What George R. R. Martin has finished instead...

[Geoffrey]

...of finishing The Winds of Winter:

http://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/2018 ... n-the-way/

[ligedog]

He really doesn’t want to finish those books!

[Matthew]

He is so disinterested that he cannot even be bothered to get the name he gave it right ... "A Song for Ice and Fire"?

[rogatny]

He hasn’t finished anything. He’s pretty explicit in his blog post that “Fire & Blood” is the first of two volumes.

So, now he has three unfinished SoIaF-world projects, 1 the main series which supposedly has two more volumes to go and hasn’t seen an official update in nearly 6 years; 2 the Dunk & Egg short story collection, which supposedly has at least 3 more entries - one of which was supposedly “almost done” - and hasn’t been updated in over 7 years; and now this first of two prequel books.

[Blackadder23]

He really doesn’t want to finish those books!

He is clearly terminally blocked, or (as you say) just doesn't want to finish. All the signs are there; doing anything else but the main business of actually finishing the original book series is just the biggest one.

Along the same lines, I'm supposed to be writing staff evaluations right now. But my enthusiasm for doing that is well under control (to put it mildly), so I'm doing pretty much any other task in preference to the evaluations. Some of which are actually part of my job, and some of which are things like posting on K&K Alehouse!

[DungeonMonkey]

I don't think he's terminally blocked so much as he's written himself into a corner. The bodycount of significant characters is so high that there are only so many variants of the same ending that can be written at this point. It's like watching a 3-hour movie that you figured out at the end of the first hour. The only way it could be surprising at this point is if he went full-Martin and killed every remaining protagonist and antagonist and left Westeros a fiery ruin, but he's already exhausted his audience's patience with the current body count and suffering.

[ghendar]

I read the first two books and had the third ready to go when I decided to wait until the series is finished. Now I doubt it ever will be or maybe he will just say that the TV show is the ending and that's that. I'm done. I just added the first three books to my daughter's girl scout book donation project. So much more out there to read without having to wait for him to finish

[Flambeaux]

I didn't like the first book, which I couldn't finish, and I'm not attached to the series. But I find this very funny, in an absurd sort of way.

[Falconer]

maybe he will just say that the TV show is the ending and that's that.

I doubt that very much.

[Geoffrey]

The best that can be hoped is that The Winds of Winter will be published in 2019--eight years after 2011's A Dance with Dragons. If one assumed a further eight years between The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring, then the latter would have a publication date of 2027.

George R. R. Martin is 69 years old. According to the Social Security actuarial table, Mr. Martin's most probable year of death will be 2033. It is still premature to fear that his demise will prevent the series from being finished, but it's starting to cut a little bit close.

[rogatny]

I’m not worried about HIM dying before the series is complete. I’m worried about ME dying before the series is complete. I’m 44. I’m not a young man anymore!!!

[Falconer]

Hope you’re in better shape than GRRM!

[rogatny]

Hope you’re in better shape than GRRM!

I’m just fine now. But considering the last book probably won’t be published for another 15-20 years, who knows.