George R.R. Martin apparently now hiding out in a cabin to get this goddamn book done

Earlier this week, A Song Of Ice And Fire author/professional getting-yelled-at-by-the-internet man George R.R. Martin finally came clean about his struggles with finishing The Winds Of Winter, the sixth novel in the bestselling, franchise-launching book series. Now it sounds like he’s officially buckling down to get the thing done, with a new Wall Street Journal piece about his efforts to complete his latest book suggesting that he is “in hiding” and sequestered in a “remote mountain hideaway whose location he refuses to disclose.” It’s kind of like he’s some sort of villainous supervillain, if said villain’s plan was to finally figure out how the fuck to wrap up that Brienne/Lady Stoneheart cliffhanger from 13 goddamn years ago.

To be fair, it’s not like Martin hasn’t been writing; he continues to work on the development of HBO’s Game Of Thrones prequel shows, and he’s got a new book set in Westeros—Fire & Blood, a prequel chronicling the history of the dragon-wielding conquerors of the Targaryen family—out next week. It’s just that Winds Of Winter has officially become something of a massive pain in the ass to write, as Martin attempts to juggle an ever-expanding number of perspectives and storylines across the book. For what it’s worth, Martin says he’s writing seven days a week at this point, minus Sundays during football season.

The “private hermitage” aspect of the WSJ story was picked up, unsurprisingly, by the fervent Martin watchers of fan-site Winter Is Coming, who noted that this isn’t the first time he’s talked about pulling out all the stops to get a book done; Martin previously described his final writing location for 2011's A Dance With Dragons as “in the bunker,” which it sounds like he may have returned to—metaphorically or not—to get fans off his case again, at least for the next few years.