Lookers

So I was wandering around the internet, checking out author sites. I've never surfed the sites of most of the authors I've read, which means I know little about them. I went to Laura Kinsale's site once, in order to email her a gushing fan letter (she replied the next day, by the way.) But that's about it.

So I'm on Lisa Kleypas' site and I find this:

Whoa!
Hello - Lisa Kleypas is a complete stunner. Did everyone know this but me? Talented, rich, and gorgeous - sucks to be her, I guess. I'm trying to work up some jealousy but it's not working 'cos I like her books too much.

This made me curious about something I've never thought of: what writers look like. Specifically, the writers I read a lot. I thought writers were all, you know, average-looking or worse, or (like me) so un-photogenic that to take a picture of me is a form of pathetic cruelty. But I was wrong, man.

Here is what Eloisa James looks like:


Fantastic. Dang - cute haircut and everything.

I love Loretta Chase, so I was hoping she'd be mousy or something. But here is what Loretta Chase looks like:


Turns out, she's one of those people who looks great in designer glasses.

Every once in a while people get riled up about Miss Snark or somebody admitting that publicists like writers to be good-looking so that they'll get more attention, but I wonder. If the writing world is so looks-obsessed, how come Lisa Kleypas isn't in Cosmo? Why doesn't Us follow these hotties around?

Two reasons - 1. the idiot media is not interested in writers, even hot ones. Too brainy. 2. Writers, essentially, like to be left alone, and having our privacy invaded gives us hives. When we get into writing we have dreams of a sort of nerdy, respectful acclaim, gushed over in smart journals as geniuses. We don't have dreams of having long-lens pictures of ourselves in bikinis published on the internet. In short, we're not media whores.

And we like it that way.

If writers were judged on their looks alone, George RR Martin wouldn't get published unless he looked like this:



Sorry, my brain just turned off. When I stop slobbering, I'll think of something witty to say.

Abby