For those who missed out, the rules were thus...

Please note:  this cover contest is my baby. My publishers think it's great, but they have their own ideas about what a good cover looks like.  The designer of the winning cover will earn a school visit from me.  But you should NOT expect to see that cover in bookstores next year.  If you check Tundra's website, you will see what they think Me & Death should look like. 

In order to design a cover, you are going to want an idea of what the story is about. I mean, a picture of a giraffe driving a sports car through a tunnel would be kind of interesting, but there's no scene like that in the book. No hot air balloons either. No glaciers, or butlers, or mutants. No Nazis, no gold bars or lace ruffles. No Slovenians, no card games, no marsupials. Definitely no marsupials. I could go on with this list of things that are NOT in the book (Greek gods, agricultural implements, celery, dentists) but it'd take ages to complete.

So here is a more helpful list. The following items ARE in the book. Any of them -- or any combination -- might make part of your cover. Pay attention now:

• plum
• shirt with dragon pattern
• door in the sky
• bleeding character from your nightmare
• belt
• ambulance
• ghost Polish lady with a blue kerchief (I said no Slovenians. There are a few Poles)
• ghost pirate with a large crystal knife
• pool game (as you see, this is what the Tundra artist picked)
• Lincoln Town Car
• And of course the Platypus of Doom. (Just kidding -- you know there are no marsupials.)

I will pick three finalists and a winner, later this year, and show them on the website in the weeks leading up to the launch of the book next spring. If the winner is an adult, he or she will also receive a free copy of the book. If the winner is a kid, his or her school will get a free author visit. Yes, that's right. I will come to your school and give a talk. (This will be easy if you are Southern Ontario -- harder if you are in Nunavut. But we will work something out.)

Contest is now closed - thank you to everyone who submitted a cover!!