Jason Roeder

I, um, "designed" this page mostly to promote my upcoming humor book, Oh, the Humanity! A Gentle Guide to Social Interaction for the Feeble Young Introvert. It's being published by TOW Books, a new humor imprint run by McSweeney's Internet Tendency editor John Warner. I apologize if you were expecting a shower cam or a perilously unsupervised 11-year-old on this page, but while you're here, why not explore my website ? Or, by all means, proceed directly to Amazon for your impulse purchase.
Unleash Your Inner Extrovert
Are you uncomfortable engaging in conversation? Do you have trouble making friends? Have you longed to have your deeply rooted social anxiety eliminated by a slender paperback you can read cover-to-cover over several lunch breaks? If your answer is yes—or if you’re looking for the perfect birthday gift for that special withdrawn someone—the book you’ve been waiting for has arrived: Oh, the Humanity! A Gentle Guide to Social Interaction for the Feeble Young Introvert.
This book will see you through all your interpersonal struggles:
• “How can I boost my self-confidence? I’ve already tried crying all day and avoiding my horrible reflection in the mirror. Is there something else that might work?”
• “I’m not very good at small talk. How can I get the least out of every word I use?”
• “What exactly is ‘body language’? My arrest record suggests I need some clarification.”
• “My hobbies include scrapbooking, swimming with dolphins, and taking chain letters very seriously. How can I find people with similar interests?”
• “I recently decided to become a hipster schmuck. How can I rid myself of current friends incompatible with my new, ill-advised persona?”
Plus, somewhat more!
Life is a precious gift that could be hit by a bus tomorrow. Isn’t it time you lived it the way some total stranger who wrote a book thinks you should? Don’t waste another day locked inside yourself. Oh, the Humanity! is all you’ll ever need to jump-start your social skills!
You’ll also need a promotional Frisbee if we get some of those made.
About me: For what it's worth, my humor writing has been published in The New Yorker, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and Salon.com as well as in The Future Dictionary of America and Created in Darkness by Troubled Americans: The Best of McSweeney’s Humor Category. I've had short stories published in Tampa Review, Cimarron Review, Sycamore Review, Faultline, and Hayden's Ferry Review, which nominated me for a Pushcart Prize.
Shall I read to you?
November 1 WORD Books, Greenpoint, NY (7:30)
November 18 Utter Wonder Reading Series, Cambridge, MA (7:00)