Brian Keller author page
1 puzzle by Brian Keller
with Constructor comments
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This theme originally started with the GREETING CARDS revealer and envisioned different synonyms for hello, with HIJACK and YOKING looking promising, before shifting to focus on strong phrases that hide both HI and the card name. Other promising ones were HIT THE WEIGHTS, WHITENING, SHIFT WORK, and HIIT WORKOUT. The split themer HIGH FIVE wasn't actually in the grid until I noticed both words were fill options in symmetrical areas.
This is my debut with the Times, coming on my 14th submission. I can tell I'm improving, both qualitatively and from having my second Times puzzle in the queue from among my next seven submissions. A few people have made my journey possible - my mom for nurturing my love of puzzles starting with Games magazine growing up; my former co-worker Adam Wagner, who was an invaluable mentor as I was dabbling in construction; and my crew of test solvers, some of whom have now become construction collaborators.
Special shout out to XWord Info - I read Jeff Chen's puzzle commentary for years as a solver. The ways it illuminated the process of construction and shared the joy of coming up with a clever themed puzzle was what tipped me over to taking a shot at learning it myself.
The next stage for me involves helping build more tools for constructors as I've benefited immensely from using Crosserville as my construction software. I'm now working with the developer Jesse Goldberg to explore how GenAI can enhance constructors' capabilities - in figuring out if a theme has been done before, crafting unique clues, and more. If you have an interest in this project, reach out to me at my LinkedIn page linkedin.com/in/brikell/.