I must begin this commentary on Peter Gordon by mentioning how jealous I am! It would be a dream to do puzzles for a living instead of a hobby, and our spotlight today is on one of the very few who have that distinct privilege. I personally have subscribed to Fireball Crosswords off and on for most of its existence, and I have purchased every season of the Newsflash crosswords that have been made. We have regular write-ups on this blog of the Fireball, as they represent some of the finest crosswords being made today. We will thus focus on the Newsflash puzzles. They come out on Fridays, and it is always amusing to see how timely they are, even including news sometimes from FRIDAY! It is that sort of flexibility that indie crossword constructors enjoy, and we as solvers get to reap those benefits. Each year, Peter runs a Kickstarter campaign, an example of which is seen here. This is the fifth year of these puzzles, and they are a joy to solve. Usually not quite as difficult as the regular Fireball, but again, the events that are fresh in the news make these interesting. If you don’t subscribe to his Fireball Crosswords, what is wrong with you? They are found at this site. He also has made an iPhone app called Celebrity: Get a Clue that can be found here. If you like celebrity trivia, you will have fun with it!

I was able to ask Peter a few questions about his puzzling career: Continue reading →