George R.R. Martin Skipping Comic-Con To Focus On WINDS OF WINTER

A lot of people have been up in arms about George R.R. Martin attending public events, giving late night TV interviews, and making appearances over the past year or so when they think he should be at home cranking out The Winds of Winter, the next book in his A Song of Ice and Fire series that provides the basis for HBO's wildly successful Game of Thrones. Well, it sounds like Martin has heard the grumbling, because he's announced on his website that he won't be attending this year's San Diego Comic-Con (which he's made appearances at for the past five years) and that he's also cancelling his appearance at the World Fantasy Convention in Saratoga, New York.

"I have too much to do. Too many things on my plate. Son of Kong foremost amongst them," he writes. (THR helpfully points out that Martin refers to The Winds of Winter as "Son of Kong" on his site as an inside joke.)

It sort of sucks that the fans won't be able to see him at either of those cons, but I'm guessing the reason they want to see him so badly is because of the books he's written, and they're probably going to appreciate the fact that he wants to finish the next one soon. (The previous book, A Dance With Dragons, was released in the United States in 2011.)

Perhaps the most interesting piece of Martin's announcement, though, is a caveat he provides at the very end of the post:

(Should I complete and deliver WINDS OF WINTER before these cons roll round, I reserve the right to change my mind).

The fact that he's even considering that he could finish the book as a possibility, however slim, is something that should make fans ecstatic. That means there's still the chance that we could actually have the new book in our hands by the end of 2015, which would make a lot of people very, very happy. I'm only a little ways into A Storm of Swords right now, so I still have a lot of catching up to do.