Puzzling

OK, and on with the story ... and then we can really get stuck into puzzles and words and stuff. Over the years (1990s and on) I kept working on puzzles on and off, but I was also running a graphic design business and homeschooling my kids, and wasn't doing puzzles that seriously. In 1997, when I was a web developer for the Australian Science Archives Project, I managed to sneak in a collection of puzzles , so clearly they were always something I was thinking about! Finally, I had the opportunity to write a puzzle book about animals for the RSPCA. The Amazing Animal Puzzle Book came out in 2002. I was ready for a change in the business, and decided to give puzzles a proper try. I did some cold calling (yuck!) and actually landed a job writing a book for the Royal Flying Doctor Service  in 2003 — I specialise in 'themed' puzzles, puzzles written on a particular topic, so for this book the entire book was about the RFDS, and was printed in large quantities and given to...

So, how does one become a puzzle writer? This is a question I hear a lot, especially after someone asks me what I do, and the usual double-take, LOL! There's no real point in my life where I can say " That's when I decided to be a puzzle writer." I was always writing little books of crafts and activities for my younger brothers and sisters, which often included little mazes or other puzzles (and indexes, funnily enough, but that's a story for later!). I spent a great deal of time in hospital and immobilised in body plaster as a child (I was born with hip dysplasia ), and I suppose that set the pattern for me for a lot of drawing, reading, and doing kid's activity books. My parents got me a subscription to the excellent children's magazine Cricket , which I received from its very first issue. I especially loved the puzzle pages. As a teen, I remember having a soma cube , tangrams , jigsaws, and of course Rubik's Cube, later on. I often solved cross...