October 2012: Martin has written 400 pages The month of A Dance with Dragons' publication, Martin tells Entertainment Weekly he will return to working on The Winds of Winter in January 2012. The novel hits bookshelves just a few weeks after the Game of Thrones season 1 finale. To this day, it is still the last full Song of Ice and Fire installment, and it ends on several major cliffhangers, including the apparent death of Jon Snow. Martin publishes the series' fifth novel, A Dance with Dragons, in July 2011. 'Realistically, it's going to take me three years to finish the next one at a good pace,' he says, adding, 'I hope it doesn't take me six years like this last one has.' July 2011: 'A Dance with Dragons' is published In an April 2011 interview with The Guardian, Martin predicts he will complete The Winds of Winter in about three years, a faster pace than the previous book. April 2011: Martin predicts 'The Winds of Winter' will take 3 years to finish 'The good news is that I seem to have written more than a hundred pages of The Winds of Winter already,' he says. The following month, Martin again says he has moved a chapter, this time focused on Aeron Greyjoy, into The Winds of Winter from A Dance with Dragons. He describes this as 'good news for' The Winds of Winter, as he now has 'four chapters done for that one (an Arya, a Sansa, and two Ariannes).' July 2010: Martin has written more than 100 pages In a June 2010 blog, Martin announces he has moved two completed chapters (told from Arianne's point of view) from A Dance with Dragons, the fifth book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, into the sixth book, The Winds of Winter.

Will the highly anticipated sixth installment, The Winds of Winter, ever be published, or will Martin's epic fantasy series forever remain unfinished? Let's take a look at all the status updates we've gotten so far, some promising and some very much not: June 2010: Martin has written 4 chapters of 'The Winds of Winter' Martin is experiencing, as fans have been waiting for the next novel in the author's Game of Thrones book series for nearly 12 years now. Is winter still coming, or what? If you've ever found yourself struggling to meet deadlines, it's surely nothing compared to what George R.R.

Grr martin the winds of winter