Middle pic by Linda Mason (more to come!) P.S. I still have the bleached panel in my hair. You just can't see it here.
Every once in awhile, one feels an urge to get painted all over your face and neck.
Call it recreational transformation (my boss also calls this "identity refreshment"). When you train for marathons, you become a machine. When you paintball, you become an assassin. Roller coasters, raves, trapeze-swinging. Exploring experience -- especially ones that make you slightly uncomfortable -- is fun.
One of my friends used to say he liked how I looked a little different everytime he saw me. Fiction, like experimentations in hair and makeup, allows you to become what you are not. Before a reader is transported, a writer must transport herself. She must create worlds, but also live in them, too.
This look is by the incomparable and legendary Linda Mason, who I've written about many times before. We wanted to do something vampy and metallic, but not in a boring smokey eye way. Note the one false eyelash, a cross between Clockwork Orange and Italian VOGUE. The pink and silver streak was administered with a cold, wide brush while prone against the back of a metal chair.
This pose might look painful, but it's actually a moment of clarity. As Linda said, "See how beautiful she gets. She is relaxed." In yoga, inversions give the heart a break. Being upside down opens your chest and lungs and releases your pent-up emotions.
Everyone could use a transformational weekend. And not just writers.