There are certain things every author I know hates. "Hate" is too strong a word, I suppose, but there are things we worry about and whisper over and commiserate about. One, we always worry that our review from Kirkus is going to be a knock-down, drag-out, rip-the-book-up pan. Two, we fear that if we set up a reading and signing at a bookstore, there will be no one in the audience but the janitor. (Literally true. Happened to a friend of mine.) We worry about anonymous reviewers ripping us apart on Amazon, about pirates downloading our books for free from illegal sites with impunity, about the positive, promising book buzz quieting and eventually resolving into absolute silence. Brrr.
And then there's the author photo.
Initially I told myself I was looking forward to it, because I do kind of like to have my picture taken under the right circumstances, but as the months rolled on and on and on and I still hadn't gotten around to calling anybody, I had to admit that I was putting it off. My words were going out into the world to be evaluated by strangers, wasn't that enough? Did my face need to be out there too?
But in November I finally bit the bullet, found a photographer via recommendation, set up an appointment, spent days obsessing about what to wear, and got the thing done.
And it's beautiful.
I've got others from the same session, and if someone demands a photo in color or without glasses or taken outside, I can do that, but this is head and shoulders my favorite. Classic, cool, a little serious, but very me. If 2021 comes and I'm still using this photo, you'll know why.
It's also up on my author page at the Simon & Schuster site, along with my bio.
Phew. Cross that worry off the list. Now I can go back to worrying about all those other things!
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