Ekua Ewool author page

One day, for reasons which escape me now, I tried a Thursday puzzle. Previously, I had stuck to early-week puzzles and minis, autocheck on, and was very much content with life. I was shocked to learn afterwards that the Thursday puzzle's words included black squares. Surely, that was illegal?? Well, over time, I accumulated many colorful expressions for Thursdays. Perhaps my Ghanaian day-of-the-week first name subconsciously led me towards creating a day-of-the-week puzzle.

Constructing was hard, however, like Sudoku with words. You put one entry down only to realize it couldn't work with another. Then there were special puzzle rules, like symmetry. It led me to feel 75% intrigued about the whole thing with a 25% slice of who was I kidding. But as previous constructors' notes assured me that plebeians could create puzzles, I pressed onward.

My Scrabble wordlist betrayed me, and my puzzle was returned for workshopping. Looking at you, ZAS. So, I wised up and got mentored. Many thanks to Erik @ The Crossword Puzzle Collaboration Directory for nixing several dubious entries and helping me reframe my construction approach. Shout-out to family, friends, colleagues, and students who supported my efforts.

Hope you have a laugh with this one. We were all beginners once, no?