One of the things about this job that I am frequently entertained by is author self-portraits!  We ask authors to do self-portraits so that we can have them around in case anyone wants to do a story about them; then the aforementioned story can be framed by an opening shot of The Author. 

I just got in this self-portrait of Leland Myrick, who did a book for us called Missouri Boy back in 2006.  (He's doing another book for us that's coming out next summer; it's about Richard Feynman, and it's going to be very awesome.)  The self-portrait is pretty excellent — whenever I look at this, I think about the Lovecraftian version of Sherlock Holmes from Neil Gaiman's A Study in Emerald. 

(Leland mostly looks like this in person, really.)

While you're waiting for Leland's next book to come out, please enjoy the miscellaneous page below from Missouri Boy, chosen especially for your viewing because though it looks like that soaking would be extremely hard on a motorcycle jacket, it would be so refreshing, especially now that it is blisteringly hot in the summer all the time. 

(If you want more of Leland's art but can't wait until next summer because it is very lovely, check out the latest volume of Flight!  In it there are many soldiers that he has drawn.)