George R. R. Martin used an Aug. 3 post on Not A Blog to say he has lost friends, battled sadness and depression, and is falling further behind. He also wrote that he turned 77 and that old age brings its own problems, a blunt update from a writer whose blog readers usually arrive looking for progress on The Winds of Winter or his TV work.
Not A Blog in 2026
Martin said his blog had been updated throughout 2026, but the last post he wrote himself was on February 19. The rest, he wrote, came from his “mighty minions,” which makes the Aug. 3 note feel less like a routine site update and more like a personal interruption in a year of delegated posts.
He paired that personal note with a professional one: “One highlight you may already know,” he wrote, before adding that “Emmy finalists for 2026 have been announced, and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms nabbed nine nominations — yes, 9, not damn [sic] — including the big one, Best Drama. The awards ceremony will be Monday, September 14 at the Peacock Theatre in Los Angeles. I hope to attend… but that depends on… well, on a lot of things.”
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
The praise for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms matters because Martin worked closely with Ira Parker as an executive producer and writer on the project. For readers tracking his adaptation interests, that line gives a clear priority: he chose to spotlight a title tied to active recognition and left House of the Dragon out of the post.
That omission lands harder because he had previously criticized House of the Dragon, and the deleted post titled “Beware the Butterflies” had promised to write about “everything that's gone wrong” with the adaptation. The final episode of House of the Dragon was airing on Sunday on HBO Max, so the silence was not a neutral one; it drew a bright line between the series he chose to praise and the one he did not name.
September 14 at Peacock Theatre
Martin’s most immediate public checkpoint is Monday, September 14, when the awards ceremony is scheduled at the Peacock Theatre in Los Angeles. He said he hopes to attend, but only if “a lot of things” line up, which is the closest thing in the post to a near-term next step.
The useful read for fans is simple: this was not a progress update on The Winds of Winter, and it was not a clean health bulletin either. It was a 77-year-old author saying he is losing ground, then pivoting to the one screen project he wanted to celebrate, which makes the post feel less like reassurance than a hard reminder that his blog now carries personal and professional news at once.
