I just noticed
this interview, published last month on the
Book & Film Globe website, with Frank Longo, the creator of the Spelling Bee puzzle in the
New York Times Magazine. This puzzle is the inspiration for our 7-by-many puzzles.
The
NY Times now actually has two versions of this puzzle: the one discussed in the interview, which appears in print once a week; and a daily online version, available to anyone with a
NY Times crosswords subscription. One difference between these is that the weekly version requires words of five letters or more, while the daily puzzle accepts four-letter words too. I was aware of both these options when I started the 7-by-many puzzles, and opted for a five letter minimum, which seems to make for a more interesting puzzle.
One thing I've noticed since releasing 7-by-many books is that the vast majority of sales are in the US, whereas the other types of Chi puzzle books sell more copies in the UK. Presumably this is a spin-off from the popularity of Spelling Bee in the US. As mentioned in the interview, the
Times hasn't yet made these puzzles available in books.