Desperate rumor alert: Is The Winds of Winter release nearly here?

Fans of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire novels have been waiting over a decade for him to finish the next book in his saga, The Winds of Winter. The entirety of Game of Thrones, a show based on his series, came and went while he's been working on this one book, and the wait has gone from being funny to frustrating to back to funny again. When it finally does come out, I honestly don't know whether fans will laugh, cry or spontaneously combust.

But hope persists and rumors continue to fly. A new one popped up on deuxmoi, a popular Instagram account that publishes blind items about celebrities and entertainment industry gossip, much of it submitted by tipsters: they could be assistants, publicists, drivers, and maybe even the celebrities themselves. Deuxmoi has millions of followers, so it's popular, but its reporting is not ironclad. This could very much be an unfounded rumor.

With the disclaimer out of the way, what exactly is the rumor? An anonymous person going by "Winter Wolf" submitted this eyebrow-raiser:

"A prominent author from New Mexico has hired catering for an upcoming event at his house, likely celebrating the impending release of his long-awaited book. Allegedly, a big dragon-shaped cake is gonna be served at the party."

There are lot of "likely"s and "allegedly"s in there. Look, this is probably nothing, but obviously George R.R. Martin would be the New Mexico-based author (he lives in Santa Fe) ordering a dragon-shaped cake to celebrate the release of his "long-awaited" fantasy book. Although it would be hysterical if this rumor turned out to be true but it was an entirely different author who writes books about dragons celebrating their work.

More likely, this will come to nothing; there have been a lot of rumors about The Winds of Winter's release over the past 13 years and none of them have panned out. And yet, for A Song of Ice and Fire fans, hope springs eternal.

If Martin were to celebrate the completion of The Winds of Winter in the near future, it would dovetail nicely with the second season of House of the Dragon, which premieres on HBO and Max this upcoming Sunday, June 16 and which will run through the summer. It's nice to dream...

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