cahn | the return of John M. Ford!!!!

Google knows too much about me. Way too much. I joke with people that I could easily be replaced by a google-bot and no one would ever know (I guess I'm pretty predictable, at that).

Anyway, this morning I woke up to Chrome helpfully proffering me an article about John M. Ford.

Me: John M. Ford?
Chrome: Yes! We here at google think you'll like it, given your extensive googling on John M. Ford and his books in the last several months.
Me: That's because I was doing this reread... never mind. Um, but he died more than a decade ago and his books are out of print, so this must be an old article?
Chrome, holding out article patiently: No, it's from 4 hours ago. From Slate.
Me: So, like, a retrospective. Why is Slate printing something like that?
Chrome: Just click on it, OK?

Guys. GUYS. This person, Isaac Butler, went down the rabbit hole, reconnected Ford's estranged family and his editors, and although (as he says) we'll never know the whole story it appears there was at least some miscommunication, and
1. His books are coming back in print, starting in 2020!!
2. A new book of stories/poems/Christmas cards/uncollected material will be published!!!!
3. Aspects, Ford's never-published epic, is getting published in 2021!!!!!!!

This is just about the best early Christmas present the world (and Isaac Butler, and Tor, and Ford's family, and of course John M. Ford himself) could have given me <33333333

(OK, and thanks Google. You win again.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

sineala

OMG OMG OMG.

I can finally read them aaaaaaall.

BEST NEWS.

From:

cahn

I KNOOOOOOW RIGHT?? and it being Tor, they'll presumably put them all out in e-book FIIIIINALLY :D

I think in, er, the many years I spent combing used bookstores for his books that I have all of them in print at this point, but also. TWO MORE. !!!!!

From:

jenett

Patrick Nielsen Hayden confirmed there will indeed be ebooks. (Early in the post here)

Edited Date: 2019-11-15 05:29 pm (UTC)

From:

cahn

AHHHHH thank you for linking me to this! I used to read Making Light from time to time but stopped a while back. (Probably around the time Ford died, in fact. sigh.)

From:

jenett

It's been quite quiet over there for a couple of years, but this was one of those 'I knew there'd be stuff there' things even before it turned up in my RSS feed.

From:

ambyr

Unfortunately, because Tor is part of Macmillan and many public library systems are currently boycotting Macmillan ebooks, they won’t be easily accessible ebooks :-(.

From:

kore

Ahhh CRAP. I wish it were possible somehow to donate e-books to libraries.

From:

ambyr

I mean, they’re boycotting Macmillan because Macmillan is refusing to allow libraries to circulate frontlist ebook titles, so donations aren’t really going to help. Writing a letter to Macmillan protesting their anti-library business practices might, though!

From:

kore

oh yes GREAT idea! i burned 3 fingers and my typing time is severely limited tho....maybe i will handwrite them one.

From:

ashkitty

My local library sent out a thing to their patrons saying "this is what you should say to Macmillan, and why" so the libraries are definitely on top of things. I hope it works! I am pretty much always on libraries' side in everything. ;)

From:

cahn

:( I hadn't even thought about that. (I didn't know Tor was part of Macmillan either, I should have known that!) I was mostly thinking about buying them.

The funny thing -- well, actually it's not funny at all -- is that I rarely get ebooks from the library any more anyway, because I've learned that anything that is even close to a frontlist title has such a long waiting list that it's much quicker to request the paper book.

From:

kore

This is EXACTLY what I thought, I will be SO HAPPY to have all new copies of everything. And the never seen unfinished novel with a preface by Gaiman?! I hope that sells! I have the Star Trek books, and I think everything but Web of Angels and The Princes of the Air and the poetry collection. I tracked down a really nice paperback of Dragon Waiting a couple years ago for ten bucks, and REALLY WANT to buy it new in hardcover..

From:

cahn

I have wanted Aspects ever since I found out that it was a Thing he was working on. Ahhhhhhh. I hope that "unfinished" just means "a couple of scenes aren't done," I have enough trouble following his narratives :D

I really like Web of Angels and Princes of the Air! They are definitely early Ford and in some ways haven't aged well (e.g., the women of WoA are... kind of nonexistent) but in many ways are still amazing to me, at least :D

And yessss I want a new copy of TDW! I have one I've lent out and another I was afraid to read ~~because I have issues~~ because I didn't want to mess it up, because it was my nice copy!

From:

jenett

Aspects is alas, less finished than that - different people had different chunks of it, but he was (as far as I've gathered from people talking about it) writing in chunks with broad gestures at connecting material. I'm assuming there's going to be info connecting the bits. Beth Meachem, his editor, had a lot of info about the interstitial bits.

So, there's definitely fascinating stuff, but expecting it to flow like a complete novel is not the way to bet.

From:

cahn

Aw! But isn't it supposed to be 140k words or something totally crazy like that? I think I can live with info connecting the bits, especially if there's a lot of words in the bits :) And much better than if he'd written the first half and we only had to guess at the last half :P

From:

landingtree

I actually feel better about that rather than worse given how oblique and difficult he can be... Because I already know that I do get pleasure from his books when I'm experiencing them as bits and pieces.

