For those of you who are interested in how I make WONDERWORDs, here's the scoop. The first thing I do is select a theme or title and put a vocabulary together. I have part-time assistants Nadine and George, who help me research themes. Some are easier than others such as topical puzzles like holidays (Christmas, Easter & Thanksgiving), food related categories (Italian restaurants, fajitas, Take-home) and seasonal (A day at the beach, Autumn leaves, Planning your summer vacation).

For the most part the words just come from my head. Others are more difficult such as celebrities or cities. The team and I will find relative words out of magazines or newspaper articles. I find magazines such as National Geographic to be very helpful when making puzzles on far-off lands. I subscribe to a variety of sources, which gives me many ideas; one for every day of the year! We must buy 100 or more books a year to complement our efforts!

After the theme is selected and the words are collected, Sophie, George or Nadine, types them out on a special form in alphabetical order. When it's time for me to get down to work, I use these lists and put the words in a special grid. When I'm done, Linda types them up and has them checked by Nadine and Sue. Then I, after proofreading them one last time, send them to Universal Press Syndicate in Kansas City, where they are once again checked by Joyce Mott, the syndicate's editor.

While all of the above may sound scientific, the actual making of the puzzle itself, the interweaving of the words into a puzzle, is more of an art. The puzzles require a certain level of difficulty, else the challenge to the reader is gone; yet if the words are too buried, the puzzle becomes more work than entertainment. This balance cannot be defined, but regular WONDERWORD solvers know exactly what we mean.

Once all this is done, they are distributed to 225 newspapers in the USA, Canada and overseas.

You will be pleased to know that all puzzles are handmade and computers are never used.