More About the New Cover for Lancer; The Los Angeles Affair

In our last entry we discussed the reasons for the cover of the soon to be released "Lancer; Hero of the West - The Los Angeles Affair." We laid out what nearly all the symbols meant in putting the cover together. Now I'll finish the project by telling about the rest of the cover which you can see below.

The three remaining symbols in the cover photo are the boots, the holster and the hall tree itself. Let me start with the simplest and that is of course the holster. If you remember the cover of "The Prescott Affair," you will remember it was a lone holster with bullets but NO gun. This was meant to convey the fact, Lancer is a peaceful man. He will only resort to the gun when it is absolutely necessary.

He uses his wits first, his fists second and then and only then will he resort to the gun and he will not miss or be beaten. The warnings are obvious.

Now the boots. The boots are well worn and set below the rest of the outerwear on the hall tree. This signifies several things. First, well worn shows Lancer has traveled very much and he's learned from his experiences. Not everyone does, but Lancer is a good and fast learner. The fact the boots are in a relaxed state in a comfortable position relays the fact Lancer feels comfortable no matter where he lays his head for the night. He is a peaceful, learned, well traveled and educated man.

The hall tree itself is something we searched all over for. I did not want something we could just "find" on the Internet.www,amazon.com I decided to seek out the item around the western United States. I searched many places in Los Angeles but when I had to make a trip to Dallas for a family matter, I thought of McKinney, Texas. McKinney is a Dallas suburb and is known for it's western atmosphere and old town western shops.

Julia and I along with my wife began our search. We went to several antique stores and talked to lots of people and found some items which were not quite suitable. Then, at the suggestion of a shop owner, we went to the antique mall. A hundred or so shops under one roof and we had almost exhausted our search when i stumbled upon it. The very hall tree you see on the cover was being used to display items for sale in one of the booths.

Knowing this was the item we wanted, we asked for permission to photograph it and it was happily granted. We removed everything, pulled it out into the open and began taking pictures. When we were done, we put it back where we found it along with the items on display. What a marvelous find and it worked just perfectly.