Place to Prepare for Some Hard Labor? (Themeless № 4)

I'm trying to post more frequently! Here is another fun themeless to try. I love when the middle is as open as possible, I also love when you can have two stacks intersecting in the middle.

I'm also excited to announce I have received my first acceptance from the New York Times! It is for a themeless (not surprising since I don't even make themed puzzles anymore) and will run on a Friday. I have probably submitted almost 20 puzzles to them with no luck yet so this feels like a big win. I wasn't sure if my crossword making skills would ever be good enough to make it into the NYT but now I have a bit more confidence :) 

Some constructing notes that I don't think have spoilers but read at your own discretion!

I used 18-Down as the seed entry... After getting some rejections on the puzzle from mainstream papers, I went and "18-Down" the NE corner for some of the newer online outlets, especially because I felt 10-Down might be too obscure and considered "uninteresting" to some. However in reviewing the 2 different versions I felt like 10-Down was, to me, an interesting obscurity and since I was self-publishing I had the luxury of keeping it! I changed the clue from the stumper Saturday type "Austronesian language" to the current clue to make it a wee bit more accessible.

Enjoy the solve as always!

 

Constructed by Evan Mulvihill using the online crossword puzzle generator from Amuse Labs