Crossword Puzzle - September 2014 Answers (Congratulations Denise Smith)

And we have a winner, ladies and gentleman! I'd like to congratulate Denise Smith, for being the first person to e-mail me with the correct answers. I posted the questions on 30 September 2014, and she came back to me with the answers one week later, on 6 October, 2014.

Denise is no stranger to my monthly crossword puzzles, but she missed the last few months. Welcome back, Denise! :-)

As promised, I asked Denise which one of my books she would like as a prize. She picked Heritage of Deceit, which I gifted to her on Smashwords. Denise, I hope you enjoyed the story, and I can't wait to hear what you thought.

So, without further ado, here are the answers for my September 2014 Crossword Puzzle:

Across
1 Second letter of Greek alphabet (4) beta
3 Father Christmas' wobbles when he laughs (5) belly
8 Beer without hops (3) ale
9 Chinese religion, often the butt of puns (12) Confucianism
11 The king of the jungle (4) lion
12 One million million (8) trillion
14 What's coming to you (3) due
15 VI (3) six
16 Great, everygreen tree (3) oak
18 Not cold (3) hot
19 Breed of dog (8) Alsatian
22 Hayworth, actress (4) Rita
24 Stuffed steak dish (12) carpetbagger
26 Place in Guild Wars (3) Orr
27 Full of soap (5) sudsy
28 Overrule (4) veto
Down
2 Boredom (5) ennui
3 Payments to help people out (8) bailouts
4 Author, Double Occupancy (6) Elaine
5 Ex-presenter of The Tonight Show (4) Leno
6 In agreement (3) yes
7 Eating feaces (4) scat
10 Places to stay in a fantasy world (4) inns
13 Worship of material things (8) idolatry
17 former American Idol contestant Brittany (4) Kerr
18 They're gonna hate (6) haters
20 Gold (5) ingots
21 Wears glasses, constantly picked on (4) nerd
23 Apple Music Player (4) iPod
25 Commercials (3) ads

Did you notice the #4 Down? Yup, the author of Double Occupancy is a self-published author called Elaine Raco Chase. She's part of a writers group I belong to on Facebook, and she's a really great lady. When I told her last month that I'd included her in my crossword puzzle for September, she was over the moon, and tweeted, telling all her followers about it:

Graham Downs: Crossword Puzzle - September 2014 http://t.co/I9cQdM4zPi How FUN! I am an ANSWER!

— Elaine Raco Chase (@ElaineRaco) October 1, 2014

That was such a good feeling, that I think I'm going to be including something about an independently published book or author in every month's crossword puzzle, from now on. What do you think of that idea?

Anyway, congratulations again to Denise Smith. See you next week, for my October puzzle.