Crosswords

I grew up in a game-playing and puzzle-solving family and have enjoyed word games and crosswords since I was a kid. In my early, pre-computing teens, I constructed a few crossword puzzles the hard way — graph paper and lots of pencil eraser, see the image at the top of this page — but then gave up the habit for a few decades.

In late 2021, I decided to try constructing again with the ultimate goal of getting published. As a native born New Yorker, I’ve been doing The New York Times puzzle for most of my life and have been a fan of Will Shortz since his Games magazine days. No question it would be coolest to get one of my puzzles onto that site but I’m realistic as to how competitive that has become. As of May 26, 2023, I am now officially published in the LA Times, something I’m very excited about!

Below is a list of my most recently published puzzles; see this page for a list of all of them. My favorites are Rotisserie League, Themeless #6 and Blame the Normans. At the bottom of this page, you can search for puzzles by tag based on size or themed/themeless.

I have also been constructing alphabetically focused minis and built a separate microsite for those puzzles.

I hope you enjoy my efforts, I’ll post puzzles here as I develop them and welcome any feedback you have. Expect about one puzzle a month and if you use a news reader you can subscribe to an RSS feed here.

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  1. Pals

    I constructed this puzzle at the end of 2023 during the winter holidays, it was one of those themes that came out of a different...

  2. A Spicy Mini

    The seed for this one was 9-Across, hence the title’s tang. As those who have followed my AlphaMini project have probably gleaned by now, I...

  3. A Rousing Midwinter Midi

    The layout of this grid is one of my favorites, I used the same pattern back in November for another themeless midi. Let’s call it...

  4. PQRS AlphaMinis

    When I began this effort, I had no idea if or how I would finish it. I understood that the difficult part was not creating...

  5. Rotisserie League

    I first finished this puzzle back in May 2023 and spent the rest of that year submitting to — and getting rejected from — various...

15x15s - All Crosswords - Larger than 15x15 - Midis - Minis - Published Elsewhere - Themed - Themeless