I am fortunate to know the fabulously talented Hannah Jackson.

Hannah, owner and artist at Hannahbird Illustration, is doing cover art and interior illustrations for SARAH & KATY AND THE IMAGINATION BLANKETS. About a week ago, Hannah sent me eight cover art concepts to review and select one.

One. Just one. Even though I loved all eight.

My initial reaction was to give up on choosing and go do math. (Anyone who knows me knows how much I hate math. Math is hard … but narrowing down one of those eight covers was harder.)

The math was calculating the cost-effectiveness of publishing eight editions of SKIB, each with a different cover. Just think: collector’s editions!

Then reality set in. First of all, I can’t afford to pay for eight covers. Second of all, the book should be published and (hopefully) generate a fan base before a collector’s edition or two or eight could be printed.

So I gave up on math and went back to choosing a cover.

After a couple hours of deliberation and comparing lists of pros and cons, I narrowed my choice.

To four.

(Maybe the math would work for four editions?)

[THE FINAL FOUR]

Except I really wasn’t in the mood for more math. I work better in letters, not numbers. So I began making more lists.

After a couple more hours, I had the choice narrowed to two, at which point I carried the printouts over to the cat, shoved them in his face and said, “Which do you like better?” He smacked one of the pages out of his face, so I interpreted that as his vote.

When the husband got home, I pretty much repeated that routine, minus shoving them in his face. He’s a bit more agreeable (and intelligible) than the cat about answering questions, so I just set them in front of him.

He pointed and said, “I like this one best.”

He voted for the same one as the cat — that was two votes in its favor.

After more deliberating, I decided I liked the same one the husband (and cat) chose. I sent word to Hannah about which we selected, and she since has started work on the full cover.

So which concept did I choose?

You’ll just have to wait for the cover reveal next month to find out.

ABOUT THE COVER

Each concept features Sarah and Katy on a magic carpet, which is one of the four adventures they imagine with their blankets in the book.

Hannah Jackson created eight thumbnails indicating size and placement of cover elements. The final cover will be a refined, detailed version of one of the four shown above.