Fun with puzzles! Why FROM THE CHARRED REMAINS was so fun for me to write!

Anyone who knows me, knows I really love doing puzzles. Even when I was a kid, I was always doing puzzles--from word searches to crossword puzzles to substitution ciphers (probably because I felt like I was really decoding mysteries).

But when I was in graduate school, I first encountered the fun of acrostics. In the high Middle Ages, scholars like Alcuin of York (Charlemagne's tutor) used to write short poems that contained clever messages--sometimes hidden--when read a certain way. In their simplest form, the first letter of each line would be carefully selected so that, when read down, the reader could discern a message. However, they could be more complex as well, which always fascinated me.

I just knew that I had to work acrostics and other puzzles into my story, when I came across this acrostic published just after the Great Fire of London in 1666:

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London's Fatal Fal, an acrostic.

            Lo! Now confused Heaps only stand

            On what did bear the Glory of the Land.

            No stately places, no Edefices,

            Do now appear: No, here’s now none of these,

            Oh Cruel Fates! Can ye be so unkind?

            Not to leave, scarce a Mansion behind…

Working out my own acrostic--and actually several hidden anagrams within the acrostic (shhh!!!)--was probably the most challenging and fun part of writing From the Charred Remains. But puzzles abound throughout the entire novel. There is even a secret hidden on the cover of the book, which you will understand after you read it!