As I wrote before, I recently tried my hand with crossword construction.
This new puzzle is my sophomore effort. This one, slightly bigger at 13x13, came together much more easily for some reason (luck?). This time I did not have resort to using any unknown words, and nothing is really obscure, with the possible exception of 17-across (a common crossword answer).
As before, I mostly let the theme clues dictate the layout, while I left in a few longer stretches this time. The top left and bottom right corners were sufficiently isolated that I did them by hand before bed, then the next day I filled the longer answers and finished the bottom within about 30 minutes. At this point 3/4 of the puzzle was filled manually. Then, Qxw woke up and was able to help fill the rest (including 18-across, a nice gift which I happily accepted) – still using the standard Linux dictionary file. I reworked some of its suggestions using some of my own, but it was quite a time-saver.
In all I’m happier with this puzzle than the previous one: there’s more wordplay, better theme, nothing too difficult (I think). Comments welcome.
I guess this means the next one will be full-size.