That link actually goes to the main landing page for the publisher's blog, where you can see links to all four of the author interviews that have come out (so far). I did it that way because I wanted to give everyone an opportunity to play One Of These Things Is Not Like The Others. An alternate title for the game might be Can You Tell I'm Still New At This? Basically what we see here (for any of you who simply refuse to follow said link) are four author headshots, three of which actually look something like professional headshots you might see on the back inner flap of a dust jacket. They are black and white. They depict the author with a serious facial expression, possibly not even looking directly at the camera. And then there's the fourth one, a color snapshot of a guy with a goofball grin. (Obviously I look that way because in the original photo I am sitting next to my beautiful wife, who was cropped out for the promo version.) Please believe me that if it seems like I am poking fun, it is entirely at my own expense. The other authors' photos look like I would expect any author's photos to look. I'm clearly the amateur who's just happy to be here.
I have been thinking lately that I seriously do need to get some headshots taken, nothing elaborate or extremely high-end, but something usable not only for my hobbyist writing endeavors, which covers interview situations like this and also my GoodReads author page and suchlike, but also for my job search, since apparently all my profiles from LinkedIn to ClearanceJobs are designed to accommodate a personal photo, which may or may not have an impact on recruiters scrolling through the listings. Couldn't hurt, certainly.
Also, while I'm on the subject of my own interview, having gone back and re-read it myself I do find it slightly hilarious. I confess that I am enough of an egomaniac that I enjoy being interviewed when the subject is myself. You might wonder if my tendency to overthink things sends me into overanalysis-paralysis at the prospect of definitively stating what my favorite book is or anything like that, but the truth is I approach each interview as a chance to answer questions based on what kind of mood I'm in, assuming I can always change my answers to any degree I see fit if I ever get interviewed again in the future. I also may very well tailor my answers in a particular interview toward portraying myself in a certain light, and I think that's abundantly in evidence in the example at hand. I tell a story about writing cute animal adventures as a kid, I name check Star Wars and reference comic books, and I claim a couple of books as favorites which are out-and-out comedies; the books in question are, in point of fact, certainly among my unranked top 10 or so faves, but the fact that I held up those two is pretty telling. Clearly it was very important to me as I was answering the questions to come across as very light-hearted and likable, just a fun-loving geek with a good sense of humor (which really does go along well with the cheesy photo of me, at that). And the reason why I leaned so hard on that sentiment is probably to offset whatever impression of me the story I wrote for the anthology might otherwise conjure up. It's a dark and twisted little tale, which I knew when the idea for it came to me and I knew once I had finished writing it. If I needed any further confirmation, when I shared the story with my wife for the first time and she had read it through, she pronounced it "creepy as f&@%". And I knew she wasn't wrong! Anybody who reads this blog regularly knows I'm a horror fan, I like plenty of weird stuff, and I'm reasonably at peace with my dark side. But it's also, apparently, very important to me that people know there's more to me than that, and in the interest of making that known, I may have overcompensated a bit. It certainly wouldn't be the first time.
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