Tag Archives: Doug Peterson

PuzzleNation Book Review: The Centenary of the Crossword

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Welcome to the eighth installment of PuzzleNation Book Reviews!

All of the books discussed and/or reviewed in PNBR articles are either directly or indirectly related to the world of puzzling, and hopefully you’ll find something to tickle your literary fancy in this entry or the entries to come.

Let’s get started!

Our book review post this time around features John Halpern’s The Centenary of the Crossword.

With the hundredth anniversary of the Crossword only a few weeks behind us, interest in puzzle is perhaps at an all-time high. With that in mind, constructor John Halpern has put together a tribute to the crossword that’s part history, part solving tool, and part celebration of everyone’s favorite pen-and-paper puzzle.

It’s a wonderful introduction to puzzles for anyone looking to get into solving crosswords. Beyond the timeline of puzzle history and glimpses into the minds of various constructors (or setters, as they’re known in England) and crossword editors (Rich Norris of the Los Angeles Times and Will Shortz of the New York Times included), Halpern offers numerous solving hints, including a terrific breakdown of cryptic cluing for fans of British-style crosswords.

Not only that, but the book is chock full of complete puzzles for the reader to solve, starting (quite appropriately) with Arthur Wynne’s marvelous “Word-Cross” and proceeding straight through to the modern day, featuring constructors from around the world. These puzzles show the depth and variety of crossword grids and cluing, and I think even well-established solvers will get a lot out of tackling the puzzles Halpern has collected.

The book is capped off with interviews with the top solvers from last year’s American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, some terrific clues (including some from PuzzleNation Blog favorites David Steinberg and Doug Peterson), and a delightful collection of crossword-centric anecdotes, weird words, and impressive anagrams.

Essentially a cross-section of modern puzzling and the rich puzzle community, The Centenary of the Crossword is a quick and informative read, peppered with puzzles to engage and challenge you. I’m happy to report that I learned a great deal about crosswords (especially cryptics!) from Halpern’s work, and enjoyed every minute of it. What a treat.

[To check out all of our PuzzleNation Book Review posts, click here!]

Thanks for visiting the PuzzleNation blog today! You can like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, cruise our boards on Pinterest, check out our Tumblr, download our Classic Word Search iBook (recently featured by Apple in the Made for iBooks category!), play our games at PuzzleNation.com, or contact us here at the blog!

Let’s Make Our Own Crosswords, Part Two: Advice!

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On Tuesday, I posted an introductory how-to for creating your own crossword puzzles. All of the advice and guidance was based on my own constructing instincts and work I’ve done over the years.

But I’m just one puzzler, and I figured why not reach out to other constructors and editors in the puzzling community and see what helpful suggestions they had for aspiring puzzle constructors.

So today, I put you into the good hands of professionals and topnotch puzzlers, as they walk you through the do’s and do-not-do’s of crossword construction. As constructor Ian Livengood said, “it’s more art than science,” but with the advice of established constructors in your pocket, you’ll be off to a great start.

And as it turns out, they’ve got plenty of worthwhile nuggets of advice to offer! In fact, they had so much to say (and I wanted to include so much more!) that I’ve broken up the advice by topic and put each one on its own page. Just click on the links below to take you to a treasure trove of puzzly wisdom!

Good luck, my fellow puzzlers!

And thank you to David Steinberg, Robin Stears, Ian Livengood, Rich Norris, Patti Varol, Doug Peterson, and Eileen Saunders for their masterful advice!

Thanks for visiting the PuzzleNation blog today! You can like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, cruise our boards on Pinterest, check out our Classic Word Search iBook (recently featured by Apple in the Made for iBooks category!), play our games at PuzzleNation.com, or contact us here at the blog!

How to Make a Crossword: Choosing a Theme

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“Themes are the hardest part of the construction process. Filling the grid and writing the clues takes perseverance, but coming up with a theme requires that elusive spark of inspiration.” — constructor Doug Peterson

This sentiment was echoed by other constructors I spoke with. Crossword guru Eileen Saunders said, “The hardest part of constructing a puzzle (for me) is coming with the theme. After that, everything else seems to fall into place.”

Los Angeles Times Crossword Editor Rich Norris and assistant Patti Varol: “Originality is an important element of a good theme, but sometimes originality means lively themers in a chestnut gimmick or a clever spin on familiar wordplay.

“Originality, themewise, is not always ground-breaking, or innovative, or even original. A good theme always has sparkle, with lively, idiomatic phrases that will resonate with a majority of solvers.”

