The Time Has Come…to Update Author Pictures

Some people freeze up for crowds. That’s not me–I actually don’t mind speaking to a large group of people I don’t know, especially about independent publishing/authoring.

Other people freeze up in social situations. I’m okay with that, too–I like getting to know more about others and I’m not afraid to walk up and introduce myself (I think it’s one reason I always fall into the extrovert category on tests, even though I’m just as happy to hole up at home like a hermit for weeks on end).

But one thing does make me freeze up–getting professional pictures taken.

Up until now in my author career (which has spanned ten years, at least), quite honestly, I have skimped on author photos. Meaning I’ve had my family take my pictures. One of my faves was taken by my daughter, who was no older than ten when she took it:

My husband took me out to downtown Appomattox, VA, where we used to live, and took lots of shots for the next author “session”–many in a favorite bookstore/coffee shop there (Baine’s Books and Coffee, if you’re ever in the area!).

AND I’ll admit it, I’ve used a selfie now and then:

But I knew the time had come for updated author pics. I contacted the lovely Autumn at Autumn Sturgill Photography, because she always does a wonderful job with my kids’ special event pictures.

While I think I froze up to a large degree, I was very pleased to see there were pictures where I was not a) blinking, or b) talking and gesturing, which my husband has explained is the reason he has to take hundreds of pictures of me to get one good one.

SO I’ll share a few pics below. Some are on my site and you’ve probably already seen them, but there are a couple I hadn’t shared yet. I wanted some taken with a quilt that probably belonged to my grandma or great-grandma, and several were taken with me holding/reading The Sagas of Icelanders...and if you’ve read my Viking historical novels, you’ll know I based both books on those sagas.

I hope you enjoy these shots that were taken in my home state of wild and wonderful West Virginia. While we didn’t get the mountaintops in the pics, I do feel most at home in these woods. I’m sharing some today that I didn’t use on my website yet or on my Facebook author page (you can find more there).

Thanks for being a reader–no matter which author pics I use!

And here’s the one I decided to go with for my main author picture:

***What about you? Have you ever had professional pictures made? How was the experience–was there anything you would have changed about how you prepared for them? Feel free to link to your pics if you want!***