This week, author George R.R. Martin assured fans that he is “writing every day” through the coronavirus pandemic. The author made a blog post on Tuesday, saying that he is practicing social distancing as much as possible through the global outbreak. He also gave fans hope that his next book, The Winds of Winter is getting done.
“Strange days are upon us,” Martin began his somber blog post on Tuesday. The author updated fans on every aspect of his life for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic broke out. Among the scary and sad news was the promise of new fiction from Martin. The Winds of Winter — the next book in A Song of Ice and Fire, which was adapted into Game of Thrones — may be here soon.
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“Truth be told, I am spending more time in Westeros than in the real world, writing every day,” he wrote. “Things are pretty grim in the Seven Kingdoms… but maybe not as grim as they may become here.”
Martin also addressed those who are concerned about his personal health in this time. At 71 years old, he wrote: “yes, I am aware that I am very much in the most vulnerable population, given my age and physical condition. But I feel fine at the moment, and we are taking all sensible precautions. I am off by myself in a remote isolated location, attended by one of my staff, and I’m not going in to town or seeing anyone.”
The more concrete announcements in Martin’s post were about his other ventures, including the Jean Cocteau Cinema and the Stagecoach Foundation, both of which are shut down for the foreseeable future. However, Martin added that employees of the two businesses will continue to get paid for now.
Martin’s recently-opened bookstore, Beastly Books, remains open, he wrote. All events and signings at the shop have been canceled, and he is simply asking anyone who may be carrying to virus to stay away.
Martin concluded by comparing the pandemic to the science fiction literature he began his career with. He wrote that this reminded him of the books he grew up on, “but not, alas, the sort of science fiction novel that I dreamed of living in when I was a kid, the one with the cities on the Moon, colonies on Mars, household robots programmed with the Three Laws, and flying cars. I never liked the pandemic stories half so well…”
Martin previously implied that his next book, The Winds of Winter would be finished by this August. So far, there have been no announcements from his publisher to suggest a release date.
