I'm baaaaaaaaaack!

I know, it's been forever. Six months, anyway, which seems like forever in blog time.

Why the long silence? Well, first I was writing Jane Goes Batty, the sequel to Jane Bites Back. That took longer than expected. Here's the cover. The cover for Jane Bites Back was good, but I really love this one. So look for that in early 2011. Around Valentine's Day, I think.

While I was finishing that book up I had not one, but two new books come out. First up was The Road Home, my most recent novel for Kensington Books. Then came Z, my young adult zombie novel.

Speaking of Z, my editor just sent me the Booklist review this morning. Take a look:

Z.
Ford, Michael Thomas

Josh is addicted to a virtual-reality zombie-killing game, and his skills get him noticed by people who take the game to a whole new and very real level. He finds himself enmeshed in an enterprise involved in everything from creating fresh zombies to manufacturing illegal drugs. When friends begin to appear as zombie targets, things unravel quickly, and Josh must choose his allies wisely to get out alive. Ford expertly builds the tension in this long, escalating thrill ride. Subplots about friendship and first love are woven lightly but deftly through the action in a way that keeps the focus on the game. There are blatant parallels between the virus that creates zombies (from humans) and HIV, giving this book some potential as a conversational door-opener for a weighty topic. The frenetic action and near-future gadgetry make this a good choice to hand to graduates of Anthony Horowitz's Alex Rider books or perhaps fans of Vivian Vande Velde's Heir Apparent (2002) or Neal Shusterman's Full Tilt (2003).

I don't know why it's taking so long for the review journals to review books lately. It used to be the reviews would come out a few weeks or even a month before the book's release date. Now they're coming later and later. To be honest, I was starting to get a little paranoid that everyone hated the book. But the reviews have been great, so it's all good.

Actually, I had four books come out this year. The paperbacks of What We Remember and Suicide Notes came out too. I was particularly excited about Suicide Notes because one of my favorite writers, Ellen Hopkins, called it "A riveting read."

After all that excitement, I started school in August. Yes, at 42 I've gone back to school. I'm in the American Sign Language Studies program at Berkeley City College. It's fantastic. It's also a lot of work. What with all the studying and papers there's been very little time for anything else. But I aced my midterms, so yay me!

Not that things have slowed down all that much. Right now I'm finishing up Before Today (my next novel for Kensington, out next fall) and then getting to work on Jane Vows Vengeance, the third book in my Jane Austen vampire trilogy. Oh, and all of the crazy-making holidays are right around the corner. Also, finals.

Come to think of it, I still don't have time to blog. But I miss it, so I'll make time. Also, it's a nice break from the regular writing and helps clear out all of the clutter that accumulates in my head.

I have a new blog project I'll be doing right here. More on that in the next week. I'll also be resuming work on Spawn of Bozo, my blog about creepy clown movies. I've acquired more than 80 films that are waiting to be viewed and written about, so expect a lot of clown action in the coming year.

Thanks to all of you who wrote to make sure I wasn't dead. It was sweet of you. You know, in a morbid "maybe now I can get some money for his signed books on eBay" kind of a way. And yes, I mean you, Mom.