Blessed are the prepared.

The photo shoot for this cover story was delightful. I’ve had mixed experiences with photographers, so self-consciousness was sitting on me like a succubus, but I made up my mind to just be game and professional no matter what. Lucky for me, the Indy team—photographer Justin Cook, and designers Maxine Mills and J. P. Trostle—were so much fun to work with. I perched kneeling on a stool in each pose trying to look holy until my legs cramped and went sandy. And dismounted. And walked around the cubicles to get blood flowing again. And returned to the anteroom they’d outfitted with a purposely cheap-looking “stained glass window” and get my robe readjusted so that the softbox would create pleasing shadows from above.

I love the headline “Blessed are the prepared,” because it refers to birth control but also to an artist’s life in general. My anti-résumé post—also mentioned in the article—really resonated with a lot of people. So far it’s gotten some 7,000 views, which is significant for this humble bloglette. More importantly, it seems to have heartened a lot of people. That makes me glad.