World-acclaimed writer comes to the Hi-Line

There is something really special about small town libraries, and Montana, that attracts many people from all different walks of life, Jamie Ford said.

Ford, an internationally recognized and New York Times best-selling author, said that, although his books are well known across the world, he still enjoys coming to rural libraries in Montana because of the people.

"They are really vital to those communities and they are really well supported usually," he said.

Ford, who has lived in Great Falls for the past 20 years, said that he has traveled around the country to promote his books, but finds he often has a hard time saying no when it comes to rural Montana libraries. 

He was in Havre Wednesday, the last leg of his most recent book tour that included Harlem Monday and Chinook Tuesday, promoting his most recently published novel "Love and Other Consolation Prizes," which was published in 2017. 

The novel is a story about a 12-year-old half-Chinese orphan named Ernest Young, who is a charity student at a boarding school and was auctioned off during the Seattle 1909 World's Fair. The story is about innocence, love and devotion, and the idea that everything and everyone is for sale. The story was inspired by the true story of a boy by the same name who was auctioned off during the 1909 World's Fair, and who, otherwise, has been lost to time.

His first novel, the acclaimed "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet," was published in 2009. "Songs of Willow Frost" was published in 2013, and Ford said he is working on a new novel. He is also working with some producers to have his first book converted to a screenplay for a movie and is working with other producers to get the novel made into a Broadway musical.

Ford said that in bigger cities, when he is promoting his book, he notices people have a lot going on in their lives and can't always make it to his events. Cities have a million other things people can do other than go to a book promotion, he said.

While in Los Angeles, he said, his events averaged about 20 people each event, and although that is still a good turn out, whenever he holds events in rural Montana Libraries he averages at least 50 people in attendance. 

It is because libraries in rural areas are vital to those communities, he said. 

"If you remove the library, might as well remove the post office," he said.

He added that the higher attendance in small towns is something that blows his publicist's mind.

"The library is like a candy store where everything is free." - Jamie Ford, "Songs of Willow Frost," page 39.

The man behind the ink

Ford, born in northern California, grew up in the Seattle area, is the son of a multicultural home. He said he is half-Chinese, from his father's side, and is a fourth-generation American. He said his great-grandfather originally came to the United States in 1865, changing his name from Min Chung to William Ford in 1890. He added that his family suspects his great-grandfather originally changed his same so he would be able to purchase property. His great-grandfather was living in Nevada, when it was still a territory, at the time he changed his name. At that time women were not permitted to purchase land, let alone Chinese immigrants. 

When thinking back to his childhood, Ford said, one of the things that come immediately to mind is asthma. He said as a child he had bad asthma and both of his parents were worried about him going outside, so while his siblings were able to go out and play, he was often stuck indoors with comic books and things to draw. He added that it got him going down a creative path at a young age.

His parents also nurtured that part of him, he said. Even in his later teen years, before going to college, his father, who was a failed fine artist, always wanted him to be an artist, while his mother, who was more bohemian, wanted him to become a writer. He added that at the time he wanted to do both, at first wanting to be a comic book writer.

“I look back and it's weird,” Ford said.

He said that as he grew up he never understood the influence his parents really had on his life. He added that many parents don’t want their children to become artists and would much rather have them be a lawyer or an accountant, letting their children’s creative fever die out.

“I took it for granted,” he said. “It was not until I got older that I was like, ‘Man, my parents are weird.’”

With his own family, he said, he and his wife, Leesha, try to also nurture their children's creative abilities. For example when his own son was 13, his son’s music teacher called him and told him his son had a talent for music. He added that he and his wife supported their son and now he is a professional musician.

But the biggest influence in his life, which led him down the road to becoming a professional writer, he said, was when he was in high school and the school banned the Harlan Ellison novel “Deathbird Stories.” 

Ford said that he immediately went to the local library and checked out a copy. After reading the book, he said he found out how powerful books can be and he knew he wanted to figure out how to be a writer. He added that he doesn’t write like Ellison, but Ellison opened Ford’s eyes to how important words can be. 

Once he had a bit of writing success with his New York Time’s Best-Selling novel “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet,” he contacted Ellision and eventually bought his first typewriter, a 1938 Remington noiseless. Ford said that Ellison’s mother had bought the typewriter for him second-hand in Cleveland, Ohio, when he was 13 years old and it is one of Ford’s prized possessions. 

