‘Winds of Winter’ Release Date and Spoilers: George R.R. Martin Reveals One King is Still Alive in the Books

Even though George R.R. Martin continues to keep mum about the release date for his highly anticipated book, "Winds of Winter," the author is not shying away from revealing teasers from the book.

Based from his response on his LiveJournal blog, Not A Blog, Stannis Baratheon is not dead. (Spoilers Alert*) In the end of "A Dance with Dragons," the fifth book of the seven-book "A Song of Ice and Fire" series, which "Games of Thrones" is based on, Jon Snow, the lead commander of the Night's Watch, receives a letter supposedly from Ramsay Bolton. The letter reads:

"Your false king is dead, bastard. He and all his host were smashed in seven days of battle. I have his magic sword. Tell his red whore."

Since there is no confirmation that Baratheon is dead, both in the books and in the show, fans have theorized that the letter is fake. They argued that the letter was written to get Snow to head south and help them, which he was planning on doing before the men of the Night's Watch turned against him and stabbed him to death. Snow's death is also being questioned.

Martin's latest post seems to confirm this theory. On his blog, under his "Off to Spokane" post, one fan wrote, "alright mr Martin, lets cut the crap, is Stannis alive or dead."

Martin replied, "In my books? Alive, beyond a doubt."

Even though Martin did not kill of Baratheon, it does not mean that the show will follow suit. The show has diverted from the books' story lines numerous times already. On top of the creative differences, the show has caught up with the books and with no new book released yet, the show would have to rely on the writers as opposed to Martin's story.

Martin recently acknowledged the possibility that the show would finish before his seventh book, meaning that the "bittersweet" ending he has planned might not make it onto the big screen.

"There was a period where I was worried about that," Martin said. "Then I said, to hell with that. Worrying about it isn't going to change it one way or another. I still sit down at the typewriter, and I have to write the next scene and the next sentence...I'm just going to tell my story, and they're telling their story and adapting my books, and we shall see. "

There is currently no release date for "Winds of Winter" but rumors claim that the book will be released before the start of season 6 of "Games of Thrones."