George R. R. Martin has confirmed the publication of more fictional Ice and Fire histories, and says he has “months” to go on The Winds of Winter.

Writing on his Not-A-Blog blog, Martin addresses the ongoing rumors of The Winds of Winter‘s publication status, offering neither hope nor quite despair to hungry fans.

“Yes, I know you all want to know about The Winds of Winter,” Martin writes, lamenting recent fallacious reports about the book.

“I don’t know which story is more absurd, the one that says the book is finished and I’ve been sitting on it for some nefarious reason, or the one that says I have no pages,” he says. “Both ‘reports’ are equally false and equally moronic.”

“I am still working on it,” he says. “I am still months away (how many? good question), I still have good days and bad days, and that’s all I care to say.”

As fans begin praying to the old gods and the new for as minimal a month count as possible, Martin also somewhat-formally announces new volumes set in the world of A Song of Ice and Fire. Martin’s fake histories of the Targaryen dynasty, titled Fire and Blood, has long been a rumored project for the ever-toiling author.

But in a truly vintage George R. R. Martin move, he wrote too much stuff to fit in just one book.

“We have so much material that it’s been decided to publish the book in two volumes,” the author writes. “The first of those will cover the history of Westeros from Aegon’s Conquest up to and through the regency of the boy king Aegon III (the Dragonbane). That one is largely written, and will include (for the first time) a complete detailed history of the Targaryen civil war, the Dance of the Dragons.”

Martin anticipates that the first part of Fire and Blood will be published late next year or in early 2019. “The second volume, which will carry the history from Aegon III up to Robert’s Rebellion, is largely unwritten,” he says, “So that one will be a few more years in coming.”

Er, yes George. We assumed as much.

“Whether The Winds of Winter or the first volume of Fire and Blood will be the first to hit the bookstores is hard to say at this juncture, but I do think you will have a Westeros book from me in 2018… and who knows, maybe two,” Martin writes. “A boy can dream…”

In the meantime, fans of A Song of Ice and Fire can glean more historical information in a new short story to be published in Gardner Dozois’ anthology, The Book of Swords. Titled “Sons of the Dragon, the new story will reach back into Targaryen history to recount the reigns of reigns of Aegon the Conquerer’s two sons, Aenys I and Maegor the Cruel.

The anthology will be published on Oct. 10, and is guaranteed to entertain while satisfying absolutely no one.