Tina Boscha

My husband is a very gifted photographer, and a few years ago I suddenly (and wonderfully) needed an author pic. (For an award, not for a publishing contract. Still.) We went to a scenic spot nearby and in about 15 minutes we got this photo:

Not bad. I was going for brainy and mature, which isn’t too difficult with glasses and a short cut. In real life, brainy and mature is much harder to believe! Fast forward to 2011, and this photo was sorely out of date. I ditch the glasses most days and grew my hair out. (The reason? I just wanted to brush it and be done. Short hair is not as easy as it seems. Especially when it sticks straight up of its own accord.) Because the photo was going to be my official author photo and plastered everywhere - book cover, Amazon, blog, Twitter, Facebook, etc., I wanted it to be really good. But what is “good” by author photo standards? That is where I suddenly felt like I was a judge on ANTM. I wanted the photo to be flattering, but not in the vein of a glamour shot. I wanted to look nice, but not done up; I wanted to look open, but serious; smart but not an assh0le. This meant another grin, but no teeth, more casual outfit, but still something to bring it together. The obvious choice, then? A white T with a scarf. Clearly I was not meant to be a stylist. This time, my dh and I went to the pioneer cemetery, as it’s up on a hill with beautiful fields and foothills in the background. In an hour we took 178 photos and wouldn’t you know - the very best ones included one of the first and the rest were some of the last. There were some pretty funny outtakes, including my Michele Bachmann:

We also got a senior portrait, complete with simpering smile:

And my favorite, the rockstar model pose (and yes, I am sitting on a gravestone - totally did not mean disrespect, but it fits the rock persona and I really wanted a big hair pic):

Afterwards, dh and I whittled down the contenders and finally settled on this one. I love this photo for the light more than anything. It was dh’s favorite:

We quickly set it to black & white and sent it off to my cover artist (so, so good at what he does) and there you go. Then, the first time I showed my daughter the photo on my Kindle, she pointed directly at a certain spot. Can you guess what it is?

Yep, rocket b00b.

I thought, oh, it’s just her picking at her stepmom. Then I showed it to my sister-in-law and that’s the first thing her eye went to. Projectile missile, right from my chest.

Sigh.