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November 15, 2019

The revival of John M. Ford
Posted by Patrick at 06:23 AM * 89 comments

Just posted to Slate, by Isaac Butler: The Disappearance of John M. Ford.

Key takeaway to Making Light readers who remember John M. “Mike” Ford’s brilliant run as a co-blogger here: Tor will, indeed, be reissuing all of Mike’s novels, plus a new collection of short fiction and marginalia. We’ll also be publishing, for the first time, his unfinished final novel Aspects.

Huge thanks to the Ford family and to Tor executive editor Beth Meacham, who worked out this deal over the space of nearly a year. We could not possibly be more excited.

The program will begin with The Dragon Waiting in late 2020, then Aspects in early 2021.

Obviously, this program will not include Mike’s work written inside somebody else’s IP, such as, for instance, his two Star Trek novels.

Further schedule details will be forthcoming as we finalize them.

Comments on The revival of John M. Ford:
#1 ::: Patrick Nielsen Hayden ::: (view all by) ::: November 15, 2019, 06:40 AM:

Comments welcome, but be advised: The Ford family have been through a lot. We will not be re-litigating old hurts here. Comments that ignore this injunction will be summarily deleted.

Future Making Light threads will revert to our famously warmer-and-fuzzier style of comment moderation. But this is the rule here.

#2 ::: John Scalzi ::: (view all by) ::: November 15, 2019, 06:57 AM:

This is such good news.

#3 ::: dotless ı ::: (view all by) ::: November 15, 2019, 07:08 AM:

This makes me very happy (especially considering how many second-hand shelves I once searched the Fs out of).

#4 ::: John A Arkansawyer ::: (view all by) ::: November 15, 2019, 07:23 AM:

I had just read that story and was so thrilled I could barely stand it! Still am, too.

#5 ::: John Dallman ::: (view all by) ::: November 15, 2019, 07:39 AM:

Excellent news!

#6 ::: Stephen Frug ::: (view all by) ::: November 15, 2019, 07:55 AM:

Fabulous!!

Ebooks too, I hope?

#7 ::: Sean Sakamoto ::: (view all by) ::: November 15, 2019, 08:02 AM:

I came straight here after reading that article. I'm so glad of the news. I remember meeting Mike at a wonderful New Year's party. People were merrily chatting in a ranging conversation about everything from chemistry to the crusades and I thought, "These people are actual genuises."

#8 ::: Nancy Lebovitz ::: (view all by) ::: November 15, 2019, 08:02 AM:

Hot damn! Should I know who Isaac Butler is?

#9 ::: Patrick Nielsen Hayden ::: (view all by) ::: November 15, 2019, 08:08 AM:

There will e-book editions of all of this.

Isaac Butler is a journalist and culture writer-around-town. He writes fairly frequently for Slate and his byline can be found in other places. He’s the co-author of a book about Angels in America.

#10 ::: BravoLimaPoppa ::: (view all by) ::: November 15, 2019, 09:04 AM:

This is delightful news! My thanks to Tor and Beth Meacham.

#11 ::: Sisuile ::: (view all by) ::: November 15, 2019, 09:05 AM:

I am so very excited. Mike is missed, and it will be good to be able to complete my collection.

#12 ::: Phil Sutherland ::: (view all by) ::: November 15, 2019, 09:30 AM:

Oh, wow! Huge thanks to all who've helped make this happen. My incomplete and overread collection of his works could definitely use some company.

#13 ::: Peter Hentges ::: (view all by) ::: November 15, 2019, 09:36 AM:

My wife and I are in the process of combining households (which involves some remodeling that is proceeding with rather amazing efficiency) and both do most of our reading in electronic form now. So the books we keep in hard copy are special in one way or another and those that don't rise to that status have gone in stages to the used book store. In the several trips made, I've made a habit of checking the shelves for Mike's books and purchasing them when I find them. Some for my own re-reading, but others just to ensure they stay in circulation. I am overjoyed to hear that new editions are coming and look forward to their treatment in Tor's excellent hands.

#14 ::: Bruce Baugh ::: (view all by) ::: November 15, 2019, 10:11 AM:

Oh, wow. So glad to hear!

