Mini #365

Countdown: 0

I’m sorry if the countdown got your hopes up. This was a sad countdown, as I will no longer be posting daily mini crosswords. I’ll go into why, but first I’d like to thank a few folks.

I would like to give a huge thank you to someone who has done every single mini (and variety puzzle?) I’ve posted, and even some I haven’t. Susanna Faas-Bush (my fantastic partner) has been incredibly supportive of me and my puzzle-constructing efforts, especially so in the past year. I would say 99% of the daily minis were play-tested by her first. I may have had a bad habit of constructing the next day’s mini the night before, but she would stick with me and give great feedback even at 1AM (sorry!). Susanna even constructed her own mini for twosday last February during a particularly hectic week of mine.

Thank you to Paul Rudnicki, Will Benoit, and especially Jessica Lewis for being the initial guinea pigs of my puzzles before “Odd Bear Puzzles”. It was Jess’s push for and excitement about them that led me to try making weekly puzzles, which led to the “May Minis”, which turned into a year of minis!

Lekha Jananthan deserves a shoutout and thanks as well! I know she solved the minis daily because if I ever forgot to hit the “Post” button the night before, I’d get a reminder text in the morning, which was honestly great 🙂

Last but not least, I’d like to express my great appreciation for the one and only Varldin! I honestly had no idea who was solving my minis until she began commenting on them early on. Afterwards, I discovered that she streamed solving crosswords on Twitch! I had to make an account to follow her, and watching her solve my minis (sometimes with chat, sometimes on her own) has been something I look forward to during the week. She’s an amazing person and fellow constructor, so please check out her channel and blog!

What a year it has been — 365 consecutive days of mini crosswords! I know Joel Fagliano may have me beat, but I’m pretty chuffed. For me, this past year involved living in the Boston area, becoming an uncle, visiting family in Colorado (having a close call with the fire there) and Maine and Massachusetts, camping in Yosemite, skiing/playing smash in Jay, moving back into the Bay Area, getting my first car, and then relocating within the area. I did the math, and I most likely spent a total of over 20 days constructing minis. I also spent at least 105 days sleeping. I’m not sure what that indicates, but I thought it was a fun fact. While it’s been nice to have some time set aside for puzzles each day, and while it’s been an enjoyable creative outlet, I find myself wanting to have more time for other projects.

I’m not going to stop making puzzles, I’m just going to stop making daily minis (for now, who knows what’ll happen in the future?). So what’s next? I’ve got a few cryptic crossword minis that I haven’t yet written instructions to go along with that I would like to share soon (I said this in February too, so we’ll see). I’ve been considering doing a daily cryptic clue, a slightly less time-consuming daily puzzle to create. I’m particularly proud of the fill-in-the-clue minis from last September, so maybe I’ll make a larger version. I’ve got some ideas for 15×15 crosswords that I haven’t had time or motivation to explore. If you’re interested in commissioning or collaborating, please reach out!

Side-note: For all you completionists out there, at the bottom of the Minis page, you should be able to see which ones you have left to solve.

Without further ado, I’d like to present the mini to round out the year of minis, #365: