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!

Collab № 3 (Themeless w/ Adrian Johnson)

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Hi everyone - we're back with another collab! Apologies for missing the typical post on the 17th - I got busy with vacation and work obligations, but hopefully this puzzle makes up for it!

Excited to collaborate with Adrian, whose themeless puzzles have been everywhere lately (LA Times, Universal, & AVCX to name a few), and for good reason with such great entries and clever clues. He also has some older puzzles on his site ajxwords. This puzzle with its unusual 15x16 shape was quite a lot of fun to put together.

A note from Adrian:

Ryan is a true wizard of the crossworld, and it was a privilege to collaborate with him on this funky puzzle! As soon as one of my favorite songs burst out from my bottom seed corner, I knew I had to make a puzzle work. Who better to help me see it through than one of the greats?

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!

Asym № 3 (Themeless)

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Happy December! This whirlwind of a month is finally slowing down with the holidays coming up next week. I'll be spending time away from home with family, and hopefully get some free time to finish constructing a bunch of in-progress puzzles! That and catch up on my puzzle backlog which has only grown since last month...

This asymmetric offering today began with the vertical stack in the NW and grew out from there. 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!

Collab № 2 (Themeless w/ Brooke Husic)

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Hi everyone - back again with another collab! Very excited to bring you this indie collaboration with superstar constructor Brooke Husic! Over the past year Brooke has probably helped me the most grow with my cluing - in particular thinking more considerately about difficulty, inclusivity, diversity, and creativity. Hopefully that comes out in this puzzle! We were both interested in exploring some fun 14s, as they often get the short end in 15x15 puzzles, so we opted for a 14x14 that features seven of them!

You can check out more of Brooke's puzzles on her site xwords by a ladee.

A note from Brooke:

Obviously Ryan is one of my crossword idols, and I solve his puzzles as soon as they drop. His geometric/filling/cluing style is so different from anything else I'm solving and I super admire it as a solver ,,, and now as a collaborator! I hope you enjoy this decidedly made-for-indie puzzle!

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

Asym № 2 (Themeless)

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Back again - with an asymmetrical grid this time! The story with this one is that I got the NE quad stack corner built, and then couldn't for the life of me find a compelling matching corner in the SW with rotational symmetry.  So, I switched things up and made a charcuterie board of black square shapes in the middle, including a T, +, and my ol' reliable staircase. 

I also have the Saturday puzzle over at the New York Times today! If you're hungry for a Chasm-like treat, check it out 😄

Thanks to Will Nediger for test solving (check out his Freeform Freestyles for more asymmetrical goodness!) Hope you enjoy!

Collab № 1 (Themeless w/ Matthew Stock)

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Happy July! VERY excited to be sharing my first ever McGrids collaboration, and with the inimitable Matthew Stock no less! I've been impressed with Matthew's consistently high quality puzzles and reputation as one of the nicest constructors out there, so it was naturally a joy to work together. I didn't make this one easy for him by sending over a particularly wide open corner, but he jumped at the challenge with some excellent gridwork, and after a lot of iteration we ended up with this feisty fiesta of a grid you see here! It's a bit of a toughie 😅

You can check out more of Matthew's puzzles on his site Happy Little Puzzles.

A note from Matthew:

So honored and excited to be a part of the first McGrids collab! I’ve been a fan of Ryan’s themelesses for as long as I’ve paid attention to bylines on crosswords, and I was stoked when he sent me the opening corner of this one as a potential collab. Ryan makes it look easy, but working these wide-open grids is so challenging (I didn’t make it any easier on us by taking out most of the helper squares Ryan sent in his initial layout). I’m super thankful for his flexibility and patience as we hammered this one into shape, and I’m really proud of what we ended up with. Hope you enjoy!

Thanks to Brooke Husic for test solving. Hope you enjoy!

Diag № 1 (Themeless)

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Happy June! This month's puzzle is the first in a new series of puzzles with diagonal symmetry called "Diag".  There's a lot of untapped potential in diagonally symmetric grids, as they have only recently begun to get representation in mainstream outlets thanks to advocates such as Brooke Husic.  I had a diagonal themeless puzzle in the NY Times last year which spurred my own interest to explore further!

In this puzzle I like the intersecting stacks of 11s in the NE - a pattern you couldn't do in a 15x15 rotationally symmetric grid (at least without blacking out a couple of chunky corners).  I also like how the black squares in the middle kind of look like a Minecraft pickaxe.

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!