'Game Of Thrones' Author George RR Martin Teases Big Twist In 'Winds Of Winter'

With “Game of Thrones” returning to HBO in a matter of days, it’s surprising to learn most of the headlines these days surround “A Song of Ice and Fire” author George R.R. Martin. It appears the author is finally wrapping his head around the highly anticipated sixth installment in his series of novels.

Martin has been criticized for years every time he’s stepped out of the house because fans want him to sit at his computer and hunt-and-peck his way through the rest of the book series. The HBO show is rapidly catching up to its source material, and creators D.B. Weiss and David Benioff fully expect to surpass Martin’s books after Season 5. Even if Martin surprises us all and gets “The Winds of Winter” out tomorrow, his seventh book will still take more time to write than the television show will take to film.

“I wish it was out now. 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,” the author told Entertainment Weekly.

The good news about the interview is that Martin appears to be in full creativity mode. This week, he released an excerpt of the book online. In addition, when speaking about his current work on “The Winds of Winter,” the author revealed he connected some dots on a character and has a twist planned that will “drive [his] readers crazy.”

According to Martin: “I’m still weighing whether to go that direction or not. 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.”

Unfortunately for the people who only watch the TV show, Martin said the twist he’s got in mind cannot come to fruition in the series because of choices the showrunners previously made. Mysterious as ever, right?

Martin also gave details about a new HBO project he’s working on titled “Captain Cosmos,” but, don’t worry, the Hollywood Reporter claimed the new show shouldn’t slow him down too much. Despite all the irons he has in the fire, it looks like the author is finally living up to that title and getting the job done on his sixth book. It’s been confirmed it won’t arrive any time in 2015, but Martin hopes to get copies in the hands of fans by the end of 2016.