GAME OF THRONES Book ‘Winds of Winter’ Could Hit Shelves Next Year

Game of Thrones producer and author George R.R. Martin shared on another update on his Livejournal on the highly-anticipated next installment in the “Song of Ice and Fire” novel series.

“I’ve seen some truly weird reports about [‘Winds of Winter’] on the internet of late, by ‘journalists’ who make their stories up out of whole cloth, I don’t know which story is more absurd, the one that says the book is finished and I’ve been sitting on it for some nefarious reason, or the one that says I have no pages. Both ‘reports’ are equally false and equally moronic. I am still working on it, I am still months away (how many? good question), I still have good days and bad days, and that’s all I care to say.”

Martin also revealed that he has written most of a two-volume book about Westeros’ history under the Targaryen dynasty, which is currently titled “Fire and Blood.”

“Whether WINDS or the first volume of FIRE AND BLOOD will be the first to hit the bookstores is hard to say at this juncture, but I do think you will have a Westeros book from me in 2018… and who knows, maybe two. A boy can dream.”

Martin warned fans that no publication date has been set for “Fire and Blood” so far, but he fully expects volume one to be published next year or early 2019.

Fans have been waiting for “Winds of Winter” since the publication of “A Dance with Dragons” in 2011. If the new book is finally published in 2018, it will mark the longest gap between publications of any novels in the series. The novels are the basis for the hit HBO show Game of Thrones. But as you probably already know, the show has now passed the storyline written in the books and the series will most likely end before Martin publishes what is planned to be the seventh and final novel in the series.