Yes, it’s true, I get rejections too. Lots of them. (In fact, based on the fact that I have zero accepted puzzles in the hopper at NYT right now, it is very likely that 2022 will pass without me in the NYT. I’m sad about this.)

Today’s puzzle is a reject from somewhere else (I think it will become apparent while you’re solving it that it’s not NYT material), but I still think it’s a fun one and worth your time. Enjoy!

Tough as Nails Themeless #54 – Across Lite

For the last puzzle of the year I figured something a little oversized might be the ticket — a 16×15. Enjoy!

Tough as Nails Themeless #53 – Across Lite

To paraphrase Valentina, I was feeling my ’90s fantasy when I seeded this grid.

As we near the end of the year, a few notes: One, I’m so excited to be on the cryptic end of the AVCXpansion! If somehow you visit this blog and haven’t heard of the project, I hope you’ll visit and support! Two, I have another very exciting iron in the fire that I’ll announce just as soon as I’m able to do so. And three, oh yeah, you know how it says “Crosswords and trivia by Stella Zawistowski” at the top of the page? I swear, I do trivia. I just don’t get a byline most of the time. If you’re looking for someone to write you some questions, I’m damn good at it, just sayin’.

Tough as Nails Themeless #52 – Across Lite

This one might not actually be as hard as some of the others? I clued it for NYT, but they said no and I decided to bring this one to the light of day now rather than trying to shop it around to other markets. I think it’s a good puz, even if it didn’t catch the NYT team’s eye!

Tough as Nails Themeless #51 – Across Lite

Wow, fifty puzzles already? Seems like I just got started yesterday.

I have A LOT going on right now, so I dipped into the well of puzzles I made a while back for this one. It is unapologetically for the classical music nerds among you. Toi, toi, toi!

Tough as Nails Themeless #50 – Across Lite

My seed was 19A, which consumed quite a lot of my time back in the day. No, 48A was not a seed, although I’ve been wanting to use that entry for a while.

Tough as Nails Themeless #49 – Across Lite

I have, so to speak, A LOT ON ONE’S PLATE (15), so I don’t have much to say about this puzzle except: Enjoy!

Tough as Nails Themeless #48 – Across Lite

It’s not THAT common for me to put my seed at 1-Across; I do that only if the letter pattern makes me think it’d make sense to do that. It did here, so I did. A second seed sits at 61A.

Hope you enjoy!

Tough as Nails Themeless #47 – Across Lite

Shouldn’t be too hard for you to guess what my seed entry was. This one’s a bit heavy on the proper nouns; I’d apologize in advance, but I’m not sure I’m sorry?

Tough as Nails Themeless #46 – Across Lite