Brian Keller author page
2 puzzles by Brian Keller
with Constructor comments
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I'm excited to be back for my 2nd crossword, especially on a later day than my Mon debut and with a trickier theme. The idea for the theme came from noticing that multiple keyboard symbols could make for interesting fill, and exploring how there could be cluing tied to the number of the same key.
It's always nerve wracking to have a nascent theme you like and research whether it has been done before. The construction tool Crosserville at least makes this investigative work easier. I'm not the only creator to publish a puzzle with a SHIFT KEY revealer. There was a 2012 NYT puzzle that used numbers in the grid, which read in one direction as the shifted character in a longer phrase. And a 2016 LAT puzzle with clues where shifted symbols replaced numbers, like &$& instead of 747. Both are also clever executions of the theme. I felt like mine with the symbols fully spelled out in the grid was sufficiently unique, and I'm glad the NYT editing team agreed!
I'm also encouraged that my cluing skills are improving. In my first NYT puzzle, the published version used my clues identically or with a small adjustment on 82% of the answers. With this one, it was up to 95%.
It was still too bad to lose a couple clues I really liked. Paired clues "Bike wheel component" for SPOKES and AXLE, and similarly "Sports bar array" for TAPS and TVS. And my original "Swimwear line" for TAN. But I appreciate that the editing team listened to my pitches for the clues and explained their rationale for the final versions.
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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/.