This shyt prob won't come out next year either, and if it does it'll be a late release (winter) I bet. I've lost faith. As I said in my last post...his focus is clearly on the prequel. I'm assuming he's writing a screen treatment, ie fleshing out characters and creating episode plot points. The competition of trying to create the prequel idea that HBO picks up is probably a major driving force too. He wants his shyt to be the one they pick.
This is even crazier when you consider that like 2-3 years ago he thought he was 6 months from completing the book
I understood why ADWD took forever. He was struggling with some major things, including the Meereenese Knot (ie sequencing who arrived in Meereen when, how they interacted with Dany etc). Plus he re-wrote the book after scrapping the "5 year gap" thing. So it made sense. So what's his excuse for Winds being delayed lol? It may be plot related, he has lots of plots being juggled in the air...but I'm betting it's due to alllllll the distractions.