PM: How did you become involved with the U.S. Puzzle Championship?

EF: I forget how I got in contact with Nick Baxter, who is charge of the USPC, but he asked me if I'd be interested in donating puzzles for that test, and who can say no to that? They've used some of my puzzles in the USPC every year since then. In 2000, the World Puzzle Championship was held in the U.S., and Nick decided to use some of my puzzles for that too.

PM: What was it like having people from around the world competing to solve your puzzles?

EF: It's pretty exciting. Something I never dreamed of.

PM: Which of your puzzles was the hardest?

EF: Probably the rolling block maze (#4 on this page) that was the last team event in the 2000 WPC. They were even nice enough to send me a wooden copy of that maze that was left over from the competition.

PM: Can a puzzle be too hard?

EF: I'm never concerned that a puzzle is too hard. One thing I've learned in the puzzle business is that there are an awful lot of smart people out there who can solve anything I can throw their way! But I sometimes worry that a puzzle is too easy. I often make sets of puzzle with the same rules, and I start things off with an easy puzzle to learn the rules and build confidence. But making hard puzzles is more satisfying for me, as well as more challenging for the solvers.

PM: The puzzles on your website are generally non-interactive; that is, visitors have to print them out and use pencil and paper to solve them. However, some of them, such as the "Full-House" puzzles, have successfully been adapted into interactive web applets on other sites.

EF: I've been slow to react to the internet world we live in. I think a lot of my puzzles could be made interactive if I knew JAVA. But I don't, so I rely on the kindness of strangers to do this for me occasionally. I suspect the interactive type of puzzles are more popular these days, and there are just some things that don't work unless they are clickable. Though there will always be people who prefer a book to a computer screen.

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