How this puzzle came about

This is my second stab at introducing a puzzle page to the Courier, and I freely admit I stole this particular way of setting it up from the Cobb County Public Library.

My first try was with a tool used by professional puzzle writers, and it put me way in over my head. If I remember correctly, it took me five hours of work to generate a puzzle that worked.

But the Cobb County Public Library sent the following tweet recently:

Weekly Words #75
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Our resident Library Puzzlemaster Raymond has created fun crossword puzzles for us to complete! Visit @crosshareapp to complete the puzzle online or print it out to complete it by hand: https://t.co/fSKUG5AWba

— Cobb County Public Library (@cobblibrary) September 4, 2021

I did their wonderful little puzzle (and I have to say it took me longer than I would have guessed for such a small puzzle) and noticed that the puzzle was constructed using Crosshare, a free crossword puzzle builder.

So I did a first stab at it this morning. In fact I called it “First Try.” It was much easier to use than the tool I used before, and while I think a couple of the word/clue combinations I included were a little obscure, I think this is a pretty workable first try.

So see how you like it, give me feedback, and I’ll try to get better at creating these puzzles!