#15 ::: Lis Carey ::: (view all by) ::: November 15, 2019, 10:30 AM:

This is thrilling news!

Couldn't believe it when I read it, and then realized the truth would be, not "out there," but right here.

#16 ::: Mike Scott ::: (view all by) ::: November 15, 2019, 10:33 AM:

While you obviously can’t reprint Star Trek novels, is it not possible to get permission to reprint thing like the Car Wars short stories that he wrote for The Space Gamer?

#17 ::: P J Evans ::: (view all by) ::: November 15, 2019, 10:36 AM:

Oh, wonderful!
(There are some I've never read. I hope they'll all be reprinted.)

#18 ::: Patrick Nielsen Hayden ::: (view all by) ::: November 15, 2019, 11:02 AM:

Mike Scott, #16: Good thought. Do you (or anyone else reading this) have copies of those that you might be in a position to share with us?

Honestly, I don't believe anyone has a full bibliography, let alone a complete collection, of everything Mike wrote in all his fantastically diverse interests.

#19 ::: Madeleine Robins ::: (view all by) ::: November 15, 2019, 11:03 AM:

This is wonderful news. I am so happy for all the readers out there who have yet to discover Mike's work.

#20 ::: Jenny Islander ::: (view all by) ::: November 15, 2019, 11:27 AM:

I lost my copy of TDW in a move so I am bouncing in my chair. YES!

#21 ::: Bruce Baugh ::: (view all by) ::: November 15, 2019, 11:37 AM:

Phil Reed would be the guy to ping at Steve Jackson Games, I think - at a minimum, he'd be most likely to know who knows more. :)

http://www.sjgames.com/general/staff.html

I have...no idea where the rights would be for Mike's work on FASA's Star Trek RPG, but know people who might. Patrick, should they contact you, or Beth, or whom?

#22 ::: Bruce Baugh ::: (view all by) ::: November 15, 2019, 11:38 AM:

Edited to add: Forgot the line about not reprinting stuff owned by others. Sorry.

#23 ::: Patrick Nielsen Hayden ::: (view all by) ::: November 15, 2019, 11:38 AM:

Contacting me would be fine -- use my Tor address, pnh@tor.com. Thanks!

#24 ::: Patrick Nielsen Hayden ::: (view all by) ::: November 15, 2019, 11:41 AM:

All I meant was, our deal doesn't include the novels set in IP owned by others, such as the two Star Trek books.

We're happy to consider stuff like the Car Wars stories for the new collection of short work, if we like it enough and the IP owners are amenable. So yeah, I'd like to see copies of that if anybody has them.

#25 ::: Bruce Baugh ::: (view all by) ::: November 15, 2019, 11:44 AM:

Gotcha. :)

#26 ::: Avram ::: (view all by) ::: November 15, 2019, 12:06 PM:

Looking over the index page for John M Ford at RPGgeek, I see only one piece of fiction listed — “Street Legal” in The Space Gamer #58. (Yes, it’s a Car Wars story. Looks familiar; pretty sure I read that issue when it came out.) Though it wouldn’t surprise me if there were bits of fiction scattered through the various setting books and scenarios he wrote for various games.

#27 ::: Mike Scott ::: (view all by) ::: November 15, 2019, 12:49 PM:

Avram @26 Yes, looks like that was the only one. You can purchase a PDF of that issue from Steve Jackson Games here: http://www.warehouse23.com/products/SJG30-2358

#28 ::: Andrew Plotkin ::: (view all by) ::: November 15, 2019, 02:34 PM:

Yay, and thanks to everyone who's been working to make this happen.

#29 ::: Tom Whitmore ::: (view all by) ::: November 15, 2019, 02:35 PM:

How much of the poetry is likely to be reprinted? I'd hope at least the award winners would go into the marginalia volume, and perhaps more could be included in the ebook version than in the print version (to save production costs).

Some of what was originally printed here would also be nice to see included, as a bit of rounding-out of his character. But I can completely understand if you want to hold to fiction.

#30 ::: Patrick Nielsen Hayden ::: (view all by) ::: November 15, 2019, 02:41 PM:

Tom Whitmore: Honestly, we haven’t remotely sorted it all out.

