All Systems Go! (with Kelsey Dixon)

Today I'm super excited for two things! (sorrynotsorry for the long post)

1 - AVCXpansion content begins Monday! (Subscribers will receive their first (midi!) puzzle by email Sunday night) For $30/year, the regular AVCX subscription will now include 2 midi crosswords, 2 15x crosswords, 1 cryptic, and 1 trivia game for three weeks each month! This is a ridiculous amount of puzzle content, and the best development in indie crosswords in basically forever. So many good puzzles are on the way from constructors you know and love. Thank you so much to everyone who supported the kickstarter to make the Xpansion possible. Sign up for AVCX here!

2 - Today's puzzle is a joint midi with Kelsey Dixon aka crosstina aquafina aka kelseydx!! Kelsey and I are both so happy to be rostered constructors for Lil AVC X. Each of us (plus five others) will publish one midi puzzle per month (give or take) starting in March. 

This puzzle started with the bottom stack, of which 33- and 34-across are both entries I've been trying to get into puzzles for a while. So glad they ended up fitting together so nicely! I passed it to Kelsey to fill the top half and then we clued collaboratively - and she knocked it out of the park, naturally. No secret to anyone reading this that I so enjoy making puzzles with friends, and this one is no exception. 

Kelsey says: "Stop the presses, it's my Norah Sharpe debut—where do I submit my headshot!? I've been aware of Norah since before I even started constructing (I think we first crossed paths in a twitch stream?) [ed. note: no surprise there] so it's very exciting to finally work with her on a puzzle AND count her as somewhat of a colleague now at Lil AVC X! [ed. note: same x2!] Her seed fill was a BANGER and the rest of the grid came together so smooth, I hope you love it because I had a blast working on it." 🥰

Thanks very much to Will for the test run.

And maybe check out this other fun stuff I've been up to since the last puzzle here:

helped a little with "Think Fast!" by Will and friends

helped a little with "Stacks on Stacks on Stacks" by Alex and friends

made "Well-Kept Secrets" with Rose hosted by Bewilderingly 

made "Have You Heard?" a silly acrostic with Alex hosted by Crossweird 

reviewed the Feb 12 USAT by for Sally's Take on the USA Today Crossword

got picked up by The Crossword Scholar, twice

appeared in Quiara's January roundup

continuing to write for Crossworld News & Notes, where Matt keeps letting me write about all the cool crossword work my friends are doing. I love you guys! 

If you solve it, blog it, stream it, like it, love it, or find a typo, let me know! twitter | email | or comment below. Thanks! 

Fullscreen solve | (no puz because .puz sucks sry)