The last installment of the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series was "A Dance with Dragons" which was released in 2011. It has already been six years since and fans are still anticipating the release of "The Winds of Winter."

Nevertheless, author George R.R. Martin may have given some hints that the sixth book in the series may actually be finished. In a recent post on his LiveJournal blog, Martin expressed, "I've been working so much of late that I have fallen way behind in my reading (sob) and my filmgoing." He also mentioned that he was a fan of a couple of TV shows like "Fargo" and "Better Call Saul" and even suggested checking out "The Last Kingdom" and "Good Girls Revolt."

Fans have speculated that Martin was able to accomplish a lot of writing for "The Winds of Winter, " maybe even to the point of finishing it. After accomplishing so much, he may be getting back to some of the shows he is a fan of. Fans also noted that his "Current Mood" was "Pleased," implying that he may have completed the novel and was satisfied with it. Therefore, fans are expecting it to debut in early 2018.

In terms of the plot, some of the characters who died in the TV series may not meet the same fate in the upcoming book. Martin teased in a reply to Mattia Costantini:

"'WINDS' will be different in some ways, but will parallel the show in others. At this point, there are probably a dozen characters who are dead on the show but alive in the books, so it would be impossible for the two to remain the same."

Therefore, those who die in the upcoming season of "Game of Thrones" might not do so in the book and possibly vice versa. However, if a character does die on the show, that would speak volumes about his fate in the books, or perhaps maybe none at all.

Fans of the book series will soon discover if "The Winds of Winter" will indeed come out sometime early next year. Meanwhile, "Game of Thrones" season 7 returns on Sunday, July 16 at 9 p.m. EDT on HBO.