Yanno...it's dawned on me that someone may be wondering who the lovely lady, featured in one corner of my profile, is.
Well, now, there are a couple of answers to that:
1. If you're a tall, dark, handsome Irishman who plays percussion during his waking hours, and you wonder if it's actually me, in costume...of course, the answer is HECK, YEAH! Come on down!
2. Okay. The truth, however, is...not really. For one thing, I'm a little more contemporary in my dress than she is. (!) And there are, shall we say, a few other differences as well. Alas.
But the reason that picture is on my page is something that happened a long time ago, at my RWA Chapter meeting, when someone had an old book in which they were doing research and came across portraits of famous poets and writers--and their spouses.
And at that time, that lovely person pointed to the image you see and said, "Wow, you look just like Lord Byron's wife."
To which we all laughed--until we looked at the image. And realized that at that time in my life, yes, indeed, I DID kind of look like this woman.
Of course, we've all changed in the ensuing years.
Lord Byron's wife is, clearly, no longer with us.
I still am among the living, but...trust me...I don't look like that fresh-faced young thing anymore.
Although, it must be said, her expression is remarkably similar to the expression I had on my face in one of my bride-alone wedding pictures.
I was looking somewhat pensive, thoughtful, solemn, whatever you want to call it...and to this day it's a shot I think is one of the more beautiful pictures anyone ever took of me.
Of course, I was also 29 years old. So who doesn't look wonderful at 29?
BUT...
In any event...
That's the answer to the question. The lovely lady is Lord Byron's wife, Annabelle. Her story is a sad and disturbing one, with enough soap-opera elements in it to seemingly justify the old saw about artists "suffering to be brilliant." But in this picture, she's clearly enjoying a more serene moment, and I'd like to think that a little of that serenity was in my expression* when my fellow writer declared the likeness.
There you have it.
Any famous, or moderately famous, person out there that they say YOU look like?
Feel free to share in the comments!
Janny
*lest there be any misunderstandings, however, "serenity" has rarely been used to describe my temperament!
