I was working for his publisher in 2016, and the whole company was geared towards a September release for the Winds of Winter - editing, marketing, physical printing, everything. It was not the first time, but they had extracted a cast-iron promise that the book would be finished, and tha's as good as it gets in publishing. September came, then left, then more months, then more... His editor chose to live in a cave in the mountains of Morocco.