"Game of Thrones" is always killing our dreams. Then again, death isn't always The End in George R.R. Martin's world, and in this case, it's just a delay. No, we're not talking more about Jon Snow (he's totally coming back), this time we mean the long-awaited sixth book in GRRM's "A Song of Ice and Fire" series. There are seven books coming in total and it has been four years since book five, "A Dance With Dragons," was published. Fans are hoping "The Winds of Winter" will be published before "Game of Thrones" Season 6 arrives in 2016. That may still be the case -- and excerpts have been shared online -- but a rumor was spreading that there was already a manuscript out, read by the Season 6 directors as they prepared the new season.

It all started from a misunderstanding, then led to a game of telephone, based on director Jack Bender's Reddit AMA. He's one of the directors helming episodes for Season 6, and as WinterIsComing relayed, he had this exchange during his AMA:

Q: "Were you able to read an advance copy of Book 6 of Game of Thrones to prepare for directing next season's episodes?"

A: "Yes."

Yes! It sounded promising, but apparently it was too good to be true. That convo started to spread as a hint to "Winds of Winter" being done and making its rounds to The Powers That Be for use in the HBO show's Season 6 and -- fans hoped -- published soon for the rest of us. However, cold water was splashed on the idea by Elio García and Linda Antonsson, who co-wrote "The World of Ice and Fire" along with GRRM.

Here are their tweets, referencing GoT showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss as "D&D":

Sad trombone. Meanwhile, the highest authority is GRRM himself, and his latest tweet does not address the speculation, it's just a look at his own fine self:

So cute! Love it. Now get back to work.

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