[Locke.]

It's a really long post, I'll just paste the important parts

THE WINDS OF WINTER is not finished.

Believe me, it gave me no pleasure to type those words. You're disappointed, and you're not alone. My editors and publishers are disappointed, HBO is disappointed, my agents and foreign publishers and translators are disappointed... but no one could possibly be more disappointed than me. For months now I have wanted nothing so much as to be able to say, "I have completed and delivered THE WINDS OF WINTER" on or before the last day of 2015.

But the book's not done.

Nor is it likely to be finished tomorrow, or next week. Yes, there's a lot written. Hundreds of pages. Dozens of chapters. (Those 'no pages done' reports were insane, the usual garbage internet journalism that I have learned to despise). But there's also a lot still left to write. I am months away still... and that's if the writing goes well. (Sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn't.) Chapters still to write, of course... but also rewriting. I always do a lot of rewriting, sometimes just polishing, sometimes pretty major restructures.

Unfortunately, the writing did not go as fast or as well as I would have liked. You can blame my travels or my blog posts or the distractions of other projects and the Cocteau and whatever, but maybe all that had an impact... you can blame my age, and maybe that had an impact too...but if truth be told, sometimes the writing goes well and sometimes it doesn't, and that was true for me even when I was in my 20s. And as spring turned to summer, I was having more bad days than good ones. Around about August, I had to face facts: I was not going to be done by Halloween. I cannot tell you how deeply that realization depressed me.

Here it is, the first of January. The book is not done, not delivered. No words can change that. I tried, I promise you. I failed. I blew the Halloween deadline, and I've now blown the end of the year deadline. And that almost certainly means that no, THE WINDS OF WINTER will not be published before the sixth season of GAME OF THRONES premieres in April.

Having said all that, I know what the next question will be, because hundreds of you have already asked it of me. Will the show 'spoil' the novels?

Maybe. Yes and no. Look, I never thought the series could possibly catch up with the books, but it has. The show moved faster than I anticipated and I moved more slowly. There were other factors too, but that was the main one. Given where we are, inevitably, there will be certain plot twists and reveals in season six of GAME OF THRONES that have not yet happened in the books. For years my readers have been ahead of the viewers. This year, for some things, the reverse will be true. How you want to handle that... hey, that's up to you. Look, I read Andy Weir's novel THE MARTIAN before I saw the movie. But I saw the BBC production of JONATHAN STRANGE AND MR NORRELL before I finally got around to reading Susanna Clarke's novel. In both cases, I loved the book and I loved the adaptation. It does not need to be one or the other. You might prefer one over the other, but you can still enjoy the hell out of both.

IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN ALL FIVE SEASONS AND READ ALL FIVE BOOKS, STOP HERE!

Just consider. Mago, Irri, Rakharo, Xaro Xhoan Daxos, Pyat Pree, Pyp, Grenn, Ser Barristan Selmy, Queen Selyse, Princess Shireen, Princess Myrcella, Mance Rayder, and King Stannis are all dead in the show, alive in the books. Some of them will die in the books as well, yes... but not all of them, and some may die at different times in different ways. Balon Greyjoy, on the flip side, is dead in the books, alive on the show. His brothers Euron Crow's Eye and Victarion have not yet been introduced (will they appear? I ain't saying). Meanwhile Jhiqui, Aggo, Jhogo, Jeyne Poole, Dalla (and her child) and her sister Val, Princess Arianne Martell, Prince Quentyn Martell, Willas Tyrell, Ser Garlan the Gallant, Lord Wyman Manderly, the Shavepate, the Green Grace, Brown Ben Plumm, the Tattered Prince, Pretty Meris, Bloodbeard, Griff and Young Griff, and many more have never been part of the show, yet remain characters in the books. Several are viewpoint characters, and even those who are not may have significant roles in the story to come in THE WINDS OF WINTER and A DREAM OF SPRING.

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[Smithy]

The fact of it is he's a lazy old sod who started to enjoy the limelight that the show brought upon him too much and everything that came because of it was a distraction

[Niamh.]

I'd be so annoyed if I'd started reading the series when it first came out, I think it's really disrespectful to all those people who spent the time reading his books and made him who he is today

[Tom4784]

He's never going to finish them.

[Lostie!]

Fine by me, I still need to finish the existing books and I'd rather be ready to read The Winds of Winter when it comes out.

But yeah, if I was one of the many people waiting then I'd be frustrated.

[Josy]

He's a selfish git

[Z]

Looking at the dates of publishing for all the books, it would appear he's always been a serial procrastinator. I'm sure we can all relate to that in some way, he just happens to be the author of a popular series of novels so his procrastination seems more frustrating. Not every author has the work ethic of JK Rowling firing out a huge novel per year, especially when you look at the length of the more recent books in the ASOIAF series, he's had to split them into two parts etc.

That being said, I do think he's taking the piss with this - how can it possibly take five years to write the next novel if you have an established universe in which your story takes place? It's not like he's starting a new book series, this is book six of a planned seven and I refuse to believe he doesn't have all the minute details of the Game of Thrones world written down, laid out and stored away. He must have known which storylines he would be continuing in this book long before he started writing it?! How can it take so long!!

[Smithy]

AND he cut chapters from book 5 for book 6

[Z]

I feel like he ought to get a ghost writer or something, somebody with the work ethic to flesh out his ideas rather than have him sat away writing a page a day or whatever his approach has been

[Mokka]

I have a lot of animosity towards GRRM rt now... a lot