Written descriptions of characters, whether in stories or as documents in their own right, often conjure different visualizations in the minds of different readers. For some people, particularly if they are not visually oriented, it may be difficult to arrive at any clear mental images. Even the author may have only a hazy or general idea of what his (or her) creations look like.

In some degree that’s the situation with the main characters of Anasazi’s Road. To help me clarify their appearance in my own mind, I’ve commissioned portraits from a variety of artists and looked at the results. Sometimes an artist suggests, through details in an image, a new idea I hadn’t considered previously. Sometimes an artist misses the mark—but even that can be useful, because it forces me to figure out why, dredging thought processes up from my subconscious into the light where I can examine them.

This rendition of Tom by  eura is, as with most of her work, appealingly charming. His pose, characteristically, balances self-assurance and a slight social awkwardness. The aging in his face is suitably subtle; he is about fifty but often fools observers into believing him a decade younger. In fact, the only quibble is that Eura put him in low-riders, possibly because that is what she is accustomed to seeing on her twentyish contemporaries. Overall I am quite satisfied with the result and regard it as worth far more than the vastly undervalued purchase price!