And the winner is....SLAY RIDE

Well, we had some interesting voting! In some cases my favorites turned out to be really, really different from the popular choices. So it's a good thing I put in that little caveat about overruling the vote when necessary because... 

SLAY RIDE

There were just so many great ideas for this cover -- which is astonishing, given that nobody had almost anything to work with in the way of direction or story hints! I honestly could have gone with any number of the submissions, but I knew the perfect cover the second I saw it. It captures the noir vibe and has an uncanny number of story details.

So the cover commission goes to Catherine Dair for #11

The popular vote, however, went to  two efforts by Minu --  #17 & 19 -- so congratulations on your talented work and thank you for those lovely covers! This is all the more impressive as Minu wrote that these are her first ever covers.

In addition, I fell in love with Johanna's adorable cover with the guy bundled up in a sweater, and I decided to commandeer it for an as yet unnamed and unknown Christmas story. Now all I have to do is write the story!