‘The Winds of Winter’ Release Date, Spoilers: GRRM Wishes He Finished 4 Years Ago, Admits to Having ‘Great Distractions’

Bestselling author George R.R. Martin briefly discussed his much-awaited book “The Winds of Winter” recently. But, unfortunately, a release date is still not in sight.

Martin recently admitted to having the same expectations as the fans who are waiting for the release of “The Winds of Winter.” The author told The Hollywood Reporter, “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.”

And by “great distractions,” it is safe to assume that Martin was referring to his several other projects linked to the “Game of Thrones” universe. Earlier this year, Martin announced the launching of his new book called “Fire and Blood" on Nov. 20. And in 2017, he also confirmed that multiple TV projects for “Game of Thrones” prequels are in HBO's pipeline. Evidently, it is impossible for Martin to spend all his hours working solely on “The Winds of Winter.”

However, in his recent interview, Martin once again reassured fans that he has not stopped working on “The Winds of Winter." But when he is going to finish and launch the sixth “A Song of Ice and Fire” novel is still unknown.

While George R.R. Martin admitted to having his attention divided while working on “The Winds of Winter,” to be fair, he also had to give up some "Game of Thrones" responsibilities in order to allocate more time to finishing the book. Martin told THR how he likes visiting filming locations but that is something he has to skip for the final season of “Game of Thrones.”

“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,” the “The Winds of Winter” author said. “I still have two books to write.”

Back in 2015, Martin said in a blog post that he had other projects to attend to which involved “editing, producing, consulting, or financing” responsibilities all while writing “The Winds of Winter.” It was also when he confirmed he would not be writing any script for “Game of Thrones” starting with season 6.

“Writing a script takes me three weeks, minimum, and longer when it is not a straight adaptation from the novels,” George R.R. Martin explained. “Writing a season six script would cost me a month's work on [‘The Winds of Winter’], and maybe as much as six weeks, and I cannot afford that.”