Anime-niacs (with Amy Giacomucci)

 What's up, Internet? I am absolutely delighted to share a puzzle I made with my friend Amy. This is her first ever puzzle, and she is imo already very good at making them. This theme came about when we were complaining that trivia games ask too much about The Simpsons and not enough about anime. We started with a more general pun theme but then narrowed in on a few themers that fit a specific pattern (some of which were GREAT but sadly did not make it into the puzzle for length reasons). As for the rest of the puzzle, we did the grid together, but Amy wrote the majority of the clues, so if you like them, tell her to make more puzzles! Also tell her songs where the singer is so obsessed with someone that it just sounds gay. (She's making a playlist.)

Amy says:

"Hello visitors of Rose’s crossword blog! Did you know that it’s fun to solve and create crossword puzzles? Has anyone heard about this?

I had a blast making this puzzle with Rose, and I hope it comes through. I got to engage with new ways to frame familiar concepts, bend over backwards to rearrange the grid to include the too-on-the-nose-to-not-use answers, and get hit with aha! moments for clues at work/the grocery store - it was like I was constantly thinking, okay, I had this epiphany, so now let’s make the epiphany viable for the general conventions of the humble crossword. Rose helped me indulge my beginners’ whims in many of the clues, including letting me use a character from a Nintendo DS game that you can only buy on iOS/apps at this time in a clue, and then making that clue solvable for people who don’t have my specific interests. It’s a real skill to indulge silliness without sacrificing practicality, imo. Try something new with your friends! And for real, feel empowered to add to the playlist. Please."

Many thanks to evieshmeeps and akatookey for test solving!

Puz | Crosshare

Epic Highs and Lows

 Oh look, it's another blog puzzle! I know I have not been making a ton of puzzles in the past few months due to life stuff, but I made this one to ease back into things, and I'm hoping to keep the momentum going. As for this puzzle, it's just a meme-y puzzle I made that wound up with a surprising number of math-related clues (not sure how that happened), and I hope you enjoy solving it.

Crosshare | Puz

Get With the Program

 Can you believe it's been over three months since my last puzzle here? Honestly, I can, because I've been very busy and will continue to be very busy for awhile, but I'm here today with a new puzzle, hot off the rejection pile. This is a theme that's definitely been done before, and this is a pretty straightforward puzzle, but I quite like this theme set, and I hope you do too.

As for other crossword things, I've had a few puzzles come out in the past three months like my first AVCX Classic with Shannon Rapp and this midi for Gin & Grapefruit. It's entirely possible I've had other puzzles and forgotten about them, but those two are definitely good, and you should go solve them.

Puz file | Direct link

Do You Like Scary Movies? (with Norah Sharpe)

Happy spooky season everyone! Today, I have a seasonally appropriate collaboration with friend of the blog and frequent collaborator Norah Sharpe. Norah had the idea for this one last winter, and we agreed that October would be the perfect time to post this.

In other puzzle news, yesterday Puzzmo (a site offering a digital puzzle page) opened to the public, and they'll be running a midi crossword everyday: a mix of Lil AVC X reruns and (starting in a week and a half) brand new puzzles edited by the Lil team. As you all probably know, I've been a part of the Lil team for the past year, so I'm very excited for you all to check out all the new puzzles we have for you! One of my own Lil AVC X puzzles will also be running on Puzzmo in the next few weeks, so if you're not an AVCX subscriber, this is a chance for you to solve a new Rose puzzle! And for those of you who are AVCX subscribers, keep your eye on your inbox over the next few weeks...

From Norah:

"Happy spooky season! It's always a pleasure to share a byline with Rose and I hope you find this timely offering fun and breezy, just like fall should be. If you like this puzzle, you might also like the one I wrote with Will Eisenberg for Fill Me In. It's a contest puzzle open to October 29 - solve and enter here: https://bemoresmarter.libsyn.com/fill-me-in-413-irreversible-binomials"

Puz | Crosshare

Sort It Out

I'm back today with a themed puzzle. Sometimes you come up with a theme idea that you really like and then realize that it will not make sense to the general public, and this is definitely one of those themes. If you've studied computer science, I think you'll love it. If not, the theme might not make sense, but the puzzle should be fun anyways.

For a bit of a look behind the curtain, this is one of the only puzzles I've made quickly--I sat down, spent some time gridding, and then wrote all the clues more or less in order. (This is definitely the only time I've done that last part; my cluing is usually a slow and chaotic process.) I did this partly because even though I've been editing for Lil AVC X and doing other crossword-y stuff, I really haven't been constructing all that much lately, since I've been busy with work (and with the much less necessary but very fun Baldur's Gate 3) and also facing a little bit of creative block. I figured just sitting down and Making A Puzzle that I could immediately share with the world would be a good way to shake myself out of it, and while time will tell if that's the case, at the very least, I have Made A Puzzle.

Puz file | Crosshare

Band Mates (with Dan Schwartz)

 Today's puzzle is a 21x that I made in collaboration with Dan Schwartz. You might know Dan from some of our earlier collaborations (like this one), from his own very good blog, from his Twitch stream, or from his incredible performances at crossword tournaments. Dan sent me the idea for this theme about a year ago, and we spent awhile going back and forth coming up with a set of themers and turning it into a 21x grid (not the easiest to fill!). I think the theme is great and the final puzzle also turned out pretty great, so please enjoy!

Crosshare | Puz

Gay Wrath Month (themeless)

 Today I have a 13x puzzle: my favorite puzzle size that's just a little too big for a midi and a little too small to be a normal puzzle. Full disclosure: this was supposed to be a mostly themeless Pride puzzle, hence the title, but it took me far too long to clue it, so I'm posting it now. In the intervening month, the clues have also probably become less coherent and more tailored to my niche interests, so full disclosure that I have no idea how solvable this is to anyone but me.

Not much news (crossword-related or otherwise) to share this time. I hope everyone is having a good summer. I personally am spending the next week locking down my Barbie movie outfit.

Puz file | direct link