In Which I Reveal That I Am Not Blonde

Recently, I attended Book Expo America where I met a whole bunch of people from Twitter. I was so excited to go around and tackle hug people left and right, but was universally met with initial resistance. Not because I was being a creeper running around hugging people I knew, but because I was running around hugging people I THOUGHT knew ME.

Except... they didn't. Not at first, anyway. You see, every single person expected me to be blonde because this was my profile picture:

I suppose I can see how, from this one photo, with my hair up, and the lighting, and all the other elements put together, a person might think my hair is of a lighter golden nature.

My hair has always been brown. For a brief time when the above photo was taken, yes, I DID have some very light colored highlights. But I've never been a true blonde.

Here I am not being blonde when I was born:

Here I am not blonde on a Big Wheel as a wee toddler:

Here I am not being blonde at Universal Studios:

Here I am dressed as a brunette Christmas present:

Oh, look! A brunette Vols fan... (hint: that's me!)

Okay, here my hair DOES look a little lighter, but compare it to Laurell K. Hamilton's gorgeous golden locks. I'm still fangirling with brown hair...

Maureen Johnson and I have the same light brown hair with caramel colored highlights...

Over here with Freddie Falcon? Yup...still brown.

I even had dark hair at Platform 9 3/4...

...and at Chepstow Castle...

...and when I met Jane Austen in Bath.

I also had brown hair when I got married,

went to a Coldplay concert,

and at the Stratosphere on the Las Vegas strip.

When I graduated college? Yup.

Ran into my professor Michael Knight when his book The Typist came out and I had brown hair then...

Also, when I went to Graceland...

...and that time I met Elvis with my friend Dawn. She's the one on the right with blonde hair. (Note: my hair is not the same color as Dawn's.)

How about that time I was groped by a creepy zombie?

Or when I met Quasimodo?

How about when I went to an art show and Boba Fett was there? (okay, I'll give you this one... I might possibly be mistaken for blonde here, but that's all lighting. Also, again, only the highlighted part of my hair is visible.)

Hangin' with a Storm Trooper as a brunette here too...

Here I am with brown hair at the Eiffel Tower...

...then back across the ocean in Savannah, GA. This is a great view of the back of my brown hair.

I think that's plenty of photographic evidence to establish the fact that me looking like this

is actually not a brand new thing. It's the way I've always looked. I'm terribly, terribly sorry if I frightened or confused anyone at BEA. I also don't think being blonde is a bad thing. I loved my highlights, but they're expensive and take FOREVER to get done. As a mommy I don't have the time or money for that anymore. I promise to give you all fair warning if I ever save up and have an extra four hours laying around to spend at the salon. ;)