After hearing of the 11 year delay, Patterson said: “I’ve heard of writers’ block, this is more like writers’ constipation. I actually have the opposite problem, I suffered from writers’ diarrhoea.”

He also advised that Martin change his writing methods since he still uses an ancient DOS computer and WordStar word processor. The 75-year-old, who has written a novel with President Bill Clinton, said: “Try something else, then, ’cause that’s not working.” Patterson even dared to ask: “How many pages do you have so far in this 11 years?”

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