For someone who wanted to be an actress when I graduated from high school, I've been told I have a bad attitude about pictures of myself. I'm supposed to be like the people whom I met in the college Theater classes, self-absorbed and so determined to succeed that they were stabbing the others onstage with them in the back, just to get a better part to show them off to better advantage...
It went against every reason I had for wanting to be an actress in the first place.
The crew I was with in high school understood that a production is a group effort. Each member of the "team" has a different role that is very important to the show. No role is more important than the others, because the so-called "star" needs the other people to play off of. How can Scarlett O'Hara win the eye of the man of her dreams without Mammy to tighten her corset to the proper degree?
Of course, there's also the fact that, from a very young age, I seemed to be the one of my siblings to "ham it up" for the camera, doing what my parents called "ruining" every family portrait they ever took. Take, for example, this shot of my siblings and I on our swing set in the early days of colored photographs. The Brownie camera that Dad owned needed the sun behind the photographer's back in order to get a properly lit outside shot. My siblings all managed to look into the sun with just the slightest squint to go along with their smile. Me? Not so much...
Yes, that would be me making that funny face in the little plaid dress - and I started this nonsense of goofing for the camera before I could even walk, as this photo of me and my cousin at the age of 6 months (he was just three weeks younger than me) at Christmas time.
As I've grown older, I've tried to NOT make faces, but even a selfie that I did yesterday (because one of my sisters insists that I post WAY too many photos of other things and not enough photos of me enjoying whatever the thing is I want to share) makes me cringe, because even when I just try on a small smile, I think I look exceptionally stupid. What do you think of me "channeling my inner gypsy" in the skirt I got for my birthday last week?
Suffice to say that I need to get together with someone who will direct me properly in order to get a new author photo like one of my current favorite authors, Sherrilyn Kenyon. She looks like the kind of person who understands romance, doesn't she?
Of course, for all I know, she has the same attitude as my other favorite SK - Stephen King. He also has stated that he doesn't like photos of himself, but puts them on the books just because that's how it's done. Maybe his attitude is the one I should take: People don't care how goofy I look in my author photo as long as the story is good...
At least, I hope people think the stories are good. It's been so long since I got a review from anyone who wasn't there before I published the first novel that I'm not sure what any new readers think. Most of my reviewers are close friends who give me good reviews out of kindness.
Would a better picture, maybe put on the back of the book, make a difference? What are your thoughts on this?
It went against every reason I had for wanting to be an actress in the first place.
The crew I was with in high school understood that a production is a group effort. Each member of the "team" has a different role that is very important to the show. No role is more important than the others, because the so-called "star" needs the other people to play off of. How can Scarlett O'Hara win the eye of the man of her dreams without Mammy to tighten her corset to the proper degree?
Of course, there's also the fact that, from a very young age, I seemed to be the one of my siblings to "ham it up" for the camera, doing what my parents called "ruining" every family portrait they ever took. Take, for example, this shot of my siblings and I on our swing set in the early days of colored photographs. The Brownie camera that Dad owned needed the sun behind the photographer's back in order to get a properly lit outside shot. My siblings all managed to look into the sun with just the slightest squint to go along with their smile. Me? Not so much...
As I've grown older, I've tried to NOT make faces, but even a selfie that I did yesterday (because one of my sisters insists that I post WAY too many photos of other things and not enough photos of me enjoying whatever the thing is I want to share) makes me cringe, because even when I just try on a small smile, I think I look exceptionally stupid. What do you think of me "channeling my inner gypsy" in the skirt I got for my birthday last week?
Suffice to say that I need to get together with someone who will direct me properly in order to get a new author photo like one of my current favorite authors, Sherrilyn Kenyon. She looks like the kind of person who understands romance, doesn't she?
At least, I hope people think the stories are good. It's been so long since I got a review from anyone who wasn't there before I published the first novel that I'm not sure what any new readers think. Most of my reviewers are close friends who give me good reviews out of kindness.
Would a better picture, maybe put on the back of the book, make a difference? What are your thoughts on this?
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