[user104658]

Originally Posted by Niamh.

oh my god, I hope that's true. I mean it could be, he had a couple of chapters released of The Winds of Winter, would have been a bit odd that he'd start it and then just throw it in a drawer for a few years

Maybe he's a marketing genius? He's finished the books and they end totally differently and are amazing, and he's been feeding the show bogus information for their finale, and then as soon as it's over he'll be like "Now, here's the REAL ending you've all been waiting for" and it'll be the best-seller of all time . Would also ensure that his "masterwork" is the definitive version of the story, and he MUST have been worried that his own original work would end up being over-shadowed by the TV show...