George R.R. Martin working “too bloody hard” on The Winds of Winter, other stuff

SAN DIEGO, CA – JULY 25: Writer George R.R. Martin of “Game of Thrones” signs autographs during the 2014 Comic-Con International Convention-Day 3 at the San Diego Convention Center on July 25, 2014 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Tiffany Rose/Getty Images)

Posting on his Not a Blog must be strange for George R.R. Martin. It’s his blog so he can write whatever he likes, but clearly he knows that a lot of people are only paying attention to it in the hopes that he’ll say something about The Winds of Winter, the long-in-coming sixth novel in his Song of Ice and Fire series. That’s probably why he disables comments on a lot of posts, because people on the internet can be…spirited, especially when he talks about doing literally anything other than writing about the further adventures of Arya, Tyrion, Jon Snow, et al.

Take his latest post, for example, about the defunct Santa Fe area railroad line he and a bunch of other prominent citizens decided to buy over margaritas one day. (He admits that part, I’m not making it up.) His group refurbished it and plans to run the trains as a kind of themed ride, complete with murder mysteries and holiday specials.



All of that sounds pretty fun, but he’s careful to say that he’s not actually “working on the railroad”; he just writes the checks. Instead, “I have been writing WINDS OF WINTER, editing three new Wild Cards books, sitting down with some amazing screenwriters and showrunners to create three hundred and seventeen new GAME OF THRONES successor shows for HBO and HBO Max,  and serving as executive producer on various other television and film projects in various stages of development, including DARK WINDS for AMC, JOKERTOWN for Peacock, ROADMARKS and WHO FEARS DEATH for HBO.  Oh, and I was the executive producer on our (recently wrapped) short film of Howard Waldrop’s NIGHT OF THE COOTERS.”

So I have been working.   Maybe too bloody hard, but that’s another tale for another blog post… though these days even finding the time to blog is hard).

And I’m sure that blog post will be paid close attention as well.

What other Game of Thrones successor shows are there?

It’s interesting to hear about the “three hundred and seventeen new GAME OF THRONES successor shows” in development. The only one we know for sure is coming to TV is House of the Dragon, which is shooting right now. There are a bunch of others that may or may not ever make it to market, and whether we hear about or not, it sounds like the work continues.

Martin’s railroad, called the Sky Railway, opens on December 3. They hired artist Jorael Nimina. to do up the cars and it does look pretty cool. House of the Dragon comes out sometime next year. As for The Winds of Winter, who knows?

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