It has been a marathon! First, I posted a contest on Freelancer.com, asking folks to submit ideas for a book cover. In a week, I got over 100 submissions: some great, some okay, and some…well…we won’t talk about those.

After whittling them down to only nine, I posted them to an amazing Facebook group, My Dutch Heritage, where I had over 500 responses. From those, it became evident that people liked crisp covers with WWII images. And, of course, the heart-rending photo of Frits.

Some liked black and white and others liked sepia. Although it was complicated, they helped me eliminate five of the possiblities.

Back to the artists. I asked them to change some things in the top four contenders, and then sent those results to family and friends. They whittled the possiblities down to two.

Finally, it was my turn. I chose the one I liked best. This is it. The winner is Md. Abdul Monnaf, and you can hire him on Freelancer.com.

Now, I need to get back to work!