Yahoo News GRRM missed GoT set visits to finish "complex" new book
It seems like George RR Martin has been writing The Winds of Winter since the dawn of time, though we're somewhat reassured by his latest update.
The A Song of Ice and Fire author has revealed that he is most definitely working on the "complex" next novel in the series, so much so that he skipped set visits for Game of Thrones' final season.
"Going to set is a lot of fun but there's nothing for me to do there, so I thought I better stay home and not go to Croatia; or Spain; or Belfast, [Northern] Ireland," he told The Hollywood Reporter. "I still have two books to write."
He elaborated: "I'm working on [The Winds of Winter], and I wish I'd been done four years ago, but I'm slow and the book is very complex, although there are a lot of great distractions out there."
The HBO show overtook the books a while ago now – the sixth season that is based partly on The Winds of Winter came out well over two years ago, after all. And earlier this year, Martin confirmed that the book definitely would not be coming out in 2018.
Meanwhile, earlier this week the author admitted that the soon-to-be-ending TV show could have gone on for many more seasons.
"We could have gone to 11, 12, 13 seasons, but I guess [showrunners David Benioff and DB Weiss] wanted a life," he said. "You know, if you've read my novels, you know there was enough material for more seasons. They made certain cuts, but that's fine."
He continued: "[Benioff and Weiss] have been saying for like, five years that seven seasons was all they would go, and we got them to go to eight, but not any more than that.
"There was a period five years ago where they were saying seven seasons, and I was saying 10 seasons, and they won. They're the ones actually working on it."
Game of Thrones season 8 will premiere in 2019. The show airs on HBO in the US and Sky Atlantic and NOW TV in the UK. Season 7 is now available to buy on DVD, Blu-ray or digital download.
Want up-to-the-minute entertainment news and features? Just hit 'Like' on our Digital Spy Facebook page and 'Follow' on our @digitalspy Instagram and Twitter account.
('You Might Also Like',)
