It might be hard to be in George R.R. Martin's shoes nowadays, especially when avid fans of the "A Song of Ice and Fire" book saga continue to bug him regarding the most-awaited release of "The Winds of Winter." While the first five books were released from 1996 to 2011, the sixth installment in the best-selling epic fantasy book series is still on his desk. 

"The Winds of Winter" will follow the events in "A Dance With Dragons," which came out four years ago. Because of the long wait, fans continue to ask him about the book's release date. But during his recent public appearance at the Sanquan sci-fi convention in Spokane, Washington, the author joked that he is already fed up of answering the book's release date questions. 

"Don't ask me when the book is going to be done — I'll ask my minions to lop your head off," Martin playfully said. 

But while the author refuses to give out the specific release schedule of the book, he willingly shared that one of the characters who is believed to have died — both in the previous book and in HBO's TV adaptation  "Game of Thrones" season 5 — is still alive.

In his LiveJournal account, Martin revealed Wednesday that Stannis Baratheon lives on in the book saga.

"In my books? Alive beyond a doubt," Martin responded when asked if King Robert's brother is really dead. 

In the books, Ramsay Snow spreads the news that Stannis is already dead, but the released preview chapters for "The Winds of Winter" reveals that the Bolton son is not telling the truth. On the other hand, Stannis seemed to have been killed by Brienne of Tarth in the TV series, but his actual death scene was not shown. 

While Stannis' fate has been confirmed in the book series, his fate in the HBO adaptation is still unknown.