John M. Ford

Ford was born in East Chicago, Indiana, and raised in Whiting, Indiana. In the mid-1970s he attended Indiana University Bloomington, where he was active in the IU science fiction club and Society for Creative Anachronism (using the name Miles Atherton de Grey); while there, he published his first short story "This, Too, We Reconcile" in the May 1976 Analog.{{cite book

|last1 = Ashley

|first1 = Mike

|author-link = Mike Ashley (writer)

|year = 2000

|title = Gateways to Forever: The Story of the Science-fiction Magazines from 1970 to 1980

|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=2qkmF8HvP_gC&pg=PA21

|publisher = Liverpool University Press

|page = 21

|access-date = 2019-05-02

|isbn = 9781846310034

}}

Ford left IU and moved to New York to work on the newly founded Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, where, starting in mid-1978, he published poetry, fiction, articles, and game reviews. Although his last non-fiction appeared there in September 1981, he was tenth most frequent contributor for the 1977–2002 period. About 1990, he moved to Minneapolis. In addition to writing, he worked at various times as a hospital orderly, computer consultant, slush pile reader, and copy editor.

Ford suffered from complications related to diabetes since childhood and also had renal dysfunction which required dialysis and, in 2000, a kidney transplant, which improved his quality of life considerably. He was found dead from natural causes in his Minneapolis home on September 25, 2006, by his partner since the mid-1990s, Elise Matthesen. He was a prominent member of the Friends of the Minneapolis Public Library, which established a John M. Ford Book Endowment after his death with the donations to be used as interest-generating capital for yearly purchase of new books.

Ford's works were varied in setting and style. Several were of the Bildungsroman (coming-of-age) type: in Web of Angels, The Final Reflection, Princes of the Air, Growing Up Weightless, and The Last Hot Time, Ford wrote variations on the theme of growing up, learning about one's world and one's place in it, and taking responsibility for it – which involves taking on the power and wisdom to influence events, to help make the world a better place.

Ford spent part of his career working in other people's universes. His 1983 book The Klingons for FASA's Star Trek: The Role Playing Game had an influence on subsequent productions from Paramount.{{Cite book|author=Shannon Appelcline|title=Designers & Dragons|publisher=Mongoose Publishing|year=2011| isbn= 978-1-907702-58-7}}{{rp|121}} He also wrote a comedic novel set in the Star Trek universe called How Much for Just the Planet?, where the Enterprise crew compete with a Klingon crew for control of a planet whose unhappy colonists defend their peace in inventive and farcial ways. The book includes song lyrics that satirize many 20th century stage musicals.

Ford authored the award-winning adventure The Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues (1985) for West End Games' Paranoia role-playing game.{{rp|189}}

Ford used a variety of styles to suit the world, characters, and situations he chose to write about. Author and critic John Clute wrote in the 1993 Encyclopedia of Science Fiction that "two decades into his career, there remains some sense that JMF remains unwilling or unable to create a definitive style or mode; but his originality is evident, a shifting feisty energy informs almost everything he writes, and that career is still young."Clute, John; Nicholls, Peter (1993). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. London: Orbit Books.{{page needed|date=May 2019}}

Ford was much respected by his fellow writers, editors, critics and fans. Robert Jordan, Ford's lifelong close friend, called Ford "the best writer in America – bar none." Neil Gaiman called Ford "my best critic{{nbsp}}... the best writer I knew." Patrick Nielsen Hayden said, "Most normal people had the slight sense that something large and super-intelligent and trans-human had sort of flown over{{nbsp}}... There would be a point where basically the plot would become so knotted and complex he would lose all of us."