#31 ::: Steven Halter ::: (view all by) ::: November 15, 2019, 02:53 PM:

This is great news! Thanks to all involved in making this happen.

#32 ::: Stephen Granade ::: (view all by) ::: November 15, 2019, 03:26 PM:

I'm so excited that this is happening, both from an altrustic viewpoint, because I want his work widely available, and from a selfish viewpoint, because that means I can increase my own collection of his work.

#33 ::: Nicole J. LeBoeuf-Little ::: (view all by) ::: November 15, 2019, 03:33 PM:

This is amazing news. Like others, I first stumbled across the Slate article (it's been FPP'd at Metafilter), then ran right over here to celebrate. I haven't read nearly enough of Mike's work (outside of the ML Occasional Works). I'm so glad I'll have ample chance to rectify that soon.

The end of "Against Entropy" makes me tear up every time.

So did the end of the Slate article - or, more precisely, so did that final quote from Elise.

Lots of love to Elise, too, btw.

#34 ::: Soon Lee ::: (view all by) ::: November 15, 2019, 04:02 PM:

Wonderful news!

#35 ::: Vicki ::: (view all by) ::: November 15, 2019, 04:21 PM:

Many thanks to Isaac Butler, who pursued this beyond being given a copy of The Dragon Waiting, loving it, and discovering that most of Mike's work was out of print.

#36 ::: Tom Whitmore ::: (view all by) ::: November 15, 2019, 04:32 PM:

Patrick -- I'm just joining in the happy. Putting ideas in for later is part of that, and I don't need to know. I'll just wait and see, in grand antici
.
.
.
.
.
.
pation.

#37 ::: Xopher Halftongue ::: (view all by) ::: November 15, 2019, 04:32 PM:

I'm excited to hear this. I don't think I've read anything of his yet, except his posts here. I've always felt that I should, and the description in the article makes it sound like it's very much my sort of thing: fiction that doesn't spell everything out, where you get to apply your intellect to understanding it.

REALLY looking forward to repairing this gap in my reading history.

#38 ::: Tony Zbaraschuk ::: (view all by) ::: November 15, 2019, 05:05 PM:

Bounce, bounce, bounce!

Happy bounce! Happy bounce!

I am exultant that a new generation will get a chance to appreciate this wonderful writing. And I'm so looking forward to seeing copies of stuff I never knew about, or was never able to track down.

#39 ::: Amit Kotwal ::: (view all by) ::: November 15, 2019, 05:54 PM:

This is the best news I've heard in a while. My copy of The Dragon Waiting is falling apart, so I can't lend it to anyone. Now I'll finally be able to point my friends to Mike's work.

#40 ::: Steve Wright ::: (view all by) ::: November 15, 2019, 06:23 PM:

I will just add to the general chorus of "Yay, this is 100% good news!", and I'm looking forward to reading more of Ford's work - I hope there will be UK-accessible E-books... saves me having to import from the US... but Ford is well worth importing, I think!

#41 ::: Harriet Culver ::: (view all by) ::: November 15, 2019, 07:07 PM:

O frabjous day! What fantastic news! Blessings and thanks and all good things to Isaac Butler and Beth Meacham and Tor and the Ford family and the whole constellation of others who have made this possible. So happy for all the people who’ve cherished Mike’s works and words in memory and on their bookshelves, and for those who have yet to discover him.

#42 ::: Nathan ::: (view all by) ::: November 15, 2019, 10:57 PM:

Like so many others, I'm thrilled to hear about this. Thank you very much to everyone involved!

Is there anything that can be said about how much of ASPECTS there is?

#43 ::: Owlmirror ::: (view all by) ::: November 16, 2019, 01:05 AM:

I saw a John M. Ford quote on a LinkNYC ¹ display a few months ago. Perhaps it was a propitious sign of the good news to come.

The quote was from Heat of Fusion; something like "Of course we'll find a place to dance. This is New York City." But I don't have a copy of the book to check the wording, and memory is like a whatchacallit.

