With all the speculations about Jon Snow's fate, only the release of "The Winds of Winter" will confirm if the Night's Watch Lord Commander is still alive or not.  

Author George R.R. Martin is still working on the next installment in his best-selling "A Song of Ice and Fire" series. Still, fans of the books and its TV adaptation on HBO, "Game of Thrones," are eagerly waiting for it to get published since the answer to the biggest question that was posed at the end of book 5 and the finale of "GoT" season 5 was left unanswered. In both the book and TV versions, Jon Snow was left for dead after being stabbed multiple times by his Night's Watch brothers. 

The best-selling author of the books earlier announced that he cancelled his prior public appearances so he can focus on writing "The Winds of Winter." Early this month, Martin was absent from the San Diego Comic-Con. Instead, he let the cast and producers of the HBO series answer questions regarding the future of the series. Martin also requested his fans to limit sending emails to ask questions since answering them could delay his writing schedule. 

Fairly recently, rumors surfaced that the author has already finished writing the book when a statement from "Game of Thrones" director Jack Bender was said to have been misinterpreted. In a Reddit AMA, the director was asked if he had read an advanced copy of Book 6 to which he answered "yes." However, reports later denied the rumors, stating that the director might have been referring to the season 6 outline of "GoT."

Martin also denied those rumors, saying that there is no truth to them. But the author earlier said that he wants to release "The Winds of Winter" before "Game of Thrones" season 6 begins next year.