'The Winds of Winter' release date news update: still no confirmed release date, but Martin teases dark future for some characters

George R.R. Martin hasn't been sharing details lately about how "The Winds of Winter" ("TWoW") is progressing, so fans don't really know for sure how far along he is with the book.

A report claims that "TWoW" was supposed to come out during the Christmas season this year because the book's title has the word "winter" in it. Okay, that theory is a bit of a stretch, but at least the report also mentions the comments Martin made about the book when he attended the Guadalajara International Book Fair (FIL) earlier this month.

"There are a lot of dark chapters right now in the book that I'm writing," Martin told the crowd attending FIL 2016 (via Entertainment Weekly). "It is called The Winds of Winter, and I've been telling you for 20 years that winter was coming. Winter is the time when things die, and cold and ice and darkness fill the world, so this is not going to be the happy feel-good that people may be hoping for. Some of the characters [are] in very dark places."

Well, the entire "A Song of Ice and Fire" series has been dark and gritty since the start, so Martin's comments do not come as a surprise.

He also said that things always have to get worse before it could get better, so that means readers would see their favorite characters at their lowest ebb before they could rise up like the surging waves.

So, when will TWoW come out? A report on TravelersToday.com has a title suggesting that the release date for the book has been revealed. But unfortunately, nothing has been confirmed so far, so the title is a little misleading. Sources believe that TWoW should come out sometime next year, but it's never a sure thing because Martin tends to take his time.