The section Pedro mentions from notablog:
"As for finishing my book… I fear that New Zealand would distract me entirely too much. Best leave me here in Westeros for the nonce. But I tell you this — if I don’t have THE WINDS OF WINTER in hand when I arrive in New Zealand for worldcon, you have here my formal written permission to imprison me in a small cabin on White Island, overlooking that lake of sulfuric acid, until I’m done. Just so long as the acrid fumes do not screw up my old DOS word processor, I’ll be fine."
My understanding and I will have to and find where I read it is that Martin has already picked a writer(s) to finish the series if in the unfortunate case he does not. Or maybe I just dreamed this up which could be a distinct possibility.
Me!So TWoW 2020.? Are there any suckers who will actually be optimists about this?
I personally don't think he will have it finished by then, or that we'll lock him up.I note he doesn't say he WILL have it finished, he just says us peoples in NZ have permission to lock him up until he does. I'm weary at best. To be able to pick up my copy at CoNZealand while meeting GRRM in person, that would be awesome, but I'm not getting my hopes up.
Definitely going to be there though. Wellington is only 2 hours drive from where I live.
And him loving NZ, well... who doesn't? Wouldn't want to live anywhere else!
still thisDum spiro spero.
or perhaps more accurate would be 'While George breathes there is hope'