Tortoiseshell Puzzles
Puzzles by Nathan Curtis
Rows Garden #1
This one took me quite a while to put together, let me tell you. I just gained a lot more respect for the people who make Rows Garden puzzles on a regular basis, especially Patrick Berry, who invented the type, and Andrew Ries, who manages to put out a new one every week. I'm sure they get easier with practice, but this was more work than a Some Assembly Required, and that's saying something. I'll post a solution once I get that formatted to my satisfaction, but I figured I should get the puzzle up while I have it.
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Marching Bands #6
It's been quite a while since I've posted a Marching Bands puzzle -- not since before ToPuWriMo, in fact. I think I have a couple half-completed grids somewhere, but this one I cranked out over the last day or so. Acknowledgements to Mike Shenk.
ETA: There was an error in one of the clues. I have corrected the error and uploaded a new file.
ETA (10/2/11): I have decided to play with the grid a little bit, and tweak some of the clues for good measure. New files have been uploaded.
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Tortoise's Binary Birthday Extravaganza
I turned 32 just yesterday, and to celebrate I wrote an extravaganza to be unveiled at a party last night. And because 32 is a power of two, I chose to make it a binary extravaganza of sorts -- every puzzle has two answers, and there are two metapuzzles, which each take one answer from each puzzle. If you are solving along at home, it will be useful to know that this extravaganza was intended to be solved with internet references, so feel free to look things up as needed. Good luck!
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Some Assembly Required #6
As promised earlier this week, here is another Some Assembly Required. This time, I have gotten down to 27 Pieces while managing to stick with 2 entries running across each row, so I'm pretty happy. This puzzle was written for a party I hosted yesterday, and as such there are a few quasi-thematic entries lurking in the grid. Furthermore, I would like to thank the solvers at the party, who caught a couple of mistakes in the puzzle. Enjoy!
Acknowledgements to Patrick Berry.
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Some Assembly Required #5
In my relentless assault on my word count, I have gotten the number of pieces down to 27, though again I have three entries spanning the final row. This time I think I was more aggressive with my corners, pushing for six-letter words as "filler" instead of settling for five. And coming this weekend will be another Some Assembly Required, as well as a birthday extravaganza. Stay tuned!
Acknowledgements to Patrick Berry.
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Spiral #9
I've been sitting on this one for over a month, trying to decide if I wanted to post this. On the one hand, I am proud of the fact that I managed to get my average word length up over 7 for the first time in this puzzle type, but on the other hand I feel like some of the trivia in here is a bit more obscure than I would like. I suppose I'll let you decide whether the fill is too obscure. Another bit of trivia: the seed for this puzzle was inspired by an accidental find while solving a puzzle in the July edition of Foggy Brume's P&A Magazine. Ten points if you can figure out what I'm referring to there.
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The Hive
Here's a puzzle I've been meaning to post for a while. This was my first variety cryptic, which appeared in the January 2011 edition of the Enigma, the monthly publication of the National Puzzlers' League. I wanted to do something special for my first published cryptic, so I went for broke on the grid. While I am still happy with the construction, it is certainly propped up by a lot of short answers, which I would have avoided had I been going for a more conventional grid. Enjoy!
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Acrostic
Only two days behind schedule, I have at last reached 30 puzzles. In honor of this milestone, I offer a valedictory acrostic. Don't worry, it's not a farewell to writing puzzles, just to ToPuWriMo (although I do intend to take a break for much of the next month or so). While I didn't meet every goal I set for myself, I succeeded in posting a new puzzle every day I was in town this past month, and I'm quite happy with that accomplishment. Enjoy the last puzzle of ToPuWriMo!
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State Capital Stretch
I had wanted to do another Pipe Dream for today, but I just couldn't get the grid to work out. So I threw this together instead. I hope you enjoy it!
ETA: There was a small error in the grid. I have fixed the error and uploaded new files.
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Crypto Categories #3
Today would be the last day of ToPuWriMo, had it not been for the interruption this past weekend. Instead, for my antepenultimate offering, I give you another Crypto Categories. This should be closer to the original one in difficulty, as I used a lot of the same categories (choosing different members, of course), but there are also a few borrowed from CC #2 and a couple of new ones as well.
As ToPuWriMo winds down, it occurs to me that I might want to put together a sampler of maybe 4-6 puzzles from this month, to show off some of my work. Do you have any favorite puzzles that you'd like to see in such a collection? Any and all feedback is appreciated.
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