Caution: WORDS XING!

I'm starting a crossword blog, and this is it!

Here's a quick summary of my crossword journey to this point:

• I've enjoyed puzzles of all kinds since childhood: logic games, crosswords, Scrabble, brainteasers, trivia, etc.
• I started playing competitive Scrabble tournaments in college and kept that up for a few years, but haven't played in a while.
• In grad school, friends and I would solve the New York Times crossword together daily, and I starting exploring the indie puzzle-verse, as well.
• I made a bunch of crosswords just for fun, but didn't really share them beyond my circle of friends.
• I also made some crosswords with indie music themes to share on a website I was working for about the local music scene. (If you lived in Pittsburgh around 2010-2012 and remember the Draw Us Lines blog, let me know!)
• After that, I got caught up with finishing grad school and entering academia. I would still solve puzzles for fun, but not as often as before.
• I started making some 15x15 crosswords with mathematics themes and got a few published in academic journals, mostly Mathematics Magazine (a publication of the MAA: Mathematical Association of America).
• Related to that, as a regular gig, I've been making a puzzle for each of the two national conferences for professional mathematicians each year: the Joint Mathematics Meetings and MathFest. These are 15x15s where I try to pack as many names of invited speakers into the grid as possible. Here's the most recent example, from January 2021.
• Recently, I started making 10x10s with math themes and almost entirely math-related fill. In a burst of inspiration, I made a whole bunch of them over winter break and self-published a book with 64 such puzzles. I will share some more example puzzles like those on this blog sometimes.
• Now, I'm looking into making more standard 15x15s, with the hopes of getting some published in popular outlets. We'll see how that goes...

Essentially, I see this blog as a place to share puzzles and related information with y'all out there reading this. I'll post fun and interesting puzzles for you to solve, I'll sometimes talk about the construction process, and I may link to other good puzzle content out there. Hope you enjoy!

Finally, special thanks to family friend and quick wit Mark Rudnick for inspiration for the blog title and logo.