As a fellow noob rider

(5 months & 5000 miles in the saddle) I can only offer you one piece of advice; Practise, practise, practise. Find an empty parking lot and go there atleast two times a week to practise low speed maneuvering (figure eights, U-turns etc.), emergency braking, and swerving. A 15-20 minutes session at a time is enough and it pays in dividends. There are almost 300 safety tips on this page;
http://www.msgroup.org/articles.aspx
- written by an experienced MSF instructor. I have read them all a couple of times, and I'm re-reading them again. Welcome to the "club"!