Mike Selinker author page

A couple years ago on the JoCo Cruise, I helped Peter Sagal out with the clues for a game show—I know, right?—and so it seemed about time for him to return the favor. Peter was a more-than-willing collaborator, and we fleshed out a lot of ideas that didn't really go anywhere. Eventually I posed to Peter, who runs a lot of marathons, the obvious question "What about a marathon puzzle?" Peter wanted to run the New York Marathon this week, and so he came up with this insane and stellar idea of drawing a map of the entire marathon route. To which I said, "Uh, yeah, I *think* I can do that," and came up with this.

Actually, the first grid *also* had a 26-letter message—RUN AND RUN TILL THE RACE IS DONE—running from the second R in FERRY to the N and E at the start of NEW YORK MARATHON, with the black squares being the bridges between the boroughs. Which was great except Will went, "Okay, but why?" And he was—stop me if this sounds familiar—completely correct. I ripped that out and made a much better grid with Will and Peter's guidance.

Once that was done, Peter clued the first pass all by himself, and OMG he's like the best crossword cluer ever. That brain is crammed with so much trivia, he's probably had to delete the node that tells him how to use a fork. I had no freaking idea about half the stuff he crammed into there. For me though, the best clues of his are the ones that just roll off as effortless comments, like the ones for MOO, IMHO, and ROCK ON. It was a great three-way collaboration with me, Peter, and Will. I hope we get to do it again soon. Now Peter just has to teach me how to be a radio god and we're even.

Anyway, RIGHT NOW, go to Peter's crowdfunding page for his run on Sunday, because he's doing this awesome thing where his team guides a visually impaired runner.

Meanwhile, I'll also be doing a marathon of a different kind, playing Dungeons & Dragons all day to benefit children hospitals for Extra Life. Mine's just like his, but with less sweating and more orcs.

I can't say anything. It's a contest. So I'm keeping my mouth shut.

OK, so let me tell you about me. There are a lot of crossword fans out there who haven't seen my name in the Times much, so they may not know I've been writing puzzles for a long time. I started by writing puzzles for Games and Dragon and other magazines in the 1980s, then started to develop the concept of multi-puzzle hunts in the 1990s, alongside a lot of brilliant people.

I started a puzzle construction series in Games called Puzzlecraft, which this year produced a book that a lot of constructors seem to like. And as many of you know, my latest big puzzle project is the puzzle novel The Maze of Games, to which Jeff and Will Shortz and many other crossword luminaries have contributed.

I run a company called Lone Shark Games, which makes games and events for lots of big companies, including Microsoft, Disney, Sony, and others. Our latest game is called the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, which seems to have gotten a very positive reaction from gamers.

It's been a fun year. And one of the highlights is "Letterboxes," which I hope folks like. When I can talk about it, I will.