Very nice! I loved the WILE/ACME connection 💣

Mini Fill Practice #1

Darn, almost got through that one! Just got stuck on RRNA/ROBERTORR crossing. Good job clueing the less common fill.

That one was fun and challenging. I reread the clue about the compass points and realized that it need not include all the points. Great grid!

Me too... I thought it was one letter from each compass point so I kept trying to insert a W in there...

Hey, I just figured out the reason for the shape of the grid!
(BTW, the clue to 19A includes part of 19A.)

i didn't notice that at first - yeah, it fits the theme!! that was really cool

thanks for the nice comments, all. i keep running into very dubious fills when i try to make crosswords, so i'm glad the cluing is helping to mitigate that.

Fantastic theme and art! Gave me a good smile when everything came together

Gifted

Oh wow I loved all of the "Island nation" clues! I kind of ended up taking a guess on the ALALA/NAI crossing but it worked out 🎉. Great first puzzle wisprabbit!

thank you mike! I'm glad those clues are guessable, because those are the ones i was worried about

I got naticked in the end but this is a great first entry!

Yeah, turns out island nations are my natick... lol

Congratulations on a fun first puzzle: nice theme! 👏

I also got naticked on the ALALA/NAI crossing, but everything else came smoothly and it was worth it to get so many island nations into such a small puzzle!

Love the theme! You don't often see PALAU mentioned... well, anywhere.

I also learned something new today. I didn't think HAITI would've qualified because it doesn't occupy the whole island, but Wikipedia says I'm wrong.

wisprabbit

@wisprabbit

Mini Fill Practice #1

Gifted

Archipelago