New York Times, Tuesday, June 24, 2014

The second puzzle I ever made and submitted to the NYT had the theme COVERT RELATIONS with family members hidden in the theme entries, but it was not accepted for publication. So I tried again with something similar but better in this puzzle, my third submission, and it was really exciting to hear that Will liked the theme for this one! He immediately spotted some terrible entries and crosses, and we went back and forth a couple of times improving the puzzle. This process alone was so instructive. I had thought that including some bad fill would be somewhat inevitable due to the constraints of the grid. I did not realize how hard constructors work to exclude the chaff. Ripping out and remaking most of the puzzle with better fill vastly improved it. Will was impressively patient and gentle while giving excellent, targeted advice.

I have always enjoyed solving puzzles. When I was a child, my dad used to give me copies of Games magazine and let me take the first stab at the NYT Sunday crossword when I was lucky to get one or two short entries. I even recall making a cat-themed logic puzzle as a present for my mom once. I never had any idea how to make a crossword puzzle however, until a few years ago when reading an online article by Matt Gaffney that discusses some rules of construction ("It Themes Somehow Familiar"). After browsing the Cruciverb and XWord Info sites (which are both such outstanding, essential resources), I tried making my first grid. Trial and error were good teachers and confirmed the reasons typical construction methods are the way they are. Constructing, like solving, is a skill mostly learned by just doing it!

I'm thrilled to be able to contribute to something as wonderful as the NYT crossword and hope to have the free time to make more puzzles in the future!

Really nice theme, Wish I had Thought of That (WITT). COVERT OPERATION being re-imagined as "math operators hiding within longer words / entries" is clever. And a debut! Congrats on a well-executed puzzle, Heather.

I uncovered SUBCONTRACT first, and really appreciated how SUB and TRACT break up so nicely. The other ones felt a little less elegant, as there have to be dozens of words / entries that include A D D or D I V I D E. It's probably not possible to find answers that break up into words like SUB and TRACT, but even a split into two pieces like MULTIPL / Y felt a bit more elegant than the A D D randomly hanging out within STANDBY MODE.

Good choice of themers otherwise, though. STANDBY MODE is a snazzy one, and I liked both DRIVERS SIDE and its clue quite a lot. MULTIPLAYER with its WoW clue was nice too. Amazing that Heather was able to incorporate such nice long themers, considering she needed five of them.

Not an easy task of construction, and Heather executes well. I appreciate the extra mile in leaving enough space for the long RATS NEST and RAMPED UP, with ICE MELT and SO TO SAY in close proximity. Heather could have broken up a pair of entries and gone up to the max of 78, which would likely have gotten rid of EWER and EA POE, but both of those are very minor blips. I like the trade-off a lot. For a first construction, it's amazing how smooth she kept her grid, really only the esoteric KENAI being forced by the awkward ?E??I pattern. Heck, what am I saying? It'd be smooth for most people's tenth construction! Clear that a lot of polishing went on.

Hoo boy, I had a rough time with the last square, the X of REDUX. I should have known it from "Rabbit Redux" by John Updike, but apparently I've been reading too many children's books. Darn it Updike, get with the program! Along with my blanking on the fact that Simone de Beauvoir was a prominent French feminist, I ended up with a mistake. Perhaps making one of those clues a tad easier would have been preferable. But as Will says, this is the NYT, not USA Today. So it's tough to say if the clues for those two entries were "fair" or not.

Finally, a beautiful clue in [What covers many blocks?], making me think about SMOG or COPS or something before realizing the clue was talking about MORTAR holding blocks together.

Impressive debut; looking forward to many more from Heather! As a reminder, the split in crossword constructors is heavily skewed toward males, so anything we can do to encourage female constructors, yeah? If you have thoughts or want help in putting together a grid based on your idea, don't hesitate to get in touch through our home page.