From:

cahn

Haha,this is... very true!

From:

kore

oh man, imagine if they did a special Sub Press edition of it or something!

From:

zdenka

I don't think I've read anything by him, but I'm delighted for you! That's really great. (And now that he'll be back in print, who knows?)

From:

cahn

Thank you! :D

He's not the sort of writer I would necessarily recommend to you, I think? But yes, I am very pleased :D

From:

rachelmanija

OH MY GOD!!!!!!! 2019 just got 1000% better.

From:

cahn

I KNOOOOOW RIIIIIIIGHT!!!!!! :DDDDDD

From:

rachelmanija

Also: HOLY SHIT THE JOURNALIST FOUND VALERIE SMITH! That woman dropped off the face of the earth, taking a number of writers' careers and money with her, and AFAIK most people thought she was dead!

From:

cahn

Wait what!! So John M. Ford wasn't the only author she screwed over?? OMG. What happened?? Which other writers got screwed over by her?? Is this why there are all these authors that I never heard from again??

From:

rachelmanija

I'm not sure how many, but she basically vanished and everyone she represented at the time had to go to Griefcom to get their checks to stop going to her. I don't think it tanked anyone's career permanently, other than Ford's who was a special case, but I know a lot of writers at best had their royalties held up for a long time.

https://www.sfwa.org/member-links/committees/griefcom/griefcom-and-you/

Edited Date: 2019-11-15 08:32 pm (UTC)

From:

cahn

Oof! Wow, that sounds rather unpleasant. It sounds from the article like she was not in a good place, but on the other hand... neither were those writers, in a different way.

From:

kore

omfg dude, if the books are widely available it could be a Ytide fandom again (there is one very lovely story frm last year https://archiveofourown.org/works/17025657#main)

From:

cahn

That story is so awesome!! I absolutely adore "Winter Solstice, Camelot Station."

Omg I almost nominated TDW this year and changed my mind at the last minute. Next year I am totally going to ask for TDW fic!

From:

kore

YESS oh wow I can't wait for it all to be available as ebooks

From:

cahn

I knooooow yay ebooks!!

From:

sophia_sol

Oh wow! That article was quite a ride. I'e never read Ford before but that article's description of his writing makes it sound like I really ought to. Good thing I'll be able to soon!!

From:

cahn

It's... I have no idea whether you would like his books! I think of them as a bit of an odd taste, and you have to be OK with probably not understanding what the heck is going on the first time you read it. I hit him at exactly the right time; if I'd tried reading him five years ago for the first time I am pretty sure I wouldn't have liked him; in another five years I think if I found him for the first time I think I might like him. I sort of feel like in general the kinds of books you like I like too, so that's the strongest argument to me that you might like Ford, but then again just because I like the books you like doesn't necessarily mean you like all the books I like :)

From:

sophia_sol

We do seem to have similar taste in books, and I know that I have more patience than many people for not being able to follow what's going on in a narrative I'm reading (c.f. all those times I dive into reading fanfic when I know literally nothing about the canon and have to figure out what's going on through careful interpretation) so I feel hopeful!

From:

cahn

ahhhh, if you have patience for that kind of thing, it could work! I feel like that kind of thing used to be my jam, which is part of why I love Ford, but I have less patience for it than I used to. Though I think a lot of it is just having a lot more demands on my time :)

From:

sophia_sol

I mean, I definitely have to be in the right headspace for it. I need to have the mental/emotional energy, which isn't always the case for me these days. I think perhaps (once the books come out) I'll save trying Ford for sometime when I'm on vacation and have more space in my brain.

From:

ashkitty

I read that Slate article this morning! It was a lovely piece of work. I'm not actually familiar with his stuff, but it definitely sounds like I should be.

From:

cahn

I thiiiiiink you might enjoy The Dragon Waiting! (One of the characters is Welsh and part of the book takes place in Wales, so I have no idea how that plays to someone who actually knows about it, but I suspect he doesn't get things super egregiously wrong, anyway :) )

From:

landingtree

Bounce!

From:

cahn

isn't this greeaaaaaat :D

From:

iberiandoctor

OMG! Thank you for linking me, this is fantastic news! I have only ever read the ST books, but when I was a young lawyer toiling away in the bowels of Big Law Asia, I would escape my lot by lurking obsessively on Making Light, and would be constantly stunned by the brilliance displayed thereon by Ford — he had a way with high/low brow mashup and the perfect blogpost soundbite that hits you right in the head, you know? 110 Stories is the one that stayed with me, and this one of the ones Neil Gaiman quotes: http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2003/12/lovers-dreamers-and-death.asp

From:

cahn

omg, I had no idea you were a Making Light lurker! I only lurked sporadically, but he was so super brilliant there, and his books and stories and poems are all sort of this same combo of erudition and humor and high/lowbrow mashup, like you say :D I AM SO EXCITED.

My favorite of his poems is Winter Solstice, Camelot Station :D (Someone wrote a fic for it last Yuletide! linked above :D )

ETA: thank you for the links! I love 110 stories, and it's always amazing (and heartbreaking) to read it again, and I had never seen Final Connection!

Edited Date: 2019-11-19 04:55 am (UTC)