With Trazom, I have edited hundreds of cryptic crosswords for the NPL's monthly magazine The Enigma. Some of the best among those puzzles are in the book National Puzzlers' League Cryptic Crosswords (edited by Joshua Kosman and Henri Picciotto; Random House, November 2005 -- now available for free on the NPL Web site.)
NPL members who would like to construct cryptics for The Enigma should heed these guidelines.
- In 1999, I made a presentation on cryptic crosswords to the joint meeting of the 58th National Congress of Classical Puzzling and the 20th Convention of the Italian Rebus Association, in Verona, Italy:
- I cruciverba enigmistici
- (English translation by Serendipity -- a good introduction to cryptics for beginners)
- Soon afterwards, I made a presentation to the NPL convention on Italian puzzling. This helped bring Italian-style picture puzzles to The Enigma.
- I have constructed dozens of cryptic crosswords with Arachne. A few samples:
- Election (1997)
- San Diego! (1992)
- Alack! (1992)
- Pangram (1992)
- On the NPL Web site:
- Conventional Wisdom
- Arachne and I were the first US constructors to create cryptics where the clues were tampered with, the first to have city-themed cryptics at NPL conventions, and (as Harth) the first to submit variety cryptics in large numbers to The Enigma. Since then, constructors of enormous ingenuity have burst onto the NPL scene, and no US cryptic fan should be without a subscription to The Enigma.
- From the Guide to the Enigma, read:
- Trazom on solving cryptic crosswords
- Sibyl on constructing cryptic crosswords for The Enigma
- me on Sharing the Fun
- The best part of my (now dated) 1992 thoughts on cryptic crosswords was excerpted here.