Trenton Lee Stewart author page
2 puzzles by Trenton Lee Stewart
with Constructor comments
See the 5 answer words debuted by Trenton Lee Stewart.
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TRENTON: Simon and I had been discussing possible themes for a while when he got the idea of answers doubling as arithmetical instructions. We quickly hit upon a few that would work well on their own, but after this promising start, it began to seem unlikely that we would find all the answers we needed — ones that could be arranged in a sequence that led to a satisfying revealer. Still, we liked the idea and were just close enough to making it work that we agreed to stick with it a little longer.
It was late in the evening, and I took a break to walk a dog, leaving Simon bent over his laptop. I'd hardly made it a block when I heard Simon call after me.
"Hey!" he shouted. "Half off!"
"Oh, nice!" I shouted back.
If any neighbors heard this exchange, they must have assumed we'd just gotten word of a very exciting sale.
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TRENT: As the author of several children's novels featuring puzzles and riddles, I might reasonably be assumed to be a long-time fan of crosswords, but my love for them came late — only a few years ago, really, when Simon first began constructing. Our conversations about the process revealed similarities between what he was doing and I was doing — the wordplay, the misdirection, the pleasure in creating something satisfying to solve — and we agreed it would be fun to collaborate on a puzzle one day.
We made no definite plan, but occasionally I'd have an idea about a theme and ask Simon if anyone had done one like it. If the idea was promising, it inevitably had been done. If it weren't promising (or even feasible), Simon would diplomatically explain why. But eventually, I had an idea with potential, Simon said he'd tinker around with it, and the next thing I knew, we were cluing the puzzle. It was great fun to work on, and I'm delighted to see our first collaboration appear in the NYT.
SIMON: Since they didn't make the cut, I recommend solving to the Talking Heads' This Must Be the Place.