New crossword published in the LA Times today! (Saturday, November 2nd)

-

Got a new themeless published in the LAT today! It's been about 2 years since I had a mainstream outlet publication so it feels nice. I like how the editing process came along, I feel like the LAT team respected my voice but smoothened the rough edges out and made sure it was fair and enjoyable to solvers. 

Give it a try!


SPOILERS AFTER THIS POINT!

Some notes on the puzzle:

  • My favorite long entries are ROOKIE MISTAKES, CAKE TASTINGS, and TECH STARTUPS. Almost all the clues I submitted for those were printed with minor edits.
    • I gave 2 clue options for CAKE TASTINGS, and I did like my alternative of "Bites before the big day?" but I also had some misgivings about it since I feel like you have to earn the ? if that makes sense. Someone on Diary of a Crossword fiend commented that they had SAKE TASTINGS / SENAC for it, which gave me a little laugh. I guess it could fit in Japan? But they do have cake at weddings there, too, although as I go down a little hole researching Japanese wedding traditions I am learning that the cake is usually rather plain (white icing with strawberries), and sometimes fake, and there is a good amount of sake involved! 
    • Re: the clue for ROOKIE MISTAKES ("Abundance during amateur hour?"), I was proud to have come up with that one myself and not to have borrowed/adapted it from an existing publication because I really liked the connection to amateur hour as a concept.
    • Lastly, I have to admit the finalized clue for TECH STARTUPS ("Some unicorns") as well as my own submission ("They're often backed by angels") were not fully original. Sometimes when cluing my grids I find I am trying to weigh using my own novel clue which might be pretty good but not great, with a pretty great existing clue. NYT has done TECH STARTUP as "Many a unicorn" in 2023, and STARTUP as "Angels might come to its aid" in 2018. In those cases I just try to play with the existing clue to see if I can come up with a fun little twist to make it my own.
  • I liked BOSTON POPS, but knowledge-based long entries aren't always my favorite, so I try to use them sparingly. However, you can't always get around them, and sometimes they offer a nice bit of knowledge expansion. It's inherently subjective if you enjoy the learning in general and even more subjective if you enjoy the particular learned bit. You do risk turning people off who know the knowledge right away since it makes it "too easy," or turning them off when they don't know it and don't feel the clue offered enough to guide them to the answer.
  • EARNED INTEREST was a little boring but I thought the clue "Got a bit extra,in a way" made it a bit more fun if you interpreted extra as meaning "over-the-top" at first.
  • Some favorite mid-length fill: CAT HAIR, AIRBALL, GADZOOKS, EGO TRIP, SEA LEGS, TED TALK.
  • MR NOODLE gave me the biggest pause when reviewing the puzzle in full. I thought it was a decently interesting bit of trivia but wasn't sure if others would agree!
  • I have been trying out non-traditional symmetry options lately. I do love rotational symmetry and the classic appearance of it but I'm trying to have more fun with diagonal symmetry. I think the grid looks pretty cool but I'm still trying to find designs that are workable fill-wise but also look pretty. More to come!

Hope you enjoyed the solve or at least appreciated the try!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Shares on the internet, say (Themeless № 5) ... and some thoughts on rejections and odd-sized puzzles

-
Image
Shopped this puzzle around a bit but didn't get any takers. As I self-publish more and more I am finding more fun in getting to play with the clues and entries more. With major publications (and even smaller ones too), the editors have a lot of different competing interests: obligations to their readers, conventions that are built into the venue's history, and their own personal preferences. It got me thinking a little bit about rejection in general and odd-sized puzzles. But before I hit you with a Carrie Bradshaw-sized eugoogly for all my rejected creations, let me give you the actual puzzle! Created by Evan Mulvihill using the online cross word generator from Amuse Labs Some quotes from three of the rejections for this puzzle: "While we appreciate the attempt for a really open section, we're not sure that the pay off will ultimately be worth it to our solvers given how much clunky wordlisty fill is in here. So while we appreciated stuff like [1-Acros...
Read more

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 "u...
Read more