"Game of Thrones" will return to TV screens this month, but when "The Winds of Winter" will be released is still a mystery. One thing is certain, though, George R.R. Martin has really buckled down to work on his highly anticipated novel.

Fans were hoping that the sixth novel in Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" series would be released before season 6 of "Game of Thrones" reaches TV screens. But despite the author's efforts, he was unable to finish his work.

There have been numerous speculations on the delay, with some chiming in that Martin had writer's block, while others pointed to his other commitments and busy schedule. The author addressed all that in his blog Not a Blog and placed the blame solely on himself.

"You can blame my travels or my blog posts or the distractions of other projects and the Cocteau and whatever, but maybe all that had an impact... you can blame my age, and maybe that had an impact too...but if truth be told, sometimes the writing goes well and sometimes it doesn't, and that was true for me even when I was in my 20s," Martin explained.

The book's delay might have been a bitter pill to swallow for Martin and his legions of fans, but no one can deny the fact that the 67-year-old writer has been hard at work on "The Winds of Winter" ever since.

In a reply to a fan's query on his blog post, COLONY Is Coming, Martin admitted that he's not writing anything until he finishes "The Winds of Winter." He also revealed that he "dropped all my editing projects but Wild Cards."

However, it seems that some believe that the writer needed extra help as rumors surfaced that Neil Gaiman might help his fellow writer finish the book. The speculation presumably started when the "Neverwhere" writer was seen spending time in Martin's neighborhood. However, that's unlikely to happen as the award-winning fantasy writer is busy with his own projects and with his new baby.

Instead of wasting time worrying about the still unknown release date of "The Winds of Winter," fans would do well to just tune in to the premiere episode of "Game of Thrones" season 6 on Apr. 24.