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George R.R. Martin offers the most human reason why the next Game of Thrones book, Winds of Winter, isn't finished yet

It's time we stop thinking of George R.R. Martin as a Game of Thrones writing machine, and more of him as a human (like us) who writes.

News by Jim McDermott, Contributing writer

Published on Mon Nov 03 2025

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Legendary fantasy writer George R.R. Martin, author of the books behind the mega-popular Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon, and the new Knight of the Seven Kingdoms TV series, was the subject of a spotlight panel at New York Comic Con, hosted by Joe Hill. After Hill kidded early that there was a topic on everyone’s mind (and then asked Martin about whether the New York Giants can keeping winning), Martin returned to the question of Winds of Winter later in an unexpected way.

Martin had been discussing some of his early work as a novelist and screenwriter, much of which had never received much attention, or in the case of screenplays never got produced.

“Now of course the weird thing happening is people are buying all those old things and making movies and TV shows about them,” he explained. “And every time that happens and I announce it on my website, half the internet goes crazy shouting ‘Why the !%!% is GRRM writing this other thing? What is he doing?’”

“I did it in 1993, guys!” Martin responded, to laughter and applause. “It was lying in my drawer!”

No matter what the trolls might say, Martin told the crowd his interest in finishing the Game of Thrones hasn't wavered.

“I do love Winds of Winter. I haven’t lost interest in it. But I wrote these other things, too. I don’t have any kids. But you love them all, right?”

House of the Dragon season 2 may be over, but Popverse is still in the Westeros spirit, and we've got more Game of Thrones articles than could fit on a spiky chair. We've got everything you need to dive into the series, including:

Plus much more coming as it gets announced!

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