Cover of my first book, originally uploaded by .Ariel.

This is it! Evidently, my editor had a huge amount of back 'n' forth with the design department, but I didn't see any of the rejected covers. I'm pretty pleased with this final result — she's not me, but she's got the pink hair.

Poor Patrick. He didn't know what he was getting into when he agreed to take a pass at my book:

****WHOA. UH. HMMM. I'M ALL FOR ASS-FUCKING REFERENCES, BUT THIS SORTA COMES OUT OF NOWHERE … ***

This made me laugh until I almost started crying. Trust me: the reference makes perfect sense in context, so I chose to STET the edit. Which means that yes, my book about weddings mentions ass-fucking at one point.

My friend Patrick (who was my copy chief during my time at Movies.com, and who therefore is intimately acqainted with all my writerly flaws) is doing an editing pass at my book, and his feedback is the best. Here's an example from the chapter about rings:

As for Andreas and I me, we ultimately decided that we liked the symbolism of rings — I'm pretty dang agnostic, but what faith I have tends to revolve around cycles and circles. It's the shape that planets move in****TECHNICALLY, PLANETS MOVE IN ELLIPTICAL ORBITS, NOT CIRCULAR ONES****, that rain droplets form, that our pupils are shaped have.

Status of book:

I've been up at 5am every day this week to get in hours of revisions before going to work. Tomorrow I hand my first draft complete to my editor, lit agent, and adored Patrick, who's on friend/editor patrol to personally ensure I don't look like a dumb-ass (or at least any more than I usually do). Squeal! It's really hard, as a blogger, to hand off writing. What, you mean I can't revise and republish over and over again? I'm so spoiled by push-button publishing.

Status of kitchen:

Best summed up in two words: total disaster.

Moral of the story? While I'm doing ok as a writer, I ain't no housekeeper.

Today I did a portrait sitting with Heather Corinna. I need a good headshot to use for the back of my book, and headshots make me nervous. It really can't be much more than just your face showing (this picture is going to be, like, 1"x1" on the back of my book) and it shouldn't be so goofy that no one can actually see you. So, I tried to put on my best "knowing smile" and Heather snapped away. These are some of the results:

Which one do you think is best? This is a weird question because I have found time and time again that the pictures that others like of me are never the ones *I* like. But hey: I'm not the one reading this book, so my opinion should probably matter the least. Anyone have any thoughts? I'm sort of stumped and not sure I like myself in any of them. Bah! Then again, after looking at this many pictures of my face, maybe I'm just sort of bored with myself. It's also that this needs to be a sort of formal shot — but the end result is that I don't really feel like I look like me. Because I'm such a goof.

Jeez, vanity is so exhausting sometimes!