Game of Thrones may-akda promises a Westeros book in 2018 — maybe 2 

 saga, might be finished and released this year, 

 author George R.R. Martin gave fans an update on the highly-anticipated novel — er,

“I am still working on it, I am still months away (how many? good question), I still have good days and bad days, and that’s all I care to say,” 

 or the first volume of Fire and Blood will be the first to hit the bookstores is hard to say at this juncture, but I do think you will have a Westeros book from me in 2018… and who knows, maybe two. A boy can dream…”

Martin buried the news in his latest LiveJournal blog post where promoted the release of author Gardner Dozois’ new anthology 

and announced that the planned book of his “fake histories on the Targaryen kings” — “a volume we called (in jest) the 

 or (more seriously) Fire and Blood” — will be published in two volumes, the first of which will be published in late 2018 or early 2019.

, though, Martin shot down rumors about the reason for its delay.

“I’ve seen some truly weird reports about

on the internet of late, by ‘journalists’ who make their stories up out of whole cloth,” he said.  “I don’t know which story is more absurd, the one that says the book is finished and I’ve been sitting on it for some nefarious reason, or the one that says I have no pages. Both ‘reports’ are equally false and equally moronic.”

, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter

was in January, when he admitted he had “made progress but not as much as I hoped a year ago when I thought to be done by now.” At the time, he thought the book would be released in 2017, conceding he thought he same thing last year.”

Get more details about what to expect from 

1 Sherrilyn Kenyon shares cover, excerpt for \'Death Doesn\'t Bargain\'

3 DC Comics boss: Superman, Dr. Manhattan integral to \'Doomsday Clock\'

4 \'Sherlock\' co-creator promises more episodes \'when our careers have dipped\'

5 Here\'s how the new \'Star Wars\' novels will connect to \'The Last Jedi\'