New GRRM Update on ADWD

[slik_rik]

In that case i'll have a jacks 'n' coke thanks mate

[Boaz]

Bourbon on the rocks.

[Eulalia]

ice wine and fire water!
Cheers Imp!

[Werthead]

Given the depressed tone of his last-but-one LJ entry and the fact that the 2009 release dates for ADWD have vanished from Amazon.com and Bantam's home page, I'm going to hazard a guess that American audiences won't be seeing ADWD in 2009.

UK publication is still possible if he finishes in the next few weeks, but my gut feeling is that both will now go to 2010.

Although we could still get an "It's done!!!" message tomorrow, I'm going to guess that ADWD has joined The Republic of Thieves and The Wise Man's Fear in slipping another year.

[Culhwch]

Dissappointing news to be sure, but we've waited this long. Keep at it, George, and give it to us when it's ready, and not a moment before.

[the smiling weirwood]

I haven't heard anything from Lynch in a long time...I am eagerly awaiting The Republic of Thieves...although Jacqueline Carey came out with two new books, so...

[Boaz]

Yeah, I saw the journal entry... But isn't it true that many authors have written their best stuff in times of anguish?

[Werthead]

Originally Posted by Boaz

Yeah, I saw the journal entry... But isn't it true that many authors have written their best stuff in times of anguish?

True, but I am also comparing GRRM's current 'depressed' demeanour (to use his own LJ summary ) to the buzz he was riding in the last two or three months of writing on AFFC, when he was positively gleeful that the end was in sight.

I have to say that I've defended GRRM to the hilt over the years, but that LJ entry was pretty odd. I think it would have been better to say nothing at all or to have carried that thought to its natural conclusion and said what that "Argh! It's June already!" comment meant about his projects. Does that impact negatively on Star-Crossed Lovers and Fort Freak as well as ADWD? Just seemed a bit half-hearted as a comment.

Mind you, compared to some of the LJ entries I've made when I'm feeling down, it's not that remarkable

[Boaz]

Yeah, I'm not really comparing GRRM's current frustration to the lives of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Edgar Allan Poe, Van Gogh, Beethoven, or Mozart... I was being slightly facetious. (But then again, what do I really know about the man's private life?)

But I don't imagine he'd write that he was 'depressed' if the end was not in sight. I refuse to believe that he suddenly realized, on June 1st, that he was only half finished. From that post, I felt that he could not believe he was going to miss a self imposed deadline. I figure he must be close... but then he's an admitted (and a proven) bad prognosticator. I think I'm gonna invite him to join my NCAA bracket pool next year... then I might actually win the thing.

He'll be done when he's done... and not an instant sooner. I'm not gonna worry about it.... even though I do check the ASOIAF Update Page daily.

[the smiling weirwood]

Boaz, you should check your private messages daily. Jesus.

[Boaz]

Ooops!!

[TK-421]

I'm not making much out of it.

[Raven]

Originally Posted by TK-421

I'm not making much out of it.

No, neither am I, and it seems very odd that anyone would. I mean:

It can't be June already. It really can't.

Where have the months gone?

I am so depressed.

That's it. The sum total of the entry.

Yes, it could be some kind of reference to lack of progress on the book. It could, on the other hand, just mean that he's feeling his age today. It could mean practically anything, in fact.

To say this is not particularly solid information is a radical understatement. Anyone who's going to take that entry as a reason for updating this thread seems to me to have reached the stage where they would be as well examining fish entrails for portents.

[chopper]

i completely understand GRRMs post - just as a comment on the year so far. it is depressing that it is June already - in just 2 months time we start our Christmas recruiting procedures again. if that isn't depressing, then what is?

[Werthead]

The entry by itself is unremarkable. However, combined with the fact GRRM told us he was trying to complete the book by June, leading people to expect news in early June even if it was just that the book has been delayed again, and the simultaneous removal of the 2009 release date by Bantam, leads to the inevitable conclusion that the book has been indeed delayed once more. I just thought it was odd, given his previous keeness to stop false release dates and hopes getting out there, that he wouldn't expand more on the topic when he gave himself an opportunity to do so, but clearly that is up to GRRM. We can just hope that the reason he didn't is that the book is so close to completion that making an announcement of it being delayed one week and then it's done a month or two later would be redundant.