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Game of Thrones Author George R.R. Martin Teases New Twist, Next Book in 2016


Fans have been waiting for the next installment of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire books, The Winds of Winter since the 2011 publication of A Dance with Dragons, and the good news is that Martin is hoping to get The Winds of Winter published by the Game of Thrones Season 6 premieres in Spring 2016, a goal he says has been important to him "all along."

"I wish it was out now," Martin tells EW. "Maybe I'm being overly optimistic about how quickly I can finish. But I canceled two convention appearances, I'm turning down a lot more interviews—anything I can do to clear my decks and get this done."

It takes an immene amount of concentration for him to write his huge and complex books, so it's understandable why it's taking him a lot of time to complete them. Martin says that one of his biggest regrets was not working on The Winds of Winter immediately after finishing A Dance With Dragons.

"I was red hot on the book and I put it aside for six months" he says. "I was so into it. I was pushing so hard that I was writing very well. I should have just gone on from there, because I was so into it and it was moving so fast then. But I didn't because I had to switch gears into the editing phase and then the book tour. The iron does cool off, for me especially."

Martin just released a new Sansa Stark chapter from the book. He also teased a new twist for a character he hadn't considered before, one that might differ from the show.

"I'm still weighing whether to go that direction or not," Martin says. "It's a great twist. It's easy to do things that are shocking or unexpected, but they have to grow out of characters. They have to grow out of situations. Otherwise, it's just being shocking for being shocking. But this is something that seems very organic and natural, and I could see how it would happen. And with the various three, four characters involved… it all makes sense. But it's nothing I've ever thought of before. And it's nothing they can do in the show, because the show has already—on this particular character—made a couple decisions that will preclude it, where in my case I have not made those decisions."

That sounds incredibly exciting, and I'm sure the whole book is going to be worth the wait. I just hope that the showrunners won't deviate much from Martin's books.

We still got a year left for that; for now, let's get ready to enjoy Game of Thrones Season 5, which premieres April 12 on HBO.

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