Awkward…Some Conversational Tips

Hi guys! I'm off to the State Fair this weekend. Time to make the pilgrimage to see the Butter Cow, which is a requirement to stay in the state of Iowa for more than five years at a pop. Actually, my mother-in-law loves the State Fair, and we're trying to make her "vacation" with us a little more fun than she had last year. I think this should do it.

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I haven't mentioned yet how very impressed I am with ReaderCon's reversal concerning Rene Walling. That's democracy in action, right there, folks, not to mention social responsibility.

You know that this sends out some ripple effects. Two of the Names in SF that I Read have commented on how to do better in convention scenarios. Not that I expect creepers are reading, but still, good sound advice.

One of the things that keeps coming up in Scalzi's response thread is this: how do I know that these people are not being just awkward. Well, probably you can tell. Here's a pretty intense article discussing this very thing. And I do mean intense, so go with your trigger defense up.

All that said, one of the questions asked is about social awkwardness. I am NOT conflating predatory behavior with social awkwardness, but I do want to talk a little bit about meeting and greeting new people in less awkward ways.

After all, we all do want to get along. So, take this as advice on how to be more desirable in a group of people, and as no commentary on tolerating predatory behavior, which it is most definitely not.

You may wonder what makes a suave, sophisticated woman like myself capable of offering such tips? True confession time. I have been, at one time in my life, as socially awkward as they come. How could you not be with my background? And here are some things that I learned over the course of my life that have saved me from the abyss. This is far from complete, but it might get you started.

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Mirrored from Writer Tamago.

Quantum Coin by E.C.Myers

Here's one of those moments where writing online reaps you a little benefit.

You might remember my review of Fair Coin? It's always nice when someone notices that you wrote a flattering review, and even nicer when someone sends you an advanced reading copy of a book you're enthusiastic about reading.

So. Just before I went traveling, Pyr was kind enough to send me a copy of E.C. Myer's sequel to Fair Coin, Quantum Coin. Since I was enthused to get the book, we could call it a squeequel, but yeah, maybe you wouldn't appreciate that joke.

This time I did read the book in one day, during my airport waiting time and on my flight back from Florida. It was a great way to wrap up a great vacation. Let me be rightly understood. One of the great disappointments of my life is now that I will never be able to read Fair Coin for the first time again. Quantum Coin did not have the same surprise factor that the first book had, only because it couldn't.

What Myers did again was complexity. This books is for smart kids. If you have geeky teens who are underwowed by the recent rash of prom-dress-covered YA and prefer to read a savvy, well-paced adventure, this is the one. The characters from the first book have grown, but at the same time, it's very comfortable reading, like re-visiting an old friend and finding that he or she is still the same, even though the trappings have changed.

One aspect of the book that is rewarding is the multi-faceted characters that Myers writes. He does this not only by making his characters layered, but he also does this by using a variety of incarnations of characters. In Quantum Coin, we have three main versions of Zoey/Jena. And even though these characters are essentially the same person, the differences in their environment give the reader a picture of human diversity and play with the question of nature versus nurture. Like I said, a book for smart kids.

So...sounds like this book will be published in October, 2012. I'll be keeping you posted when you can find it in the wild. If you haven't gotten out and picked up Fair Coin yet, do it. How can you read this excellent sequel without reading the first book?

Mirrored from Writer Tamago.