Editor's note: Waiting for Winter: Re-Reading A Clash of Kings, Part I, written by Remy Verhoeve, officially releases today. At over 116,000 words, it is nearly three times the size of Tower of the Hand: A Flight of Sorrows and geeks out in nearly infinite detail over the first half of Clash of Kings.

It also just so happens to contain a full essay from our upcoming Tower of the Hand: A Hymn for Spring: "The Patriarchs of Westeros: Examining the toll the great lords exact from their families, their smallfolk, and from progress," written by our very own Stefan Sasse. Let us know what you think of the sample in the comments section.

You can find the book at Amazon for just $3.99.

Back in 2009, I was waiting. I was waiting for A Dance with Dragons. In my copy of the previous book in the saga, A Feast for Crows, Martin stated something about a 2005 release (he devoutly hoped to have the next book out next year). Like many other fans, I was frustrated. The wait itself was bearable, but the lack of communication from the author was aggravating. I wanted to experience more adventure and excitement in Westeros. I wanted to know what was going to happen to Tyrion Lannister, Bran Stark, Daenerys Targaryen, and Jon Snow.

Wanting to live the fantasy, I decided to begin writing about the series. It was just an impulse, really. I was teaching about blog writing, then I realized I could write a blog myself while I was at it. Since I wanted to stay immersed in the setting, I decided to re-read A Game of Thrones and write down my thoughts in blog posts. I've read it many times before, but I wanted to get back in there just one more time to relive the thrills of this book that kept me captivated.

As time passed, my blog posts were noticed, and I was asked to publish them as a book. That took a while, but in April 2011, Waiting for Dragons: Re-reading A Game of Thrones was published. For me, it was (and remains) a nerdy pastime. I hadn't written much previously. Perhaps I should have thought about that. I thought it was cool that someone wanted to print my stuff, but I'm not sure it crossed my mind that so many people would actually be buying and reading the book. If I had, I am sure I would have worked harder to make it feel more like a real book and less like a collection of posts. Fortunately, I got that chance when I was asked to follow up with a re-read of A Clash of Kings.

So when I got cracking on that re-read and started posting about it, I already knew it would end up published, so I put a lot more effort into it, resulting in longer, more detailed "chapters." A number of readers of the first book also found my rants about waiting for a new Martin novel perhaps a tad distasteful (I have calmed down, but I suppose I still stand for many of the things I wrote back then, as do many other readers of Ice and Fire). My commentaries on Martin's PR skills were, however, directly linked to the book's title of "waiting," because that was what I really was doing - waiting and hoping for some substantial progress updates along the way. Anyway, I realized I had to tone it down a bit in the next book and rather focus on what we have, becoming a bit more positive. Really, it's been a process.

There is a lot of irony in my own little journey. All the while I complained about George taking his sweet time with A Dance with Dragons, I realized I wasn't exactly writing at the speed of light myself, finishing perhaps a chapter/post a week for a good while, then cranking it up when I got closer to the estimated publishing date (which was, originally, April 2012). More irony when my publisher at the time decided not to go through with my second book, after all. I am not sure why; I believe they decided to focus on non-fiction. Still, Waiting for Dragons was, by all accounts, a good seller for them. So, in true Martin fashion, I found myself with a delay - and the irony was not lost on me - again. This delay could result in no book at all, of course, but I could live with that; I was, after all, doing this mostly for fun. What was aggravating was that the publisher kept delaying the copy-editing of the second book for a long time and didn't notify me of the cancellation until around April 2013, a year after it was originally meant to be released.

Sometime later, I was contacted by Stefan Sasse, who had been reading my blog (thanks!) and who introduced me to Marc Kleinhenz, who, in turn, wanted to bring me into his fold and publish Waiting for Winter: Re-reading A Clash of Kings. I was thrilled to have someone wanting to take the script off my hands - it was quite unexpected, really.

The book had a new home, and I had begun writing the third one, which I'm still working on. Then, because irony decided it wasn't finished with me yet, I was told the book was too wordy, too big and had to be split in half! Of course I couldn't help but think of the A Feast for Crows/A Dance with Dragons split. Was irony and circumstance trying to tell me something?

It's February 2014, and finally the second book - well, the first half of it, anyway - is going to be published. Waiting for Winter: Re-reading A Clash of Kings, Part I is, fortunately, not a cumbersome title at all. I've rewritten the introduction two times already because of the delays and to keep it somewhat fresh, and now I feel like I need to do another edit to update the introduction, but that's fine. I'm not a deep analyst like some of Tower of the Hand's eminent scribes; I'm, rather, trying to both entertain and go into the source material, going for a style somewhere between analysis and essay. My new friends at TOTH seem to like what I've done, so I hope you will, too.

All this writing, all these deadlines and delays and ironies stacked on top of each other has taught me a lesson in humility, though; I have, throughout the process, come to understand some of the troubles George R.R. Martin must have faced (and is still facing) - so many words that need to be put down on paper, and so little time. I am more patient now, and though I still feel he could treat his readers differently and more amiably (and he is still my bitch), I realize that I should be thankful for what I've been given instead of complaining about what I don't have (yet).

Let's just still hope we all will actually live to see this fantastic story to its intended conclusion in a few more fat, doorstopper books.