[Update Below]Game Of Thrones is enjoying its biggest ratings ever as the penultimate season nears its end, but not everyone has been keeping up with all those dramatic dragon battles and sexy spelunking trips. GoT author George R.R. Martin is apparently too busy these days to watch the TV show. Maybe he is afraid that if he watches the show, he'll, um, unconsciously be influenced by some of it?

So what's he been doing instead? Furiously rewriting the long-awaited next book in the series? Attending fan conventions? Trying on hats? Most likely answer: all of the above.

Trying out new hats...part one. pic.twitter.com/rimPne1v7k
— George RR Martin (@GRRMspeaking) August 10, 2017

Trying out new hats...part two. This lovely sombrero was given to me by my fans during the Guadalajara book fair. pic.twitter.com/TMbaxZ1X95
— George RR Martin (@GRRMspeaking) August 15, 2017

Trying out new hats...part three. pic.twitter.com/JGY28jhQMI
— George RR Martin (@GRRMspeaking) August 23, 2017

Martin spoke to Metro about the adaptation of his beloved A Song Of Ice and Fire series, and was adamant that the show and the books had taken different paths: "The book series and TV adaptation go their separate ways," Martin told Metro. "On the screen characters are killed right and left. About twenty of them have died already, which are quite alive to me and will appear in a new book." He blames a jam-packed schedule filled with "writing and touring" for keeping him from watching the show, but he also multiple TV and book projects lined up—and he seems to be watching other TV shows.

The 2nd season of @TheLastKingdom based on Bernard Cornwell's Saxon series, was just as good as the first. I hope there will be a season 3. pic.twitter.com/xaxs7jXtWn
— George RR Martin (@GRRMspeaking) August 9, 2017

As for the many delays in finishing the sixth book in the series, The Winds Of Winter, Martin explained, "I did not start to write slower over the years. I was working on the first book for six years and four years on the second one. Fantasists who release their novels every year do not offer books of large volume. These are not 1.5k pages like mine, but, for example, 500. In addition, I have not become younger. Age does not add enthusiasm." He still couldn't offer a date for the book's release, though some poor naive fools have said 2018 seems possible.

Martin also told Metro that the book isn't a real-world political allegory ("If I wanted to write about the real world, I would have done it."), he doesn't take ideas from fans, and while he feels closest to Tyrion Lannister, he looks "more like Samwell Tarly."

My biggest question after this interview isn't whether Martin actively hates the path GoT has taken on TV, or whether Martin really truly always intended for this story to culminate in sexy incest. No, my biggest question is how the heck did Metro snag an interview with the author! Martin, let's talk.

Update: Well, something felt off about that Metro interview (with a Russian reporter with only two bylines in America), and it indeed was: Martin emailed EW to clarify that he does, indeed, watch Game Of Thrones. He told them he was attending a fan convention in Russia when he told fans he doesn't wan't any TV while abroad, and he'd fallen behind on season seven of Thrones as a result. He thinks perhaps his words were mangled in translation.

[Update] George R.R. Martin Does Watch 'Game Of Thrones' (He's Just Very Behind)