KG Christopher
Basic
I shall get a pic and post it. I am in Switzerland at the moment, so don't know the exact details. Think we have it for a 'long weekend'.
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About?
Of your theory-Yes, I agree. Looks do count.
Looks OVER content--I don´t think it goes THAT far, but they will like you more if you try harder.
Of the photo--you could do better. I´d say cut your hair very short, trim the beard, open the photo more so that it´s not so much a close up of you face. Zoom out a bit to get about half of your chest. And...maybe some fake glasses to make you look more writerly?
You´re a good looking guy, take advantage of that fact!
I won't be lopping my curls off—like Samson's locks, they contain whatever virility I have left. As for losing my beard, I've had one for 40 years, though I did shave it off prior to getting married in America in 2001, in some misguided attempt at looking smart. This revealed two alarming things: A double chin had somehow appeared under cover of my facial hair, and as I'd caught the sun on my exposed skin I had a two tone appearance—I looked like a partly-peeled potato!
I quickly grew my whiskers back, and anyway they're a source of income for me. I wrote a poem about this, published online in a collection of children's poetry called Witches' Knickers:
My Beard and I
My beard and I
Are quite well known.
We travel here and there
And round about.
We take in the air,
Soak up the rain.
Keep each other warm.
We're jolly good company.
I'm a bit older
Than my beard.
In fact, I've had several.
All good and true.
I sold one to a trawlerman.
He hooked it over his ears,
To keep the sea-spray off,
And to look mighty tough.
Another went to a lumberjack,
To wear out in the cold woods.
The beard got a wee bit frosty
And coated in fine sawdust.
One beard went very fast
On the face of a motorcyclist.
It billowed up at 100mph,
And tickled him on the nose.
I've grown a new beard recently.
It's a bit grey, as I'm now so old.
I suppose that you could dye it.
Would you like to try it on?
I'm sorry you've had to put up with this kind of ignorance - writing a book is a good catharsis. I write mysteries and once gained great satisfaction from killing off a character based upon an individual I knew. It was an unpleasant death.As someone who has to put up with bad first impressions just from walking into a room - I can understand to some extent. In fact it regularly plays in my head if I'm going to be honest - it could be due to my own life time insecurities I've had to constantly battle with. So I'm unfortunately writing with this emotion still raw.
On the phone I am fine but when I meet clients I've had one literally roll their eyes when they realised they travelled over 300 miles to see me only to find I'm not what they expected to look like..I have so many anecdotal examples that shows how bias people are upon first impression. In 1987 during the famous storm my mother didn't check that school was closed so I found myself stranded 1 hour train ride away from home with no way of knowing how to get back so a kind elderly man called an officer to take me in. Inside the dark confines of Queens Park police station I sat down patiently waiting for my parents to collect me opposite a female police officer who did nothing else but stare me down in disgust at my existence.
I can't forget such an uncomfortable experience. Still to this day as an adult I experience bias and now we can see how one class of people can still get away with misogyny and racism but others can't even look a certain way without experience the negative attitude from others. In many ways I would say the western civilisation is still under developed in the area of superficial and unjustified judgements.
Maybe I should write a book on this as a cathartic exercise.
Clearly being a published author is not for the faint-hearted, or the unconnected.
What sort of books do you write?
I would say any agency asking for a photo isn’t worth their salt. Avoid like the plague!
On discrimination: sadly it seems endemic. We Brits like to pride ourselves on our welcoming attitudes, but the practicality of this leaves something to be desired.
Just today, I volunteered to go into school (I’m a maths teacher) to help the GCSE students revise for their upcoming mock exam. We have huge premises which are often rented out to other schools and organisations. Today we had a middle class school orchestra on site. Finding the photocopier was jammed, I raced to the English block to print off extra resources there.
“What are you doing here, young man?” inquired a stern looking woman.
“Um…I work here?” I replied, somewhat stupidly, regressing into kid-mode.
Her eyebrows shot up like scimitars, her eyes flashing with scepticism. “Really? Do you have any ID?”
I blinked. Slowly I pulled out my teacher ID badge and showed it to her. (Unfortunately it had a cartoon sticker over my face since my ID photo is particularly ugly). Luckily the woman didn’t notice. The cartoon was off a brown-skinned character, and that was good enough for her.
“Oh,” she said, with an audible sniff. “Well you can’t be too careful. Sometimes people just barge in off the street.”
I nodded and left, wondering how the people she was referring to got through our security guards and checkpoints.
Was this a case of discrimination? Hard to say, except this sort of thing has plagued me most of my life. One of my friends said I should change my name by deed poll, suggesting ‘Muhammad’ would put agents off. Luckily it didn’t. But will publishers bite? Only time will tell.
By the way, I think the Green Man look you're rocking is captivating. What sort of books do you write?
I would say any agency asking for a photo isn’t worth their salt. Avoid like the plague!
On discrimination: sadly it seems endemic. We Brits like to pride ourselves on our welcoming attitudes, but the practicality of this leaves something to be desired.
Just today, I volunteered to go into school (I’m a maths teacher) to help the GCSE students revise for their upcoming mock exam. We have huge premises which are often rented out to other schools and organisations. Today we had a middle class school orchestra on site. Finding the photocopier was jammed, I raced to the English block to print off extra resources there.
“What are you doing here, young man?” inquired a stern looking woman.
“Um…I work here?” I replied, somewhat stupidly, regressing into kid-mode.
Her eyebrows shot up like scimitars, her eyes flashing with scepticism. “Really? Do you have any ID?”
I blinked. Slowly I pulled out my teacher ID badge and showed it to her. (Unfortunately it had a cartoon sticker over my face since my ID photo is particularly ugly). Luckily the woman didn’t notice. The cartoon was off a brown-skinned character, and that was good enough for her.
“Oh,” she said, with an audible sniff. “Well you can’t be too careful. Sometimes people just barge in off the street.”
I nodded and left, wondering how the people she was referring to got through our security guards and checkpoints.
As someone who has to put up with bad first impressions just from walking into a room - I can understand to some extent. In fact it regularly plays in my head if I'm going to be honest - it could be due to my own life time insecurities I've had to constantly battle with. So I'm unfortunately writing with this emotion still raw.
On the phone I am fine but when I meet clients I've had one literally roll their eyes when they realised they travelled over 300 miles to see me only to find I'm not what they expected to look like..I have so many anecdotal examples that shows how bias people are upon first impression. In 1987 during the famous storm my mother didn't check that school was closed so I found myself stranded 1 hour train ride away from home with no way of knowing how to get back so a kind elderly man called an officer to take me in. Inside the dark confines of Queens Park police station I sat down patiently waiting for my parents to collect me opposite a female police officer who did nothing else but stare me down in disgust at my existence.
I can't forget such an uncomfortable experience. Still to this day as an adult I experience bias and now we can see how one class of people can still get away with misogyny and racism but others can't even look a certain way without experience the negative attitude from others. In many ways I would say the western civilisation is still under developed in the area of superficial and unjustified judgements.
Maybe I should write a book on this as a cathartic exercise.
He's a disgrace, not knowing his own staff.
My feeling in response to Madz's worry about using his full name is 1) It has gravitas 2) The current climate in publishing suggests either way, his name would work in his favour rather than against, if it is any kind of operating factor.
There is currently something of an active drive towards consciously encouraging 'diversity' in publishing. As with Penguin/Random House.