Louise Reynolds’ first email to Lizzy C immediately piqued our interest. She’s a romance writer recently contracted to Penguin’s Destiny Romance imprint, and she was in need of an author photo. We’d never really thought about the authors behind romance novels, and we loved that she wanted to break the mold — “No pink feather boas!” she said.
Louise actually didn’t start writing seriously until 2007. She played around with a few sub-genres within romance before settling on the kind of story she likes to write. “Of course everyone knows there will be a ‘happy ever after’ in a romance novel, so it’s the journey you take the reader on throughout the book that’s most rewarding,” she said. “Dreaming these stories into being and making readers laugh and cry is a fantastic feeling.”
Louise is admittedly camera-shy, but once she relaxed, she seemed very comfortable in her own skin and exuded personality and warmth. “I haven’t enjoyed having my photo taken since I tripped the 40 wire, so I approached the session with some trepidation,” she said. “The idea of smiling on command and posing was uncomfortable, but I enjoyed the laid-back aspect of the shoot. Lizzy put me totally at ease, chatting and laughing throughout the process. I was able to choose a good number of shots that I was happy with and they were beautifully finished. I also love that she captured a number of different sides of me so I have photos suitable for a variety of needs.”
On a side note, we discovered by chance that we’d actually photographed one of her colleagues and dear friends previously — such a small world!
