What Is Anna’s Code?

An Exclusive Reveal from Anna: Daughter of Creed

Do you recall when, in Bodacious Creed: a Steampunk Zombie Western, the recently resurrected James Creed wrote Anna Boyd a letter using the code she created as a child? He was unaware of it, but Anna understood that Creed remembered her on an unconscious level.

I mentioned that written code several times in the novel but never revealed how it works. In Anna: Daughter of Creed, readers will finally learn its secret. You, as a newsletter reader, get to learn the secret now! With this explanation, you could even learn to write the code and decode it yourself!

It started one day when Anna was five and playing with a friend. Ellen introduced her to a simple code with which she would shift each letter three places forward in the alphabet. A becomes D, B becomes E, and so on. Anna enjoyed the game. Her mind worked so fast that she didn't have to write out the solution to the messages Ellen gave her; she could simply read them.

Months later, Anna thought of this code again, and she decided to improve on it.

Here’s what she came up with:

• Shift the first letter forward by 3

• Shift the second back by 5

• Then forward by 7, back by 11, and forward again by 13

• After that, the pattern repeats

That wasn't enough for Anna. What if she created her own symbols instead of using the standard letters of the alphabet? This approach would even make it more private! She came up with the replacement symbols, and that was enough. She'd created a tough-to-break working code.

She loved sharing it with her father and taught it to him. Within weeks, both could read it as easily as English. First, she saw the letters shifting in her head; then, she didn't have to visualize them at all.

About nineteen years later, it became a way for them to exchange messages, even before he remembered her identity.

Going back to Anna's school days, before leaving her aunt and uncle when she was sixteen, Anna finally learned that what she had created was a kind of cipher. When her teacher mentioned the Vigenère cipher, Anna lit up. She already had something just as powerful. And hers was original!

Would you like to see the alphabet Anna created, the actual symbols she used for each letter?

Reply and let me know. If there’s enough interest, I’ll create it and share it soon.

---

Work Update:

I found a job! It’s a 6 to 8 week contract, but the company has other projects, and I will keep applying to them.

Of all the jobs I applied to, the contracts for this company interested me the most. They were the ones that I applied to and thought, “I really, really would love to work for them.”

The pay is much better than my last job, where I worked for ten years; the tasks are genuinely fun, and I get to explore all sorts of creative ideas. Imagine if you had a fun book of writing exercises, and getting paid to complete them. That’s basically my job now.

Also, since I don’t have to spend so much of my time job hunting currently, I have more time to work on Anna: Daughter of Creed! I’m going to dive into that once I get this newsletter written.

Until next week!

Jonathan

Have you read The Adventures of Bodacious Creed yet? If not, check out the series by clicking the image below! It’s available in Kindle and print formats and free to read on Kindle Unlimited!

This week, I'm swapping book mentions with four of my fellow authors and participating in a KU group promo. Check out what’s on offer, and I hope you find something you'll enjoy!