George R.R. Martin has had a difficult year.
The Game of Thrones author and House of the Dragon co-creator says that he’s recently struggled with depression, despite enjoying some great moments in his professional life.
In what the author described as his first self-penned blog post in six months, Martin wrote: “This year has been … stressful, to say the least. So much has been happening, it’s been overwhelming. Some great things. Dreams coming true. But there have been nightmares too. I have lost friends. Battled sadness and depression. The worst may be yet to come. I turned seventy-seven last September, and I tell you, getting old is no fun. But there have been amazing times as well.”
Continued Martin: “I suppose that’s just life. Of course, I knew that. If you’ve read my stories, you know that.”
Martin noted his other blog posts since February have been written by his “minions” (assistants) and that he’d make an effort to post some more update. “But my posts are likely to be short and rushed.”
One highlight, Martin noted, was that the first season of HBO’s A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms earned nine Emmy nominations, “including the big one” — outstanding drama series.
Another highlight has been the opening of Game of Thrones: The Mad King, a prequel to Thrones staged at the UK’s prestigious Royal Shakespeare Company. The entire first run has sold out, and the production has only just started previews. “Having the RSC bring Westeros to the stage is so incredible that sometimes I fear am dreaming the whole thing,” Martin wrote in February.
In addition, House of the Dragon returned for a third season, which has enjoyed good reviews and strong ratings.
Martin previously discussed aging during a Hollywood Reporter cover story profile in January,. “I never thought I’d live to be 77,” Martin said. “I’m old, so I have some old-people stuff. My lower back hurts sometimes. I don’t like to stand around. But I feel OK. Maybe you should make that your headline: ‘George R.R. Martin Is Not Dying.’”
One of Martin’s longstanding frustrations has been trying to finish his sixth Ice and Fire novel, The Winds of Winter, which he’s been working on for more than a decade. “I wrote a Tyrion chapter I just loved,” the author said. “Then I looked at it and said: ‘I can’t do this, it will change the whole book. I’ll make this into a series of dreams. No! That doesn’t work either …’” Martin noted he would “hate” not finishing Winds, that giving up on the project would feel like “total failure.”
Next up for Martin is the second season of Knight, which is based on his novella The Sworn Sword, and is expected early next year. The showrunner, Ira Parker, recently told THR that Martin gave him unpublished pages of Dunk and Egg’s adventures that were incorporated into the scripts.
