Puzzle Notes

Dear friends: 

SERGIO PLEASE FINISH THE 3FOR3 MAILINGS -- THOSE ARE MANY MONTHS OVERDUE.

Another hard one this week -- Kameron Austin Collins's latest themeless (the 16th themeless in the history of the AVCX) is 4.5/5 in difficulty.

Meanwhile, we're very happy to plug a new project by our friend Andrew Ries this week. Andrew has an "EP" of 20 themelesses for sale at his site. The first puzzle, a free teaser, is already up. The full set will be available on Friday of this week. Per Andrew, "The Stagger Sessions is a collection of twenty original themeless (or 'freestyle') crosswords. All puzzles feature a central staggered stack of answers, oriented either horizontally or vertically in each grid. I conceived this project as a 'crossword EP,' and thus approached the writing of these puzzles as a musician would approach the writing of an album. If indie puzzles are your jam, this EP might be right up your alley."

Because Andrew is a very good dude, he has given us three copies of his puzzle EP to give away FREE. Just let us know at editor@avxword.com what your favorite (music) EP is before the end of this coming Sunday, and you'll be entered automatically to win one of the copies. By the way, there is a correct answer to this question, but we will honor any answer, because of course the solver is always right et cetera et cetera ... but then I will pedantically set you straight next week.

Erin Rhode is up next.

Best,

Ben and the AVCX crew [avxword.com, @AVCXWord]