This is my first themeless and just my second 15x puzzle. I chose this layout because it’s essentially a quartet of 7x7 puzzles stitched together with a few more 7-letter (and shorter) entries, so it seemed like a natural progression from the 7x puzzles I’d started making. Of course, with 36 (!) 7-letter slots, it’d be impossible to make them all sizzle, but I’m happy with the number of entries I’d enjoy seeing as a solver and that I was able to avoid a lot of junk in the short fill. (Two entries, including 1-Across, will look familiar if you’ve solved some of my 7xs.) -- Grid credit: David Steinberg (2/2/19 NYT) and Daniel Larsen (1/22/21 NYT)