I wondered if a Tor editor had perhaps submitted the quote to LinkNYC for inclusion in their quote database, but perhaps it was a Slate journalist. Who can say?

=____________________________
1: For non-New Yorkers: LinkNYC are large monoliths that are all over the city (mainly in the more upscale parts, tbh) which don't really resemble something out of Arthur C. Clarke because they have grey sides rather than being dead black, have shapes that make them non-rectangular, & have two large colorful screens on their large sides that constantly change, showing advertisements, factoids about New York City, art by local artists (#ArtOnLink), weather conditions and forecasts, transit information, and so on and so forth. The display sequence also includes quotes about NYC by various authors. The kiosks also have a smaller display that can be used for useful things like browsing the web and making free phone calls, and so on. There's also open wifi hotspots to connect to, which I've always had problems getting to work.

website: link.nyc

#44 ::: Patrick Nielsen Hayden ::: (view all by) ::: November 16, 2019, 02:35 AM:

Owlmirror, #43: That sounds like the third-to-last line of Mike's 9/11 poem "110 Stories": "This is New York. We'll find a place to dance." I had no idea it had appeared on one of those kiosk video screens -- I think I would have fallen over on the sidewalk if I'd seen it in person.

Ironically, Mike was wrong. New York City is a terrible place for dancing, thanks to the cabaret law that from 1926 to 2017 prohibited public dancing except in venues holding an expensive and hard-to-get cabaret license. You will need to ready your shocked face before I tell you that enforcement of this law was often obviously and shamelessly racist. And although the law was repealed in 2017, the repeal has done little to improve matters, since there remains a zoning system, again enforced with vast arbitrariness, determining where and when establishments that provide live music may allow their patrons to dance to it.

Obviously in a civilized city there needs to be some system that prevents the opening of a loud live-music bar in the middle of a quiet residential street, but many American cities seem to manage this without making it mostly impossible for anyone but the rich and well-connected to dance to music in public.

My band, Whisperado, rarely plays in public any more because gentrification has vanished most of the pleasantly dive-y rock-and-roll bars which used to be our venues. But even back when we did, we never once had the chance to play for people who wanted to dance to music.

#45 ::: Lylassandra ::: (view all by) ::: November 16, 2019, 03:37 AM:

Delurking to say... I'm so happy for you-- I only know him through your posts, and I've seen how much the loss of his work made the grief of losing him so much sharper. I'm glad the world can have this much of him back.

#46 ::: David Goldfarb ::: (view all by) ::: November 16, 2019, 03:42 AM:

Owlmirror: Was the exact quote, perchance,
This is New York. We'll find a place to dance.
? If so, I'm here to tell you that you don't need the book handy.

When I was young, I read a bunch of his stories in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine
(aside: I don't feel I knew him well enough to say "Mike's stories"; but I know he didn't go by "John"; but saying "Ford's stories" seems weird somehow.)
I had trouble with them, and it took quite a while before I understood why. I was used to reading stories about solving problems...and these stories looked a lot like those. Except that they were really about living with insoluble situations and learning to cope. So they cut across my expectations, and I was too young to appreciate what they really were.

But a lot of people I really respected adored his work. So I picked up a copy of The Dragon Waiting, and prepared for it by reading four Shakespeare plays. And it clicked! I was blown away.

Since then I've managed to collect and read nearly all of his books.

A while ago, over on File 770, there was a fad for bracket competitions. The organizer left The Dragon Waiting out of the fantasy bracket, and I managed to encourage people to write it in. That succeeded, and it lasted several rounds. (Eventually getting knocked out by The Princess Bride.)

TL:DR: I am overjoyed by this news! Congratulations to all involved, especially Mr. Butler.

#47 ::: Owlmirror ::: (view all by) ::: November 16, 2019, 07:47 AM:

@ Patrick Nielsen Hayden: Yes, that's indeed the line.

I should feel embarrassed at not recognizing a line from his most famous poem, but I've always found that one hard to read.

I remember feeling a bit bothered at the citation for the quote, because I knew that Heat of Fusion is an anthology, and the exact work in that collection wasn't specified.

