Michael Thomas Ford's Blog, page 8

Ka-Ching!

I love the first week of October, and not just because it begins with my birthday. No, I love it because it's when royalty statements arrive.

For the most part writers are paid twice a year--the first week of April and the first week of October. The April check is for books sold during the previous July through December, and the October check is for books sold during the previous January through June. There are other royalty payment systems, but this is the standard one.

This week I received tw...

I Love a Parade

I don't like crowds. I don't like loud music. I don't like standing around in the heat.

So what did Patrick and I do yesterday? That's right, we went to the LovEvolution parade in downtown San Francisco. For the uninitiated, LovEvolution is an annual event patterned after Berlin's Love Parade, and if you don't know what that is then all I can say is that basically it's a celebration of trance music and rave culture and everyone being groovy. Or whatever the kids call it these days.

Anyway, as a...

We Now Return You to Your Regularly Scheduled Programming

I know. It's been a long time. I've been working on the new books. And I should be working on them right now, except:

1. I don't want to, and

2. I have to bitch about something

But first let's talk about Jane Bites Back. It's all done and now I'm just enduring the wait until it's released on December 29. This is always a strange time, particularly if you've moved on to other projects. The book coming out is always on your mind, and you're excited about it, but you've also got these new kittens t...

Under Cover

I know, it's been a while. That's what happens when I have a book due and can't seem to get it done. My poor editor has been very kind about the ongoing delays, but that only makes me feel more guilty. I swore I'd have the book done by the time I leave for Alaska on Saturday--but I won't. Life has intervened with one stupid little thing after another. My drysuit (I'm going to Alaska to go scuba diving) is being repaired and won't be ready until Friday afternoon. Blue Shield didn't want to fil...

Kiss and Tell

The first album I did not buy was KISS Alive II. I was 9, and desperately wanted to buy it, but my mother (who thought rock music was evil) wouldn't let me. Instead, I went to my friend Stephanie's house and listened to it. Actually, we listened to every KISS album that had been released. Repeatedly. Our favorite was Love Gun (although now my favorite is their self-titled 1974 debut). One infamous day we used markers to replicate the KISS look on our own faces. It did not wash off. My mother ...

A Light at the End of the Tunnel

I want this lamp.

It's called Colgao (the hanged man) and it was made by a Spanish art collective called enPieza! I believe it's one of a kind, so the likelihood of anyone getting it for me for my birthday is small. But you never know.

I think this is the perfect lamp for a writer to have on his desk. Well, for this writer to have on his desk. I love the gallows humor of it. (Ha ha! See what I did there!) But I also know how the little fellow feels. There he is, strangling, even as his head lig...

Name Calling

Last month I sold my first photograph. I've been taking pictures for about two years now, but just recently began showing them publicly. This was my first show.

This morning I was telling a friend about the sale and she said, "Congratulations! You're a photographer!"

Well, no, not really. I take photographs, and one of them is interesting enough that someone bought it and hung it in his home. But I'm not a photographer.

What I am is a writer. My income comes entirely from my writing. Selling thi...

First Things First

Yesterday, instead of working on the new novel, I spent a great deal of time reading the comments on my friend Michael Rowe's Huffington Post piece regarding the Sacramento, California radio jocks (Rob Williams and Arnie States of KRXQ's Rob, Arnie & Dawn in the Morning) who recently thought it would be entertaining to discuss the issue of transgendered people by referring to them as "freaks" and "idiots" and suggesting that by "allowing transgenders to exist" the next natural step is the acc...

To Read Or Not to Read

Take a good look at the photo on the right. This is the view an author has when standing in front of an audience at his (or her) reading. I took this Wednesday night at a reading at A Different Light bookstore for my novel What We Remember.

Notice that there are 12 seats. Then notice that only six of them are filled. Then subtract the store's author events manager, two of my friends, and two friends of a friend who were ordered to go.

Now we have how many attendees? Oh, right. One.

To be fair, t...

And You Can't Make Me!

Starting about two years ago I went through a period where I was late on every single project I had under contract. And not just a few days, or a few weeks, or even a few months late. We're talking really late, as in moving a book from one year to the next and a couple of publishers sending me "or else" letters.

Being late had never been a problem for me. In fact, I believe I owe a great deal of my early success in publishing to the fact that I could be relied upon to write quickly and...