This image, this entry title, and the dramatic music you suddenly hear playing in the background means one thing: Chuck Wendig’s Awkward Author Photo Contest is coming to a close. First, congratulations to the winner for an amazing, haunting, eye-popping photo. Second, yes, you can still vote if you want to help decide who’s in 2nd place. Don’t feel the need to vote for me. I’ve been honored enough by Chuck recognizing me from my past entry (now proudly featured on this blog) and using the photo as an example for the original announcement.
This year’s batch (and you can see variations of the photo by clicking on the picture) were inspired by Garth Marenghi. My friend Charles helped mock-up the cover using real artwork from a real book, which was turned into a lovely prop. My hand, alas, covers the tagline “They come to defile our WOMEN!”
Between this shoot and the family trip around the Baltic, I’ve gotten a chance to take photographs again. Forgot how much I missed it until I was grabbing pictures once again, or sitting down in front of Lightroom trying to get just the right feel out of the camera raw. My only regret is not looking strange enough here. Or Doctor Strange, as my wife likes to point out while making sure everyone can see the silver in my temples.
While doing the shoot, I did think about the character of Garth Marenghi. If you’ve seen the series Darkplace (on YouTube, by the by) or any of the stage plays, you can tell that this man is both insanely egotistical and extremely insecure at the same time. His relentless drive for self promotion is coupled with an intense defensiveness about the quality of his work. This is a man who, after publishing a book like The Stabbening on a press no one heard of run by a friend of his as a tax dodge, would immediately go to the largest SF conventions and demand a place on their panels.
He’d then shamelessly promote his own books, dominate the panels, be horrible to anyone there, amazingly sexist to any women on the panel and probably say something disparaging about “The Scotch People.” But I bet he’d get invited back once his new book Hippie Snowflake Revolution hit the shelves. (All hail Richard Kadrey’s brilliant cover, by the by.)
Hate to admit it, I need a bit more Garth in me…
Biomechanoid Blues 