More musings…

What does a writer look like? I read once, in one of those ‘how to be a writer’ books, that many poets really aren’t writers. They just like to look like poets.

Well, I have to confess there was a time period when I worried about my ‘image’. I wanted that future book jacket photo to portray me as a certain personality, with a certain look, and felt that all public appearances should follow that directive also.

Once I wore a flowing green batik-printed shirt and pants set to a workshop. I purchased it a few summers before in the exotic location of Sedona, Arizona and felt it was just the wild, artsy look I was going for. Later I looked in the mirror and realized – well, I looked more like I once worked for a circus, complete with a big red nose. So I wore it as pajamas until it finally got tossed into the trash. And I hope nobody remembers it.

Since then, I tried to get that look in other ways, but never felt like I accomplished it. Who was I fooling? So I’ve decided that I’m stuck with me. I’ve looked at lots of book jacket photos, and I know those are professional portraits, and they are published authors, but most of them started out as ordinary people. Just like me.

So right now, that photo you see in this header is really me. Hope I blend in well with the others you know.

What’s YOUR image?