'Winds of Winter' release date: Another delay ahead?

It appears that much of the news about George R.R. Martin's work in progress "Winds of Winter" involves the novel's delay. This will not be any different.

There are reports going around that the bestselling author lost the manuscript for the sixth installment in the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series, thus pushing the release date further.

Although several media outlets reports of such, there is no information that elaborates on the report. Martin himself has been silent since January when he first announced the "Winds of Winter" delay.

Fans are allegedly growing impatient hoping that Martin will at least keep them up to speed on where he is in the process of writing "Winds of Winter."

He did say early this year on his blog along with the delay announcement that a lot of chapters have been written, but there are a lot more to go and that is not even counting the rewriting process, which will also take time.

Martin's fellow award-winning author Neil Gaiman came to his defense about a fan's complain of the "Winds of Winter" delay that is "letting [him] down."

"Look, this may not be palatable... and I keep trying to come up with a better way to put it, but the simplicity of things, at least from my perspective is this: George R.R. Martin is not your b---h," Gaiman wrote.

"This is a useful thing to know, perhaps a useful thing to point out when you find yourself thinking that possibly George is, indeed, your b---h, and should be out there typing what you want to read right now. People are not machines. Writers and artists aren't machines," he went on to say.

"Winds of Winter" is expected to be released sometime in 2018 based on Martin's writing speed although there is no telling if this will come to pass as the novelist will have the final word.