Backpocket Crosswords: Handmade Puzzles

$8 (paperback) 
$12 (spiral-bound)
Available on Amazon

The idea to publish a puzzle book began at an outdoor festival where Joanne enjoyed the music and worked on one of her favorite hobbies: creating crossword puzzles. Before long, a crowd gathered around her and she noticed how much interest her hobby created.

Many years later, while Joanne and her husband Tom Ekkens waited for his radiation treatments, they (and others in the waiting room) worked on the clues for the first crossword puzzle book, which seemed to calm their nerves, raise their spirits, and even get a couple of laughs.

Creation, interior page design, and production by Joanne Shwed, Backspace Ink. Front cover painting “Alpha 2 Z” by Donald James Washburn, 1993. Back cover photograph by Thomas A. Ekkens. Cover art direction by Chuck Spidell, Illusio Design. Cover star illustration by Dennis Glorie.

For your reading enjoyment, Joanne has written a (very) short story about her puzzle demonstration experience at Jigsaw Java, In a Word: Backpocket Crosswords.