The explanation of the cabaret law also looks (separately) familiar; like one of the many Facts About New York City that I've seen on the LinkNYC display (not at the same time as the Ford quote).

@ David Goldfarb: Thanks also for the reminder about the provenance of the quote.

#48 ::: isaac butler ::: (view all by) ::: November 16, 2019, 10:19 AM:

Hi Everyone,

Isaac Butler here. Just wanted to say thank you to the whole Making Light community. I spent a lot of time lurking on old posts and threads while researching the article and this wonderful site and its vibrant discussions were absolutely instrumental to the piece (as of course were Patrick and Teresa, who put up with an absurd number of questions over the last 18 months.)

#49 ::: P J Evans ::: (view all by) ::: November 16, 2019, 12:13 PM:

And because it's Mike:
"Hot Gingered Pygmy mammoth and Jumbo Shrimp Salad" [Oct 2005]
https://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/006945.html#100583 ("D&S: A Capclave Story"), and also indexed in "Making Light: Cooking with Light"
https://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/010807.html [Nov 2008]

#50 ::: CHip ::: (view all by) ::: November 16, 2019, 12:54 PM:

PNH @44: I suspect many cities had that sort of bizarre restriction; what I've read about the rules Marty Balin was dealing with as a club manager when he founded Jefferson Airplane seemed equally strange.

Can you tell us anything yet about who will be finishing Aspects? I heard a name shortly after his death but also heard that the person was asked and declined.

#51 ::: CHip ::: (view all by) ::: November 16, 2019, 01:03 PM:

P J Evans @ 49: that was one of the pieces read at his memorial -- I think by TNH, but memory is uncertain.

I'm just sitting here thinking about the number of people I'll be sending the reprints to -- I don't have children, but there's at least one nephew who reads SF....

#52 ::: CHip ::: (view all by) ::: November 16, 2019, 01:29 PM:

An afterthought: what will there be about Mike? I'm sure there's more-coherent material than the gush I wrote for Boskone, but the Diane Duane not-a-bio that appeared in the same program book and the Gaiman forward to 20th Century are both wonderful perspectives. I wonder whether Jordan's memorial remarks are findable? I don't envy whoever tries to fit such material in amongst Mike's mathoms, but ISTM finding a place for some of it is worthwhile.

#53 ::: Tom Whitmore ::: (view all by) ::: November 16, 2019, 01:30 PM:

Isaac Butler @48: Thank you for dropping by. I hope you find the time and energy to delurk more fully, because I'd look forward to talking with you.

I've been thinking about how sometimes it takes an outsider to actually figure out how to cut through whatever is stopping a particular group. You might enjoy my experience around that which P&T published as Raiders of the Lost Basement a bunch of years ago.

#54 ::: Tehanu ::: (view all by) ::: November 16, 2019, 02:34 PM:

Saw this yesterday on tor dot com and it makes me so happy. I'm a Ricardian and The Dragon Waiting has one of my favorite portraits of Richard III, and of course I've got lots of Ford's other books too. Wish he were still here among us.

#55 ::: Devin ::: (view all by) ::: November 16, 2019, 04:52 PM:

Chip @50

Many cities have had nightlife-related moral panics of various kinds, absolutely. And they do seem to involve some very weird hoops in each case (New York's current "must be located in a Designated Boogie Zone" is especially picturesque). Patrick is quite right, however: New York City remains a distinctly bad place for dancing if you're not rich and connected. For instance, I can recall looking for a goth club, some years back. In spite of knowing several long-time residents from my clubs back home, it turned out... there wasn't one. Portland, Oregon, with a sixteenth of NYC's population, had more than one regular club night. Seattle, in spite of its own (more recent and more consistently enforced) moral-panic laws, had a full-time club and a couple regular nights at other venues. New York? Just didn't have anywhere you could go to dance to spooky music. And it certainly wasn't because there weren't any goths there, obviously.

#56 ::: Doug ::: (view all by) ::: November 16, 2019, 06:29 PM:

This is such wonderful news! Thank you, thank you to everyone involved!

(Parenthetically, Steve Jackson is sj@sjgames.com, and he might know about more Car Wars material than shows up in the indexes.)

