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'Game of Thrones' author hints about 'Winds of Winter' book

Send a raven, Westeros fans, we have news, though it's not concrete enough to get a countdown started. Yet.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
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Gael Cooper
2 min read
cerseiwine

Cersei (Lena Headey) will have plenty of time to drink a few gallons of Arbor Gold while she waits for George R.R. Martin to continue the "Song of Ice and Fire" book series.

 HBO

Remember waaaaay back in 2011, when we saw publication of the last book in the "Song of Ice and Fire" series -- the books that inspired HBO's "Game of Thrones"? Barack Obama was president. "Somebody That I Used to Know" by Gotye was a big hit. "Captain America: The First Avenger" was a new movie. "Breaking Bad" still had two seasons to run. You probably should've bought a lot of Bitcoin.

More on 'Game of Thrones'

Hang on to those 2011 memories, because you've still got time to wait for "The Winds of Winter," George R.R. Martin's long-awaited next book in the series.

Martin said this week on his personal site, Not a Blog, that "Winds" won't come out until after the first volume of his House Targaryen history, "Fire & Blood," is published.

And when will "Fire & Blood" arrive? Martin said only, "The first volume should be completed soon. The second is hardly begun."

But one fan ventured to ask what this means for "Winds of Winter" timing, and Martin actually answered, saying "F&B will be in two volumes. Vol 1 before ('Winds of Winter'), Vol 2 after." He didn't go into more detail.

When that first volume does come out, dedicated Westerosi wannabes will recognize some of the content. "Most of 'Fire & Blood' consists of the 'sidebars' I originally wrote for 'The World of Ice & Fire,'" Martin wrote. ("World of Ice & Fire" is Martin's 2014 Westeros history.) 

He also noted that "Fire & Blood" will include longer versions of that already published content, plus new material.

Martin has been tight-lipped about progress on "Winds of Winter," which is set to be the sixth novel in the series, and will be followed by "A Dream of Spring." But he did shoot down rumors that "Spring" would be followed by an additional eighth book. When a fan asked if there was a "secret eighth book," Martin replied, "If so, that's news to me."

HBO's version of "Game of Thrones" has already veered from the printed material, and will return in 2019.