World, meet Kivrin

When I published Bend almost two years ago, I had no idea how this writing gig was going to pan out. Maybe no one would buy it? Or maybe readers would buy it, and they would hate it, and my career would basically be over before it started? Or maybe I would never publish another book (until recently, this one seemed the most likely). Add that to the fact that I’m camera shy and perplexingly unphotogenic, and the most I could bring myself to show of my face was this phone shot of me hiding behind my cat. That way, if I failed spectacularly, all that was attached to that failure was my pen name and a moderately vague bio. Mine would not be the face of failure!

Well, I’m about to release another book, and it’s time to be an adult and a professional. Ahem.

This required some work, though. I hadn’t had a haircut since last summer. I desperately needed an eyebrow wax. I knew I should put more than my standard effort into doing my make-up (which I don’t even bother with most days, and when I do it’s concealer, eyeliner, mascara, and I’m done). After a shockingly expensive trip to Ulta, a visit to my waxing salon, and then three hours in my stylist’s chair while she colored and cut my hair, I felt like Sandra Bullock in Miss Congeniality, but dammit, I was ready!

Fortunately, my amazing and talented husband is an amateur photographer, and so I didn’t need to go waste my time at a studio. Because I knew that to get this right would be time consuming and painful–and I was right. But after two hours and hundreds of shots, we did it!

So here I am, ready to face the world.

Be kind, world.