New York Times Crossword constructor Ian Livengood discusses how to choose theme entries: “Once you think of a potentially good theme, it’s vital to see if something similar has been done before. What’s the point of having databases, right? If the theme looks interesting and relatively new, you must make sure the theme is consistent.

“For example, if you are doing two-word phrases that start with the letter P and you’ve got PLEDGE PIN, PARK PLACE, PLUM PUDDING, PINK PANTHER and … PARAKEET, that’s a problem. The single word breaks the pattern and confuses solvers. So consistancy and freshness is very important.”

Rich and Patti also mentioned consistency and balance as critical elements of a good theme. “One odd entry can ruin an otherwise great idea: a themer that ends with the theme’s key word when all the others begin with it, a stray plural in a set of singular phrases, a noun phrase in a group of verbs, a song title in a set of movie titles, a rhyming pun in the mix with spelling-change puns.”

I think I’ll give Doug the final word on coming up with a theme for your puzzle. “If you think a theme entry is humdrum or doesn’t quite fit with the others, it’s time to put your brainstorming cap back on. Remember, your first job is to entertain the solver, so make that theme sparkle.”

How to Make a Crossword: Cluing Advice

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After constructing the grid, cluing is the most daunting task facing a constructor. Constructor Robin Stears readily confessed, “Writing the clues is the most time-consuming process of puzzle construction, especially for common words that appear in many puzzles. Crossword Compiler allows me to keep a database of words and clues, but I try not to use the same clue twice.”

Constructor and puzzle archivist David Steinberg: “When writing clues, it’s important to strike a balance between original clues and clues that exist in databases. For entries that appear frequently and/or have a limited number of cluing possibilities, such as ALAI (traditionally clued as [Jai ___]), I feel it’s best to go with a database clue. In the case of ALAI, almost all clever cluing possibilities, such as [Half-court game?], have been exhausted.

“Original clues for such an entry often end up feeling strained or wordy and/or rely on a less common usage of a word, which solvers generally don’t appreciate as much.”

Constructor Ian Livengood also stressed finding a balance between creativity and accessibility: “Keep you clues relatively short, especially if you’re creating puzzles for outlets with strict line counts. But don’t just use one-line clues for everything, since that will bore solvers. Try to toss in some fun trivia, wordplay, etc. that seems interesting to solvers.

“And, like filling the grid, make sure you clues are appropriate for the intended day of the week. [High line?] for ELEVATED TRAIN works well for a tough puzzle, but would only fluster new solvers in a Monday puzzle. [Above-the-street transportation] is easier and more welcome for beginners.”

Constructor Robin Stears reminds you to utilize the many resources available: “Personally, I use a number of websites to help me write clues: Wikipedia, Wolfram Alpha, The Free Dictionary, Crossword Tracker, Internet Movie Database, Reddit, and Google. In the old days, I used to spend hours in the reference section of the library, but nowadays, it’s much easier to search the Internet. There’s a wikia for almost everything.”

When it comes to determining the difficulty of a clue, constructor Doug Peterson suggests doing a bit of research: “My best advice is to solve lots and lots of puzzles of varying levels of difficulty. It won’t take long for you to get a feel for what types of clues are found in what types of puzzles. And it’s OK to have a few hard clues on a Monday or a Tuesday. Just make sure their answers don’t cross.”

Los Angeles Times Crossword Editor Rich Norris and assistant Patti Varol touched on how cluing can set a puzzle’s difficulty: “With the right grid, a talented, creative editor can transform an expert-level puzzle into one that any newbie can solve (and that an expert would still enjoy). Every editor has his or her own ‘familiarity test,’ which is the educated guess we make to determine if a clue or an entry will resonate with or be recognized by our solvers.

“It’s subjective, sure, but there are also pretty straightforward guidelines. If an entry is not in most major dictionaries and only gets 10K or so Google hits, well, that’s pretty obscure and probably shouldn’t be used at all. The editor needs to know the solving audience and needs to know how to balance current and older pop culture references -– much of what the Millennials find easy will completely baffle the Boomer solvers, and vice versa.”

They were also kind enough to offer an example of how cluing a given word can affect clue difficulty:

“Take the entry SMITH, for example. Will SMITH and Ozzie SMITH are arguably more famous than Patti SMITH, who is arguably more famous than Matt SMITH. Plain clues — [Actor Will], [Baseballer Ozzie], [Singer Patti], [Actor Matt] – tend to be hard. Ozzie is the exception in this example, because Ozzie is such an unusual name in baseball that even nonfans are likely to word-associate their way to the correct answer.

