George R.R. Martin, 77, Cites Depression in Year Without Writing
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- George R.R. Martin, 77, published his first blog post since February, calling the past year "stressful" and writing that he had "lost friends" and "battled sadness and depression"
- Martin confirmed two books remain in his A Song of Ice and Fire septology, which began with A Game of Thrones in 1996; A Dance With Dragons was published 15 years ago and fans are still waiting
- Martin said his own future posts would be "short and rushed" and handed detailed updating off to his "minions"
- Martin voiced pride that HBO prequel A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms earned nine Emmy nominations including Best Drama, while griping that the show's actors received no nods
- Martin disabled comments on the post, likely to preempt fan complaints about book delays — a pattern The Onion has satirized in pieces including a July article titled "George R.R. Martin Hands Agent Unsolicited, 4,000-Page Manuscript Titled 'Tuba Man, Scuba Man.'"
- Martin's HBO deal, signed a couple years after Game of Thrones ended in 2019, covers A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and a Jon Snow series he confirmed was in development in 2022
Why it matters: Martin, now 77, publicly attributes his silence to grief and depression rather than mere writer's block, reframing the 15-year wait for the next A Song of Ice and Fire novel as a human struggle — but fans awaiting The Winds of Winter still got no publication timeline, and his promise that future posts will be "short and rushed" signals the final two books remain distant.
