I like crosswords: solving them, writing them, and, as you’ll see on this page, talking about them.

To say I have a plan of exactly what this site will look like is quite an overstatement. I have ideas, though, mainly that there will likely be three forms of post appearing on here.

Firstly, we have the obvious. Every week, a cryptic crossword will materialise – as if from the ether – to be downloaded for your enjoyment. I personally have a preference for quality surfaces so the difficulty of these puzzles will vary day-to-day and clue-to-clue. Ultimately, I want a clue to be fun, and to share that fun with you.

Secondly, there’ll be a post like this (although normally less autobiographical and rambling – at least that’s the hope). If a week’s crossword has a theme, the accompanying blog will likely have a bit of a sojourn into why it does and what it means. In general, though, I’d like to focus on what it’s like cluing certain words. The crossword blogs I really love tend to focus on the other end of the equation – breaking down how a clue works. While this is a great part of the internet, I’ve found that one of the things that helps me most in approaching a crossword is working out how the setter approaches it. Maybe it will help someone else if rather than just parsing the crossword they’ve just done, there’s some discourse as to why it exists in the first place. Or maybe this is all just an excuse I’ve made up to let me self-indulge and write about crosswords. In any case, crossword one day, blog a few days later.

Finally, to make sure there’s something every day, even when there’s no full crossword, I’ll take a topical word of some kind – a dictionary’s word of the day or something in the news – and clue that. A quick bite of a standalone ‘Clue for the Day.’

Enjoy.

-Tully