Though the worry from fans has been circulating around the Internet for years, Martin pointedly responded in a recent interview with Swiss newspaper Tagesanzeiger.
“I find that question pretty offensive, people speculating about my death and my health,” Martin said. “So fuck you to those people.” As if to further emphasize his seriousness, he then stuck up his middle finger.
So that settles that, at least in his mind.
It’s been three years since the fifth book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, A Dance With Dragons, was published. And there’s not even a tentative date for the release of The Winds of Winter, the planned sixth book. He admitted to Mashable last year that he could write faster.
Martin is of course a phenomenally busy man — aside from his numerous convention and media appearances, he also edits fantasy anthologies and occasionally writes scripts for Game of Thrones, which recently wrapped up its fourth season on HBO.
Still, that isn’t enough for some fans, as Gawker points out, joking that a segment of the Internet goes crazy every time Martin is spotted doing anything that isn’t writing The Winds of Winter.
The other major concern is how rapidly the show is covering book material, though Martin is sure it will take some time before the show can cover all of the five current books’ contents. Showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss reportedly have some idea of the series’ ending, though will likely continue to take artistic liberties to get there.
