Friday, June 05, 2020

A Portrait Of The Author As A Young Woman

This spring, here at Chez Gauthier, we reorganized and cleared out some old photo albums. We came upon a picture that I would have loved to have used as an author photo at some point. Unfortunately, it was taken about five years before my first short story was published and somewhere in the area of twenty-plus years before my first book was published.

I suspect I didn't like this picture at the time it was taken. I often find I now like pictures of myself that I know I disliked years ago. In this case, in addition to looking young, which I appreciate above all else in photos of myself, I think I look booky and thoughtful, as if I'd just come from an author reading, one of those kinds that just go on and on, or a graduate school lit class. Maybe I just got home after sipping a little Chardonnay with some writers.

Those are all things I rarely do, by the way, except for, these days, drinking Chardonnay. So I guess it would be great if in a picture I could look as if I'd just done those things instead of looking as if I'd just watched part of a TV mini-series or read a back issue of Newsweek, something I may have actually been doing in this one.

We also found this picture of me working in the second bedroom of our first apartment. What is amazing about this picture is I work in this same kind of clutter now. And, because I cook a great deal and our kitchen and office are on different floors, I have set up a small work station like this in a spare bedroom in the house we're living in now so I am always close to a stove and a desk.

I actually had a flannel shirt on this morning.

I'm not sure what this second picture means.



2 comments:

Ms. Yingling said...

They are both great pictures, although I am unsure why you are sitting in a closet! (If it was like my first apartment, my desk was in an actual closet!)

I meant to tell you that I was greatly relieved to get my copy of Happy Kid back when students were allowed to return things, although it seems someone snacked on the Mylar cover and I need to replace it.

Gail Gauthier said...

You will be interested to hear, Karen, that I had a sewing machine in the closet of that second bedroom. I don't know what I was doing sitting in front of an open closet, reading a magazine.

I am always delighted to hear about Happy Kid activity.