Interesting. I try to stay away from the Citadel, Ring of Ice and Fire etc. to avoid spoilers. - Edit 1
Before modification by Shannow at 20/12/2010 08:14:39 PM
Hence his focus on getting the story on TV BEFORE the series is even finished. He should have FIRST finished A Time for Wolves, and THEN sold the TV rights. That would have been the CORRECT way of doing things.
That title was abandoned years ago. The final book now has the (inferior, IMO) working title A DREAM OF SPRING.
The timing of when to film the books was down to HBO and producer David Benioff's availability, rather than anything Martin did. Martin turning down that chance so he could finish the books first would be silly, as HBO would have moved on and the chance would probably have never come again. In that game you move when the opportunity arises, not when the situation is perfect. If that was indeed the 'CORRECT' way of doing things, JK Rowling and Warner Brothers would have waited until 2007 to get the first HARRY POTTER movie out.
Still, given the delays on both AFFC and ADWD, this concern is natural, which appears to be why Martin has given outlines and information to the producers to complete the story if they overtake him. But I suspect the series lasting the 6-7 seasons to get to that point to be pretty unlikely anyway.
So I'm not up to date with the latest. All I know is I've been waiting for a friggin long time to read ADWD, and meanwhile Martin is lurking around movie sets and doing quizzes about the latest actor signed up to portray a character I met back in A Game of Thrones. Meanwhile I'm waiting to find out what happened to Arya after she went blind in AFFC, what happened to Jon on the wall, and when the North will rise again.
Martin doesn't give a sh*t, because he's hobnobbing with directors and actresses instead of writing a page a day.
By the way, if he had written just 1 page a day the last 5 years, he would already have had 1500 pages and would have been done with the Winds of Winter a well (if that title is still on the cards).