#57 ::: Jan Vaněk jr. ::: (view all by) ::: November 16, 2019, 06:37 PM:

I am at loss for words (especially for Isaac Butler) that haven't been said before better. This is one of the things that I never expected to see, except perhaps in The Great Library in the Sky (ObSF: The Fort Moxie Branch? I think there are a few more works with a similar theme but of course the titles have slipped my mind).

Query: If someone wanted to get hold of translation rights, does/will Tor handle them? And if so, would that mean limited to the titles in print (or reasonably far through the pipeline) at a given moment?

#58 ::: Eli ::: (view all by) ::: November 16, 2019, 10:40 PM:

Isaac Butler @48: That's awfully nice, and thanks for bringing this about! I had a weird experience reading that article because I wasn't reading very carefully at the very beginning, so I totally missed the clues that something new had happened, and I assumed it was going to be a "here's who Mike Ford was and here's the story of how his family suppressed his work, in case you've never heard" appreciation piece saying the same stuff that everyone here would already know; I couldn't figure out why it would've taken 18 months to write such a piece, but I thought "oh well, it's nice to see him get some press anyway". So when I got to the later stuff about the family, I started thinking "huh, that seems new, I wonder if it'll make any difference to..." and about 10 seconds later I got to the big reveal and I was like "WHAT?"

Patrick @44: I'm an ex-NYer and of course you're totally right about the legal nonsense, but I always took that line in the poem to be more about people improvising under pressure - dancing somewhere they're not necessarily supposed to, because that did happen sometimes.

But I'll always remember going to a show at The Bottom Line in the mid-'90s where the band, unaware of the regulations, noticed that there was plenty of space between the tables there and started exhorting everyone to dance... and they were so sad to learn it wasn't possible that we in the audience forgot to feel sorry for ourselves and just felt sorry for the band instead. That band was Brave Combo, a great polka/salsa act from Texas that is one of the dancingest bands I've ever seen, and its frontman Carl Finch is one of the just plain happiest singers I've ever seen, so it was pretty memorable to see how bummed out he was. They carried on pretty well though.

#59 ::: Kip Williams ::: (view all by) ::: November 16, 2019, 11:32 PM:

Congratulations! Job well done! General merriment! It's been a long time needed, and here it is.

Rock on!

You could just about fill a small-press volume with his Making Light occasionals and rejoinders.

#60 ::: Patrick Nielsen Hayden ::: (view all by) ::: November 17, 2019, 02:41 AM:

Chip, #50: Nobody will be "finishing" Aspects. Whatever you may have heard, I don't believe anything of the sort was ever seriously contemplated.

#61 ::: Nancy Lebovitz ::: (view all by) ::: November 17, 2019, 06:32 AM:

Now I'm trying to remember whether this happened in New York-- I was at a planetarium with a Beatles laser show, including rotoscoped dancers. People kept getting up to dance, and the guards kept telling them to sit down, which they did.

It seemed sad at the time, and now it seems sadder because the light show gets to dance and people don't.

#62 ::: Dave Bell ::: (view all by) ::: November 17, 2019, 09:32 AM:

There are some elements of the story that Isaac Butler tells which should be a warning for any writer. The specifics of the story, not so significant, but the basic questions of who inherits, and how they know of the assets, are pretty universal.

#63 ::: Joel Polowin ::: (view all by) ::: November 17, 2019, 11:53 AM:

I'm very glad to hear about this. Isaac Butler, thank you for digging into this and helping to resolve things!

Patrick, please don't forget about the audio book versions, when you get that far. I'm very sure that Inge would love Mike Ford's books (The Dragon Waiting in particular), and she "reads" in audio form.

Will the books be getting any further editing? Would it be useful to have people scanning/OCRing the existing printed books? That's a task that could be crowdsourced and I'm sure you'd find volunteers.

#64 ::: P J Evans ::: (view all by) ::: November 17, 2019, 01:10 PM:

@63
Proofing the scanned/OCR'd stuff is important - I have some e-books that were done by scanning/OCRing, and they were not proofed, which means there are obvious errors.

