Puzzling

I'm so happy to announce that our latest app, CrypticGuide, has been approved by Apple today, and is now available on the App Store ! CrypticGuide has a cryptic dictionary with over 6,900 entries in it, with cryptic synonyms, indicator words, abbreviations, and homophones. So you can type in a word or short phrase from a cryptic clue, like 'see' - and the app will tell you that see  can lead to the words ELY (a UK diocese, or see , name), LO, or VIDE ( see in Latin); the abbreviations C (sounds like see ), V, or VID ( see in Latin again); it can indicate a container or hidden word wordplay device; and it's a homophone for sea ! So this will hopefully help you a lot with cracking cryptic clues. The app also has a wildcard search for filling in gaps in the grid you really can't get out, and an anagram solver, which brings up exact anagrams and subwords. Very helpful if you feel like getting a little cheaty in Scrabble ®, Words With Friends , Boggle , ...

Because I've written so damn MANY crosswords over the last few years, we've already got Volume 2 of our Quick Break app up and running ! So - same awesome interface - 50 new crosswords - with a supercool red look, instead of purple. As with Quick Break 1, you can customise the interface in roughly a trillion ways. Check it out! It's shiny!

I'm very excited to announce that my first app is up for sale on the iTunes App Store! My husband Ralph and I have been working on this for ages — he is the expert code monkey, and I've done the graphics and written all the crosswords. My Quick Break crosswords have appeared for years in The Cairns Post.  They are 13 x 13 quick crosswords (not cryptic), and mostly quite easy to solve, with the occasional tricky word. I am no longer doing syndicated puzzles for newspapers (a rapidly dying field), so apps are the way forward. This first volume contains 50 of my Quick Break crosswords. Volumes 2, 3 and 4 are in production. Here are some screen shots to entice you!  Just tap on the grid to bring up the keyboard, then start typing in your answers: You can choose from four fonts and nine background papers, including dark papers and crumpled paper with coffee stains! And you can choose the colours for everything - the grid, the text, and the highligh...