After a month off in the UK and Europe for business and pleasure, George RR Martin is finally back home in Santa Fe.
The 75-year-old famously only works on his novels on his old DOS running computer which doesn’t travel with him.
This means the author hasn’t written a word of the 13 year delayed The Winds of Winter since the first half of July.
And given what else he has to do, it doesn’t sound like there will be much more progress any time soon.
As a result, Game of Thrones fans are despairing on the A Song of Ice and Fire Reddit page over Martin’s mammoth To Do List.
Martin wrote on his blog: “This has not been a good year for anyone, with war everywhere and fascism on the rise… and on a more personal level, I have had a pretty wretched year as well, one full of stress, anger, conflict, and defeat. I need to talk about some of that, and I will, I will… I was away from my computer traveling from July 15 to August 15, so a lot of things that needed saying did not get said. I am glad I took that trip, though.My stress levels beforehand were off the charts, so much so that I was seriously considering cancelling my plans and staying at home. I am glad I didn’t, though. It was so so good to get away for a little, to put all the conflict aside for a time…
“I look forward to telling you all about our adventures… though it may take a while. I had a thousand emails waiting for me on my return, and then I went and brought a case of covid back with me from worldcon, so I am way way behind. I do not look forward to other posts I need to write, about everything that’s gone wrong with HOUSE OF THE DRAGON… but I need to do that too, and I will. Not today, though. TODAY is Zozobra’s day, when we turn away from gloom.”
Despairing at the Winds of Winter progress news, fans took to Reddit to vent. One quoted “I need to write, but not today” and commented, “Has there ever been a more GRRM post?”
Another wrote: “Well, there goes the hope of having TWOW this or next year…” To which one brutally replied: “Try this decade. The way George has been going these past few years, I’m expecting a posthumous release or nothing at all.”
Another added: “I’m glad that this trip helped clear GRRM’s mind, but now we know he hasn’t written anything for TWOW since July at the very least. And if he was having a sh***y year before that . . . yeah I don’t think it’s been a good one for his progress.”
