George RR Martin plays a waiting game (of thrones) with new HBO series

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/apr/06/george-rr-martin-captain-cosmos-game-of-thrones-hbo

Version 0 of 1.

The life of a novelist is all very well when things are going well, but when they aren’t, there’s an awful lot of time to fill. So how does the struggling scribe while away the time?

Judging by the glacial rate of progress of his A Song of Ice and Fire series, George RR Martin is a past-master at finding other things to do. As fans hope in vain for the sixth instalment, it has been announced that he has teamed up with HBO, makers of Game of Thrones, on an unrelated series set in 1949 – “the dawn of the age of TV” – and featuring a young science fiction writer.

Announcing the deal, Entertainment Weekly said the series, which is called Captain Cosmos, and is at an early stage of development, was not expected to “take up too much of his time”.

Related: George RR Martin unleashes a blast from The Winds of Winter

Martin also hinted that the long-awaited volume, The Winds of Winter, would involve a twist on a long-time character. “This is going to drive your readers crazy,” he teased.

As if to pre-empt the gnashing of fans’ teeth – and perhaps stoke up speculation about the promised twist – Martin chose the same week to announce on his blog that he was putting up a new taster from the book.

“Yes, I know, I’d said there would be no more sample chapters, but (1) it had been more than a year since Mercy, (2) lots of you were asking, and (3) Anne Groell and my friends at Bantam twisted my arm,” he wrote. “I would have put it up yesterday, but I did not want it mistaken for an April Fool’s joke.”

Reactions to the chapter, which features Sansa Stark disguised as Alayne Stone, have been mixed.

“Another whole chapter in which almost nothings happens,” said Gantsara.

“I’m starting to wonder if Martin’s plan is to release The Winds of Winter one chapter at a time.” added GhastlyMcNasty.

buttonbasher81 was more sympathetic: “Bet it will feel like a whole mills’ worth of millstones off his neck when he can get this published!”

Martin, who has described the new novel as The Son of Kong, would undoubtedly appreciate the sentiment. “I wish it was out now,” he told Entertainment Weekly, insisting that he was still hoping to publish before the sixth series of Game of Thrones began in the spring. “Maybe I’m being overly optimistic about how quickly I can finish. But I cancelled two convention appearances, I’m turning down a lot more interviews – anything I can do to clear my decks and get this done.”