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.

Vicious Circle is book two in Mike Carey’s urban fantasy/detective noir series which chronicles the adventures and challenges of Felix Castor, reluctant exorcist.  In the London of Carey’s envisioning, the supernatural world has bled into our reality.  There are ghosts, lugaru (French equivalent of a were), demons, and other things that go bump in the night.  Most people can see ghosts but a few special people can exercise a certain amount of control over dead and undead.     At a young age Castor stumbled into his abilities by unintentionally exorcizing the ghost of his late sister.  Castor is a fascinating protagonist.  He is not a fighter, a lover or preternaturally powerful.  He is a wisecracking reluctant hero just a minute or so off the egg timer from hardboiled.  Carey paints a vivid picture of London and draws some fascinating supporting characters.  You have an old friend Rafi, inextricably bound to a powerful demon after Castor tried and failed to free him from possession.  Nicky the zombie, a computer hacker and conspiracy nut… and Juliet a succubus that I can’t say too much about without unnecessary spoilage for book 1, The Devil You Know.    

I thoroughly enjoyed book 1 but Vicious Circle is certainly a more polished product.  In this installment Castor is hired by a couple to find their kidnapped daughter.  While not an actual detective, Felix takes the case due to one very unusual circumstance; the girl was already dead when abducted. Along the way he will run into a powerful religious sect, a rash of apparent demonic possessions, an exorcist with abilities that seem to significantly outclass his own.  The book is fast paced, funny and does a fantastic job of blending the fantasy and detective genres.  While not completely necessary to read The Devil You Know first, it is entertaining in its own right and does help with the back story.

- 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…