Assuming you've found this blog via the ebook... welcome. The cover photo is from the inside of the Gate of 5 Nations, looking out towards the river. That might seem the wrong angle if one is going snooping for gold inside the fort but...
Stephanie and I had driven back to the falls from Massachusetts for Christmas, as we've done for several years. Knowing I needed a cover photo, and that none of the hundreds of shots I'd taken seemed quite right, we left Christmas Eve day open to go to the fort. I checked the fort's website and yes, it was open. We did get up a little late that day and had to run an errand, and when we reached the fort at 11:30, I grabbed my trusty Canon and followed the posted signs to enter through the Visitor's Center.
Which was closed. It's not really shocking to find an establishment closed early on Christmas Eve. But I hadn't planned on it. I return to our Subaru, Steph looking concerned because I'm back waaaaaay too early. "Closed!" I erupt. The rest of the conversation will be expunged due to profane language. I decid to try climbing the grass berms that surround the fort and see if I can't get a useable angle on the French Castle. I climb like a mountain goat and... no, you just can't get a clean shot. But I saw some people wandering around in there, and that seemed odd.
By the time I'd given up my quest, thinking over the shots on my computer and whether I could doctor them (I'm not gifted at doctoring photos), Steph calmly points out that people have just walked out. She's good at this.
So I announce, well, I'm going in. I figur I can do a fair job of begging and pleading any poor sap stuck guarding the fort today. "Two pictures, man, that's all I need. I'll be gone in ten minutes. Fifteen if the lighting isn't good."
Turns out they closed the Visitor's Center, and they closed the French Castle, but they left the grounds open. That was wonderful. But I was hoping for Fort Niagara in the snow and it was the beginning of this almost snow-less winter. That was a little dismaying, as much of the historical part of the story is set in winter. But you work with what you've got. I fired off around fifty shots of the French Castle, then on the way back saw that the Gate of 5 Nations had potential as well. Trying to picture a book cover, I'm shooting angles that leave open spaces for titles. I'm feeling much calmer at this point.
A couple months later, after proofreading and prodding my wife and friends into looking over the story, I'm working on a cover. The front of the gate was my first choice, but the handrails they've put in for pedestrian access take away some of the historical feel. So then I realize I took a shot from the other side. It's the 'wrong side', but I framed it, and started working with the type... and so that's the cover shot. I discovered using a basic app on the computer that I really didn't want or need all that white space. I had to do my best to crop it out. This is publishing today, folks.
For those who've read The Stone House Diaries, the publisher shot the cover from a stone house in western Pennsylvania, so the lesson to take away is, cover shots are to books what the picture of the food is to the stuff inside the plastic. Hmm... that implies the story will taste like undercooked food. Let me get back to you with a different analogy.
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