About Troy Ford:
Troy Ford is an author and editor, and the publisher of two popular newsletters: the writing-focused Ford Knows Books, and Qstack, an LGBTQIA+ Directory, Platform, and Community of newsletter writers and readers. As a creator and advocate, his mission is to give voice to queer people and issues by promoting their visibility through media projects and collaborations, and through his own fiction and essays.
Troy's short film "Unsung: Queer Portraits of Authenticity and the Cost of Its Absence" recently won the OurPride 2025 Innovative Storytelling Award. He has published work in Writers Digest, Unstamatic, Bewildering Stories, and others.
Troy’s writing explores the joy and pain of queerness through the lens of gay men who struggle in a world that views their lives as other and less than. His themes include love and sex, friendship and family, growing up and bullying, substance abuse and self-destructiveness – all with a touch of humor to lighten otherwise difficult topics.
A native Californian, he grew up overseas in the Middle East and eventually settled in the San Francisco/Bay Area where he earned a B.A. in Rhetoric from UC Berkeley. Since 2019, he has lived in Sitges, Spain with his husband and AmStaff Terrier.
What inspires you to write?
I'm inspired by the concept of the parallel worlds we each have in our own minds, and by those created and shared through writing. It's the closest thing to real magic I can think of, and the challenge of creating a story and bringing it to life is both incredibly difficult and rewarding.
What authors do you read when you aren’t writing?
I find myself gravitating toward British and Irish writers much of the time. My first love was fantasy, so J.R.R. Tolkien, of course. I've recently been reading Edna O'Brien, Frank O'Connor – the contemporary Irish writer Sharon Thompson's "The Healer" is wonderful. Elspeth Barker, the Scottish author of "O Caledonia" – she only wrote one, but it's remarkable. Virginia Woolf, naturally. Some non-British writers: Roberto Balaño, John Fante, John Crowley, Margaret Atwood – so many really.
Tell us about your writing process.
I'm a bit of a hybrid plotter/pantser – I have scenes and ideas and arcs that I know I want to include, so I write those down in a rough outline and aim toward them, but I'm open to taking detours or letting the story or characters lead me in a new direction. I've written one book with a traditional/linear arc and many revisions, and another I wrote very quickly with a non-traditional format and very little revising. I just cannot bring myself to sit down and do the character work that some do, I get very impatient and just want to plunge in and let the characters put on their personalities, not unlike an actor saying lines and slowly embodying the character through iterations. I do keep a story log where I will muse about the story and wonder on the page where it is going.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
Definitely. I've had side characters suddenly grab me by the shoulders and demand to be heard and given more of a role. I will sometimes have imaginary conversations with the characters written out as though dialogue in my story log, and it's a very helpful way to give them space to develop their voice.
What advice would you give other writers?
Start building your author platform early – a newsletter to speak directly to your readers, and pick one social media platform to really learn and master. The earlier the better – it's crucial, nowadays.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
I had no luck querying agents for my first (unpublished) book, and then I started my newsletter Ford Knows Books on Substack and decided to serialize a novel there specifically to follow-up with a self-published book. I imagine I'd still like to be traditionally published someday and be a hybrid writer. I think the more flexible you can be in your writing career, the better.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
I've written elsewhere that the old agent/publisher pipeline is experiencing an upheaval, and it's getting harder and harder to get noticed – even with all the new tools we have in social media and online. Maybe it's a function of making money, maybe it's the competition with so many new authors and a tightening/culling of publishing houses, but chasing after an agent is as hard as ever and you just can't go wrong by making a name for yourself independently. Connections with readers are key, but alliances with other writers can be even more crucial to building your author platform.
What genres do you write?: LGBTQ+, Literary Fiction
What formats are your books in?: Both eBook and Print
Website(s)
Troy Ford Home Page Link
Link To Troy Ford Page On Amazon
Your Social Media Links
Goodreads
Facebook
Twitter
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All information in this post is presented “as is” supplied by the author. We don’t edit to allow you the reader to hear the author in their own voice.
