After a long Sunday, mostly at Maker Faire (which was fun), I finally got to MGWCC Sunday night. Fortunately it was an ok fill and straightforward meta, and I finished it all in about 31 minutes.

The puzzle is here and my solving log is after the cut.

Log:

0:00:00

It’s late Sunday night, I have a migraine… let’s hope this goes well and I can sleep soon. Printing

0:00:44

2D: IROC! 3D MOOR? 14A EROS.. now can’t get out of NW..

0:02:25

oh, except ASSISTS for 4D (slow tonight…) I think 1A is PIMA, not sure.

0:03:01

yeah, GOOSEBUMPS and PEG

0:03:27

7D/8D/9D SUM ASP YES

0:03:54

but 15A looks like ARISE maybe… could be ROUSE, I think. and 6D SOUSA. ok.

0:04:49

ERBIUM, CRISIS.

0:06:17

27D AXIS, 30A EXIST. ESTATE. BANTAM (should have goten earlier) NILS. BEAU. USSR to finish W

0:07:30

42D ROWBOAT. 57A ALTO. 47D NAY.

0:09:21

49A THE WASTELAND. HALLO TRAPS PLEA SORT ENTER, SW done.

0:10:31

oh, 22A is STUART LITTLE. Starred ones all book titles? puzzle based on author maybe?

0:13:26

no obvious crossings for 22A or 49A. hmm.

0:13:59

31D AIMAT? 43A EMIT? 24D TREAT?

0:14:49

46A ONEAM. 38D WEES

0:16:09

23D RAGTIME? 31A AGES, 25D LUSH? ok… 37A is EWITAHx … no clue. right or wrong it doesn’t help me connect to SE.

0:18:13

40A ATA? 34D ITEM? 35D TADA?

0:20:30

67A REAP? 61D HOP? 45D MADEFOR

0:21:47

is 58A RUMBLEFISH? 58D RAP, 59D UGH, 66A PHILS. 60D MRI, 52D LABEL 63A AGREE

0:23:03

54A APIECE 48D MAPLES, 48A MIASMA, I guess.

0:23:28

39D HEINIE? 55D CITE 56D ESTA and S and SE are done.

0:24:24

37A EWITAHH… must be… EPITAPH! 25D LISP… Dodge… 29A ARIES! 21D VIE? 21A VAPID?

0:25:39

10D SHIATSU, 32A UNIT 33D NABS

0:26:32

13D with xxxDE… I think MEADE seems right.

0:26:52

10A SCUM.. CxxPT… looks like COOPT. could be.

0:27:15

IOTA/UNTIL/HONE all good. yay. NE done. E done. SE done. puzzle done.

0:27:42

starred clue answers: GOOSEBUMPS (R L STINE, from memory) STUART LITTLE (E B WHITE, from memory… a theme)

0:28:20

THE WASTELAND (T S ELIOT… it continues). RUMBLEFISH (no clue) ditto RAG TIME.

0:28:57

maybe it’s RETxxLBSxx… seems unlikely. I should look up the other two authors.

0:29:43

S E HINTON (a name I know, but didn’t connect) and E L DOCTOROW

0:30:07

RETSELBSEL are our 10 initials. and we want a 10 letter book-related word.

0:31:09

anagramming in my head… BESTSELLER. done.