We Make Puzzles

07/11/2021

Get in the thanksgiving spirit with The Great Thanksgiving Activity book. This is a large print themed puzzle book for teens and adults. Stuffed with puzzles, it's hours of unplugged fun! Available now on Amazon.

The Great Thanksgiving Activity Book

06/11/2021

New book out now.

26/10/2021

REVIEWS COUNT

So a few nights ago I checked my Author Profile and saw that I had a new review for "Horrible Puzzles." To my dismay, it was a one-star review. The person who did the review said that the puzzles were inconsistent, and that sometimes the word banks didn't seem to match the grid.

My immediate response was "gosh, she must have been looking at a different puzzle book and left this review in the wrong place!"

Fastforward to today, and I have to begrudgingly admit that the review was spot-on. There were issues in the book that I somehow missed. Now, I don't think it's ONE STAR REVIEW issues, but the fact of the matter is that I put out a flawed product and I have to own that.

Anyways, for the last two days I've combed through the book and made several edits. I hope I was able to find all the issues that the reviewer was (rightfully) complaining about. Some of the changes have been relatively minor, but there were at least three puzzles that were completely jacked up. Like "I don't even know HOW I jacked this up."

I'm hoping to have the revised edition up soon, and I'm going to be sending some copies out to some testers to make sure I really did find all the mistakes (and maybe they'll be compelled to leave some offsetting reviews).

The bottom line here is that reviews matter. If I hadn't seen that negative review, I surely wouldn't have gone back through the book and I certainly wouldn't have caught any of those mistakes. So I'm really quite grateful for the review. I do regret that I won't be able to send that reviewer a corrected copy, but that's just how things go. You only get one chance to make a first impression, and I screwed the pooch here. But I hope that anyone who reads this (entirely too long) post realizes that I do take this stuff very seriously and I absolutely will not leave a product on the market that is flawed.

I'll be conducting a similar deep QC dive on the the other books that we have, and hopefully I'll be able to rebuild my reputation by ensuring that everything we publish meets the standards that I feel are expected.

Anyways, long story short - PLEASE review things, especially when you're dealing with a small business owner (like a self-publisher or a vendor on Etsy). We desperately need those reviews - and not just the good ones - though we really, really like those good ones more!

22/10/2021

Denis Villeneuve's eagerly anticipated adaptation of "Dune," or at least half of Dune, arrives today in US theaters and on HBO MAX. I'm looking forward to seeing it when I'm able to sit down and focus for two and a half hours. Until then, here's a word search of terms from the Dune universe (not sure how many of them are used in the movie, though).

20/10/2021

It's been a heckuva busy week prepping for Halloween and working on other projects, but I didn't want to go too long without a fresh puzzle. Today we're doing an anagram puzzle featuring two fellas whose birthday is today - SNOOP DOGG and BELA LUGOSI. I've scrambled ten of Lugosi's films and ten of Snoop's songs. How many can you figure out?

13/10/2021

It's WEDNESDAY the THIRTEENTH, and you know what that means!

Well, okay. It means nothing. But we don't get a proper Friday the 13th until next May and I'm not going to sit on this word search for that long. Here's a "Friends of Jason V" puzzle, featuring dozens of people whose lives were touched (and ended) by an encounter with Mr. Voorhees. Of course, none of these folks are from the first or fifth film, since Jason was not the killer in those versions!

09/10/2021

would have been 81 today. It's interesting to imagine what the world would have been like if we hadn't been robbed of his musical output back in 1980. Several of the songs from his last album (1980's Double Fantasy) are absolutely incredible, and one can only imagine that there was more where that came from.

In honor of his birthday, this puzzle consists of Lennon songs from the post-Beatles era.

08/10/2021

Today is the of both and . In honor of their birthdays, we've taken a deep dive into their filmographies and pulled out 40 titles. But of course we bungled it all up and now those titles are all out of order. Can you figure out what movies these were supposed to be?

07/10/2021

Tomorrow is the US release date for the 25th James Bond film NO TIME TO DIE. To celebrate, today's puzzle looks back at nearly 60 years of Bond Girls.

Now, the definition of a "Bond Girl" is a little vague. Are they merely romantic partners for James Bond, or are they women with whom he has to partner up in the film? Would Moneypenny be a Bond Girl because of the constant (pre-Craig) flirtations? What about M? Bond and M had to work together at the end of Skyfall - is Dame Judi Dench a Bond Girl?

Let's not dwell too deeply here, and instead see how many you can find in this word search.

06/10/2021

Today is NATIONAL NOODLE DAY!

Funny thing. Noodles and pasta are technically not the same thing! There are fundamental differences in the ingredients required to make them. Noodles, for example, are made with eggs while there is no egg requirement for pasta (though that doesn't mean there isn't egg in pasta, it's not a defining characteristic). Additionally, noodles can be made with regular flour while pasta by definition has to be made from durum wheat.

So the linked word search puzzle only contains types of noodles (primarily those used in Asian food). You'll have to wait until 10/17 (national pasta day) for the rest!

05/10/2021

Today is NATIONAL KISS A WRESTLER DAY and I'm not going to lie here I'm just incensed that we still have to go to work. Pretty sure letting us have this day off would directly tie into National Do Something Nice Day (also today) and it would give us all a little extra time to pick out the perfect gift for Clive Barker's Birthday (speaking of Clive, there is a Books of Blood-themed word search in "Horrible Puzzles").

To commemorate National Kiss a Wrestler Day, we've put together the linked word search containing 30 of the most well-known professional wrestlers to ever grace the squared circle. Have fun!

01/10/2021

Free puzzle time! Our printable Happy October word search features 28 themed words to find and a bonus hidden phrase in the left over letters. Words are hidden in all directions. Can you find them all?

26/09/2021

NPR's Sunday Puzzle is Spanish Anagrams. Looks fun!

NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro plays the puzzle with puzzle master Will Shortz and this week's winner, Karen Sandman of Acton, Massachusetts.

24/09/2021

Puzzles are exercise for your brain! Here's a great article on the brain benefits of word puzzles and games.

Sponsored Content: If you feel tethered to devices and are longing for a break, try some of these old school puzzles and games to give your actively aging brain the

23/09/2021

The 80s were a time of massive economic and geopolitical changes. But we're not getting into any of that. Instead, dive into puzzles focusing on the pop culture of the 1980s - the movies, the music, the TV shows, the fads, and more! This book contains 85 80's-themed puzzles like word searches, crosswords, cryptograms, and anagrams as well as all the solutions.

Puzzled by the 80s - Gnarly Word Searches, Bogus Crosswords, Radical Cryptograms, and More

08/08/2021

Greetings, foolish mortals. Contained within this book you'll find 90 puzzles - words searches, crosswords, cryptograms, anagrams, and even a few goofy ones just to keep things interesting. The subject of every one of these is horror - be it horror films, horror literature, horror television, even horror video games. We cover authors, directors, tag lines from posters, famous (and infamous) quotes, and more. Interspersed amongst the puzzles is commentary that briefly tries to explain how the subjects featured in the puzzles fit into the grand scheme of the horror genre. But mostly, it's all about the puzzles.

Horrible Puzzles - Horror Crosswords, Word Searches, and More

30/07/2021

Super proud of Karen for putting together her first puzzle book (even though she seemed to ignore almost every bit of advice I gave her about putting it together)!

Looks great, and I'm looking forward to seeing what's next (as well as at least one large scale collaboration we've been chipping away at).

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09B2FW1VV

30/07/2021

30/07/2021

Theme Park Word Search Puzzles