After his death, almost all of Ford's work was out of print. The rights to his work had reverted to his legal heirs, but no one had managed to get in touch with them. After an investigation by a journalist, Isaac Butler, Ford's editors at Tor Books were able to reconnect with his family, and in November 2019 an agreement was reached to reissue all his published works, starting in 2020 with The Dragon Waiting.{{cite web |url=https://slate.com/culture/2019/11/john-ford-science-fiction-fantasy-books.html |title=The Disappearance of John M. Ford |last=Butler |first=Isaac |date=November 15, 2019 |website=Slate |access-date=27 January 2020}}

• Web of Angels (1980, Pocket Books, {{ISBN|0-671-82947-5}}; 1992, Tor Books, {{ISBN|0-8125-0959-5}}), an early exploration of some topics that would later be described as cyberpunk
• The Princes of the Air (1982, Pocket Books, {{ISBN|0-671-44482-4}}; 1991, Tor Books, {{ISBN|0-8125-0958-7}}), a space opera
• The Dragon Waiting (1983, Timescape Books, {{ISBN|0-671-47552-5}}; 1985, Avon Books, {{ISBN|0-380-69887-0}}; 2002, Gollancz, {{ISBN|0-575-07378-0}}), a fantasy alternate history combining vampires, the Medicis, and the convoluted English politics surrounding Edward IV and Richard III; winner of the 1984 World Fantasy Award
• The Scholars of Night (1988, Tor Books, {{ISBN|0-312-93051-8}}; 1989, {{ISBN|0-8125-0214-0}}), a high tech Cold War thriller involving an undiscovered Christopher Marlowe play
• Fugue State (1990, Tor Books, {{ISBN|0-8125-0813-0}}), a longer version of the novella of the same name, published as Tor SF Double No. 25 with The Death of Doctor Island by Gene Wolfe
• The Last Hot Time (2000, Tor Books, {{ISBN|0-312-85545-1}}; 2001 paperback, {{ISBN|0-312-87578-9}}), urban fantasy set in a magical Chicago, Illinois.
• Aspects (2022, Tor Books, {{Isbn|9781250269034}}), An unfinished novel published posthumously.{{Cite web|title=Aspects|url=https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250269034/aspects|access-date=2021-09-07|website=Macmillan|language=en-US}}

• Casting Fortune (1989, Tor Books, {{ISBN|0-8125-3815-3}}). Stories set in the Liavek shared world, reprints "A Cup of Worrynot Tea" and "Green Is the Color" and original story "The Illusionist".
• From the End of the Twentieth Century (1997, NESFA Press, {{ISBN|0-915368-74-9}}, {{ISBN|0-915368-73-0}}), a collection of short stories, poetry, and essays
• Timesteps (1993, Rune Press). Poetry.
• Heat of Fusion and Other Stories (2004, Tor Books, {{ISBN|0-312-85546-X}}). Short stories and poetry. Finalist for the World Fantasy Award in 2005

• The Final Reflection (1984, Pocket Books, {{ISBN|0-671-47388-3}}; 1985, Ultramarine, {{ISBN|0-318-37547-8}}; 1985, Gregg Press, {{ISBN|0-8398-2885-3}}; 1991, Pocket Books, {{ISBN|0-671-74354-6}}), a Star Trek tie-in novel; (also 2004, Pocket Books, {{ISBN|0-7434-9659-0}} [in omnibus Signature Edition, The Hand of Kahless])
• How Much for Just the Planet? (1987, Pocket Books, {{ISBN|0-671-62998-0}}; 1990, {{ISBN|0-671-72214-X}}; 1991, {{ISBN|0-671-03859-1}}), a Star Trek tie-in novel

• On Writing Science Fiction: The Editors Strike Back!, with Darrell Schweitzer and George H. Scithers.(1981, Owlswick Press, {{ISBN|0-913896-19-5}}; Wildside Press 2000, {{ISBN|1-880448-78-5}}). A book on writing craft with examples provided by short fiction first sales to Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine.

