Amy Johnson author page
2 puzzles by Amy Johnson
with Constructor comments
| T | O | M | S | V | E | S | T | S | C | A | N | S | ||
| O | B | I | T | A | R | E | A | H | O | B | O | S | ||
| W | O | R | D | F | R | E | A | K | R | H | E | T | T | |
| N | E | O | A | I | S | L | E | I | O | T | A | S | ||
| A | N | E | T | S | E | E | R | |||||||
| J | U | J | I | T | S | U | T | S | K | T | S | K | S | |
| O | P | E | R | A | G | E | T | S | I | R | A | |||
| A | T | T | S | S | P | E | N | D | P | O | E | T | ||
| D | O | T | A | T | O | M | P | L | U | M | E | |||
| S | P | A | Z | Z | E | S | X | E | R | O | X | E | D | |
| O | A | T | S | A | M | I | D | |||||||
| S | P | O | O | L | I | O | N | I | C | L | A | P | ||
| E | A | T | M | E | B | L | A | N | K | T | I | L | E | |
| A | T | R | I | A | L | I | D | O | A | M | E | R | ||
| M | E | A | N | S | Y | O | U | R | M | O | S | T |
Just because I wanted to combine my two favorite word pastimes.
| T | A | M | P | S | W | A | P | R | A | S | P | |||
| S | A | R | A | H | T | O | D | O | U | T | A | H | ||
| T | H | E | R | E | G | O | E | S | M | Y | B | A | B | Y |
| D | O | W | W | I | K | I | A | I | D | E | S | |||
| S | E | E | N | D | E | S | S | E | R | T | ||||
| A | F | T | E | R | M | I | D | N | I | G | H | T | ||
| D | O | L | L | S | E | S | E | N | E | A | R | |||
| R | H | O | A | B | S | I | N | C | T | R | A | |||
| E | O | N | S | A | A | S | B | A | T | T | Y | |||
| W | H | E | E | L | I | N | T | H | E | S | K | Y | ||
| N | O | T | E | P | A | D | A | S | A | P | ||||
| T | W | E | E | N | E | R | G | O | B | R | A | |||
| S | I | N | G | I | N | G | T | H | E | B | L | U | E | S |
| A | N | N | A | A | S | E | A | E | A | R | N | S | ||
| R | E | E | L | B | A | R | R | Y | O | G | A |
Ah, my first NY Times crosswords. I'm very happy to be here.
For me, this puzzle was a lesson in "fresh and lively." As a newbie, "fresh and lively" can be a difficult accomplishment. I was happy just to complete a grid with no Tibetan yaks, references to drugs or disease, Roman numerals (one of my own pet peeves) and still fall within the word count guidelines. Mr. Shortz liked my theme but found my first grid a bit too "crosswordy," asking me to try again.
So I tried again. I didn't exactly get a "meh" in his response but Mr. Shortz did not find the puzzle all that exciting for solvers. Again, he was willing to take another look if I wanted to try again. "Really?" I thought and walked away from the project for a couple of weeks. Coming back to it with fresh eyes, I was able to produce what you see today. Is it fresh and lively? I'll let you be the judge of that. I will say it is much improved, a "fresh and lively" lesson I hope I can carry over into other crossword constructions.