Sudoku Xtra 17

For those who are wondering, I'm hoping to have Sudoku Xtra 17 finished around the end of the month, so in roughly a fortnight's time. Thanks to everyone for their patience - in future hopefully the gap between issues will be slightly smaller again.

Further to this, it isn't going to happen before I go off to the World Puzzle Championships in Hungary this coming week (as part of the UK team) - so it's at least a fortnight away now I'm afraid.

Well thats a good enough reason for the delay I reckon. Fantastic.

Good luck in Hungary. Is there a website so we can follow your progress? And can we have some of the puzzles to try in issue 17 maybe please?

Sue

Shame about the wait for more decent puzzles, but as Sue says there can't be a much better reason for the delay. All the best for the world puzzle championships - hope you and the rest of the team do us proud! Have a great time.

Best of luck Gareth!

In addition to Gareth attending, I know for certain that community contributor Palmer Mebane will be attending for the U.S. team (he is the U.S. Puzzle Champion this year). There may be other contributors that are attending that I'm not aware of, but good luck to everyone involved nonetheless.

Also, apologies for my hand in the delays, everyone. Over the last few months I've had a slew of medical problems preventing me from getting much of anything done. I'm not sure what the state of the community section will be for issue 17, but I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things at least for issue 18 and on. In fact, I've already been contacted by one potential new contributor for whichever issue I end up working on next!

(Edited to add) To keep everyone busy while waiting for the next issue, you may be interested in checking out my blog over at http://thegriddle.net/ where I've posted some of the puzzles I created while in the hospital. I also post word riddles every so often on the @thegriddle Twitter account and Facebook page.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/05/2011 04:00AM by davmillar.

Hello Dave

Sorry to hear of your medical troubles and hope you are on the mend now. I shall check out your new puzzles while waiting on issue 17.

Also I really enjoyed the variety mag you did a while back. At least I think it was you...yikes... bad memory these days, so apols if not. (And further apols to the person who did produce it, if not you!). Anyway, I would be delighted if you produced another.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery,

Sue

Any more news on when to expect this? Sorry to be impatient - I know you've a lot on, but it's better than us not being interested, isn't it?!!!!

I'm not sure where Gareth stands with the main body of content for issue 17, but he and I have both been working to contact some of the community section contributors from past issues to see who is interested in contributing once again. Since Gareth compiles the final edition of the magazine, I cannot speak to a timetable for the issue's release. Personally, though, I hope to have all community section puzzles in by the end of the month - not too much additional wait time, but hopefully enough time to allow some great puzzles to be composed.

Thanks for the update Dave - I'm sure it will be worth the wait! In the meantime I have just been along to the Griddle and printed off your last four samurai sodukus - they should keep me going a while - I like the idea of the combination of two or three sudoku varieties in one puzzle! The greater/lesser than ones look rather tricky so it will be interesting to see how I get on! Will let you know.

It's very quiet on here these days!! Happy New Year to you, Gareth. and fellow puzzlers anyway.

As always I am enjoying this issue of Xtra, although its been rather slow going over the holiday season. I am saddened that inequalities seem to have been dropped for the last 2 issues. Any chance of a return Gareth, or am I the only one missing them?

Hopefully, life is settling down for all the contributors and the next issue will be appearing in Feb as promised to see us through the long cold evenings.

All the best to everyone, Sue

Inequalities haven't been deliberately dropped - I just try to rotate a few of the types to ensure variety. I'll make sure they're back for issue 18, which should definitely be back on schedule, yes.

I'm also looking again into the possibility of making Sudoku Xtra directly available on Amazon.co.uk too - I'm not sure it's feasible yet but I'm hoping that it will work out...

Hi Gareth

Thank you for 2 pieces of good news! I shall look forward to issue 18. Good luck with amazon - Xtra deserves a wider circulation. Still the best

Sue

Just popped by to show continued interest in the magazine since as Sue said, it's pretty quiet of late. Looking forward to issue 18 in due course.

Issue 18 is complete - well, apart from my compiling the solution pages anyway!

It's looking really good if I do say so myself - another jam-packed issue, that's for sure!

Thanks for posting - it did remind me to hurry up and finish the issue!

And it's now out - see the Announcements section!