Jeffrey Ford

Sep 3, 2024 | blog.ncga.org | Jeffrey Ford

By Jeffrey FordDusk filtered across the summer fairways and quietly entered the Rancho Cañada cart barnWhere a boy lay weary on a wooden bench, spent after hours of cart washing, and cleaning,And the tedious gleaning of the driving range. Lulled by the hum of his charging carts, the boy dozed,As Dusk gently massaged his bare feet, feet still too large for a boy’s bodyHe wiggled his toes and dreamed of places his feet had yet to visit,How it would feel pressing the gas pedal of his own car.

Feb 13, 2024 | reactormag.com | Gwenda Bond |Jeffrey Ford |Daniel José Older |Jonathan Carroll

If you want to go down a rabbithole of fun debates over who said it and arguments about whether it’s true, search the famous (infamous?) quote, “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.” Leaving aside the fact that dancing about architecture seems fabulous — more dancing about everything, I say—there’s a stickiness to this because it’s perfectly said… Whether it was Martin Mull, Elvis Costello, Frank Zappa or someone who is always opining at a bar to the person next to them: It...

Nov 7, 2023 | uncannymagazine.com | Jeffrey Ford |Clockpunk Studios

There are two things you need to get started. First, you have to know how to waltz. When I say “know,” I don’t mean that your sweeping rotations must describe perfect circles or that every subtle lift has to be like the clockwork of the universe. Neither do you have to be dressed up like you stepped out of the ballroom scene in Magnificent Ambersons. My neighbor, Gant, wore his Toledo Rockets cap, an old gray sweatshirt, a pair of gym shorts, and army green Crocs.

May 24, 2023 | tor.com | Jeffrey Ford |Ellen Datlow

There are worse things than a local gangster’s cronies lurking in New Jersey’s wetlands…It was a June night, warm but breezy. Lynn and the kids had gone to bed, and I was sitting out next to the giant rose bush with my neighbor Phil. The back of our house faced across our small yard and garden, to the side of the Victorian his dad had left him. We were drinking beer and smoking cigarettes and weed.

May 24, 2023 | tor.com | Jeffrey Ford |Ellen Datlow

I see a lot of reading lists offered by readers and writers around Halloween time, which is great, but three quarters of them have different variations of the same works. It’s hard to avoid Stephen King, simply because there are so many terrific short stories you might choose. On the other hand, you also get a tsunami of H. P. Lovecraft, which, for my money, is akin to a fist full of Ambien. To each his own, I suppose.