Smiling for the camera

The Web Diva has asked me to supply her with a picture of me for use in various and sundry stuff, and has even gone so far as to dummy up one. (It was a hoot.) It's not that I'm camera-shy. It's just . . . well, you don't need to know what I look like to enjoy the books, do you?

Years ago I was at a Romantic Times convention where they have a big booksigning with dozens, maybe hundreds, of authors. This woman walked up to a table shared by three authors, scrutinized each one in turn, then shook her head. "I've saved money for months, just to come here and meet my favorite authors," she said. "And you're all just . . . normal people. There's nothing special about any of you. I'm so disappointed." And she wandered off and out of the room without buying a single book.

What the ?!? Someone actually cared what the author looked like? Oh, granted, I remember finding out years ago that some romance novels I'd enjoyed were written by a man and thinking, "Ewww." And I probably could have lived without knowing that the really kinky, steamy, totally hot erotica on my shelves was written by a chubby blond-over-gray grandmother.

But don't we read for the books and not for the person behind them? Does anyone -- besides that woman at RT -- really care what the authors look like?

Maybe. So if I can get the uploading thing to work, I'm going to show you how I look. Let's give a shot.

There you go -- Rachel, a little embarrassed posing for the camera. Rachel10:13 AM