Author George R.R. Martin recently attended this year's WorldCon aka MidAmerican Con II, and during his panel he discussed his writing pace and how he handles his writing duties. As per a report from Winter is Coming, the book has been in development for five years, since "A Dance with Dragons" was released back in 2011.

"There's not much I can tell you. It's slow. I'm a slow and painstaking writer - always have been. Sometimes I don't know how the hell I do it. I sit down, and on a good day stories come out. And on a bad day, I struggle and I read my email," he explained.

As stated in the report, one of the main reasons for the delay is because Martin is also busy with multiple projects other than the "Song of Ice and Fire" novel series and "A Game of Thrones," the HBO series based on his books. He is working on developing other television series and is an editor on the "Wild Cards" book series as well.

"The Winds of Winter" is one of the most highly anticipated books in recent years and many fans of the series were disappointed when it did not launch prior to the premiere of "Game of Thrones" season 6 since the show would now go beyond what the books had and may spoil potential plot points from the novels.

Martin's publisher at Harper Collins, Jane Johnson, explained in an interview with Newsweek that even she is unaware at how complete the book is and when it will be finished. Johnson also went on record to defend the book's slow development and delay in publication.

"It's worth saying he's written the best part of two million words of this series in the past 20 years," explained Johnson. "So given the average length of a novel is around 100,000 words, that's 20 novels in most writers' worlds."

It is important to note that the gap between "A Feast for Crows" and "A Dance with Dragons" was 6 years and in comparison the current gap between "A Dance with Dragons" and "The Winds of Winter" is still shorter. It is rumored that the latter will release in 2017, prior to the premiere of "Game of Thrones" season 7.