• "A Cup of Worrynot Tea" in Liavek: The Players of Luck (1986, edited by Emma Bull and Will Shetterly)
• "Green Is the Color", "Eel Island Shoals" (song), "Pot-Boil Blues" (song) in Liavek: Wizard's Row (1987, edited by Emma Bull and Will Shetterly)
• "Winter Solstice, Camelot Station" (in Invitation to Camelot, edited by Parke Godwin)
• "Riding the Hammer" in Liavek: Spells of Binding (1988, edited by Emma Bull and Will Shetterly)
• "The Grand Festival: Sestina" (poem), "Divination Day: Invocation" (poem), "Birth Day: Sonnet" (poem), "Procession Day/Remembrance Night: Processional/Recessional" (poem), "Bazaar Day: Ballad" (poem), "Festival Day: Catechism" (poem), "Restoration Day: Plainsong" in Liavek: Festival Week (1990, edited by Emma Bull and Will Shetterly)
• "Scrabble with God", IASFM October 1985, reprinted in From the End of the Twentieth Century

• Ford published some children's fiction under pseudonyms he chose not to make public. He also authored two children's gamebooks under the house names. These are Star Trek: Voyage to Adventure', part of the Which Way Books series, as by "Michael J. Dodge" and the 1985 Blackstone's Magical Adventures: The Case of the Gentleman Ghost'', tying in with the stage magician Harry Blackstone Jr. and published by Tor Books in 1985, which Ford authored under the name "Milo Dennison".
• Ford plotted three issues of the alternative history comic book Captain Confederacy in the late 1980s and wrote #10, "Driving North."
• Ford supplied cartography for a number of fantasy works by other authors, including The World of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time (2001, Tor Books, {{ISBN|0-312-86936-3}}), the latter at the behest of its author, a friend of Ford.

• Work for Traveller.
• The Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues (1985, West End Games, {{ISBN|0-87431-027-X}}). An adventure for the Paranoia roleplaying game
• The Sherwood Syndrome, part of the Star Trek III solitaire game set, with Greg Costikyan and Doug Kaufman (1985, West End Games).
• GURPS Time Travel with Steve Jackson (1991, Steve Jackson Games, {{ISBN|1-55634-115-6}}), a resource book for the GURPS roleplaying game
• GURPS Y2K with Steve Jackson et al. (1999, Steve Jackson Games, {{ISBN|1-55634-406-6}}). A sourcebook.
• GURPS Traveller: Starports (2000, Steve Jackson Games, {{ISBN|1-55634-401-5}}), A sourcebook for GURPS Traveller roleplaying game
• GURPS Infinite Worlds with Steve Jackson and Kenneth Hite (2005, Steve Jackson Games, {{ISBN|1-55634-734-0}}. A sourcebook.
• Scared Stiffs with Bill Slaviscek (1987, West End Games, {{ISBN|0874310628}}), an adventure for the Ghostbusters RPG.
• Ford wrote information concerning the Klingons FASA's Star Trek [[tabletop roleplaying game, and a number of RPG articles, which appeared in Autoduel Quarterly, Pyramid, Roleplayer, Space Gamer, and Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society.
• Klin zha, m chess-like game described in The Final Reflection, has been adopted by Klingon fandom.

• 2005 Origins Award for Role-Playing Game Supplement of the Year – GURPS Infinite Worlds 4th Edition
• 1998 Minnesota Book Award for Fantasy & Science Fiction
• 1993 Philip K. Dick Award – Growing Up Weightless
• 1991 Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Supplement – GURPS Time Travel
• 1989 World Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction – "Winter Solstice, Camelot Station" (in Invitation to Camelot, edited by Parke Godwin)
• 1989 Rhysling Award for Long Poem – also "Winter Solstice, Camelot Station"
• 1985 Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Supplement – The Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues
• 1984 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel – The Dragon Waiting

• 2005 World Fantasy Award for Best Collection – Heat of Fusion and Other Stories
• 1996 Nebula Award for Best Novelette – "Erase/Record/Play" (in Starlight 1, edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden)
• 1996 Theodore Sturgeon Award – also "Erase/Record/Play"
• 1995 Rhysling Award for Long Poems – "Troy: The Movie" (in Weird Tales, Spring 1994)
• 1991 Rhysling Award for Long Poems – "Bazaar Day: Ballad" (in Liavek: Festival Week, edited by Will Shetterly and Emma Bull) and "Cosmology: A User’s Manual" (in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, January 1990)
• 1990 Rhysling Award for Long Poems – "A Holiday in the Park" (in Weird Tales, Winter 1988/1989)
• 1987 Nebula Award for Best Novelette (final ballot) – "Fugue State" (in Under the Wheel, edited by Elizabeth Mitchell)

