Recent rumors regarding George R. R. Martin's sixth book in the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series, "The Winds of Winter," suggest that the author is finishing it together with its seventh installment, "A Dream of Spring." Previous speculations ranged from a potential cancellation of the book to GRRM's publisher considering hiring writers to help the aging author finish the novel.

The rumored release of "TWOW" is expected some time in 2017 at the earliest, but it is also expected to be pushed further as the author himself hinted that he is not done yet and has numerous amounts of manuscripts that need to be put together. HBO's "Game of Thrones" TV series that is based on GRRM's novels is said to have taken so much of the author's time resulting to the sequel's delay.

Independent UK previously reported that the sixth and seventh books might be released together as some fans hinted online as the author's way of satisfying their thirst for the sequel to "A Dance With Dragons" released last 2011. It is widely known that avid fans of the book series have been very vocal about their disappointment that "TWOW" is taking too long.

What is surprising at present is that it seems like the upcoming season 7 of "Game of Thrones" scheduled for airing in 2017 will be based mainly on GRRM's notes and manuscripts as it will most likely come out before "TWOW" is completely finished.

GRRM's former assistant Ty Franck revealed what is taking the author so long to finish the book. "Well, he doesn't actually write on an old DOS computer. He did write on an old DOS computer, and then it died. Actually, I built him the computer he writes on now, which is a state-of-the-art machine running DOS and WordStar 4.0," Franck said in an iTech Post article.

In the same article, Franck also revealed that the author's computer does not have internet access for fear that his works may get hacked or damaged by a virus. "He is much more of a sit down at the keyboard, wait for the muse to strike, and bang out whatever chapter is sort of banging around in your head at that time," he explained. "That works for him; he's able to produce work, so more power to him, but that just seems like a really inefficient way to get a story out, from my perspective."

GRRM and his publisher Random House have yet to announce an official release date for "The Winds of Winter" and "A Dream of Spring."