“What information is added to those semi-naked clues is key. Thus, [“Men In Black“ actor Will] is an easy clue for SMITH because “Men In Black” is a popular movie franchise and having the first name narrows down the potential answers. Compare [“Just Kids” memoirist Patti]. Even with that first name in the clue, it’s a tough clue — more solvers know Patti Smith as a singer than as a writer, and the title of her memoir doesn’t even hint at her singing career. For a nonfan, [Hall of famer shortstop Ozzie] is about the same difficulty as [Baseballer Ozzie], but, alas, it’s likely only a Doctor Who fan will recognize any clue for Matt SMITH.

“There’s Kate SMITH, and Bessie SMITH, and Agent SMITH of the Matrix movies. Each one resonates with a different solver. The easiest kind of clue for SMITH is, of course, the generic kind: [Common alias] or [Popular surname] or [Suffix with lock or gun]. And then there’s the fun, inferable kind: [Surname that comes from an occupational suffix].”

How to Make a Crossword: Closing Advice

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We have featured a wealth of wonderful (and often, hard-won) advice for the aspiring constructor, but once more, I have to give the final word to constructor Doug Peterson:

“Not really a “do-not-do,” but one pitfall for many newbie constructors is trying to do too much too soon. A rookie will come up with a fabulous theme, a 25×25 reverse-double-rebus with sprinkles on top, but the poor guy or gal doesn’t have the construction chops to pull it off. And often the whole concept is inconsistent or otherwise flawed.

“I think it’s important to start with the simple stuff. Make a few 15×15 puzzles with 3 or 4 theme entries each. Get a feel for the basics of themes, grid design, and clue writing before moving on to painting-the-Sistine-Chapel-level stuff. I certainly don’t want to stifle creativity, but for most constructors not named Patrick Berry, there’s a learning curve.”

Good luck, my fellow puzzlers!

PuzzleNation Holiday Puzzly Gift Guide: Grab Bag!

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Welcome to the PuzzleNation Blog Holiday Gift Guide!

We’re overjoyed to have so many tremendously fun and puzzly products to share with you this year. We just might be your one-stop shop for all things puzzly!

This guide is a grab bag of all sorts of puzzle games, apps, puzzle books, and board games, the perfect random assortment for a puzzle fan you need ideas for! We’re sure you’ll find the right gift for any puzzler on your list!

To start, we’ve got an assortment of pencil-and-paper puzzle books to choose from!

Our friends at Penny/Dell Puzzles have put together some outstanding holiday collections with puzzles galore to be solved!

Whether it’s their 100 Years of Crosswords commemorative book, their kid-friendly Kindergarten Learning Fun book (part of the Learning Fun series), their holidaytastic Sugar & Spice Pocket Sudoku Pack, or one of their many value packs featuring puzzles of all sorts, Penny/Dell has you covered. (And be sure to click here for their ongoing 12 Days of Holiday Savings promotion for even better deals!)

And for more specialized puzzle books, some high-level constructors have books of their own for your perusal! With New York Times and Los Angeles Times crosswords to their credit, you’re sure to find some puzzlers within these pages!

—Rich Norris’s A-to-Z Crosswords

—Doug Peterson’s Easy ABC Crosswords

—Jeff Chen’s puzzles for Bridge enthusiasts

—Brendan Emmett Quigley’s puzzles (the only one I’d firmly classify as 18 and up)

–Patrick Blindauer’s Quick-As-A-Wink Crosswords and Wide-Screen Crosswords

And many top constructors have started marketing their puzzles directly to solvers, so in addition to free puzzles available on their websites, they have downloadable puzzle bundles and collections!

—Patrick Blindauer PuzzleFests (puzzle bundles)

—David Steinberg’s Chromatics (color-themed puzzles)

—Robin Stears’ StearsWords (themed puzzles)

—The American Values Crossword (subscription and daily puzzles)

Of course, if you’d like to have a crossword specially created for someone, both Brendan Emmett Quigley and Robin Stears create puzzles to order on their sites! Two prolific, topnotch constructors are at your service!

And here is our grab bag of puzzle games and apps galore!

The Stars Are Right (Steve Jackson Games, card game)

Build an army of followers and change the stars themselves in The Stars Are Right, a thoroughly enjoyable card game where the goal is summoning an elder god and destroying the world. As you do. ($27.95)

[Check out our full product review here!]

Penny/Dell Puzzles Crossword App

Test your crossword chops with this impressive app, featuring smart navigation to move you to partially filled-in entries and an alternate-clue option to help you solve!

