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George R.R. Martin apparently has some new pages done for ‘The Winds of Winter’

Martin is making progress, but not as much as he wanted to.

By Joe Allen Sep 10, 2024 11:49 AM

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Anyone who follows the world of Game of Thrones closely knows that it has been 13 years since George R.R. Martin published the last book in what was supposed to be a seven-book series, A Dance with Dragons. Fans have been eagerly waiting for Martin to publish the sixth book, The Winds of Winter, and Martin himself has pushed the timetable for publication back over and over again.

Now, Martin has offered an update on the novel that is both encouraging and a little disappointing. On his Not a Blog page, he announced that he had written new pages for both The Winds of Winter and Blood & Fire, his latest anthology book. At the same time, though, Martin admitted that he was disappointed that he hadn’t done more.

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“Writing came hard, and though I did produce some new pages on both The Winds of Winter (yes) and Blood & Fire (the sequel to Fire & Blood the second part of my Targaryen history), I would have liked to turn out a lot more,” he wrote.

Martin added that the reason for the delays was mostly related to his various TV commitments, which include Game of Thrones spin-offs like A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms as well as other projects outside of his signature universe.

Martin didn’t offer any indication of when the novel may actually be released, but fans have grown accustomed to sporadic updates, and many have resigned themselves to the fact that the next novel may never come out at all. What’s clear, though, is that many fans wish he would spend more time writing it and less time worried about season 2 of House of the Dragon.

Joe Allen is a freelance writer at Digital Trends, where he covers Movies and TV. He frequently writes streaming… Read Full Bio

We’re only a few months away from our new Bond, Producer Amy Pascal teases

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Since Daniel Craig bit the big one in his James Bond swan song in 2021’s No Time to Die, fans have been waiting to find out who the next person to drink the martini shaken instead of stirred will be. In true Bond fandom fashion, a whole slew of fancasts have started to muddle the waters as to who could possibly be the new 007. Callum Turner, Jacob Elordi, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and more have all been pitched as possible replacements. Some more ethnically diverse options like Henry Golding and Rene Jean-Page have also emerged. But, alas, no word has come down from on high to give us the scratch to this fan itch raging on for the last five years. That is, until Producer Amy Pascal sat down during her Spider-Man: Brand New Day press tour and gave a bit of insight on when we can expect an announcement, and also what we can expect in the cast.

I would say the end of the year is a good bet. We are being really, really methodical. – Amy Pascal

Elevate your elegance: Choosing your first cigar

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Earlier this year, I was strolling the streets of New York and ended up sitting in the Carnegie Club with an Old Fashioned in one hand and a cigar in the other while My Way by Frank Sinatra played from a speaker flanking leather-bound books behind the couch I had been using as my perch. It was my first cigar, but it led to a slight obsession that recently found me on the back deck of a lodge in Kenya, staring at Mount Kilimanjaro and smoking a stick while giraffes meandered by. Admittedly, there has been no intention in my budding hobby; I am aimlessly choosing the cigars that look good (the ones that look like those smoked by Arnold or Stallone in the movies, obviously). But I have decided to approach these in a new way, with a little help from my friends over at La Aurora, who graciously decided to navigate my ignorance with some info compiled by Brand Manager John Gaglio, with input from Master Blender Manuel Ynoa, CEO Ed McKenna, and Brand Manager Elvis Batista.

What to look for in your first cigar

FIFA’s Gianni Infantino Is Uglifying the Beautiful Game With $20 Billion Plot — But the Global Soccer Community’s Punching Back

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For the better part of two decades, perhaps even more, corruption has allegedly run rampant within FIFA. Sepp Blatter, in particular, became the face of alleged extortion schemes, and he operated with impunity while at the helm of the organization for 17 years, from 1998 until his forced resignation in 2015 amid an FBI corruption probe. He’s banned for life from all football-related FIFA activities. If you’re new to the organization’s alleged deep connection to corruption, Netflix offers a brilliant 2022 documentary, FIFA Uncovered. In that documentary, Gianni Infantino appears in his previous capacity as Secretary General of UEFA (2009-2016) and later as the newly elected FIFA president, who vowed to root out corruption and hand the beautiful game back to the people where it belongs.

That, as it turns out, was all wishful thinking.