1. Someday I will finish and publish a novel.

2. I have finished many shorts stories over the years and have never attempted to have any of them published.

3. I have an irrational fear of birds.

4. That said very few things in this world truly frighten me. I have driven a buck twenty bumper to bumper on a tortuous road, gone bungee jumping, cliff diving, skydiving and countless other youthful indiscretions.

5. And that said I have been terrified on a couple of occasions. The first was a month before Josh was born and we were driving to Holly Cross to do a tour of the maternity ward. We were stopped in traffic on 495 near magical kingdom AKA the Mormon Temple. Melissa stated screaming as a SVU plowed into us at highway speeds. The accident put her into early labor and it was hours before they were able to stop the labor and give us any assurance that she and the baby would be OK. The second time in recent memory was when I held my son for the first time.

6. Even though I am pro-science and highly critical of religious dogma, I am surprisingly religious. I have never doubted in G-d, only humanity’s ability to understand.

7. Most of my life I preferred to read what Academics call literature and now I prefer speculative fiction. I can even admit to truly loving some urban/dark fantasy that could just as easily be housed in the romance isle.

8. I am a terrible insomniac and Lunesta has changed my life.

9. I have been contemplating giving up meat on moral grounds but am not sure I have the will power to make it happen.

10. I’m a Mac, and a PC and a LINUX

11. As a kid I used to take things apart to to figure out how they worked, I still do.

12. I used to build PCs before it was considered easy.

12. I am very mechanically inclined but have never changed my own oil, mostly because I don’t like getting dirty.

13. I love to garden. I know that sounds contradictory but I don’t mind dirt dirt. It is the greasy and/or sticky things I don’t love.

14. I have studied Christianity more in depth than Judaism.

15. I hated being Jewish as a child but happily identify with Judaism as an adult.

16. My favorite game is Gin provided I am playing with my wife. She is a knocker!

17. My mind works best when I am multitasking.

18. I can listen to an audio book or watch TV while reading and follow both. I know this makes me a little odd but I was a multitasker before modern communication necessitated it.

19. My wife never ceases to amaze me.

20. On any given day Lifeguarding was my favorite job. Bar-tending was the most fun, and Teaching the most rewarding.

21. Even though I don’t LOVE it I am very good at HR an assume I will keep doing it forever unless I do #1 more than once and really really really well.

22. I am terrible with names.

23. Having a child (soon to be children) has changed my life in unbelievable and indescribable ways.

24. Yes I do get asked about the other Corey Feldman all to often and how funny is it that my best friend’s name is Tony Orlando.

25. Most of my life I have shared easily but with few. With Social media (blogging, facebook, twitter) I now share with many but no longer with ease.

- New giveaway e-books

More details next week–but yes, we plan to resume giving away selected e-books on Tor.com, at least one title per month. To download them you’ll need to not just visit Tor.com but register as a user; the downloads won’t be accessible until you do. Registering on the site takes maybe thirty seconds if you type particularly slowly…so Act Now, Act Without Thinking, get over to Tor.com and create yourself a user account today.-

I am excited to see the return of this program.   The previous incarnation certainly exposed me to writers I might not have otherwise ever picked up.  It looks like this time around you have to register and actually go to their site.  This is not a bad thing.  Tor.com is turning into a fairly significant portal for the SF community, think Blog, Social Networking and original fiction all wrapped up into one.  There have been some great stories by the likes of Charlie Stross and John Scalzi.   I haven’t had a lot of time to thoroughly explore the site, but from what I have seen if you are an SF fan you will want to check it out.  Truthfully I have been avoiding the site because it is so damn cool it can quickly turn into a giant time sink.  My user name over there is coreyjf – shocking I know.  Feel free to follow…

Saturday was gardening day.   Took a trip to Lowe’s and the Potomac Gardening Center and came away with lots of plants, flowers, herbs and vegetables.  I never thought I would get into gardening but I found it relaxing, rejuvenating and was filled with a sense of accomplishment.  I think I did a pretty good job and I am really looking forward to the veggies and herbs coming up.  I have a few pictures on Flicker if you want to check out the fruits of my labor.   Saturday evening, I helped my brother load up a U-haul to help with their impending move.  Between the gardening and the packing I was expecting to be pretty sore but I am actually feeling OK. 

Sunday morning Melissa taught a Yoga class so I babysat* Joshua.  Anyways, we drove to downtown Bethesda, walked around and grabbed some breakfast.   We ate in the courtyard in front of Barnes & Nobles and it was good bonding time.  Joshua went wild for all of the dogs on show.  He really loves animals. 

Joshua is now officially a toddler, I wish we caught it on video…  He has been cruising and walking with push toys since he was 7 months but refused to take a step without a toy, hand or piece of furniture for assistance.  That is until yesterday.   Well a couple weeks ago he started to take a few “unassisted” steps. Basically he had to already be walking with a decent amount of forward momentum, and we would have to pull our hand away.  We would take a few steps and sit down or dive into the couch.  Yesterday was different; I actually got him to take about 19 steps from a standing position.  It was pretty amazing to actually get to be there for such a huge first.    

Fiction

I got some writing done this weekend and even had a little break through on one of my projects.**  My protagonist has a mentor whose motivation for helping I have never quite been able to pin down.  Basically I had him call her on it.  Hey – why are you helping me…  I am not planning on keeping any of it, or at least not most of it.  It was more an exercise in understanding.  Biggest thing I realized, she is lying and my protag is too damn trusting – going to have to toughen him up. 

*Although I don’t think babysitting is the appropriate term when it’s your kid. 

**Maybe I would get one done if I actually worked on them one at a time.