And the second-most recent post at Making Light today is called “Mike Ford: Occasional Works (Pt. Nine).” This series is something else I’d like to bring to your attention.

Mike Ford, or John M. Ford, wrote some really good books which I have yet to read. *hangs head in shame* He was also an extremely witty regular at Making Light. If something you posted there got his attention enough for him to reply, you’d feel all warm and happy and proud. After you got done giggling at his reply, of course. He had a damn fine ear for pastiche and parody, his filks scanned most righteously, and he was a quick draw with a sonnet or a villanelle.

And then one day he died, and the literary blogosphere mourned. Mike Ford being who he was, mourning for him frequently took the form of verses in his honor. But first there were shell-shocked acknowledgments that somewhere, in the back of everyone’s heads, was the confident expectation that Mike would show up at any moment with the perfect commentary for this as for any occasion. Which hurt.

Since then, Jim Macdonald’s been occasionally posting the Occasional Works series, probably the fittest and best online in memoriam you could ask for. Sure, anyone could just find a post of Mike’s and then click “view by all,” but how many people would think to do so? Much better every once in a while to visit ML and find a post comprising some twenty or so of Mike commentaries, complete from beginning to end, with links back to the discussions they were part of. Appreciate the man.

And every time one of these Occasional Works posts comes up, I find myself compelled to read them aloud to anyone within reach. By the time I finish reading, I have to admit that most of the literary and film allusions in them flew right over my head, but damn the man could turn a phrase!

So. In answer to the inevitable question following mention of Pt. Nine, here are links to the Occasional Works series, Pts. One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, and Eight. And you should go read them. Probably not all at once, but all of them eventually. Because he was just that wonderful.