Tuesday, 6/16/09

NYT 2:06 ... LAT 1:29 ... CS 1:53 ... ND 1:37 ... BT 4:46 ... TO 2:34

Second day in a row I got a bit bollixed up on the NYT applet, but whatever, I'm going on a road trip! Heading to Maine ("Land of Cimmets") tomorrow to see a couple friends co-star in one of the best musicals of the last 25 years. Hey, I'm not working, why not take a road trip! Next update will be on Thursday... maybe Friday. (This is why I don't seek a readership here!)

Meanwhile, I did get the Vowelless book, have solved about 2.5 puzzles so far and will report back anon. I also spent an hour-plus with Puzzle Masterpieces today, which I hadn't touched for a couple months. They're just too good. I'm going to take two years to finish that thing, not just one. And speaking of Sterling Publishing and their penchant for awesome, PB2 tipped me off to some of their exciting (to me) upcoming projects... And I'll pass that info along just as soon as I see if it's OK to share it! (It's a sequel and a reprint series that I'm excited about, so nothing groundbreaking. I also heard about various sudoku hybrids...)

I've also spent the last week working on the puzzle idea that's going to get me published in the NYT. The key theme entry is an old idea that I wanted to build around, but never came up with anything clever enough, until a different, gimmickier way of approaching it occurred to me. Aha! It's that feeling Doug Peterson gets twice a day! Anyway, I'll be in touch with you all sooner or later for advice... :)