#65 ::: Joel Polowin ::: (view all by) ::: November 17, 2019, 01:52 PM:

P J Evans @64 -- Absolutely. First-pass proofing can also be crowdsourced, though final proofing should be done by a professional.

I have a couple of printed books, reprints of prior publications, that were obviously scanned/OCRed and not competently proofread. The level of errors was appalling. Winterfair Gifts in the anthology volume Miles In Love is riddled with errors. The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke, published by Tor... well, it's full of mistakes. The worst of them is that a couple of pages' worth of text were simply omitted from "Superiority", which in some sense is appropriate. It could have happened in a number of ways, but my suspicion is that a couple of pages were stuck together when an old book was scanned, and nobody noticed the omission at any point.

"When the war opened we had no doubts of our ultimate victory. The combined fleets of our allies greatly exceeded in number and armament those which the enemy could muster against us, and in almost all branches of military science we were their superiors. We were sure that we started to convert all homing torpedoes to carry the new weapon. For the time being all further offensives were suspended."

#66 ::: Kevin J. Maroney ::: (view all by) ::: November 17, 2019, 04:48 PM:

Avram @ 26:

As someone helpfully noted on Twitter, Mike's other CAR WARS story "Alkahest" appeared in Autoduel Quarterly vol. 3 #3, which is also available in PDF at Warehouse 23.

I also noted on Twitter what I suspect is Mike's most obscure short story, except there are actually 2 of them--the introductory stories from the West End Games boardgame anthology Star Trek III, which also contains Mike's only solo board game design, "Free Enterpri$e", though I'd be surprised if he didn't write some paragraphs for "The Sherwood Syndrome" and he's got "contributing design" credit on the third game, "Kobayashi_Maru".

I will note that the BGG link is directly to the Files section of that game's entry, which has some interesting material.

#67 ::: Bruce ::: (view all by) ::: November 17, 2019, 08:50 PM:

Best news I've had in a while. Thanks Isaac Butler.

#68 ::: Patrick Nielsen Hayden ::: (view all by) ::: November 17, 2019, 11:30 PM:

If I recall correctly, the problem with our hardcover of The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke was that we took files from the original UK publisher, Gollancz, who were unaware that they had omitted a couple of pages from "Superiority."

Our trade paperback edition fixes the error. I'm unaware that anybody else's edition fixes the error.

#69 ::: abi ::: (view all by) ::: November 18, 2019, 05:26 AM:

Joel, the people involved with this project include some of the best editors in the business, and it's been one of their dearest wishes for many years. I'm pretty sure they'll pay adequate attention to the details.

#70 ::: stefan jones ::: (view all by) ::: November 18, 2019, 10:17 AM:

#26, #66: I asked Steve Jackson to look for Mike's poetry on the various boards his company has run through the years. He asked an employee to do a search.

(I have a copy of the Star Trek III game, purchased at a thrift shop. Mike was kind enough to send a photocopy of the missing rule book!)

#71 ::: Joel Polowin ::: (view all by) ::: November 18, 2019, 12:36 PM:

abi @69: Of course; I didn't intend to suggest otherwise. I apologize. This is a happy occasion; I shouldn't have brought my old disappointment into it, through conversational drift.

#72 ::: Doug ::: (view all by) ::: November 19, 2019, 04:11 AM:

#70 Good news on top of good news!

#73 ::: stefan jones ::: (view all by) ::: November 19, 2019, 10:16 AM:

One of the folks on the current SJGames discussion board not only remembered JMFord's poetry posts, but saved a few, and reposted them:

http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.php?p=2295793&postcount=12

#74 ::: BravoLimaPoppa ::: (view all by) ::: November 19, 2019, 12:07 PM:

And I forgot to thank Isaac Butler.
Mr. Butler - if you're still following this, thank you for a wonderful article and facilitating the reprinting of Mr. Ford's material.

#75 ::: Mary Frances ::: (view all by) ::: November 19, 2019, 11:05 PM:

Yes! Wonderful news--Thank you, Patrick and TOR and everyone involved! I've been wishing to buy more John M. Ford for years!

