Game of Thrones author George RR Martin has revealed another of his novels is set to be turned into a TV series.

Writing on his blog, Martin announced Universal Cable Productions has acquired the rights to adapt his Wild Cards book series.

“Development will begin immediately on what we hope will be the first of several interlocking series,” he wrote.

The new series could be “coming to your home screens in the next year or two,” the author says.

But Martin himself won’t be working on the show as is TV development deal is exclusive to HBO “and I am writing The Winds of Winter, as I believe most of you will recall” (yes George, can you get on with that please?).

Wild Cards is a 22-volume (to date) book series – the first part was published in 1986 – set in an alternate world. According to the author’s blog, “The shared world of the Wild Cards diverged from our own on September 15, 1946 when an alien virus was released in the skies over Manhattan, and spread across an unsuspecting Earth.

“Of those infected, 90% died horribly, drawing the black queen, 9% were twisted and deformed into jokers, while a lucky 1% became blessed with extraordinary and unpredictable powers and became aces. The world was never the same.”

Martin said he didn’t yet know which stories and characters other than “the Sleeper” will be adapted for the TV series. “It wouldn’t be Wild Cards without the Sleeper.”