Judy Bowers author page
1 puzzle by Judy Bowers
with Constructor comments
| M | A | G | I | K | A | P | U | T | S | I | S | ||
| A | C | E | R | U | P | O | N | E | A | B | E | ||
| O | H | N | O | E | W | H | E | I | S | M | Y | E | X |
| E | X | C | L | A | I | M | T | A | S | T | Y | ||
| V | I | D | S | E | E | P | |||||||
| S | O | I | S | I | T | C | P | R | R | I | P | ||
| I | N | C | A | S | D | O | A | S | W | E | D | O | |
| G | A | E | L | A | R | M | Y | I | S | I | S | ||
| H | I | M | A | I | M | U | P | A | L | T | O | S | |
| T | R | A | K | E | G | U | P | T | O | M | E | ||
| C | O | N | S | S | P | A | |||||||
| T | A | H | O | E | A | P | R | I | C | O | T | ||
| O | K | I | F | W | E | G | O | I | N | O | N | I | T |
| F | I | N | I | C | E | R | S | S | L | E | W | ||
| U | N | E | T | O | R | T | E | T | Y | R | O |
It's been quite a journey to get here, to my debut puzzle published in the New York Times. After being an avid crossword solver for over 40 years, I decided to try my hand at constructing (like many other recent debut constructors) in early 2020, when so many of us were sentenced to "House arrest"! It took me quite a few submissions before I was able to catch the editors' eyes with today's theme, but now that I have my foot (or at least a toe) in the door, I'm hoping to get some of my other ideas noticed for future puzzles.
I have to give a big shout-out to my husband, Larry Lichens, for getting me started and guiding me through some of the nuances of grid design and fill techniques. Also, many thanks to Tracy Bennett at the Times for shepherding me through the process, helping to smooth out the rough edges of my initial submission, and getting this up to NYT publication standards. Hope everyone enjoyed it.