{{Reflist|30em|refs=

{{cite web |work=United States Social Security Death Index |title=John Milo Ford, September 25, 2006 |via=FamilySearch |url=https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/J5TC-LZN |access-date=February 16, 2013}}

{{cite news|first=Tad |last=Vezner |url=http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/15868982.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929090235/http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/15868982.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 29, 2007 |title=Crafters of sci-fi attend obscure writer's eulogy: Peers laud Minneapolis author for his unpredictable works |work=St. Paul Pioneer Press |date=October 28, 2006 }} ([https://archive.today/20121203224953/http://community.livejournal.com/nemesis_draco/8908.html Discussion by fans] of the article and a few factual errors in it.)

{{cite web|first=James Patrick |last=Kelly |author-link=James Patrick Kelly |url=http://www.asimovs.com/_issue_0304/onthenet.shtml |title=On the Net: Frequent Fliers |work=Asimov's |date=April 2003 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060806033229/http://www.asimovs.com/_issue_0304/onthenet.shtml |archive-date=August 6, 2006 }} (See also [http://www.asimovs.com/cgi-bin/searcheng.cgi?searchstring=ford Ford's entries] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070430070141/http://www.asimovs.com/cgi-bin/searcheng.cgi?searchstring=ford |date=April 30, 2007 }} in the Asimov's index.)

{{cite web|first=Will |last=Shetterly |author-link=Will Shetterly |url=http://www.asimovs.com/_issue_0304/onthenet.shtml |title=An Introduction to John M. Ford |work=player.org |date=February 2005 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061004005143/http://www.player.org/pub/flash/ford/ |archive-date=October 4, 2006 }}

{{cite web |title=Ford's comment at a "four things" meme blogpost |url=http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/007117.html#107842 |work=Making Light |date=December 25, 2005}}

{{cite web |first=Elise |last=Matthesen |work=Making Light |url=http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/008033.html |title=John M. Ford, 1957–2006 |date=September 25, 2006}}

{{cite web|first=Elise |last=Matthesen |author-link=Elise Matthesen |work=Honour Your Inner Magpie |title=The John M. Ford Book Endowment |url=http://elisem.livejournal.com/907925.html |date=October 2, 2006 |access-date=April 29, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150425012527/http://elisem.livejournal.com/907925.html |archive-date=April 25, 2015 |df=mdy-all }}

{{cite web|url=http://community.livejournal.com/nemesis_draco/16572.html |title=Against Entropy |date=January 20, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110105051615/http://community.livejournal.com/nemesis_draco/16572.html |archive-date=January 5, 2011 |df=mdy-all }}

{{cite book |publisher=WorldCat |title=On Writing Science Fiction (The Editors Strike Back!) |date=1981 |oclc=7885690 }}

{{cite web |publisher=NESFA Press |title=From the End of the Twentieth Century |url=http://nesfa.org/press/Books/Ford.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060923075835/http://www.nesfa.org/press/Books/Ford.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 23, 2006 |date=August 5, 2006 |access-date=April 5, 2011 }}

{{cite web |first=Graham |last=Sleight |work=Locus Online |url=https://locusmag.com/2012/04/graham-sleights-yesterdays-tomorrows-john-m-ford/ |title=Graham Sleight's Yesterday's Tomorrows: John M. Ford |date=April 15, 2012}}

{{cite web |first=Jean-Louis |last=Cazaux |work=chessvariants.com |url=https://www.chessvariants.com/shape.dir/klinzha/klinzha.html |title=Klin Zha |date=November 24, 2001}}

{{cite web |publisher=The Minnesota Humanities Commission |location=St. Paul, MN |title=1998 Minnesota Book Awards Nominees and Winners |url=http://www.thinkmhc.org/Book/1998.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020819133122/http://thinkmhc.org/Book/1998.htm |archive-date=August 19, 2002}}

