Alec Baldwin Doesn’t Love Me and Other Trials from My Queer Life

Michael Thomas Ford is the ultimate in prolific gay writers. He has more than 50 books to his credit that run the gamut of essay style humor, fiction, vampire fiction, romance and more. His vampire series, which started with the book Jane Bites Back (i.e. Jane Austen), is wildly popular. So too are his “young adult” novels, Suicide Notes and Z (for Zombies!). There doesn’t seem to be any genre he won’t try. He seems to do pretty well at all of them.

Let’s step into the way back machine. The book that actually attracted my attention to his work is his 1997 publication, Alec Baldwin Doesn’t Love Me and Other Trials from My Queer Life. This is a book of humorous essays based on, you guessed it, his life up to that point. These are still laugh inducing if just a bit dated. For example, he waxes in one essay about domestic goddess Martha Stewart. At the time he wrote the book, she was wildly popular and she hadn’t been to prison for insider trading. Now…well, you know how that all turned out.

Here’s the synopsis:

The essays in Michael Thomas Ford’s Alec Baldwin Doesn’t Love Me & Other Trials from My Queer Life are perfect models of the form. Ford, who writes a syndicated column titled “My Queer Life,” can muse on anything from Martha Stewart’s manias to his devotion to Alec Baldwin’s chest, from the elusive gay gene to right-wing Fundamentalist Christianity (in which he was raised), and he manages to make us laugh and sometimes even cry. His ironic view of a world that keeps threatening to be wonderful but never quite succeeds dovetails perfectly with his desire for world peace, freedom for gay people, and better sex. Witty, funny, and surprisingly moving, Michael Thomas Ford explains life to us and it actually begins to make sense.

In 1998, he followed the popularity of that humor essay book up with the funny but more abrasive book, That’s Mr. Faggot to You : Further Trials from My Queer Life. The book was a hit with most that picked it up but, unfortunately, many didn’t. Maybe the title hindered him from experiencing the same success or maybe it was just too soon.

In 2003, he did another humor essay update to the “queer life series” with the publication of  My Big Fat Queer Life: The Best of Michael Thomas Ford. Again, it’s just a bit dated – with the title being an obvious twist on the “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” and My Big Fat GreekLife” productions of 2002 and 2003 respectively. This 3rd book found a much more receptive audience than the 2nd one did. It remains popular. There have been no true updates to the “series” since its publication. Please note: This third book is a collection of previous works plus a handful of new ones. If you’ve read the first two books or any of his other essay style work or his columns, this one will seem “old news” to you. If you haven’t read any of his stuff before and you only have time for one, I recommend this one.