Cluemeister's Corner

Because it was so extra-secret, the October puzzle had no responses. The Cluemeister will therefore accept answers to it until further notice, together with the new puzzle found below.

November Puzzle: Dramatis Personae

For November, the Cluemeister has whipped up a word search jam-packed with the characters of Mr. Charles Stross, Minicon 46 Author Guest of Honor. Watch out! Unlike more placid word searches, it's got lots of fake names to go with the real ones. If the Cluemeister were cruel, he might leave out the list of names to look for, trusting Charlie's fans to know them when they see them. But in fact he had a pleasant stroll after brunch today that put him in a peachy mood, so you'll find a list of characters or entities from Mr. Stross's work below the grid. Spaces and hyphens should, of course, be ignored.

K E S D E A M Y F L O B B E S T G R A X X T O V I R K

I W U I L K C D O C O P R I M R O S E M A R Y R E D O

M I T L O A R T P B A R T H I M E W L O M I C R O N C

S A I L B G N M H E L P I M T R A P P E D I N A W O H

P M X J U U J O E M A C D O U G A L V Y U N A M O M R

E S C J E H W A D G A B B A R D I Q A B I K I T I K I

A U I U B A T T X C A M D E R F N A M A Z A J S I S S

R N A D R I S I R R A H N U G P I R D N T Z X I R A T

S O N D R I L L M P O M I N L E N I N R I X Z R B U I

B R N R V M O R T S F O L D R A B G N A N D L H S C N

T T O I S I Z U C W E R H E A T S A M B E R M A C X A

H O S V R K A I S T R U E O G S S N N E R E H N L A P

G N T E E E T O L Y O V S Y V I E L R N K X A A A N A

I M E R T F L U M L E A A B A O N K U I R E H L R T X

R I R Q A L B E I B U L T A R N C E H A E L A K E H N

W G R U W E P I R S H A L P E A A D R L T M H H E U O

N G U K A M O O R E A R T O J H W K L E E A A U D M D

I S T N D I W I T O N A L O W C U S A D P L A R E S L

A O F A N N I E T S K C E B M A I R I M N R H A Q D E

W P E T E G A R F I N K L E E C L E N U I I A S U Y S

D R L O R A E H P E R R N S Z R F I E A O C A A A A I

O A C T B E K X B N D R C L O W I E K G T K H N T D R

O P L R B K U V R A C H E L M A N S O U R P A I O M A

G I B E I P L A T N A G A N N A L F L I E R A N R I H

O Z A F N G M A R T I N S P R I N G F I E L D P I M Q

O R X E P E A R O I D E F I U L D O N R A T H E R S U

D C E D L E G N A B E C U R B K A N G A R O O S T Y Z

Once you've found all twenty, the unused letters from the middle ninth of the grid will spell out a trivia question. Send the answer to this question to: thorin (dot) tatge (at) pobox (dot) com. The deadline is Sunday, November 28th.