George RR Martin Interview: Update on A Dance with Dragons

A new interview with George RR Martin has surfaced and with it, updates to A Dance With Dragons (Book 5 in The Song of Ice and Fire). Listen to the audio/podcast here or catch the notes below.

Key points:

* George has over 1000 finished manuscript pages for his next book, A Dance With Dragons.
* His previous four books in the series have come in between 1100 manuscript pages and 1500 manuscripts pages.
* He thinks the book will be around 1200, although he will not put an expected finish date on the project
* HBO is moving forward with the Ice & Fire pilot. It is going to be shot in October in Ireland.
* Originally, the story of A Dance With Dragons was meant to be the second book of a trilogy, but the first book grew in the telling.
* Sean Bean has been cast as Ned Stark.
* George talks about why Dance is late, due to the complexity of the series and the amount of rewriting he does.
* Listen to the podcast for the rest!

Good news all around.