Email from Earl Watson to Sue Gleason, June 2 2006

I never published any of my puzzles.
I made hard copies and gave them to friends and
family.  Only a few people bothered to solve them
and most of the applause I got was second hand,
ie: "My mom really liked it".  Of my own family,
only my brother, who lives 1,500 miles from me,
solved my puzzles.

I did come up with this scheme at work:
I sold hard copies of some puzzles for $1 each and
then did a random pick (using dice) to determine
the winner from among the correctly completed
submissions.  That person would get all the money,
always less than $20.

When my old PC gave up, I bought  a Mac. Had I known 
there was no professional puzzle software or chess 
software and no poker sites for Mac users, I would 
never have done that.

Before the PC crashed, I was starting to create
new forms, new types of word puzzles.
I had Anthony Lewis's software for the crosswords
and don't remember right now what I used for
acrostics.  I remember that neither of these 
were quite right for some of the ideas I had.

After I got the Mac, I continued to make puzzles 
by hand but had no way to print them.  Did you ever 
try making acrostics by hand, one by one? It gets 
a bit tedious.

A question I always wondered about:
For the acrostic or double-crostic puzzle, is the
maker required to get permission for using the
quotation ?  If you sell a puzzle, do you have to 
share any income with the author of the quotation used ?
(Sue: It is fair use under the copyright laws .)

I investigated far enough to find that there
is no money in this 'business'. Word puzzle makers 
only get peanuts even if they have a publisher.
The only way to make it a business is as an editor.
I had great ideas for a website but my IT person got 
a new job with less free time and it never happened.  
Congratulations to you for making it happen !
(note from Sue - that's because I am the IT person).

My hat's off to you also for composing on average more 
than one double-crostic a day for a few years !  
(Sue again - no no! That's me plus all the members.)
That is really something. I looked at one of your 
puzzles and am impressed.

Are there editors using your site who offer to buy 
any of the puzzles you publish there ? (Sue - No!).
Do the members retain copyrights to their puzzles
after you publish them ?  (Sue - Yes!).

I feel I really need an online (or private software)
dictionary with which to work.  This dictionary must
have 'delete word permanently' and 'add word' functions.
This way one can gradually make progress toward a
truly functional word list.  And I would also want 
a 'fit' filter and grid filler so when my puzzle 
contained ??RI???BACK the program would enter
BERIGHTBACK, which I had previously put into its word 
list with a suitable clue.  (Sue - my software does 
not used word lists or clue lists, at this time.) 

There must be a few hundred (at least) persons who have 
been working independently on such projects.  It would be 
nice to not have to start from scratch.

Is there any consensus among your subscribers regarding
software for Mac users ?  What is the 'standard' for
traditional acrostics and crosswords ?

Bye for now.
-  Earl