Who the Heck are You?
The TSA checkpoints at Boston Logan, my home airport, have introduced facial recognition software. By itself this is not so remarkable, beyond underscoring my creeping unease at the ubiquity of technology entrusted with jobs previously requiring a human touch. But practically, it means ten more minutes, on average, of time for me personally spent chatting amiably with TSA staff while we wait for a supervisor to come and affirm that yes, I have in fact grown out my bangs.
Here’s what TSA technology (and most readers) think I look like:
(Photo credit Nina Subin, who I’m sure never dreamed I would use this author photo for this long. It was taken I think in 2015. Maybe 2016? It’s definitely been on all books published since 2019. Which I think means technically half of them.)
And here’s how I looked last Sunday afternoon, having a great visit at Old North Church in Marblehead with Saltwater Bookstore, about thirty neighbors, some tasty sugar cookies with green icing, and a sweet dog named Saint Joan.
(Photo credit She the People News on Instagram.)
On the one hand, I look like (and perhaps am?) a completely different person. On the other, as I sit here in Logan writing to you, early for the first leg of my travels to the Virginia Festival of the Book, I realize I am wearing the exact same blazer as in my old author picture, complete with the exact same cameo brooch, and possibly even the exact same jeans.
So what’s next?
After Charlottesville I’ll be in New York City for a private event next week, where I will also take the opportunity to have a new author photo taken at long last.
“How do you want to be seen?” Beowulf Sheehan asked me in one of our preparatory phone calls for this photographic extravaganza of terror. This question brought me up short. (More relevant might be, do I want to be seen at all?) The prep for one of my first author photos mainly involved asking what time my friend Laura could come take my picture on the porch.
“I’m not sure,” I hedged. “Smart, but approachable? And also,” this was mortifying to admit. “Maybe? Pretty?”
The photographer laughed, which was not encouraging, but said “Oh Katherine, you already are!” which tells me he’s at least been doing this a long time.
Next weekend, on April 6, I will be at the Exeter Lit Fest in Exeter, NH where you might be given the opportunity to witness my panel on New England literature be interrupted by a very effusive four year old boy, possibly in full pirate regalia.
And on the horizon: the pub date of The Penguin Book of Pirates, my third book in seven months, which we will celebrate at the the Colony House in Newport, Rhode Island on April 30.
More events still to come thereafter, as the days get longer, and our bangs get longer, and we slowly morph into the people we are about to become.
(My husband took this one of me in 2014 at an event for The Penguin Book of Witches. It’s definitely my favorite book event picture of all time. I hope I’m still this person in some way or another.)