HBO is not the only entity pressuring grizzled sea captain George R. R. Martin to finish his planned seven-novel fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire, the source material for Game of Thrones. Legions of bloodthirsty fans have been riding the *G.O.T.*creator to complete the remaining books—and now Martin is telling those hordes of insistent Game of Throne–ers, in the nicest way possible, to please back off for the time being.

In a new interview with The Sydney Morning Herald, the self-proclaimed slow writer begs fans to stop harassing him about finishing his sixth novel in the Song of Ice and Fire series, The Winds of Winter. “It is great that so many people are eager for the next book and certainly these are the people who are paying my bills and allowing me to have a house across the street from my other house,” Martin begins, referring to his writing office, which is across the street from his home in Sante Fe, New Mexico. “But at the same time, sometimes I just wish they would stop pressuring me about it. It will be done when it’s done. I’m working on it. I don’t know what else I can say: I’m a slow writer, I’ve always been a slow writer, and these are gigantic books.”

As the HBO series, which has already begun shooting Season Four, closes in on the books that have inspired it, the author says that he has tipped off Game of Thrones creators on “where I am going, so I think they know the ultimate destination, but I have to not allow them to catch me.”

Apparently G.O.T. fan pressure and disruptions are relegated not just to message boards, though—some fans actually stop by the author’s home, which Martin says “is a little annoying.” “Mostly they are fans and lovely people, but some of them show up with six-packs of beer, and they just want to sit down and shoot the shit with me—which is nice, but if I am kicking off work every day to have beer with the fans, that’s not so good,” he told the Herald.

So, fans, in the interest of a Winds of Winter release date this decade, let’s please give Martin some space to get into the dark, murderous mindset necessary for killing off the rest of our beloved characters. (But if he wants to incorporate our idea of cuddly Dire Kittens, we support it.) In the meantime, we will patiently await the end of Martin’s writing process by keeping our six-packs and G.O.T.-plot prodding to ourselves.