But there's this thing that you kinda-sorta-hafta do when you want to write for a living... a thing I was dreading, that I put off as long as humanly possible, promising myself that I'd lose the weight and that everything would be just fine. Only I didn't, and I had to eventually face the fact that if I wanted my face on my first-ever book jacket, I'd need to be professionally photographed.
I decided to make a day of it. Knowing that I would likely hate the result, I gave myself as little wiggle room to hate it as possible. I scheduled my haircut for the same day. I got the lovely lady working at Bare Minerals to "show me how" to put on my makeup. I picked two of my favorite tops, knowing that this would be a head shot, and maybe not as bad for all that - at least I knew I'd have the worst parts of me off-camera. And, walking in to my appointment, I told the nice young photographer exactly how nervous I was... about the photo itself, and about why I was being photographed at all. This would be my first book with a jacket, I told her... my first author photo. I so, so badly wanted this to come out well.
And what do you know... it did.
I can't say I'm 100%, had-over-heels thrilled with my picture. I like it very much, but I still look at it and see the weight that needs to come off. But I do look authorly, at least... I can see one of these shots on the back cover of a book. It's nice to be able to feel that way. And if... WHEN... I do manage to take off the weight, I'll at least have a nice "before" shot for my "before and after."
