New York Times, Tuesday, November 16, 2021

I'm thrilled to make my NYT debut! Thanks to the editorial teams at the NYT, Universal, and WSJ, as well as the constructing community, for their gracious and encouraging feedback. XWord Info has been an indispensable resource. My friend Mike connected me to constructor extraordinaire Ian Livengood, who showed me the ropes, and fellow constructor Michael Lieberman has been an invaluable sounding board for my half-baked ideas. Most of all, thanks to my wife for her patience and support, and to our two young girls for helping me rekindle my love for wordplay.

The theme came to me gradually. First, Sally Hoelscher's 2020 puzzle featuring First Lady memoirs inspired the idea of using authors as themers. Then, during Zoom trivia with friends, my team answered a question about authors who wrote only one novel. Finally, a few weeks later, I realized the revealer could apply to those authors.

This puzzle not only taught me about construction but also about what answers to include. My first idea was to use book titles as themers, but while the titles didn't work symmetrically, the authors did. At first, I wrestled with including MARGARET MITCHELL. Although I loved the theme and thought it would only work if I paired her 16-letter name symmetrically with the 16-letter revealer, I was ready to scrap the puzzle entirely due to the novel's racism. However, when it dawned on me that I could split the revealer symmetrically and include ANNA SEWELL instead, I knew the puzzle could still work.

A friend asked me about this theme two years ago, and I hemmed and hawed, wondering if it was worth the effort of creating a full, clued grid, as Will Shortz requires. Something didn't sit well with me, as SYLVIA PLATH, MARGARET MITCHELL, and EMILY BRONTE (our theme set) wrote other things in their lives — all writers do.

We ended up querying the theme with Mike Shenk at the WSJ, who said no thanks, because although these writers are best known for their single novel, they all wrote short stories, essays, etc.

I'm a genius!

Then I did today's puzzle.

Okay, maybe not.

This is why everyone should listen to me. Also, no one.

It's a fun concept, playing on THAT'S ALL / SHE WROTE. I knew ANNA SEWELL off the top because my friend and I discussed extensively whether or not she was fair game. (I think so. Mostly.)

I'm not a fan of revealers that give away the game too quickly. Perhaps a mirror layout, with all the themers vertically oriented, would have been better. That way, THAT'S ALL SHE WROTE could be experienced much later in the solving process.

Still, a novel (sorry) concept to most non-OCD constructor types. Fun debut.