So while I may have missed my self-imposed deadline to get the first draft of A House Divided done be the end of 2015, I am somewhat mollified by the news that I’m not the only one.

Just recently, George R.R. Martin, announced that the latest volume of A Song of Ice and Fire, The Winds Of Winter had not been completed by year’s end and, as such, would not be published before the new season of Game of Thrones starts in a few months.

As he puts it in the post, he would much rather take more time and make the book the best it could possibly be, rather than try to rush it. He also said that sometimes the writing goes well and sometimes it doesn’t, something I can certainly understand.

Now I am by no means drawing any kind of comparison between him and myself, beyond the single example that we are both trying to finish a book. There are probably millions waiting on The Winds of Winter coming out; I’m fairly sure that there are less than ten people interested in A House Divided being done (hey, you have to start somewhere, right?).

Still it is, in a way, comforting that someone who has been writing for decades can still hit setbacks and delays with being able to write. Also comforting is that in a following post, Martin (it seems somehow disrespectful to call him George, since I’ve never met the man) says that the majority of the responses he got from his readers were positive and agreeing that they would rather wait than get a potentially inferior book.

I just hope that by taking the extra time on my book (I have no worries about his being good, after all, he’s a professional) that I can make it as good as can be. Plus I do have the benefit of not have a publisher waiting so I can redraft and polish to my heart’s content….