It’s happening. I just hit 60K on my book, which means after back-filling a few more set-up scenes it is ALL SPEED AHEAD INTO THE THIRD ACT!

This is the stage of euphoria, when eeeeverything is coming together and you, the author, hit peak confidence and enjoyment in your own work. You begin to fantasize much too far into the future. Query letters. Publishing houses. Covers. Is your web presence both accessible and secure? Should you update your blog more often? Why don’t you have any Twitter followers??

Then comes the completed draft, when you cry into some ice cream and take a nap.

And then comes the editing process, when you realize you were wrong, all wrong, this isn’t great at all! You’re the hackiest hack who ever haxxored a hack, and your work will never amount to anything! MERMAIDS AND GHOSTS?? WHAT WERE YOU THINKING.

By the end of editing you reach a stable middle ground. It’s not the best thing ever made, but it’s the best thing you’ve ever made. It has legs. Maybe you can do something with this. Or maybe you’ll chalk this one up to lessons learned and pitch the next book.

Writing is a multi-step process, you see!

So while I’m riding this wave of unbridled optimism, it seems like a good, exceedingly premature time to contemplate my future author photo. I am, of course, a very photogenic person. Have any of my photos ever come out unflattering? I’ll let you be the judge. Here are some of my top choices, though of course I reserve the right to change my mind later when I snap something even better.

Perhaps I want to convey my dedication as a writer, and depict myself hard at work on the next novel.

I don’t want to leave out the nerd crowd, though, which is likely to be the core of my audience, so maybe I should subtly declare my loyalties with a good snapshot of my just-out-of-bed Frodo hair.

Wait, too subtle. It’s the modern age and I want to appeal to all age brackets, so I could go with my first ever smartphone selfie. Everybody loves selfies, right?

Dang, but I also don’t want to lose sight of the fact that I am both mother and author. Does this get the point across?

You know what, these are all fantastic options, but they each narrowly focus on only one aspect of my being. Is there anything that says SFF-leaning, confident, powerful, attractive, AND motherly? Wait, of course there is. That describes the greatest film character of all time!

Ellen Ripley.