Michael Thomas Ford's Blog, page 6

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Today's blog is not brought to you by the letter N.

Sarah Palin, Library Journal, and Me

So Sarah Palin's book came out yesterday. Did you pick up your copy? If not, you can get one cheap. Amazon (where it's #1) is selling it for $14.50. So is Walmart. Since those two sellers account for a huge chunk of book sales in this country, chances are they'll move quite a few copies.

They'll have to if Palin is going to earn back the reported $5 to $7 million advance HarperCollins paid her. Just how many copies? Let's do the math. For the sake of argument, split that estimated advance down...

No Clowning Around

[image error] I know today was supposed to be the premier of Creepy Clown Monday. But something magical and wonderful has happened and I can't wait to share it with you.

The first two chapters of Jane Bites Back are now available to read and/or download on scribd.

FOR FREE.

That's right, you can trot on over there and see what all the fuss is about. So get to it. And tell your friends. They'll thank you later, but I'll thank you now.

Again, if you want to read the first two chapters of the book Publishers...

S.O.S.

It's been an odd day.

When I got up this morning I thought I would spend the day answering copy editing queries on the manuscript for Z, the zombie-themed young adult novel I have coming out in 2010. But first--in a blatant concession to procrastination--I checked in with one of my online groups to see what was going on. I've been in this group for three or four years now. There are maybe thirty or so of us who make up the core group, and although only a few of us have met in real life, I cons...

To Be, or Not To Be

The other night my friend Jill and I ventured to the theater to see An Education. It was a no-brainer: period setting (1960's England!), fantastic costumes (pearls and gloves! Odile Dicks-Mireaux!), great music (Juliette Greco! Brenda Lee!), a scandalous romance (He's 30! She's 16!), and so on. We live for that kind of thing. Patrick, who does not, elected to skip it.

Oh, and it was good. Especially Carey Mulligan, who plays Jenny, the young woman swept away by Peter Sarsgaard. She's so absolu...

From the Mail Bag

For some reason Mondays bring the most reader mail. I don't know if it's because people have more time over the weekend and decide that writing to me is preferable to cleaning out the garage or what, but the mailbox always seems to be particularly stuffed come the start of the week.

Today I received two e-mails that--for very different reasons--made me happy. Here's the first one. (Note: I've changed the writers' names, but the text is unedited.)

Mr. Ford,

Were you born a homosexual or did you c...

Book News!

Two good things today.

First up, I got the cover for my next Kensington novel, The Road Home. After making a slight detour with the cover for What We Remember we're back to the look of the earlier novels. Once again the cover art is by painter Steve Walker. It's called "Tender in the Grass."

The Road Home is a "smaller" story than my last couple books have been. It focuses on one man--Burke Crenshaw--who following an accident finds himself recuperating in his childhood home in Vermont with the ...

Ah-Choo!: Part 2

I'm still sick. I know, it's annoying. Really annoying. I'm all for lazing about the house in one's pajamas, but even that gets old after a few days. And let me tell you something--two seconds after Halloween is over all of the delicious horror movies disappear and are replaced by Christmas crap, so it's not even fun to watch TV.

By the way, don't even get me started on the ghastliness that is QVC and the Home Shopping Network, which you should never watch after loading up on Tylenol PM. What ...

Watch It!

As you know, I'm ill. Never one to let an opportunity for sloth pass me by, I used my sore throat and sniffles as a reason to stay in bed this morning and watch Tarantula, which as you may recall from one of my earlier posts is only the greatest movie ever made in the history of film.

In case you need further convincing of this fact, I offer the following as evidence.

1. Tarantula has memorable dialogue, including:

"I knew it would happen--give women the vote and what do you get--lady...

Ah-Choo!

I have a sore throat.

I know you think there are more important things to be worried about right now, like maybe the recession or the fact that any day now some power-mad lunatic is going to start World War III, but you'd be wrong. The most important thing in the entire universe is that I have a sore throat.

This is a picture of my throat. I know, right? It's bad. Thanks for noticing.

There is nothing--nothing--I hate more than having a sore throat. Well, I suppose I hate green peppers more than...