THE TOP FIVE THINGS I LEARNED AT A COVER SHOOT

Okay, so I have a confession to make.  I went to a Sourcebooks cover shoot a couple of weeks ago, and I drooled... just a little.  All right, so you got me.  It was a lot.  But I was in the same room with the man who posed for this...

THRILL RIDE hits shelves April 2nd.

... so how could I NOT suffer from a lack of salivary control? 

That wasn't a rhetorical question.  I'm really asking in the off chance I get to go to another cover shoot.  I'll wait while you think...  Yeah, you couldn't come up with any way to combat the ol' stare-and-slobber routine either, could you?  *sigh*  I guess I'll just have to remember to bring a very large hankie if and when I find myself surrounded by romance cover model beefcakes again. 

And just in case you think there's a lot of photoshopping going into those pictures, I'm here to tell you that, unfortunately for us mere mortals, there's not.  They actually LOOK. THAT. GOOD.   Disgusting, I know.  Which brings me around to the point of this blog post.  Without further ado, I give you the top five things I learned about myself while at a Sourcebooks cover shoot...  

5.)  I eat way too many brownies.  It's one thing to look at magazines and go, "Eh, they're all airbrushed anyway," while licking fudge icing from my fingers.  It's another thing entirely when physical perfection is staring me smack-dab between the eyes.

4.)  I don't exfoliate enough.  How is it possible for skin to be so smooth and shiny?  Seriously, do the models use loofahs?  Salt scrubs?  Pumice stones for the body and face?  Do they take nightly oil baths?  <--- Okay, I just pictured that last one in my head.  And, can I say, "Mee-Ow!  Mama likey!"

3.)  I seriously need to revisit the amount of coffee and red wine I drink.  Who knew teeth could be that sparkling white?

2.)  I need to hire a personal hairdresser to come over each morning and work their black magic on my head.  I've never seen a French twist look so sexy, or a lock of hair falling so perfectly over a forehead.  It's downright uncanny.  And I want a piece of that action.

1.)  I might need to rethink my career as a writer.  Because while it's a no-holds-barred blast to get paid to tell my stories, it also means I'm sitting at a desk all day.  Talk about an occupation guaranteed to make my ass and thighs take on the relative size and shape of... well... the world's largest ass and thighs.  Then again, if I quit writing, I won't get invited to photo shoots, and I won't get to take pictures like this... 

Yours truly and Donovan

Yeah, that's right.  Be jealous.  Be so very, very jealous.  LOL!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Julie Ann Walker is the New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author of the Black Knights Inc. romantic suspense series. She is prone to spouting movie quotes and song lyrics. She'll never say no to sharing a glass of wine or going for a long walk. She prefers impromptu travel over the scheduled kind, and she takes her coffee with milk. You can find her on her bicycle along the lake shore in Chicago or blasting away at her keyboard, trying to wrangle her capricious imagination into submission. Look for the first three books in her fast-paced series: Hell On Wheels (August 2012) In Rides Trouble (September 2012) and Rev It Up (October 2012). Or jump on the BKI bandwagon and pre-order the fourth book, Thrill Ride, debuting April 2nd. For more information, please visit www.julieannwalker.com or follow her on Facebook www.facebook.com/jawalkerauthor and/or Twitter @JAWalkerAuthor.