He added that he has written only one thing on the type writer since he obtained it. When he was asked to write an opinion piece regarding refugees, he wrote the first draft on Ellison’s typewriter. He said Ellison was a progressive man who had marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. back in the ’60s and it felt right to write the first-draft on the typewriter. 

Ford said he was not the only writer whose passion for writing was lit by Ellison, and although Ellison’s topics in his work are adult it is something people should read.

After graduating from South Kitsap High School, Ford attended the Art Institute of Seattle, where he graduated with a degree in art and design, he said. After graduating and before he became a writer, he worked in advertising as a creative director for advertising campaigns. He lived in Hawaii for a period of time before he moved to Great Falls, he added that he was dying to move back to the mainland. 

He said he liked living in Hawaii, but he didn’t like the fast-pace lifestyle that was there and when the chance came to move he took it.

“I came to Great Falls with the intent to try to write more, I didn’t know how far I’d go, but I figured if I lived in a smaller town, and kind of had a better quality of life and didn't have a massive commute, I could carve out some time out of my normal life to write,” he said. 

He added that what he found in Montana was what he was looking for, and he suspects, so many great writers scattered scattered around the state come for. Montana doesn't have as many distractions as urban areas and it allows people to be able to do their own thing.

In his early 30s, when he moved to Great Falls, Ford said he decided he wanted to give writing a shot and take it seriously. The hardest thing was carving out the time in his schedule to be able to read and write, along with turning off the TV, putting down the phone and focusing. He said it is like learning to play the guitar or piano, it's a craft and people have to put in the time “and suffer all the bad notes.”

“Just allowing myself to go for it, and it's kind of like having the audacity to do it,” Ford said, “allowing yourself to do it, although it may be pretty rough in the beginning.”

He added that, in the beginning he cut out part of his evening, from 10 p.m. to 1 in the morning, to read and write, and tried to write on the weekends.

His first book, “Rabid Years,” took him four years to write and was never published, he said. He said that he wrote it and rewrote it several times and eventually outgrow the story. He added that the book had been rejected multiple times and after he decided to pull it he didn't write again for nine months. 

After those nine months he decided he wanted to write for himself instead of worrying about the marketplace and after that was when he started writing “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet,” Ford said.

He added that he believes in a quote from Ellison, “Write for the most intelligent, wittiest, wisest audience in the universe: Write to please yourself.”

Once he had made the change and completed “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet,”he immediately started getting offers for his book, he said. He added that it was eventually sold at auction to Random House Publishing Co. and is now in 36 different languages. 

Ford said he didn’t feel like a true author until best-selling author Pat Conroy approached him at the Savannah Book Festival in Georgia and wanted to talk to him about his book, and told him he liked the piece.

A tip for writers

Ford said he is a self-taught writer, for better or for worse.  

“For me, you put the time in,” he said. “You know you can learn the mechanics and the craft aspects of writing through just practicing and studying other writers.”

He added that some of the best advice he received was from one of his author friends who suggested to him to not study good writers. Ford said his friend told him to go to a garage sale and buy three out-of-print books. He added that he was told to find the worst books he could find and pick them apart and find all the flaws in the book so he could be self-aware of those mistakes in his own writing.

“It sounds so simple,” Ford said.

Ford added that he discourages people from reading their favorite authors when they try to write, because it’s like going to the gym and comparing themselves to professional body builders or fashion models — they never match up.

He added that, nothing against people who obtain their Masters of Fine Arts degree, but people with MFAs tend to be “performance writers,” people who write to please other writers with their arrangement of words and end up having less of a story of a narrative.

Ford said he is a storyteller first and writer second, and once he knew the difference writing got easier for him.

While on his book tour, he contacted Harlem High social studies teacher and author Jack G. Young, who is an acquaintance, of his and told him he would be in town. Young then asked if Ford would speak with his creative writing students at the school. 

Ford said that his best advice to young writers or new writers is just like what he has told his own children, regardless of who someone’s favorite author is, whether it is Stephen King or J.K. Rowling, those writers will someday die. 

“We need the next generation of artists to take their place and if they don't do it someone else is going to do it, and why not them,” Ford said.

It is alright to fail, he said, but people have to persevere. People often have such high expectations for themselves but it takes time and they have to work their way up.