George R.R. Martin believes he can complete more Dunk & Egg books before the spinoff arrives

It has been quite a while since we got a new book from George R. R. Martin in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, and we have been talking about how we might get the next book, The Winds of Winter this year, but we also know that there is a chance that we won’t, considering how George seems to take his own time to write. However, Martin thinks he can write another book instead, continuing his Dunk & Egg novel series.

Martin thinks he can write more Dunk & Egg stories before The Hedge Knight is released

In his recent blog on Not A Blog, Martin, while announcing the upcoming spinoff, wrote:

“Before we reach the end of the published stories, I will need to find time to write all the other Dunk & Egg novellas that I have planned. There are… gulp… more of them than I had once thought. There’s ‘The Village Hero’ and the Winterfell story, the one with the She-Wolves, and maybe I need to write that Dornish adventure too to slip in between ‘The Hedge Knight’ and ‘The Sworn Sword,’ and after that there are… ah… more.”

“I just need to finish THE WINDS OF WINTER, and then do either A DREAM OF SPRING or volume two of FIRE & BLOOD, and slip in a new Dunk & Egg between each of those in my copious spare time… and that will keep me ahead of Ira [Parker] and his merry crew… for a few more years.”

The Tales of Dunk and Egg official artwork by Gary Gianni

Why hasn’t George R. R. Martin finished Winds of Winter?

In a recent interview with filmmaker Kevin Smith, Martin revealed, “There are joyful days, when it really comes alive, and the characters come alive and the scene and the words are pouring out of you. It feels good. But there are not a lot of those days. There are also days where it’s hard.”

And I sit down and I read what I wrote yesterday and I say, ‘This is shit. Why am I pretending I can do this? This is terrible.’ And I wind up rewriting the whole thing. And I do that for several days and I go to my wife and I say, ‘Where’s my talent? What did you do with my talent? Did you put it somewhere else? I can’t find it anymore.’ Then I have a good day.”

When is Winds of Winter coming out?

Martin didn’t say anything about how much he has written so far; last we know he was writing some chapters involving Tyrion Lannister. “There are writers who love the simple act of writing, and there are other writers…who love having written,” he said. “It’s great when it’s done, and when it’s not done, you struggle with ever you can really do it.”

Read Next: George R.R. Martin was initially against the idea of a Game of Thrones spinoff based on Dunk and Egg