It's official: I am now a Best Crosswords contributor! "Autumn Leaves" was published today, and I'm really looking forward to stats and feedback! From what I've seen, the site has a significant following. You can solve the puzzle yourself, either by following the link here or printing the image below. The rest of this post will discuss puzzle highlights, so beware of RAMPANT SPOILERS AHEAD . All right, let's get to it. First off, a straightforward Monday theme, with long Across entries highlighting the progression of leaves in fall, from GREEN BERET to YELLOW STONE to ORANGE CRUSH to DEAD RINGER. I'm both new at crosswords and a big believer in clean fill, so to keep my grid flexible and full of possibilities, I kept to the standard minimum of 42 theme squares (in the classic 10/11/11/10 setup, no less!), and the maximum word count of 78. I'd encourage any fellow rookies to check out Nancy Salomon's article for aspiring constructors , where sh
Hello, world! It seems I have a blog now. See, I make a crossword every other week for my college newspaper, the Tulane Hullabaloo, and was looking to get these works somewhere out in the Big Wide World. But previous publication in the school paper has tarnished my grids, rendering them ineligible for submission to, say, the New York Times or Wall Street Journal! Fortunately, I was directed to the folks at BestCrosswords.com. They seem quite rad, from our short email exchange! Anyway, I'm making a blog to 1.) get my profile looking nice and fresh, and 2.) monetize my puzzles! Who doesn't love cash? I've had to see so many banner ads in my life already. It's about time they started repaying the debt! Anyway, if you're reading this, I'd strongly encourage you to check out my puzzles! I try my best to keep the grid completely fresh: No super-obscure names, no out-of-date or highly specialized terms, and at least two interesting "bonuses" per puzzle!