User blog comment:Werthead/Official: producers will not wait for Martin to finish the books/@comment-1600847-20130329132454/@comment-26308-20130329154154

GRRM's favourite author is Jack Vance, who is 98 and overweight. That really means nothing, especially when you are rich enough to have a health plan like GRRM's. And are you really considered 'old' in the USA when you're in your sixties? It's pretty much now considered to be late middle age in the UK. As a man you're not even entitled to a pension in the UK until you're 68. Over here, if he wasn't a famous author GRRM would still be expected to have a full-time job for another four years.

As for the aging issue, their current approach is that one season covers one year, which simply eliminates the problem. That's not too far off from the books, where the 5 novels cover a period of about 3.5 years. Simply expanding the duration of a few events and mentioning that months rather than weeks have passed between events can also cover that issue. Inserting 1-3 years extra between seasons would definitely cause more problems with that approach.