Word Winder (David L. Hoyt)

Word Winder (also available in app, puzzle book, and GIANT versions!) is a game of finding chains of hidden words in an ever-changeable grid! Put your strategy and spelling skills to the test! ($19.95)

ROFL! (Cryptozoic, party game)

Challenge your friends to decode famous movie lines, catchphrases, and song lyrics in Cryptozoic’s game ROFL!!, created by Dork Tower‘s John Kovalic! Put your texting and abbreviation skills to the test in this laugh-out-loud party treat! ($35)

[Check out our full product review here!]

Seven Bridges (app)

Based on the classic Konigsberg Bridge puzzle, Seven Bridges challenges you to navigate different towns and cross each bridge only once! A terrific chain-solving game with more than a few tricks up its sleeve!

Castellan (Steve Jackson Games)

Build a castle and then occupy it in Castellan, a game of strategy and opportunity. With great modeled pieces that really add to the aesthetic, Castellan has style and substance. ($34.95)

[Check out our full product review here!]

PuzzleNation Classic Word Search (iBook)

Enjoy our own puzzler-friendly classic word search iBook (with three volumes of themed puzzles to choose from)! With an adaptable screen and plenty of puzzles to keep you busy, Classic Word Search is a terrific way to pass the time!

Walk-By Scrabble Board, Lexicographer’s Extended Scrabble, and the World’s Largest Scrabble Game

Hammacher Schlemmer has several Scrabble variants available, including the Lexicographer’s Extended Scrabble for those with multisyllabic ambitions ($39.95) and the mindboggling World’s Largest Scrabble Game ($12,000!), but neither is as clever or as convenient as the Walk-By Scrabble Board! Designed as a family game for people on the go, it’s a perfect way to bring back Board Game Night for busy families! ($29.95)

[Check out our full product review of the Walk-By Scrabble Board here!]

Laser Maze (ThinkFun, puzzle game)

ThinkFun brings us a logic game with an actual laser in Laser Maze, a game of light, mirrors, strategy, and skill! ($26.95)

[Check out our full product review of Laser Maze by clicking here!]

Treasure Hunt Game (Hammacher Schlemmer, party game)

All the tools you need to create an engaging treasure hunt for kids can be found in Hammacher Schlemmer’s Award-Winning Treasure Hunt Game! With a map, clues, coins, and everything else you’ll need, it’s an all-in-one kit for scavenger hunt fun! ($64.95)

Veritas (Cheapass Games, board game)

In Veritas, it’s the Dark Ages, and you’re trying to protect your brand of the truth. As monasteries burn and other versions of the truth are spread, can you become the predominant truth in France? This strategy game has a wicked sense of humor and some fun twists on the Risk model. ($15, plus chips)

[Check out our full product review here!]

Chrononauts (Looney Labs, card game)

Time travel can be tough, but when other time travelers are changing history, it can be downright weird. In Chrononauts, you’ll bend the rules of time and space in the hopes of completing your mission and going home. And who hasn’t wanted to make history once or twice? ($20)

[Check out our full product review here!]

Dabble (app)

This word-forming game will put your anagram skills to the test as you try to move letters between tiers in order to spell multiple words of varying lengths! It’s Scrabble taken to the next level!

Fluxx: The Board Game (Looney Labs, board game)

Take a board game, and make the cards, goals, and board changeable, and you’ve got Fluxx: The Board Game. It’s the ultimate think-on-your-feet experience, and like nothing you’ve played before. ($30)

[Check out our full product review here!]


The Brain Fitness series: Solitaire Chess, Rush Hour, and Chocolate Fix (ThinkFun, puzzle games)

It’s three variations on ThinkFun’s classic puzzle games in order to keep your mind in fighting trim for puzzling! Put your chess skills in play for Solitaire Chess, your Sudoku skills on high for Chocolate Fix, and your chain-solving on overdrive for Rush Hour ($14.99 each)!

[Check out our full product review of the Brain Fitness line by clicking here!]

Light ‘Em Up (app)

In this app, you control fire and you’re trying to burn all the woodpiles in the area. But fire is trickier than you think! A fun problem-solving game with a great medieval look!

Pink Hijinks (Looney Labs, puzzle game)

Part of Looney Labs’ multi-colored Pyramids series, Pink Hijinks is a quick-to-play strategy game for two players! Roll the dice, make your move, and try to race your opponent to the finish in this easily transported game of tactics! ($12)

[Check out our full product review here!]

Thank you to all of the constructors, designers, and companies taking part in our holiday gift guide!

Thanks for visiting the PuzzleNation blog today! You can like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, cruise our boards on Pinterest, play our games at PuzzleNation.com, or contact us here at the blog!