I did something authorly today (pronounced aw-thor-lee). I define this as doing something aimed squarely at promoting myself as an Author of Important Things, as opposed to doing something writerly, which, of course, has to do with that boring business of sitting in a room and typing.
With a book and two short story collections soon out — and at the prodding of one of my publishers for an author photo that didn’t look like a bad Polaroid — I decided it was time to create a press kit. Putting my wife’s Cannon SLR camera to good use, we headed down to a local park and spent an hour taking a few photos. Actually, it was more than a few. It was 250. Yikes! That’s right, it took 250 photos just to boil it down to three or four that were decent. That’s why I’m not Kate Moss. Well, that and I like to eat too much. Plus the gender difference thing. And, let’s face it, I have the face of a writer and not a male model — which, at the end of our photo shoot, I was actually grateful for, because I was completely exhausted. I told the photographer I wanted to go to my trailer, but I got no sympathy. I tell you, modeling is a grueling business.
Anyway, check out the full press kit here. It’s just the photos in various sizes and a couple different biographies, but I plan to add more in time. You know, when I feel like doing more authorly things.