Chasm № 15 (Themeless)

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Happy May! New Chasm today - 64 words with an open 5x5 in the middle.

Constructed by Ryan McCarty using the free cross word maker from Amuse Labs

Collab № 4 (Themeless w/ Evan Mulvihill)

Hi everyone! Back today with another collab - this time with Evan! This grid has a wide open middle that I haven't used in any of my previous puzzles, so it was a fun challenge to play around with together with Evan.

You can find more of Evan's work at his site FlossWords and in various outlets. Hope you enjoy!

Made by Evan Mulvihill & Ryan McCarty with the crossword maker from Amuse Labs

Chasm № 14 (Themeless)

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Happy May! I'm posting my first new Chasm in a while - 64 words with a septuple stack in the middle. Hope you enjoy!

Chasm № 13 (Themeless - 2022 Secret Snowflake)

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Happy July! I'm finally posting the Crosscord Secret Snowflake puzzle I made this past December for bbctol, who runs their own crossword blog at Nautilus Puzzles. It's a challenging, wide-open 62-word grid which manages to incorporate both D&D and LOTR in the central answers. Hope you enjoy!

Chasm № 12 (Themeless)

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Happy June! A Chasm this month with one of my favorite open middle grid patterns.  I'm happy with the variety of lively answers I was able to squeeze into this one.

Thanks to Quiara Vasquez for test solving. Hope you enjoy!

Chasm № 11 (Themeless)

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Happy May! It's been a busy month so far, but I really love this time of year as everything begins warming up.

This month's chasm puzzle grew from me wanting to include a reference to "Heartstopper," the LGBTQ+ webcomic turned Netflix show.  The show came out earlier this month when I was having a pretty stressful week, and turned out to be one of the most heartwarming things I've watched in a long time.  Naturally, I went and tore through the entire webcomic in a couple of sittings as well... 

I've recently been trying to consume a lot of feel-good queer content, which I didn't have growing up and would have really helped with my own coming out experience around ten years ago.  "Heartstopper" is a series I connect with in particular because I relate strongly with both of the main characters - Charlie in his physicality, love of music, and general nerdiness, and Nick with his coming out journey that echoes mine.

Anyway, enough waxing poetic. I'm happy with the way this puzzle came out - it's a 17x17 with some fun clues and interesting entries. The corner quad stacks were a bit of a challenge to put together, but they eventually worked out :-)

Look out for a mainstream collab later this week... Thanks to Will Nediger for test solving. Hope you enjoy!

Chasm № 10 (Themeless)

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Happy March! Another Chasm this month - this one a bit larger than usual, and perhaps with more video games references as well.  I have the New York Times Saturday puzzle this week and it also features a very similar wide open middle. I constructed that one a while back, and have since constructed and posted more puzzles on this blog with this trademark intersecting-quintuple-stagger-stack design.

Thanks to Will Nediger for test solving. Hope you enjoy!

Chasm № 9 (Themeless)

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Happy February! It's officially been one year since I started this blog and made my foray into the indie crossword community both as a constructor and a more frequent solver. I've enjoyed the ride so far, and plan to have many more Chasms, Asyms, and others in the future 😀

Today's puzzle is a 60-word Chasm - a bit scary, perhaps, but hopefully not too scary.

Thanks to Will Nediger for test solving. Hope you enjoy!

Chasm № 8 (Themeless)

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Happy January! More snow than usual in the DC area this year, but I'm not complaining :-) Another Chasm this month, seeded by 36-Across and built out from there. The clues also feature a timely MLK quote.

Thanks to Will Nediger for test solving. Hope you enjoy!

Chasm № 7 (Themeless)

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Happy November! The last month really flew by. In addition to being busy with work, I've filled most of my free time again with singing to make up for all of the lost time during lockdown.  Though my tired voice tells me I may have gone back a bit too hard, the recent soul-stirring concerts have made it all worth it.

This puzzle ended up turning into a wiiiide boy, but doing so helped make the center come together!  

Thanks to Will Nediger for test solving. Hope you enjoy!

Chasm № 6 (Themeless)

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Happy October! I'm doing a range of autumnal activities today - pumpkin picking, cider tasting, corn mazing, etc. etc. 'Tis the season. This chasm has some fun entries I'm excited to include, mixed with some common entries that may have some stretchier clues than usual (you can be the judge.)

Thanks to Will Nediger for test solving. Hope you enjoy!

Chasm № 5 (Themeless)

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Happy September! This month's puzzle is another Chasm, pretty similar to the grid I used for Boswords this past spring with the intersecting septuple stack middle that I keep coming back to. It's become one of my favorite grid designs. Registration is open for the Boswords 2021 Fall Themeless League by the way, so go sign up if you haven't already for a bonkers roster including some of my literal favorite constructors. 

In other fun news, I have the NYT Saturday puzzle tomorrow! It should be a memorable one 😜

Thanks to Will Nediger for test solving. Hope you enjoy!

Chasm № 4 (Themeless)

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Happy August! Another Chasm this month - this time with a septuple colonnade crossing a triple stack of 11s. A couple of rarer entries in here - sort of necessitated by the grid design, but I'm all for that 😉

Note that Lollapuzzoola is this weekend! If you haven't, you should sign up for what looks like an incredible suite of puzzles.

Thanks to Will Nediger for test solving. Hope you enjoy!

Chasm № 3 (Themeless)

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Happy May! I've been loving the spring weather recently in D.C. With the new CDC guidelines it has been wonderful to be able to get back to singing in person, which I've sorely missed over the past year.  I have my first in-person concert in early June (!!!), and we're incidentally performing one of my pieces "An Fear Róin" (The Seal Man) which is very exciting.

I had both the NYT and LAT Saturday puzzles on May 1 in a fortuitous turn of events. Check those out if you haven't already!

Anyway, this puzzle started with the open center, where I again expanded the grid - this time left and right - to add in some longer entries. Each of the corners has a set of black square ･ﾟ*✧･ﾟ*sparkles*･ﾟ✧*･ﾟ to throw in some extra pizzazz.

Thanks to Will Nediger for test solving! Hope you enjoy!

Chasm № 2 (Themeless)

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Happy April!

It's been an eventful month. I constructed the Week 5 puzzle in the Boswords Spring Themeless League, which featured a wide open middle. I also made the Saturday 4/3 LA Times puzzle, which had one of my new favorite grid designs with open quad stacks.

Today's puzzle is a sort of "Variation on a Themeless" inspired by my Boswords grid design, but flipped! The cluing is challenging, though probably not as hard as my Boswords Stormy division clues...

If you haven't already, I highly recommend donating to the Baltimore Abortion Fund for a pack of 14 original puzzles from a superstar lineup edited by the incomparable Rachel Fabi. I've been doing a puzzle a day to stretch out the fun, and I've loved them so far :-)

Thanks to Will Nediger for test solving! Hope you enjoy!

Chasm № 1 (Themeless)

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Hello Crossworld! 🍀

This puzzle marks the first in the Chasm series of puzzles, all of which will feature wide open middles. If you've done my puzzles before you'll know that I love these types of puzzles with imposing, gaping maws in the middle. Part of the solving challenge in these grid designs is trying to find toeholds without much assistance from shorter entries. These types of puzzles are also how I got into constructing in the first place!

For this grid I originally tried getting this middle to work in a 15x15, but I wasn't happy with the fill in the corners, so I just...extended it. By bumping out the top and bottom and making it a 15x19 I was able to fit in some more long entries, including quad stacks in the NW and SE! Why not?

Thanks to Will Nediger for helping test solve. Ádh mór!