George R.R. Martin Reveals Why “Winds of Winter” Feels Like a Curse

Life has a funny way of distracting us and keeping us from doing the things we really want to do, and even though it’s hard to believe, this same applies to bestselling author George RR Martin. The wordsmith can’t always find the time to create the worlds lurking inside his head.

George RR Martin Updates Fans On the Progress of ‘The Winds of Winter’

Can you believe it’s been over a decade since George RR Martin promised to gift fans with what will be a penultimate instalment to his ‘A Song of Fire and Ice’ series? Yup, he originally started writing the book in 2010, promising fans a big announcement when it is finished.

However, after encountering “fury and despair” – his words not mine – in his journey to put the final full-stop in the long-awaited book, he has decided to describe it as “the curse of my life.”

Conversation around ‘The Winds of Winter’ was resparked earlier this month after George RR Martin joined a select party of people to meet a trio of dire wolf pups that are said to be the “world’s first successfully de-extincted animal.”

Though extinct for over 10,000 years, a US biotech firm was said to have successfully engineered its rebirth by using cloning and gene-editing techniques based on two ancient dire wolf DNA samples.

If you’re a fan of Martin’s novels, you’d know that the wolf species get a lot of honorable mentions in them, and this prompted a fan to comment, “We got real dire wolves before Winds of Winter.”

During a recent interview with Time, he touched on the comment, saying, “That’s the curse of my life. There’s no doubt Winds of Winter is 13 years late. I’m still working on it. I have periods where I make progress and then other things divert my attention and suddenly I have a deadline for one of the HBO shows, I have something else to do.”

And he’s not exaggerating or lying about his work schedule, because if there’s an author with a full plate, it’s Martin. In addition to working on ‘Game of Thrones’ spin-offs like ‘House of the Dragon’ and ‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,’ as well as contributing write-ups for the popular video game ‘Elden Ring’ and the AMC series ‘Dark Winds,’ the 76-year-old author also has a renovated film theatre and a newly opened bookstore to his name.

“I swear, I opened a bookstore and people say, ‘Why is George RR Martin opening a bookstore when he should be writing Winds of Winter?’ “ he added. “I don’t actually work in the bookstore, you know.”

“If you go into the bookstore…I’m not gonna ring up your [order]. I have a theatre – I’m not the projectionist, They seem to overestimate how much time I’m putting into these things.”

As for posing with real-life dire wolfs, the author joked that it “did not seriously infringe on the writing of Winds of Winter but people make it seem like it’s one or the other. And it’s not.”

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