George R.R. Martin likely feels fortunate in many ways. But that doesn't preclude him from needing to remind people to back off a bit. Last year the author of the famed A Song of Ice Fire series - understandably - responded to the Swiss daily, Tages Anzeiger, in strong terms regarding concerns about his age and health. We won't link to that (keeping things fairly polite).

Obviously stressing Martin out isn't going to help him complete the next installment any quicker. And now he's sought to remind fans of the TV series Game of Thrones, adapted from the A Song... books, exactly that. On his 'Not A Blog' livejournal page, Martin addresses one or two other matters and then is quite clear:

Meanwhile, other wars are breaking out on other fronts, centered around the last few episodes of GAME OF THRONES. It is not my intention to get involved in those, nor to allow them to take over my blog and website, so please stop emailing me about them, or posting off-topic comments here on my Not A Blog. Wage those battles on Westeros, or Tower of the Hand, or Boiled Leather, or Winter Is Coming, or Watchers on the Walls. Anyplace that isn't here, actually.

Yes, I know that THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER named me "the third most powerful writer in Hollywood" last December. You would be surprised at how little that means. I cannot control what anyone else says or does, or make them stop saying or doing it, be it on the fannish or professional fronts. What I can control is what happens in my books, so I am going to return to that chapter I've been writing on THE WINDS OF WINTER now, thank you very much.

Hard to argue with, that. We wouldn't want to either - this is the man who in July 2013 destroyed a guitar, with Neil Gaiman for support. Seriously, let's just let him work. After all, it's not like there's a shortage of other great books to read in the meantime.