DEAR MISS MANNERS: My stepson is a successful novelist. I\u2019m reading an advanced copy of his new book, which is brilliant, but contains a neurodivergent character that doesn\u2019t ring quite true to me. (I\u2019m neurodivergent, if that matters.)\t<\/p>\n
In a recent conversation, I complimented him on his truly wonderful book, but when I tried to talk about this character in what I hoped was a light way, he said, coldly and dismissively, \u201cI don\u2019t care what you think.\u201d\t<\/p>\n
This hurt my feelings. Noting his defensiveness, I left the conversation, but afterwards his father and I fought. He thought I shouldn\u2019t have tried to discuss the book, just to praise it. He said I was being a jerk.\t<\/p>\n
Was I? I think I\u2019m owed an apology from both of them. But I know my social skills can always be improved.\t<\/p>\n
GENTLE READER: As it is well past time to retire the offensive cliche \u201cDoes this make me look fat?\u201d as The Most Loaded Question, Miss Manners recommends adopting in its place, \u201cWhat do you think of my book?\u201d <\/p>\n
All authors crave discerning feedback. All authors also crave praise. The trick is knowing which to give when. Miss Manners finds it best to ask first, but has found that the former is best delivered before publication.<\/p>\n
Please send your questions to Miss Manners at missmanners.com<\/a>, by email to dearmissmanners@gmail.com<\/a>, or through postal mail to Miss Manners, Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.<\/p>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DEAR MISS MANNERS: My stepson is a successful novelist. I\u2019m reading an advanced copy of his new book,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[223,88],"class_list":{"0":"post-33660","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}