The "To Scale Model"

Everyone knows all books have a cover, but they may not know every author does not involve their self in designing and preparing details of their book cover. Most authors, I believe, leave the cover design to their publisher.

In the case of my book, The Wickie, I was determined to design the cover myself. There were no pictures available to me of the original 1857 Umpqua River Lighthouse, so early in the process I realized it would be a harder task and more time consuming than imagined. Through determination and creative photography, I was able to accomplish my goal of bringing that first Oregon lighthouse back to the banks of the Umpqua River via my book cover.

However, this achievement would not have been possible without the "to scale model" pictured below. Colin MacKenzie of the Nautical Research Center in Petaluma, California built the detailed model several years ago from the engineer drawings. His work and generous donation of the model to the Umpqua River Lighthouse Museum, Winchester Bay, Oregon made it possible for me to take pictures of the model. Those pictures, and others I took of the river, were used to design the front cover for my book. The cover is pictured to the right side of this blog post.