Puzzle #13: "Loud and Clear" by Olivia Mitra Framke

I'm so beyond excited to be featuring Olivia Mitra Framke today! I've been enjoying her puzzles in other outlets for a while now, and am incredibly thrilled to be able to showcase her work here. This is a really fun one! And to top it all off, this is Brain Candy's first ever meta puzzle! Olivia explains what a meta puzzle is in her note below for anyone who may be new to them, and for those who will be solving on this page instead of in Across Lite where there's a note, I'll go ahead and say that the answer to this meta puzzle is an acronym. Special thanks to meta puzzle legend Matt Gaffney for lending an additional editorial eye. I hope you enjoy the solve -- and best of luck in your quest for the solution! 🧩

Here's Olivia: Earlier this year I discovered the world of crossword blogs and indie publications. I can’t tell you how freeing it is to publish a puzzle on a blog like Brain Candy after only catering to major publications for years!!  A big thank you to Amanda for featuring me, and for providing such thoughtful feedback during this process. This is also my first time constructing a meta puzzle, and I’m really pleased with how it turned out! For those who don’t know, a meta crossword is a puzzle that involves an extra step to extract a final answer after the crossword is completed. See the puzzle note and title for hints (and try not to spoil the answer for anyone!).

If you're interested, you can find more puzzles by me at The Inkubator, USA Today, and The New York Times. I also co-constructed a "Video Game Midis" puzzle pack for the NYT App!

Let me finish by saying that if you’re a new female-identifying constructor looking for some guidance, please feel free to DM me on Twitter @Livienna. I love mentoring, and I want to give back to the wonderful crossword community by fostering new female talent, as my mentors did for me. Hope you enjoy!

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