In the Spotlight: Michael Thomas Ford
The Book: Mike Monaghan is the bartender at the Engine Room, a meeting place for the small but thriving community of gay men in Cold Falls, New York. As Mike pours beer, wipes glasses and hears everything, he’s also witness to the men who come here looking for what they need-sex, direction, friendship, spiritual fulfillment, and love. People like:
Stephen Darby-As an accountant, he knows many secrets. But Stephen has his own secret, one he’s never been able to share with anyone close to him. Being the perfect son costs him dearly, and now it may take from him the one man he longs for.
Pete Thayer-Playing it straight, Pete takes out his frustrations on transmissions and engines during the day, then spends his nights trying to quench his needs through anonymous sex. But once the thrill of the forbidden begins to fade, what will he be left with?
John and Russell-The golden couple in town has the ideal relationship everyone wants. But behind the scenes, their storybook marriage is on the verge of facing some explosive trials that will shake both men completely.
Father Thomas Dunn-More and more the gentle priest is feeling a need to express the secret desires that conflict with his devotion to the church, sending his faith into a tailspin and making him question what he really wants from life.
Simon Bird-He’s a fixture in town, an old queen everyone finds amusing and entertaining. Still mourning the loss of his longtime lover, Simon yearns to find love and a place in a culture that worships youth and beauty.
As Mike hands these men their drinks, he marvels at their determination, strength and foolishness. But most of all, he begins to question his own dissatisfaction, pondering what’s missing from his own life, and what risks he may have to take to find fulfillment. Looking For It is an extraordinarily human tale of community, friendship, and the search for happiness. With unflinching honesty, keen insight, and his trademark humor, Michael Thomas Ford weaves together the unforgettable stories of these seven men, chronicling their dreams, hurts, heartbreaks, joys, and hopes, while taking readers on an emotional journey to find what it is we’re all looking for.
Amazon: Looking For It
Other Books in the List:
Last Summer (2004)
Amazon: Last Summer
Full Circle (2007)
Amazon: Full Circle
Changing Tides (2008)
Amazon: Changing Tides
Tangled Sheets (2005)
Amazon: Tangled Sheets
Masters of Midnight (2003)
Amazon: Masters Of Midnight
Midnight Thirst (2004)
Amazon: Midnight Thirsts: Erotic Tales: Erotic Tales of the Vampire
Suicice Notes (2008)
Amazon: Suicide Notes
What We Remember (2008)
Amazon: What We Remember
The Author: Michael Thomas Ford (born 1968) is a gay American author of primarily gay-themed literature. He is best known for his "My Queer Life" series, consisting of Alec Baldwin Doesn't Love Me, That's Mr. Faggot to You, It's Not Mean If It's True, and The Little Book of Neuroses.
Ford began his writing career in 1992 with the publication of 100 Questions & Answers about AIDS: What You Need to Know Now (Macmillan), one of the first books about the AIDS crisis for young adults. Named an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults, the book became the most widely-used resource in HIV education programs for young people and was translated into more than a dozen languages.
Michael Thomas Ford is the author of more than fifty books for both young readers and adults. He is best known for his best-selling novels Last Summer, Looking for It, and Full Circle and for his five essay collections in the "Trials of My Queer Life" series. His work has been nominated for ten Lambda Literary Awards, twice winning for Best Humor Book and receiving the 2003 Lammy for Best Romance Novel. He was also nominated for a Horror Writers Association Bram Stoker Award (for his novel The Dollhouse That Time Forgot) and a Gaylactic Spectrum Award (for his short story "Night of the Werepuss").
Ford's second novel for Kensington Books, Looking for It, was published in the summer of 2004. Centered around the lives of a group of gay men living in a small upstate New York town, the novel was heralded by Booklist as an "engaging page-turner of lives within lives, an insightful and entertaining read about what we seek, and what answers we find within and without." Like its predecessor, Looking for It reached the top of gay bestseller charts and quickly became the hottest gay book of the summer.
In October of 2008, Ford returns to his young adult roots with the publication of Suicide Notes (HarperCollins), the blackly-comic story of a young man forced to come to terms with his emerging sexuality after a failed attempt at ending his life puts him in a psychiatric hospital. He will also release his fifth novel with Kensington, a portrait of a family torn apart when the father, believed to have committed suicide, is found to have been murdered. As the mystery around his death is unraveled, so too is the tragic history of a family that isn't what it seems. (From Wikipedia)
http://www.michaelthomasford.com/
Top 100 Gay Novels List (*)
External Link to the Top 100 Gay Novels List (simple - without photos)
External Link to the Top 100 Gay Novels List (wanted - with photos)
*only one title per author, only print books released after January 1, 2000.
Other titles not in the top 100 list:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/top50MM