Puzzling

I'm allowed to show you the cover of Solving Cryptic Crosswords For Dummies ! I'm very pleased with this cover, as they've included a photo of mine! I laid out one of the crosswords from the book in Illustrator, and made it look like it's from a newspaper. Then I printed it out, filled in some of the answers, and set up the shot. I removed the Staedtler branding from the pencil in Photoshop ... This book is the 'how to' book on cryptics — there is a whole chapter, with a mini 'tutorial crossword', for each clue device. There are 16 full crosswords to solve (mostly easy ones), info on the history of cryptics, and cryptics around the world, a bunch of reference lists, and lots of hints to help you on your way. It's 200 pages long, and will retail for $19.95 in Australia. It will be available in other countries (New Zealand, UK, USA/Canada etc) too. The Wiley listing is up too, so you can read more about it here .

Pens down! All the writing AND all the editing and proofreading are finished! \o/ Solving Cryptic Crosswords For Dummies (the in-depth 'how to' book, with 16 full crosswords) and Cryptic Crosswords For Dummies (a companion volume, with 56 crosswords) are FINALLY DONE! The books will be out in Australia, the UK, and the USA in August this year. My god, what an effort ... I started work in the middle of last December, so both books were written in just over 4 months. In the past 6 days I've solved and edited every single one of the clues in the second book (about 1,500 of the little toads). My red pen for editing literally ran out of ink on the last page, too! LOL I don't have to work on weekends or evenings now ... it'll take a bit of getting used to!

It's official, folks! I've just landed the book deal to write TWO new Dummies titles with Wiley Australia ... both due at the same time  O.o  The books will be out in August 2012. Solving Cryptic Crosswords For Dummies will be the 'how to' book, which I've been wanting to write for years now ... I first submitted the proposal to Wiley USA three years ago! (Wrong market, cryptics are not widely done in the States). I updated my proposal, and sent it off to Wiley Oz a few months ago, and it's got the green light! Cryptic Crosswords For Dummies will be the companion volume, which will contain a goodly collection of cryptic crosswords to solve, with a brief intro and solving tips (cribbed from the main book). Both manuscripts due by early April 2012. SOON. Eeeeek. To ease the panic I'm now in, here's a cute puppy piccie, of Griff just after his bath — where did all the floof go?! He is a very wriggly energetic puppy, with an advanced case of h...

Now that you've met the important people (Petal and Griff), I'll introduce myself ... I'm Denise Sutherland, I am a professional puzzle writer. I have studied biological sciences, and have a degree in graphic design. I am a trained indexer, too.  Over the past ten years I have self-published about seven puzzle books, and have authored two books in the Dummies series: Word Searches For Dummies , and Cracking Codes and Cryptograms For Dummies (co-authored with Mark Koltko-Rivera), both for Wiley USA. I have also been technical editor on three Wiley puzzle books. I am a syndicated puzzle writer, too, which means that I have an agent who sells (and hopefully re sells) my regular puzzle series to a range of newspapers and magazines around Australia and beyond. My agent is Auspac Media .  I live in Canberra, Australia with my my husband Dr R (an astrophysicist) and two grown-up kids, who are 20 and 22. My daughter Ms J (20) is a games programming student, and my son Mr R...