Dear George R.R. Martin,
It’s me, Casey. We’ve never met, but I’m one of your millions of longtime supporters. I started reading your books about a decade ago when “A Feast for Crows” came out, so you know I’m a REAL fan, not one of those rhesus monkeys who started dangling from HBO’s “Game of Thrones” bandwagon four years ago.
The reason I’m writing is because I’m worried, George. We all are.
You’ve been working hard on the Song of Ice and Fire series for almost 20 years now. (Or is it hardly working? Hahahaha. Sorry, I’m in a mood.) But the thing is, you don’t seem to be making much progress. I even heard a rumor you’re considering stretching the series from seven books to eight, but surely that was just a joke and not some sort of cash grab.
Regardless, you’re not on pace, George. Time called you “An American Tolkien,” and that’s certainly accurate in terms of your books’ epic scope — plus you’ve got that whole “R.R.” thing going on — but you’re lagging behind your namesake. He finished “The Lord of the Rings” in 12 years, and that included the break he took to, you know, fight in World War I.
I don’t mean to sound rude or impatient; it’s just, your fans want to find out what gruesome — not to mention emotionally traumatizing — end you’ve planned for the characters we’ve come to love and loathe over the years.
And let’s face it, at 66, you’re no spring chicken. If you were a marathon runner in tiptop shape, we might not be concerned, but you’re, well, you know … not. To put it bluntly, we don’t want you to die before you finish.
In our defense, it’s not like an author’s death hasn’t left his fans hanging before. Remember what happened to “The Wheel of Time” when Robert Jordan died? He was eight years younger than you. (No pressure.)
I know you hate it when fans bring up your health, George. I don’t blame you. No one wants to face their own mortality. Besides, you’ve got mirrors to remind you of that. We’d just like you to please hurry things up a bit. Maybe take a couple of months to get away from it all, just you and your typewriter.
But the last thing you need is more stress. I don’t have to point out to you that nerd icons like Leonard Nimoy and Terry Pratchett have been the Reaper’s victims du jour of late. Your novels prove you’re quite familiar with the ways of death, so no doubt, you’ve taken their passing to heart and are already knuckling down on “The Winds of Winter” as you read this. I certainly hope I didn’t interrupt you.
After all, if there’s one thing you’ve taught us, George, it’s that winter comes for us all.
Contact Casey Phillips at cphillips@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6205. Follow him on Twitter at @PhillipsCTFP.