{"id":125,"date":"2013-01-20T23:34:13","date_gmt":"2013-01-20T23:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregalder.com\/WP\/?p=125"},"modified":"2013-01-28T02:30:18","modified_gmt":"2013-01-28T02:30:18","slug":"about-the-cover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/WP\/about-the-cover\/","title":{"rendered":"About the Cover"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had a photo and a general vision for how I wanted the cover to look, and a graphic designer friend, Julie Rubtchinsky, made it happen.\"The_Mountain_School_Cover_for_Kindle\"<\/a><\/p>\n

First, about the photo. These are my students. Do they look like students? It was a day of celebration they called\u00a0Letsatsi la Moetlo<\/em>, or Cultural Day, where they each dressed like a different character found in Lesotho: miners, boys just finished with initiation, girls just finished with initiation, ntlamu dancers, shepherds, mothers, fathers, and on and on. At the point this photo was taken, we were all marching through the village toward the chief’s house. That was how we started the day.\"IMG_2030\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here’s a photo of me with Chief Thabo once we arrived at his house.<\/p>\n

(Both this photo and the cover photo were taken by a student named Lerato Thaki.)<\/p>\n

And about the design for the book cover. I chose the typeface Ride My Bike because I thought it looked a little bit like chalk written\u00a0on the road. It also looked like it could be words coming from the silhouetted boy’s mouth. Julie took the typeface and the photo and wrapped it around, manipulated this and that, rearranged some words on the back, thickened a font, extended a line, and did some other magic on her Mac until it became what it is. She has a design company called Open Swim Creative<\/a>, and I think she did a great job.<\/p>\n

A couple more tidbits that you might never know: The mountain in the background is Kolo Mountain. And if you look at the spine of the print copy of the book, you mostly see one girl; that girl is the chief’s daughter, Nthabiseng Mokhele.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"reddit\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>by <\/span>\"feather\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had a photo and a general vision for how I wanted the cover to look, and a graphic designer friend, Julie Rubtchinsky, made it happen. First, about the photo. These are my students. Do they look like students? It was a day of celebration they called\u00a0Letsatsi la Moetlo, or Cultural Day, where they each […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8huLi-21","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":288,"url":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/WP\/initiation-ceremony-new-men\/","url_meta":{"origin":125,"position":0},"title":"Initiation Ceremony – New Men","author":"Greg Alder","date":"February 23, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the first warnings I received upon arriving in Lesotho was not to hike aimlessly in the mountains, for if you happen upon an initiation school you'll be captured. A group of boys spend about six months in initiation school up on a summit, being circumcised, learning to stickfight,\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"Boys just become men, freshly returned from the mountain school.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gregalder.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/IMG_1464-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":626,"url":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/WP\/the-best-moroho\/","url_meta":{"origin":125,"position":1},"title":"The best moroho","author":"Greg Alder","date":"February 6, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"This is my yard in Southern California, where I sowed moroho in one of my \"plots,\" as Basotho would call this vegetable garden bed. Every year at Ngoana Jesu Secondary School, ntate Lemphane had the students of his agriculture\u00a0class sow their own plot of moroho using seeds of a couple\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/WP\/the-best-moroho\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"img_20161013_071914","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gregalder.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/IMG_20161013_071914-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":698,"url":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/WP\/quintessential-lesotho-in-one-photo\/","url_meta":{"origin":125,"position":2},"title":"Quintessential Lesotho in one photo","author":"Greg Alder","date":"August 21, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"If you've been to Lesotho, you'll recognize every silhouette in this photo. A peach tree, a couple of rondavels, a man wrapped in a blanket, the leaf blade of an agave (or aloe, as Basotho call it), mountains, more mountains, and an expansive sky. The scene is quintessential Lesotho. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/WP\/quintessential-lesotho-in-one-photo\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gregalder.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/IMG_2594.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gregalder.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/IMG_2594.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gregalder.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/IMG_2594.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gregalder.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/IMG_2594.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gregalder.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/IMG_2594.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":388,"url":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/WP\/what-is-a-bono\/","url_meta":{"origin":125,"position":3},"title":"What is a Bono?","author":"Greg Alder","date":"April 21, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"It caught my eye as it ran across the CNN ticker: \"Madonna, Angelina Jolie, George Clooney, and Bono are some of the celebs pledging to 'save Africa.' But does Africa want them?\" I was on my way to teach a class, so as I continued down the hall I thought\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/WP\/what-is-a-bono\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":683,"url":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/WP\/tsoeneng-mountain\/","url_meta":{"origin":125,"position":4},"title":"Ts’oeneng Mountain","author":"Greg Alder","date":"June 13, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"When I arrived in Ts'oeneng I assumed the village got its name from the rock atop its mountain that looked like the profile of a monkey.\u00a0Ts'oene means \"monkey\" in Sesotho. Later, I was told a couple of other origin stories. There used to live troops of monkeys in the caves\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/WP\/tsoeneng-mountain\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"Tsoeneng mountain","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gregalder.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Tsoeneng-mountain.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gregalder.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Tsoeneng-mountain.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gregalder.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Tsoeneng-mountain.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gregalder.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Tsoeneng-mountain.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gregalder.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Tsoeneng-mountain.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8,"url":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/WP\/submission-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":125,"position":5},"title":"Submission Day","author":"Greg Alder","date":"December 24, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Today the manuscript and cover images got submitted for review. Hopefully, by New Year's I'll have a proof copy arrive in the mail. This is a huge milestone. I've written and edited, and had people read and send feedback, and edited some more for years, and at last I've sent\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":201,"href":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125\/revisions\/201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}