Packaging

My new professional headshot arrived yesterday, and I updated my website, social media and Amazon author page with the new image. I am very pleased with the photograph, and feel that it captures the image I want to project as part of my author brand.

I received a lot of very positive feedback on the photo, and I am humbled and grateful for that. Because I am who I am, that started me thinking about appearance and packaging.

If you have read my books, you know that I don't spend very much time on physical descriptions of my characters, sometimes no time at all. However, I try very hard to draw very accurate pictures of who my characters are on the inside. Their hopes and fears. Their loving hearts. Their challenges to be the best they can be.

That is my worldview. While it is nice to decorate the outside, and very gratifying to hear that other people think the package is beautiful, what is important is what is on the inside.

Do you have a loving and forgiving heart? Do you think the best of people? Are you slow to judge and quick to show compassion? Do you see all of God's children as worthy of your time, attention and caring?

The internal beauty of all of us as children of God is what is important. When we are told that we are made in God's image and likeness, looking around at the diversity of human appearance, we know that it is our souls that are made in God's image and likeness.

My orientation is that our job on earth is to make our souls as close to God as we can with our time on earth. Love, compassion, service and sacrifice bring us closer to God.

Certainly, enjoy your opportunities to decorate the outside. Fix your hair, wear great clothes. But remember, the real beauty any of us possess is on the inside. My hope is that my books help people work on their inside beauty. Because it is there in all of us, just waiting for an opportunity to shine.