I’ve been an avid reader for most of my life, except perhaps for the little uncoordinated bit at the beginning. And, before the intertubes, I don’t remember ever having such an immediate way to learn, understand, grok, absorb, and spread the word about the authors I really enjoy.

Now, this new media stuff has made it pretty simple to do. Through Neil Gaiman’s thoroughly magical blog, I got to steer him gently through Tokyo -his first time spending a little bit of time here. And that was a highlight for me, as Sandman and American Gods and so much of his work is crucial to me, clear markers on the path to loving writing (and thinking, and research and laughter, etc).

So, new media has given fans, like me, a chance to meet the people we admire. And sometimes, it can be very scary to see them standing there, and we can feel self-conscious and unsure, and, if we’re well-raised, we don’t want to bother the person, and yet we don’t want the opportunity to actually say hello (let alone get something significant signed or photographs taken) to slip away, to our everlasting regret.

Well, new media giveth, and then giveth some more. Neil, who is a daily read for me, pointed his community to John’s Scalzi’s blog, ‘Whatever’, where John gives a very down-to-earth set of suggestions for interacting with those you admire and how it feels from their side…

Some choice bits that presume readers are well-raised, or, as he says, socialized (this word is bubbling up a lot lately):

I do think it窶冱 worth remembering that even though you窶况e read our books (and our blogs) and feel friendly toward us, on our end of things you窶决e a stranger, even if we窶况e interacted with you through blog comments or e-mail or whatever. There are lots of regular commentors here on Whatever who, if they were to come up to me in real life and just start blabbering away, I would have not the first clue who they were, and I might even be a little alarmed (fortunately my regular commentors here are more socialized than that. Right? Right?!?).

and

There窶冱 no great science to meeting me or any author for the first time. Presuming that you are adult and socialized reasonably well, the way to introduce yourself to me is the same way you would introduce yourself to anyone you窶况e not actually met before in real life. You come up, make sure I窶冦 not currently engaged in a task that needs my full attention, say 窶彳xcuse me?ｽ

Now I have to go off and get some books by John Scalzi for my reading pleasure…oh yes, you can see my new widget in the middle bar - it’s an Amazon carousel-ian thingie. So, as I read books I like and talk about them here (and DVDs and music, etc) I’ll put them on the merry-go-round so you can check them out via the link - if you do, Amazon returns 4% of the book price, which goes to buying more books to share with my readers. So if you do decide to do that, thank you very much!

My best friend noticed that, when I stand at the top of steep stairs, I have a whole routine: I pause, look down at the steps, make sure I can grab the bannister, grab it, and walk slowly down, placing my feet very deliberately on each step.

She says it reminds her of having a conversation with her Mom 20 years ago, when Mom said that, as you get older, your mind reminds you of mortality, in flashes where there’s the potential for danger. Mom said that, at the top of stairs, she gets a flash of herself lying on the ground after tumbling down. It’s completely involuntary (and, needless to say, unwanted!). But it makes her proceed with more caution than she would have when she was younger.

My friend says that she scoffed: Oh, that’s just old person fearfulness! But, now that she’s older, she finds herself having those flashes as well.

I could only nod and laugh: that flash of a disastrous fall, the result of not going carefully, has been a staple of my hind brain for a long time. Now that I’m a very-glad-to-be-alive 50, I do find myself being more aware of it. However, I don’t want to turn into one of those fearful, trembling folks, afraid to put a foot wrong.

I’m not into broken bones, either, mind you. That’s partially why I don’t ski, although I do love the feeling of speed.

So, in a very slow, steady way, I’m doing my morning fast walking, and lifting very light freeweights 3 times a week, because it’s necessary, for my image of the person I’m turning myself into, to balance the hindbrain with just a bit of good old reckless abandon…