The Creator

Portrait of James Reneau

I am James M. Reneau Ph.D. and I am the creator of the Crypto-Cross-Up.

I have been a game player most of my life and this is the second puzzle I am publishing. It is called the Crypto-Cross-Up. It is a cross between a word search, a cross word puzzle, and a cryptogram puzzle. Each puzzle has a title and the encrypted words all relate to that title, in some way. You are to decrypt the words in the puzzle. The real trick is that the horizontal words have one substitution cipher, the vertical words have another. The letters where one word crosses another have the same substitution in both ciphers.

I am an Associate Professor at Shawnee State University, in Portsmouth, OH USA, where I teach courses in Information Systems. My bachelors degree is in Mathematics and Computer Programming from Morehead State University, my masters degree is in IS from Marshall University and my doctorate is in IS from Nova Southwestern University. My hobbies include puzzling, working around my farm, a few old cars, and enjoying a good meal.

Jim – November 2019