Stephen King is famous for his writing speed; from IT to Carrie to The Stand to Pet Cemetary to The Green Mile to The Shining, the man has been pounding out books at lightning speed for decades, creating many classics in the horror genre and elsewhere. Meanwhile, George R.R. Martin is famous for how slow he writes; he's been working on the sixth book in his Song of Ice and Fire series, The Winds of Winter, for 14 years at this point, and he knows you're tired of waiting.
That's between Martin and his fans. Between Martin and King, there seems to be a mutual respect. Lately, a discussion the two had on stage in 2016 has been making the rounds online, including a touching anecdote from King about when the Song of Ice and Fire books helped through a difficult period.
King recalls when he was suffering from sciatica, a condition that sends pain radiating through your back and legs; that made it hard to lie down, so King would find himself restless at night. "I had a book that I was supposed to record. We were in the Sarasota area, and I had to go to Bradenton, and it hurt to drive. Everything hurt, and I couldn't sleep," he said. "So one night while I'm awake, I'm saying to myself, I'll try one of these f***ing George Martin books and see if this thing is any good. And it just carried me away [...], which is what books are supposed to do. And the last thing I had expected from those books is what page-turners they are. And I just got lost."
"Then when I had to go and record this thing, I had the audio versions, and I'd plug in the CDs in the car. They saved my life, man. So, thank you [to George R.R. Martin]."
If you watch the video, Martin seems rather touched by King's story. I don't know if King mentions when exactly this happened, but if he's listening to audiobooks on CDs in his car, it must have been a while ago.
Hopefully it won't be too much longer before Martin finally publishes The Winds of Winter and we all can get lost together. In the meantime, Stephen King has a new book out, because of course he does: a crime novel called Never Flinch. And while Martin might be taking his sweet time with The Winds of Winter, there are multiple TV projects based on his books on the air or coming to the air. That includes the third season of House of the Dragon, based on his book Fire & Blood — that one's due out on HBO late next year — and a new Game of Thrones prequel show called A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms; that one's out early next year.