Between writing long-winded posts on his LiveJournal about one of the consistently crappiest teams in the NFL, and spending time busying himself with every task that isn’t writing a book, George R R Martin simply has not had the time to sit down and finish writing that pesky sixth book in the Song of Ice and Fire series. No time at all. He’s a busy, busy bloke, you guys.
But whether it’s because he finally found the motivation, or whether creative genius has struck him at long last, or whether it’s the fact that there’s now a very popular HBO series based on the books that refuses to work on his time schedule and soon looks like overtaking his own narrative (the sheer panic of an hourglass that’s about to run out is a fucking FANTASTIC creative motivator, just FYI), Martin has suddenly decided to clear his upcoming schedule and get down to business.
Ordinarily, the man never met a fan convention he didn’t want to spend four hours on a panel fielding endless crowd questions at.
But in a post on his ever-active LiveJournal page – seriously, can someone bring him at least one step up the Internet rung and tell him about
Geocities already? – Martin revealed he’ll be forgoing some of the bigger festivals this year in order to actually write that fucking book he keeps promising us.
Among those Martin’s officially pulled the pin on attending are the Saratoga World Fantasy Convention, and even bigger, the annual San Diego ComicCon.
“I’ve just had to scratch Saratoga off my list of 2015 appearances. For no reason having to do with the con itself. I am sure it will be terrific. It’s just a matter of time.
I have too much to do. Too many things on my plate. Son of Kong foremost amongst them.
Also, I have decided against attending this year’s San Diego Comicon. Same reason. But since Comicon was never listed on my Appearances page, scratching it is not as big a deal.”
“Son of Kong” in this instance is Martin’s ~super clever~ code name for The Winds of Winter, the planned and announced sixth book in the Song of Ice and Fire series.
But for those few – few, there’s probably a couple – who are legitimately dismayed that Martin is prioritising actual work over appearing at ComicCons, worry not. Martin quite conveniently left himself a back door to San Diego by including this little dangling carrot of motivation.
“(Should I complete and deliver WINDS OF WINTER before these cons roll round, I reserve the right to change my mind).”
Whether that’s a stringently adhered to personal motivator, or acts something more along the lines of saying to yourself that you can’t go out this weekend until you finish that essay that’s due on Monday, but wind up at the pub at 4:38pm on Saturday afternoon because it’s sunny and warm outside and getting the title and introduction paragraph done is “close enough, god damn it” remains to be seen.
Photo: Kevin Winter via Getty Images.
