OUTSIDE THE FOX PUZZLES: YEAR 1
This is the official announcement for Outside the Fox Puzzles, a new puzzle subscription service in the style of Joon Pahk's Outside the Box Puzzles (spelled with a B, not an F). I am in a long-standing professional relationship with Joon, who has published quite a few of my puzzles in Outside the Box Puzzles and thus helped me expand my audience. Joon forwarded me an unnamed subscriber's suggestion that I start a similar service for my invention Touchword, and Outside the Fox Puzzles is exactly that. It is also the world's only puzzle subscription service to guarantee that none of the puzzles have been eaten by a fox (very few people want to solve puzzles with fox bite marks or slobber on them).
Outside the Fox Puzzles uses a "pay what you want" model; the minimum price for one year of puzzles is US$10, but polling suggests that some folks are definitely willing to spend more than that, and I aim to please. Every Tuesday for 50 weeks (January 2 through December 10, 2024), at 8:00 AM Central Time, I will release three new puzzles:
* A Touchword. This is a crossword variation of my own invention, featuring words which touch instead of crossing. These alternate between 11x11 (mini) and 15x15 (standard) puzzles each week.
* A gridded logic puzzle. Any logic puzzle genre which is playable on puzz.link is fair game.
* A variety word puzzle. It could be a meaty 15x15 Pathfinder, it could be a brief one-liner like you'd hear Will Shortz give on NPR, it could be anywhere in between. The only guarantee is that your wordplay abilities will be tested, and hopefully rewarded to some extent.
* A Touchword. This is a crossword variation of my own invention, featuring words which touch instead of crossing. These alternate between 11x11 (mini) and 15x15 (standard) puzzles each week.
* A gridded logic puzzle. Any logic puzzle genre which is playable on puzz.link is fair game.
* A variety word puzzle. It could be a meaty 15x15 Pathfinder, it could be a brief one-liner like you'd hear Will Shortz give on NPR, it could be anywhere in between. The only guarantee is that your wordplay abilities will be tested, and hopefully rewarded to some extent.
You will get three PDF's each week: one for the puzzles, one for the hints, and one for the solutions. You will also get two PUZ files for each Touchword (one for the normal version and one for the easy version), plus PUZ files for any variety word puzzles which I can offer in that format. Becoming a subscriber to Outside the Fox Puzzles is a simple 4-step process:
Step 1: Add outsidethefoxpuzzles@gmail.com to your address book or whitelist to ensure smooth email delivery.
Step 2: Send me a payment of at least US$10. You may skip this step if you were a Patreon user at the $20/month Ultra Fan level at any point during 2023 or 2024. Otherwise, go to https://paypal.me/mathgrant. ABSOLUTELY IMPORTANT: Mention “Outside the Fox Puzzles year 1” and the email address with which you want to subscribe!
Step 3: Request to join the Google group at https://groups.google.com/g/outside-the-fox-puzzles-year-1/. (This step is mostly optional, since I can usually invite you to the group or even add you directly if you gave me an email address with which to do so during step 2, but it does help. If you do this step, chances are the email address that Google will use is the Gmail address with which you were signed in; if that's different from the email address that you mentioned to me, then I will assume that the latter is the one you actually want.)
Step 4: Wait for me to manually vet your request and add you. You are now a member of the group and will receive a weekly dose of puzzle fun via email! If you joined after January 2, 2024, you may also dive into the archive of puzzles you missed while you wait for the next weekly email! Yappy solving! (Reach out to me via email at glmathgrant@gmail.com or outsidethefoxpuzzles@gmail.com if you have any issues.)
FOX & BADGER MAGAZINE ISSUE #7
As my gift to all of my Patreon supporters at all dollar levels, the seventh (and possibly final, if Outside the Fox Puzzles goes well) edition of my digital magazine Fox & Badger Magazine was sent out! This edition features an 18-puzzle meta titled "The Kevin's Puzzles at Home Cinematic Universe", plus a bevy of miscellaneous puzzles in the Odds & Ends section. If you currently support me on Patreon, I hope you have enjoyed this so far! If you don't currently support me on Patreon, send me US$3 or more via paypal.me/mathgrant, and mention that you want Fox & Badger Magazine issue #7. It will probably also be part of the next Patron Puzzles for Philanthropy pack when it releases late next year.
