Puzzle 31 - 13x13 themed

This puzzle's got a theme - but no title, because I couldn't think of one. Also the theme doesn't ... quite work. Two theme clues are good, one's a little off. But that's OK! It's all parsable-ish. Maybe a little figurative, is all.

Filling and cluing the puzzle, I was happy to find three places that could echo answers/clues - but that was mostly unintentional. I used a tightish grid because the theme answers were relatively short. Also this puzzle should be easier than my smaller themelesses - but figuring out the theme could take some thinking.

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Puzzle 30 - 7x7

Hi again. I've got about a week more before the rate of puzzles slows somewhat. It's fun to put one up every day - but summer's ending. So I hope you enjoy these next few before I start spacing the posts maybe a week apart or something.

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Puzzle 29 - 7x7

Unlike the other 7x7s, this puzzle has a raison d'etre. Which compromises the recognizability of the answers which is another way of saying the fill ain't clean. But all the (non-proper) words have Scrabble support and the puzzle's not - as I've written too often for this mean anything now - impossible.

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Puzzle 28 - 7x7

I quite like this grid. It happened to have some duplicative-able words, and I was going to go overboard with that but thought better. So there are just a couple, and some similar-ish ones. I wonder if you can find any answers where a good reduplicative clue could go.

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Puzzle 27 - 7x7

Now, this one is incredibly clean. At the same time it's less than sparkling. So the clues are (meant to be) harder. Possibly. And solving is meant to be possible too.

You know this commentary is also less than sparkling. What do you want to know, what might you want to know... Well I think there's nothing extraordinary to say. Except maybe you can take a look at the facts of how you're reading this, if you are reading this. Via what. Computer? Um, how wouldn't you be reading this? Do you know me? Am I here? Get it? Too much? Is this a question? Yeah - is it.

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Puzzle 26 - 15x15 themeless

What do you know. It's Sunday. This is a full-size puzzle I began making just a week ago. I think it's better than the previous 15x15 that I posted - fewer obscurities, more grid flow. (It's also got a more conventional shape, not that the other one's was so out there either.)

Still, I'm pretty sure it's not worth submitting for publication. Hence this blog!

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Puzzle 25 - 7x7

This is a good example of what I meant by "one or two clunkers." I'd say this puzzle has just one, and it's easy enough to solve around (which, in the case of these grids, tends to mean it's located in the south or east rather than the north or west - i.e., ending words, not starting them). A couple other words here are toughish vocab, but I've looked at all the crosses and I think they are OK.

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Puzzle 24 - 8x8

Hello again. I might be able to get a streak going for a while, posting puzzles every day. Most will be 7x7 minis. For me, those puzzles have a good number of clues to write, and with no helper squares can be filled with only one or two clunkers. But maybe that's the wrong spirit. Maybe puzzles should be cleaner, forget the challenge of making this type. Well I haven't made that decision (yet). So here's an 8x8 with two regrettable answers. Most of it is all good though.

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Puzzle 23 - 8x8

Longer delay than I would have liked, but here's another puzzle. 8x8, two black squares. Only one odd answer. The dual animals are a neat bonus.

The Atlantic continues to have similar grid shapes, but with helper squares, which makes them cleaner and somewhat easier to produce (both good things).

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Puzzle 22 - 8x8

That was a nice week, a week ago, wasn't it. The titles were fun. In the meantime I've been working on several kinds of submittable puzzles.

This isn't that, though. It's like those previous 7x7s. Wide open. But bigger, and with another black square. So it's got two squares without letters, 62 with. I've made a few of them to post. This one has only one wacko word.

By the way - today's puzzle in The Atlantic was kind of like those puzzles I put up last week. 7x7, almost entirely open. It was tougher than usual, too.

P.S. I've edited the clues here, a few times, to try to make it less impossible.

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Puzzle 21 - 7x7: Right Top O'

Another of the 7x7s. This makes a week of em. That'll be 336 squares you've filled in, if you've filled them all in. One and a half 15x15s. These numbers - I hope they're right. Probably.

This puzzle doesn't have so much snazz, but there are zero words you haven't heard of. That's a plus. I do worry that all this open space forces rather a few trade-offs, to use the lingo. Maybe some clues will confuse you.

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