Martin's publisher, Penguin Random House, tells EW there are no new updates for Winds of Winter.

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