A brief biography
Denise Sutherland was born in Melbourne, Australia, in
1964. Her family moved to Canberra soon after, and she still
lives there, apart from quite a few years in the States as a
child and adult. She is the eldest of six children.
She is a classically trained violinist, and studied
zoology, botany, chemistry, statistics, and biochemistry at
university. She also has a degree in graphic design.
Denise has always been interested in puzzles of all kinds
- mysteries are her favourite books to read, starting with
the Encyclopedia Brown books as a kid, and moving up to
Simenon, PD James, Ellis Peters, Reginald Hill, and tons
more! She started teaching herself to write puzzles when she
was a teenager, and honed her skills over the next ten
years, pulling apart puzzles logically to figure out how to
write them herself.
In the 1990s her crosswords started to appear in a range
of newsletters, and she wrote and illustrated a terribly
complicated puzzle book with her dad (unpublished). At this
time, however, she was mainly working as a graphic and web
designer, and web design teacher. She worked for the
Australian Science Archives Project, and a range of clients.
Starting in 2002 Denise shifted her focus to puzzles full
time. She researched, wrote, and illustrated five themed
puzzle books for a variety of organisations and subjects.
She is syndicated through Auspac Media, which enables her
puzzles to appear throughout Australia and around the world.
She invented the Secret Shape puzzle, which is a word search
with a hidden picture in it (you can download a free Secret
Shape puzzle to try for yourself).
While she has custom software to help her construct her puzzles, Denise writes
every one by hand, choosing and placing each word.
When not writing puzzles, Denise loves to knit, play with
her chihuahua Petal, paint watercolours, watch and read
murder mysteries and comedies, hang out with her husband and kids (who
are 20 and 18), do Middle Eastern dancing, and solve cryptic
crosswords.
Word Searches for Dummies is her first title for Wiley.
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What's in the book
Word Searches for Dummies has 250 brand new puzzles, not published anywhere else before!
Introduction - how to solve word searches, with expert hints; a brief history of word searches; the benefits of doing puzzles.
Straightforward Puzzles - 4 chapters, with Simple Word Searches, Hidden Message Word Searches, Story Word Searches, and Secret Shapes.
Challenging Puzzles - 5 chapters, with Scrambled Word Searches (the word list is jumbled up), Quiz Words (answer the quiz questions to get your word list),
Secret Lists (no word list provided, but plenty of clues), Winder Words (words go around corners, not just in straight lines), and a chapter of Anagram type puzzles (finding words
amongst a set of letters, or in a grid, etc).
Part of Tens - Letter frequency information, benefits of solving word searches, and how to write your own word search puzzle from scratch,
using a pencil and paper - this last chapter is very rare indeed, with real insider information into how these puzzles are put together, and the steps to
take to make your own.
Hints & Answers - there is at least one hint for each puzzle, to help you if you get stuck; and there are full answers for every puzzle in the book.
Each chapter of puzzles contains Easy, Medium, and Hard puzzles, so you can work your way up to more challenging puzzles.
There is a very wide range of themes - over 100 different ones - from cooking, fictional characters, travel, geography, and handicrafts to science, music (both classical and modern), Shakespeare, the weather,
science fiction, world currency, tropical fish, knitting, basketball, the Tour de France, and dance. There are even some puzzles in German, French, and Spanish! No matter what you're interested in,
you should find a puzzle or three on your favourite subject!
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Reader Reviews
For all reader reviews, visit the Fishpond and Amazon links to the book.
I thought that all word search books were created equal and I
couldn't have been more wrong. I bought the book Word Searches
for Dummies because I am fond of word search puzzles. What I got
was the surprise of my life.
Denise Sutherland has opened a whole new world of word search
puzzles for me. In my experience the words were found up, down,
diagonally and occasionally backwards. This perception comes
from years of the puzzle section of local newspapers and news
stand publications.
When I first opened this book I was greeted by these same
types of puzzles. However, as I continued to flip through the
pages I was greeted by increasingly difficult and unique puzzles
covering a wide variety of topics. Words are no longer found in
a straight line as they wind themselves through the letter chart
and leftover letters now create white spaces which form simple
pictures.
If that weren't enough to tickle your brain, Ms Sutherland
has done some wonderful things with the word lists. Word
searchers must answer simple (or not so simple) questions about
North American culture and history, unscramble letters or
translate the word list into English to find the words hidden in
the letter chart.
The author has also included a gift for word search
enthusiast. The book contains a chapter on how to create your
own word search puzzles, something I am eager to try now that
I've seen how varied this type of puzzle can be.
(Fishpond 25 July 2009)
Well, well, who would have thought there was so much to word
searches, let alone that someone could make a book about them
interesting. Ms Sutherland has not only done that but gone a
long way beyond. Somewhere between the covers of her book I have
been transformed from a rusted-on cryptic crossword snob (The
Times and The Guardian only, if you please) into a dewy-eyed
neophyte in the delightful and diverse world of word searches.
Ms Sutherland has produced an enticing compendium of puzzles of
many different designs, themes and degrees of difficulty,
together with a wealth of information on the history, trivia and
science of word puzzles.
The book opens with a nice sized and nicely paced chunk of
information about word searches and other word puzzles, what
they are, what they are about and techniques for solving them.
Interspersed through this are interesting little morsels about
word searches that keep the text engaging.
After that comes a smorgasbord of puzzles of all different
kinds, enough to satisfy every solver and occupy any given mood.
All the answers are there at the back of the book of course,
but with a little mental elbow grease and Ms Sutherland's
excellent tutorial, this is one section you shouldn't need to
read very often.
And finally, there is a last tasty dessert with yet more
interesting factoids, tips and trivia and even instructions for
creating your own puzzles.
I found the textual sections well crafted, logically
presented and written in that clever style that draws you on and
makes you want to discover what comes next, what is over the
page and what is revealed in the next chapter. The puzzles
themselves are likewise well crafted, entertaining and varied.
Be warned though. For the dedicated puzzler (which
description will surely cover most people, once they read this
book) Word Searches for Dummies threatens to be worse time eater
than a pair of new kittens.
(Fishpond 29 June 2009)
I love words so when I saw this book and started reading the
first part I just had to have it. It is well written and a fun
book to learn or freshen up, if you have done these before. You
will definitely learn more.
I have not done word search puzzles for quite a few years but
the Author makes learning a real treat. She has a great sense of
humor. I have purchased Word books for Dummies for other
technical apps but this one is a winner. I highly recommend this
book for anyone who loves Scrabble, Bookworm or any word game.
(K.See on Amazon.com 11 July 2009)
I've loved word search puzzles all my life and done them
daily for years. Little did I know the limited realm I was
exploring. Sutherland's variations and the many tips have all
revealed that word search puzzles can be so much more
interesting than the ones I've done.
Her word searches based on
articles and stories are quite engaging, with information I
truly found interesting and informative. I particularly like in
the medium and hard puzzles the ways that she makes them more
challenging, and as I've done them, more than once the word
"diabolical" comes to mind.
I'm inspired to try to make some for
my English class students, and to teach them some of the tips
I've learned from Sutherland. Even wordies like myself have a
lot to learn!
(Stacie Newman on Amazon.com 26 July 2009)
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