Will the Sixth Game of Thrones Book Be Out Before the New Season? 

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is one of rumors and speculation, whispers from little birds, and ravens bearing news from faraway places. While most of the Internet has been obsessing over the latest Kit Harington sightings around the Ireland set of the upcoming HBO season, which will air next spring, more enterprising book fans have been quietly freaking out on fan forums over clues that the long (long, long,

) awaited sixth book in the "Song of Ice and Fire" series,

, may be published in early 2016—before the sixth season of the show begins airing. Thank the old gods and the new! It’s been almost five years since the last installment of the book series was published and feels like even longer;

came out in 2011, and George R. R. Martin has promised that "A Song of Ice and Fire" comprises at least seven books total. Will the sixth book beat the sixth season out early next year? A rundown of the evidence so far.

George R. R. Martin was in New York July 30 through August 10, ostensibly for “a wedding,” according to his blog, but he also met with his editors and publishers while in the city:

"So I'm headed east the first week of August... for a wedding, yes, and no, that's private, so you don't get to hear any more about it... but I am going to see my editors and publishers and agents while I am in town, and do some other fun stuff... including a ball game."

Martin’s editor, Anne Groell, didn’t tweet for nearly the whole month of September, from September 2 through the 30. In April, she tweeted about editors’ absences from social media being significant indicators of how busy they are.

The Polish translator of "A Song of Ice and Fire," Michael Jakuszewski, has reportedly been asked by the publisher “to reserve time at the end of the year” for

translation. If legit, this seems like the biggest clue of all.

, an anthology of the first “official prequel novellas” to "A Song of Ice and Fire." But

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