In today's blog post, George describes himself as "inching closer" with the writing of The Winds of Winter, and mentions that he is spending a lot of time with Cersei and Tyrion, in Oldtown and also in Dorne. He also states that he is tweaking old stuff, such as sample chapters, revising and rewriting other parts and generally taking his time.

Then there is this very interesting paragraph half-way through:

" I was really on a roll back in June and July.   Progress has continued since then, but more slowly… I suffered a gut punch in early August that really had me down for a time, and another, for different reasons, in early September.   But I slogged on, and of late I am picking up steam again. "

- which makes me curious as to what these 'gut punches' were that got him so down.

No mentions of Jaime or Brienne, and no release date for the book. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose....