#34b: Babysitting Dragons (Themeless #15)

 

[PDF] [PUZ]
difficulty: hard

Double Dragon pt. 2. Not a lot to say on this one, other than that you should check out the puzzle Ada Nicolle and Jenna LaFleur did together which I shamelessly stole the layout on this puzzle from. Thank you to the test solvers on this one and the previous one. Ajay, Kate, Will E., um, Noah I think, some other people? This past week was a blur. Our bathroom doesn't work, it's a whole thing. A whole smelly thing. I'm glad you can't smell me over Zoom. OK, bye, hope you likey, applet under the cut; mini next week, I pinky swear.

#34a: Chasing the Dragon

 

[PDF] [PUZ]
difficulty: hard-ish

I am holding a mystical sphere, etc etc. Not a "Grid Charlemagne," despite the associated tune (that's next week, hopefully). This is one half of a pair of puzzles I'm releasing together called "Double Dragon." They're not really connected beyond their titles, and a slight bit of Gamer Girl content in both. This is the themed one of the two; it might be a little niche, but it's fine, I bet. Have fun. Applet, as always, beneath the cut.

QVXwordz returns for 2022!

 

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.

THE QVXWORDZ FIRST ANNIVERSARY THROWBACK SPECTACULAR

 

This Thursday marked the one-year anniversary of QVXwordz, and I wanted to do something nostalgic to celebrate - so, here are some puzzles I QVXcavated for you.

Back at the start of the pandemic, when I lost my job and couldn't leave the house, I decided that I'd go insane if I didn't do *something,* and out of the blue one of my friends mentioned he'd been using a program called Phil to make his own crosswords online. After a couple months, I had finally made a pair of 15x grids that I thought were good enough to share with friends, so I sent them to this guy whose puzzles I had been enjoying. And that guy's name was Sid... something or other. I think he has a website, the name of which eludes me at the moment? Whatever. Anyway, Sid Something-or-other said he liked my puzzles, and got me in touch with Matthew Stock, who got me in touch with Erik Agard, and before you know it I'm the hottest girl in all of crossworld, getting commissions left and right, I'm published in all sorts of newspapers, etc etc. So you know, not to undersell my mad skillz, but let's take this opportunity to give thanks to Erik, and Matthew, and Sid - all famously wonderful guys, as anyone remotely familiar with the world of indie puzzles will attest - without whom I'd likely not be the phenom I am today.

And you know, let's add one more name to that list of giants whose shoulders I stand upon - Phil creator Keiran King. Keiran, are you reading this? You rock, and I literally would not be making puzzles at the level I am today if I hadn't chanced upon your site. Seriously, man, hit me up. Let's collab on a grid sometimes. I owe you my career, arguably.

Right, anyway: under the cut you'll find the first two 15x puzzles I ever made that approach "solvable." I'm selling myself short, actually - these are pretty damn good, considering I had no idea what a ""wordlist"" even was at the time. They got the Sid Something-or-other seal of approval way back when, which is no mean feat. So let's go. Here's to one year of QVXwordz, bitches. Applets below the cut; see you next week.

 

#33: It'll Make You Say "Oh" (Smoother Version) (Themeless #14)

 

 

[PDF] [PUZ]
difficulty: "smooth"

Hello to the many, many people who just solved my Boswords puzzle! I hope you had as much fun solving it as I did making it. If you're looking for some more fun puzzles on this site, well, anything on the front page is worth a go, but also consider checking out the following grids of mine:

- Themeless #7 on this website, which as I mentioned during Boswords has six intersecting spanners.
- Take a Stab on Crucinova, a themeless with a truly wild grid shape.
- This themed puzzle I did for The Atlantic with some distinctly 21st century entries.

If this puzzle looks familiar, it's because you might have solved it before elsewhere - specifically, you might have done it two months ago when the grid appeared as a guest spot on Tim Croce's website. But in the spirit of Boswords, I've decided to make an alternate version of the grid with much easier clues. If you're a Stormy level solver, by all means, give Tim your traffic and try that version of the puzzle instead!

As for this puzzle, Kelsey and Frisco kindly test-solved this clue; thanks to them both. Applet under the cut; two new puzzles (!!) this Thursday, plus maybe a guest puzzle!? We'll see. Love y'all.

#32: Pod Casting

 

[PDF] [PUZ]
difficulty: medium

Totally '90s tribute puzzle this week. Big shout-out to my mom, whose subscription to AARP Magazine - usually an alarming reminder of the mortality of the most important woman in my life - gave me a great cluing angle this week. And while we're here, let's also give a shout-out to my wonderful boyfriend, who watched me sketch this grid out on the back of a newspaper mumbling phrases to myself like "pinwheel arrangement" and "optimal initial Js" while sitting cross-legged on a stool at a pizza parlor and thought, "yes, I am going to continue dating this woman." And hey, shout-out to you for sitting through this crap too, when you could be doing the latest Brooke Husic puzzle instead. Just kidding, you can do both. (Please do Brooke's latest, it's awesome.)

Anyway, applet under the cut. I'll have a "bonus puzzle" for y'all on Monday. (Don't get too excited, it's just a rerun. Uh, not a "rerun" per se. You'll see.) Enjoy.

#31: Hat Trick

 

[PDF] [PUZ]
difficulty: medium

Hey, it's been a while. Two whole months without a QVXword? Perish the thought. Well, I want to get some new puzzles up in advance of what I suspect will be a huge traffic bump off people spamming the link to this site in the Boswords chat sometime in the next month. Plus, I gotta do something special for the one-year anniversary of QVXwordz, right? More on that later.

Anyway, this is a rather gentle, lightly themed puzzle that plays a little more like a spooky seasonal themeless. The grid shape is inspired ever so slightly by Ross Trudeau, who frequently does puzzles with this sort of mirror grid setup - including very recently in a lovely collaborative puzzle done with me and the equally great Sally Hoelscher. (If you haven't solved that puzzle, called "The Space Between Us," do it! It's very fun.)

Anyway, applet under the cut. Will Eisenberg and Frisco gave very useful feedback that made this puzzle just a little fairer. Enjoy! And see you next week.