However, hot off the press from Huntington Beach California he said at today's signing that he plans Dance with Dragons to be at least 1100 manuscript pages (at least as long as FfC and aGoT) and probably into 1400 pages (the same size about as Clash of Kings). He thinks the events in Dance with Dragons orginally slated to go into Feast for Crows will be covered at the 1000 manuscrpt page mark or so. That will leave him a "few hundred pages" (his quote) to deal with events AFTER Feast. He then will return to some of the viewpoints and events of A Feast for Crows and maybe even resolve some of the cliffhangers written there.
He is very hopeful that he can finish A Dance with Dragons next year and start signing books again this time 2006.
Also of interest is that GRRM repeats that Tyrion is his favorite character . . . but that that doesn't make him safe. He says that Tyrion has already lost a nose and that WORSE THINGS WILL BEFALL HIM in the future volumes. Not necessarily death but more pain and suffering. sigh . . . I do feel sorry for our little friend.