Words fail to express how impressed I was by the inventive and eye-catching covers that came my way during the Orchid Affair Cover Contest. To everyone who participated, I thank you for your creativity, your talent, and your time. And now for the part we’ve all been waiting for… the unveiling of the winning covers!…

The winners of the Orchid Affair Cover Contest will be announced in just a couple of hours! Winners of the secondary and tertiary prizes (aka Emerald Ring and Night Jasmine) will be announced on Thursday, just because it’s more fun to break it up a bit.

Thanks so much to everyone for your lovely and lively compositions for the cover of The Orchid Affair. I will confess, I was absolutely staggered by the volume and variety of the entries. If asked to predict, I would have guessed that there would be around ten entries. Instead, at last count, there were seventy-two.…

Due to a far, far larger number of entries than expected, it may take me a little longer than previously anticipated to get those contest covers up here on the site for general voting. Stay tuned! I should have them up by tonight or tomorrow morning.

Just one day to go until the Cover Contest closes! With so many entries (over fifty at last count), I will, for once, be closing the contest when I said I would, at midnight on Sunday. So get your entries in now! In the meantime, here’s a bright and floral cover for Saturday:

Don’t you get the feeling that this is a woman with weighty things on her mind? Just as a reminder, the Cover Contest officially closes Sunday at midnight, so if you have any last minute inspirations, now’s the time to get out the photoshop….