#76 ::: KeithS ::: (view all by) ::: November 20, 2019, 10:37 AM:

I've been lucky to find a couple of Ford's books in used bookstores over the years. (Also, I have an extra copy of How Much for Just the Planet if someone would like it.) Glad to see his works coming back into print!

#77 ::: Mark Brown ::: (view all by) ::: November 20, 2019, 11:39 AM:

I lurk. I never post. And yet, here I am saying "Hallelujah!".

One of the authors for whom the Suck Fairy has not visited (for me), and I'm glad to see this good news.

#78 ::: Allan Beatty ::: (view all by) ::: November 23, 2019, 06:42 PM:

This is great news. I very much enjoyed Growing Up Weightless a few years ago. It has a lot of what I like about Heinlein but without the baggage.

This post reminded me to dig out the two Star Trek novels that I got at a used record store a while back for $2 each. I look forward to reading them over the holidays.

#79 ::: CHip ::: (view all by) ::: November 24, 2019, 08:04 AM:

stefan jones @ 73: is there an access to those poems that doesn't require a login?

Dave Bell @ 62: a number of people commented at the time about the need for writers to have wills even if they had nothing tangible; I recall Gaiman being exceptional forceful (at least for Gaiman) in his blog. OTOH, I don't remember seeing details on how this could be done inexpensively; my partner and I recently made a couple of small changes and paid almost $300, which would not be trivial for most writers. I know SFWA has done great things for writers in some aspects but don't know whether they've gathered such info.

#80 ::: stefan jones ::: (view all by) ::: November 24, 2019, 10:32 AM:

#79: I'm sorry, I didn't know that that sub-forum was behind the sign-in.

#81 ::: stefan jones ::: (view all by) ::: December 21, 2019, 10:49 AM:

Winter Solstice, Camelot Station:

http://thegreenbelt.blogspot.com/2006/12/winter-solstice-camelot-station.html

#82 ::: Tom Whitmore ::: (view all by) ::: December 21, 2019, 01:20 PM:

Just found 3 issues of CAPTAIN CONFEDERACY with Mike as one of the writers. Not likely to be included in the collected works, but quite amusing!

#83 ::: P J Evans ::: (view all by) ::: January 03, 2020, 11:10 PM:

Whee! again
Kobo has The Dragon Waiting available for pre-order!

#84 ::: Joel Polowin ::: (view all by) ::: March 16, 2020, 06:57 PM:

Any chance you could include the soup ad that got inserted into the German translation of The Final Reflection? Fair use for purposes of criticism, or some such? I've seen the ad that was plugged into Terry Pratchett's Pyramids and have long been curious about the Klingons who sat down and relaxed with a nice comforting mug of soup.

#85 ::: Harriet Culver ::: (view all by) ::: September 29, 2020, 05:33 AM:

Just a few words to witness that a fresh new copy of THE DRAGON WAITING just materialized in my Kindle library.
Congratulations and THANKS to all the folks at Tor and elsewhere (including Isaac Butler) who worked to bring this to fruition!

#86 ::: Harriet Culver ::: (view all by) ::: September 29, 2020, 05:34 AM:

Just a few words to witness that a fresh new copy of THE DRAGON WAITING just materialized in my Kindle library.
Congratulations and THANKS to all the folks at Tor and elsewhere (including Isaac Butler) who worked to bring this to fruition!

#87 ::: Harriet Culver ::: (view all by) ::: September 29, 2020, 05:35 AM:

Just a few words to witness that a fresh new copy of THE DRAGON WAITING just materialized in my Kindle library.
Congratulations and THANKS to all the folks at Tor and elsewhere (including Isaac Butler) who worked to bring this to fruition!

#88 ::: Harriet Culver ::: (view all by) ::: September 29, 2020, 05:39 AM:

Please moderator, can you kindly make these inadvertent duplicates disappear? My iPhone told me that the attempt to post my comment had failed, and to correct the supposed error and try again. So I did :-(

#89 ::: Nancy C. Mittens requests gnomish cleanup ::: (view all by) ::: September 29, 2020, 02:59 PM:

Repeat comments above.

Harriet, I am looking forward to reading that. I've not really been able to find a used copy, so I am thrilled for the reprints.

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