}}

• [http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/008034.html Mike Ford: Occasional Works – Part One] to Twelve and [http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/009225.html Coda]: selection of Ford's comments to Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden's weblog Making Light, with links to context
• [http://www.110stories.us 110 Stories], poem written about the September 11, 2001 attacks
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20061114014552/http://www.strangehorizons.com/2002/20020429/troy.shtml Troy: The Movie], 1994 poem
• [http://listserv.heanet.ie/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind9711&L=CELTIC-L&P=R18841 Winter Solstice, Camelot Station], 1989 poem
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20061230050946/http://www.strangehorizons.com/2002/20020429/as_above.shtml "As Above, So Below"], short story (in Dragons of Light, ed. Orson Scott Card, Ace Books, 1980)
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110708030355/http://captainconfederacy.blogspot.com/2006/11/driving-north.html "Driving North"], short story written as the script for [https://web.archive.org/web/20110708030438/http://captainconfederacy.blogspot.com/2006/09/chapter-ten.html issue 10] of Captain Confederacy
• Strange Horizons [https://web.archive.org/web/20061114013122/http://www.strangehorizons.com/2002/20020429/interview.shtml 2002 interview with Ford]
• Patrick Nielsen Hayden's [http://www.well.com/conf/inkwell.vue/topics/126/John-M-Ford-The-Last-Hot-Time-page01.html 2001 online interview with Ford] (and other inkWELL participants)
• Alex Krislov's [http://www.textfiles.com/sf/fordco.hum 1980s interview with Ford]
• [http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/2003_archives/001284.html Quote from "Playing Scrabble with God"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070509221314/http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/2003_archives/001284.html |date=May 9, 2007 }}, [https://archive.today/20121209084737/http://kate-nepveu.livejournal.com/203516.html another]
• [http://groups.google.com/groups/profile?enc_user=Av8UchYAAAA8bONUQoZINuUg88GBoSNl-ezzl9S5U795pqlcEbAFPA Ford's USENET posts] 1994–5, in Google Groups archive

• Teresa Nielsen Hayden: [http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/008033.html Making Light: John M. Ford, 1957–2006]. With links to online works by Ford, articles, weblog posts and memories about Ford
• Will Shetterly: [https://web.archive.org/web/20061004005143/http://www.player.org/pub/flash/ford/]
• Neil Gaiman: [http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/2006/09/ten-years-ago.html Introduction to From the End of the Twentieth Century]
• Steve Jackson: [http://www.sjgames.com/ill/archive/September_26_2006/John_M_Ford Daily Illuminator article] remembering Ford
• John Clute: [https://web.archive.org/web/20061129100213/http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/article1772294.ece Obituary: John M. Ford], in The Independent
• [http://www.darwinwars.com/page1.html Andrew Brown]: [https://www.theguardian.com/wormseyeview/story/0,,1929491,00.html column on London memorial gathering for Ford], in The Guardian
• David Langford: [http://ansible.co.uk/sfx/sfx151.html John M Who?] SFX December 2006
• [https://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/johnmford/ Photos tagged "JohnMFord" at Flickr.com]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20080719222638/http://www.kith.org/journals/jed/2006/09/25/3686.html More links remembering John M. Ford]

• {{isfdb name|name=John M. Ford}}
• [http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/1759 John M. Ford, game designer] at BoardGameGeek.Com
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20060923101130/http://www.nesfa.org/boskone/b34/fordbib.html John M. Ford: A Chronological Bibliography] up to 1997 by New England Science Fiction Association
• [http://www.johnmford.com Fan memorial website]
• [http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/f/john-m-ford/ Bibliography with cover scans] at Fantastic Fiction

{{World Fantasy Award Best Novel}}{{World Fantasy Award Best Short Fiction}}{{Philip K. Dick Award}}{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ford, John M.}}

Category:1957 births

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Category:20th-century American novelists

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Category:Rhysling Award for Best Long Poem winners

Category:World Fantasy Award–winning writers

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Category:20th-century American short story writers

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Category:20th-century American male writers