Beneath The Surface

  PDF  -  puz  -  online  -  solution Last puzzle of 2023. I started off intending to make this a midi but quickly it turned into a full-size grid. 1A's clue was fun to come up with and I hope it will click with solvers. I struggled with 14D for a while, but I like what I came up with for a surface, and in any event it's an entry that has a lot of personal meaning to me.  It's been a year with lots of creative highs and lows in cryptic construction for me. At times I've felt like I've really come a long way with my clue composition skills; other times I feel like I can't write a clue to save my life. Balancing lively fill with clueable fill also continues to be something of a guessing game, though I think my personal philosophy generally remains on the side of taking the liveliest fill I can get and the clues will figure themselves out eventually.  Enjoy the puzzle! And thanks again for checking out my work. Happy holidays to those of you cel...

  PDF  - puz  - online  -  solution PDF I got writer's block in the middle of cluing this one and had to step away from it for several weeks. I finally came back to it this weekend and finished the clues in two sittings. I'm actually really happy with how this turned out and hope you enjoy it!

  pdf  -  puz  -  online  -  solution pdf I began work on this puzzle around mid-June, completed the grid and about 80% of the clues by July 4th, then needed two weeks to grind out the remainder (mainly a handful of short clues whose surfaces were giving me fits). Hope you'll enjoy the end product!

  PDF  -  puz  -  online  -  solution Here's a fresh midi cryptic for the month of June. Apologies for radio silence to any regular visitors wondering why there was no May puzzle: it was an unusually busy month on top of the regular schedule of work/parenting. I've also been working on multiple crossword projects, including a long-overdue rescoring of large sections of my wordlist, which means cryptic construction time is further limited. In the future, I'll try to post in advance if I'm going to miss a month. Anyway, regarding this puzzle, 7A was the seed (it seemed apt for a certain type of clue), and 15A was the toughest to come up with.  Hope you enjoy it! As always, comments welcome.

  PDF  -  puz  -  jpz  -  online  -  solution It's a full-size cryptic this month, and I hope you'll enjoy it. Thanks to Evan Jenkins for test-solving. The 20D clue has italics that don't carry through into Across Lite, so I'm also offering a JPZ version, which you can solve using  Crossword Nexus  or similar platforms. 27A was the toughest clue to write; feedback on my first version (with a very different surface) suggested it was too vague, and it took me a long time to find another angle that read sensibly while also obeying cryptic grammar rules. I hope the final product provides a nice "aha!" moment. If you fancy having a go at coming up with an alternative clue, leave a message in the comments. See you again next month!

  pdf  /  puz  /  online  /  solution pdf Midi cryptic (11x11 blocked) this month, and I hope you'll like it! Please do chime in with your thoughts on the puzzle. I'm especially happy with the surface at 5D, which alludes to my first date with my wife at a Chicago beer garden. (Spoiler warning! I'm going to talk a bit about Cryptic #16 " Delivery Confirmation " after the jump. If you haven't done it yet, go check it out!)

PDF - puz - online - solution Two reasons this puzzle is very special: It's my first cryptic meta-puzzle ...well, you'll have to solve it to find out. Big thanks to Evan Jenkins for test-solving. I hope this brings you as much joy to solve as it brought me to make.