Friends, Romans, Countrymen...lend me your eyes. I need help choosing an author photo for the cover of my upcoming suspense thriller, Department Thirteen.
As many of you know, I'm pretty self-conscious -- at times terrified -- when it comes to the camera. Especially the flash. Which seems to highlight the facial distortions of my 1991 cancer operation at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. But I'm alive and married to the girl of my dreams. And my publisher, Comfort Publishing, is about to bring you a series of thrillers inspired by my experiences as a smuggler behind the old Iron Curtain. So I'm not one to complain.
Nevertheless, when Comfort's Director of Author Relations, Kristy Huddle, told me I needed a photo for the book cover, I got nervous. So I mentioned this to my good mate -- veteran photographer, Bill Rich -- who has worked with many of Hollywood's A-list. Bill is an absolute genius when it comes to the camera, so we spent an afternoon together in Los Angeles doing a photo shoot. Bill knows how to provoke, coach, guide and goad subjects into giving him just the right look. And believe me, I took some goading.
Bill took over 200 images that afternoon, and together we went through them. We tossed out the lousy ones and kept eighty or so good ones, which I've edited into a shortlist, which I've posted below.
So I'd like you to vote on which photo (or photos) you think best represents me as an author. None of the ones below are vastly different from the others. The differences are subtle. I discarded some otherwise good shots because I didn't feel they were "author" shots. I know author photos are supposed to have some kind of "X" factor -- whatever that is -- and maybe one of these photos does. Maybe not. Regardless, I'd like you to help me decide which one is best. Simply click the "Like" button at the bottom of your favorite image here on the blog site. For my Facebook friends, please cast your votes here so that I can forward the stats to my publisher. Feel free to leave comments as well, as I welcome all input into this decision.
I'd also like you to share this page with your Facebook friends, to get their votes. As you can tell, I'm a little nervous about all of this. But the book -- and one of these photos -- will be going international, so I'd really like to know what people think. There's a bar of icons at the bottom for Facebook and other social networking sites. Just click the icon and post a link to your friends with a request for their assistance in helping me select which photo is best for a book cover. Thank you!!! Here is the selection:
