John M. Ford

From a very young age, he suffered from diabetes and renal dysfunction which required him to go through a kidney transplant and frequent dialysis.

He passed away in Minneapolis and was discovered by his long-time partner, Elise Matthesen.

Following his death, a number of texts and obituaries about Ford were written, some of which can even be found online including, ‘The Society of the Preservation of Mike’ by the LiveJournal committee and Will Shetterley’s ‘An Introduction to John M. Ford’.

John Milo ‘Mike’ Ford was born in East Chicago, Indiana, and was raised in Whiting.

He studied at the Indiana University Bloomington in the 70s and was an active member of the Society for Creative Anachronism and the science fiction guild.

While he was still a student, he published his first short story, ‘This, Too, We Reconcile’ in 1976.

He left the university and moved to New York where he was employed with the ‘Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction’ magazine. His job was to write fiction, poetry, game reviews and articles.

His last entry for the magazine was in 1981. Around this time, he also authored ‘The Princess of the Air’. Along with George H. Scithers and Darrell Schweitzer, he penned ‘On Writing Science Fiction’, which released the same year.

He authored a Star-Trek tie-up novel, ‘The Final Reflection’ in 1984 and the next year, he wrote the short-story, ‘Scrabble with God’, which was once again reprinted at a later date. He also helped design the game ‘Double Paranoia’ along with Curtis Smith, which released the following year.

He penned another Star-Trek tie-in novel, ‘How Much for Just the Planet?’ in 1987. The following year, he wrote ‘The Scholars of Night’, which was written in the thriller category, containing a Christopher Marlowe play.

In 1989, he authored one of his lesser-known works, ‘Casting Fortune’, which is in fact, a collection of stories set in the ‘Liavek shared world’. The same year, he penned one of his most famous poems, ‘Winter Solstice, Camelot Station’, which earned him an important award.

In 1983, he authored, ‘The Dragon Waiting: A Masque of History’. It is considered one of his first major works because it won the coveted ‘World Fantasy Award’. In 1995, the book sold nearly 40,000 copies in print and 10,000 more for international, foreign editions.

The first of his Star Trek novels, ‘The Final Reflection’ was published in 1984. It was in this book, he underlined the progresses of the Klingon language and ethos. The novel became so popular that it became the basis for the FASA Star Trek role-playing game.

In 1994, he published one of his lengthiest and his most admired poems, ‘Troy: The Movie’. This poem was reprinted in several versions and is to date considered one of his best poetic works.