Archive for the 'News' Category
It’s been a long time coming, but I am finally taking hold of JuliaDunlop.co.uk. I’m sure no-one reads it any more, but I have hopes that that’ll change! So if you do read this, and you are not a bloody spambot, please comment. It’ll make me proud and happy 
So my plan of action is:
1 – move all the content from the old site over to my new one (I can’t take my comments too though, as the old system was – well, too old to do that!)
2 – curate it and post more regularly (like more than twice a year!)
3 – finally make it so you can get hold of my lovely ebook! I think it’s really good, but I haven’t made it available.
4 – put some of my other puzzle-related news up …
Now it may not seem like a lot of work, but it is. Really! And I’m post-dating this so that it should go live on Saturday the 17th November. That was my lovely Dad’s birthday … so it’s a promise.
Julia xx
I’ve been on Facebook for a while now, and I think it’s a great place to hang out and share stuff with old old friends – as well as make new ones.
But it’s got a bit out of hand recently … a couple of weeks ago I realised that I was approaching 1,000 friends. And I thought it would be a good idea to do something to mark this number!
So as I approach the big thousand, I decided to be very stern about who I ‘friend’ – but just today I found my old old old mate Justin Sutherland as friend number 998. And I’ve just looked and found that social media guy Nick Unsworth has accepted my invitation, bringing the score to 999. I have a couple of invites out there, so I will now reveal my plan.
When I’ve hit 1,000 ‘friends’, I’m going to write a personalised cryptic crossword for one of you. Although I am slightly alarmed at the prospect of letting my friend who writes fantastic crosswords for the Guardian enter the competition!
So, here it is:
Whoever sends me the best reason why I should write a cryptic crossword for them wins exactly that: a personalised puzzle of their own. If you don’t want one, I can make one for someone else.
You can enter through my Facebook page.
I will also send out ‘runners up’ prizes of my ebook on the art of solving cryptic crosswords. Because it does exist, even though it’s not available on my site.
Good luck!
You can find me here: www.facebook.com/jdunlop
Facebook’s a handy little site – I know it has its detractors. My crossword collaborator (everyone must have one!) has been on holiday for the last few weeks, but she texted me to discuss this Saturday’s fine Araucaria crossword. Texting proved a touch laborious, so we switched to Facebook chat! We’d finished it within about the hour.
Amongst the clues were some tremendous specimens: German decapitated by neighbour (7) was very neat. and we enjoyed working out why our answer to Homes for Chinese in Yellow Pages (10) was correct.
Have a look and see what you think: http://www.guardian.co.uk/crosswords/prize/25095.
I particularly liked the two really really long clues, though I could find no record of a play called The Head That Wears a Crown. Any help identifying that would be most welcome!
Looking forward to next weekend’s as it’s the August Bank Holiday, one of those times we can confidently expect a 20×20 Araucaria (or Paul?) special. There are benefits to the end of summer … and of course my Kindle arrives at the beginning of September!
Aha! I am changing … and so far I’ve gone all green. There is more to come, but these things take time.
I’ve been doing a lot of solving, and a lot of setting. Including individually-themed crosswords, which are intriguing.
As they say, watch this space – for more examples of ‘how to’ guides and themed crosswords that would brighten up any newsletter. People often glance through newsletters then delete them. Not when there’s a top-notch themed cryptic puzzle, they don’t!
Keep dropping by and you can watch the evolution of the revamp as it happens. Much more fun than whitewater rafting, and also less damp.