George R.R. Martin is one of the most famous authors alive. He was already a popular author when HBO adapted his Song of Ice and Fire novels as Game of Thrones, but that made him a household name. For years, fans were clamoring for him to release the next book in his series, The Winds of Winter, and for years, it didn't materialize. There are definitely fans out there who, whenever Martin's name came up, become dismissive and cynical, wondering if we'll ever get to read Winds.
And maybe we won't, although I still have hope. Regardless, there are also lots of fans who have deeply enjoyed Martin's work, with or without The Winds of Winter. There are a lot of them on the r/pureasoiaf subreddit, and last year they came together to do something nice for the author.
It started in early 2024, when Martin wrote a blog post about 2023 having been "a nightmare of a year" for him; on a personal level, friends of Martin's passed away, while on a more general level there were a lot of stressful, upsetting things happening all over the world. Over a year later, things have not calmed down, to put it mildly.
And so the folks at PureASOIAF hatched a plan: they created a Google document encouraging people to "Say Something Nice To George!" Hundreds of fans responded from around the world, including popular YouTubers, artists like Fran Vegas and Ertac Altinoz, and others. While you might suspect that people would take the opportunity to troll, organizers say that of "the nearly 1,000 letters we received, fewer than a dozen were overly negative or trolling. The vast majority were genuine well-wishing and thanks—Which was amazing to see and directly contradicts the notion that ASOIAF's fan community is toxic, aggressive, and bitter."
Encouraged, the organizers decided to compile the messages into a leather-bound book, complete with artwork, produced by an artisan bookstore. Although folks from Martin's camp offered to help foot the bill for the project, the organizers wanted it to be entirely community-funded. It all climaxed last month, when the book itself got into Martin's hands:
George R.R. Martin receives a leather-bound compendium of encouraging messages from fans, spearheaded by r/pureasoiaf pic.twitter.com/C1O2D7Xq3q
— Winter is Coming (@WiCnet) July 8, 2025
I think this is a very sweet effort on behalf of the fans. It's inspiring to see fans put their minds to something this unambiguously positive. I hope Martin enjoys his gift.
As for The Winds of Winter, fans continue to wait, although I'm starting to get a little more attentive than usual:
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