Wow, is 2021 over? I can hardly believe it. Actually, I totally can believe it because 2021 was terrible. But after a month of inactivity on QVXwordz, my AAs are recharged and I am totally ready to get back to regularly posting here.
I should note that there were in fact many Q.V. x-words published in the past month, albeit not here; I had the December 19th 7xword, for instance, and earlier this week I did a 21-by-21 themeless for Crucinova (see the grid above) - a Crucinova subscription is, IMO, totally worth it, so consider getting a free trial there JUST for my puzzle, which will be eminently worth it. Oh, and speaking of subscription services that are eminently worth it, the AVCXpansion Kickstarter met its goal, so in a month or two AVCX subscribers will receive an additional themeless puzzle in their inbox every week, edited by the likes of me, Chris Adams (of arctanxwords fame), Max Carpenter (of donkey puzzle tree fame, and Sid Sivakumar (an esteemed constructor with no namesake URL). As a teaser for that additional weekly themeless, I did an AVCX+ sampler which you can download for free! Hell yeah.
So what's going to become of QVXwordz now that I have a weekly puzzle job? A lot of stuff! I'm going to go back to the stated schedule in the header. Every Thursday you'll get a full sized puzzle, probably; and every Monday you'll get a mini. Except that I will be retiring the "Mini Monday" name, or the "Monday Mini" name, or whatever it was called, and the rebranded mini will be appearing in a new and exciting format, cross-posted on social media. Very cool! Watch out for that on the third.
Also to be posted on QVX in the coming months? Well, I've wanted to write longform about puzzlemaking, and this feels like a good forum to do it. We'll start sometime this week with a round-up of my favorite clues from indie puzzles of 2021. And then, I dunno, maybe I'll give some pointers on how to do clues? Not entirely sure.
Anyway, hopefully you'll have 100+ puzzles posted on QVX in the coming year, and they'll all be awesome and great. What can you expect? I'll tell you what you can expect:
- a puzzle that is over 10% Qs (and no, it's not a 3x3, har har; is that even possible? probably)
- a guest puzzle by an esteemed crossword luminary and guy I've had dinner with
- a variety puzzle that, according to joon pahk, is "not a puzzle type that has existed yet (to my knowledge), but i have to say i like the idea!"
- a truly jaw-dropping masterwork of holiday grid art that will make Liz Gorski's "connect the circled letters to make a Christmas tree" puzzles look like amateur hour
...and many more! Huzzah! Not to mention, many puzzles at various other outlets, probably. Particularly at AVCX. Did I mention that if you spend $250 on the AVCXpansion kickstarter, you can still purchase a portrait by yours truly (see below), and/or a contestant slot in a special game of Only Connect written by our trivia team?? What a deal. You'd have to be a real fucking clod to NOT blow your wad (of cash) on this bonkers set of incentives. OK, you do that right fucking now, and I'll see you back here on Monday. Arrivederci! No applet under the cut, just good vibes for 2022.
