A cool Kickstarter

Perhaps you’ve heard the news? The AVCX, an online crossword service that has been putting out quality puzzles (and paying constructors quality fees!) for fifteen years is looking to expand. It’ll go from being a weekly 15x puzzle to becoming a daily feature with a wide variety of puzzles—themed and themeless puzzles, cryptics, some trivia, and some bite-sized “midi” puzzles (about the size of the puzzle below). And guess what? I’m going to be one of the editors of the midi feature! I’ll be working with Brooke Husic and Enrique Henestroza Anguiano to bring you a wide variety of voices, challenges, and fun experiences. So go check out our Kickstarter!

And while you’re there, you might see that it’s the start of what we’re calling Hype Week. We’re putting out a week of puzzles from all the new features to show you what it will be like when our funding goals are successful. And the first puzzle is a weird little grid by me! Amazing!

If that’s not enough, here’s a little bonus hype for Hype Week. This puzzle is just between you and me, OK? It hasn’t been edited, it isn’t meant to be “fair”, and it’s not as representative of the work we’re going to put out with AVCX. Hopefully it’s still fun. Because this is all supposed to be fun. Enjoy!

(Oh hey wait also I did a puzzle in cahoots with Norah Sharpe as part of her amazing NaCroWriMo! It’s just… peachy.)

Stream themeless (Ada Nicolle, Brooke Husic, and friends)

Hi friends! Yes, it’s been a month since I’ve posted a puzzle. No, I have not stopped working on puzzles. But sometimes it’s good to take a break and reflect. And also, there are so many excellent puzzles and puzzle-makers these days! Like Ada Nicolle and Brooke Husic, two of my favourite constructors, who made this grid and then… well, I’ll let them explain:

Remember that thing we did in the 13th month of March 2020 when we got on Twitch and livestreamed our clue writing? Here it is ready to solve, for both people who don’t know what we’re talking about, people who do know what we’re talking about but didn’t attend the stream, and people who attended but totally forgot what went down (and, I guess, people who remember everything but want to ~relive the experience~)!

A big thank you is in order to everyone who participated in the livestream, especially the incomparable Chris Piuma for moderating on somewhat last minute notice and Will Eisenberg for test solving. About half the clues were written by the following constructors whose work you should check out:

Adam: 6D, 8D, 50D
Antinermal: 39D
Avram: 55D
Brendan: 32D
Brian: 11D, 33D
Jac: 21D, 54D
Kormad: 51D
Lyle: 38A 
Malaika: 9D, 22D, 35D, 36D
Max: 28D
Norah: 7D, 26D
Paolo: 53A, 59A
Quiara: 4D, 10D
Rachel: 46A
Ria: 5D
Ricky: 13D, 25D, 43D, 48D
Saswat: 3D, 12D

Yeah, I agree, you should check all those cool people out. Anyhoo, the puzzle came out great. Thanks to Ada and Brooke for inviting me to moderate the event, and for letting me share the puzzle with you all. Enjoy!

When lions cross (ft. Brooke Husic)

I was in the studio laying down the tracks for this new puzzle and it was tight, but I knew it needed that something something to push it over the edge, so I called up Brooke and was like “wanna do a guest verse?” and she was like “I’m in” and before I know it she’s rolling up in this limo with her usual entourage and she glides into the booth and starts dropping her smooth fill and her funky clues, BAM BAM BAM, all in one take, and when she’s done I’m like “daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang” but before I get the word out she’s already back in the limo heading off to her next gig. LEGEND.