Click HERE to download a printable PDF of this puzzle.

ACROSS

 1 19th-century novelist spewing hot air galore (7,5)

 9 Shift imprecise red states’ boundaries (5)

10 Bill and I emptied our cheeks (9)

11 Draw tired spouse (9)

12 Lead in Titanic after Ocean’s 10 (4)

14 Unproductive, endless enjoyment with something you use to 3 (6)

15 Nation’s carbon-free stuff is brown (8)

17 10 in genuine counterargument (8)

19 Prepare for birth without an initial legacy (6)

22 Blue beam gets around the speed of light (4)

23 Lie in beds and smile mysteriously (9)

26 Oversee appeal involving skeezy individual lives (9)

27 Nocturnal goddess returns to encompass unknown void (5)

28 Bicycle parts for each boy’s official representative (12)

DOWN

 1 Makes haste to obtain first of decorated skins (5)

 2 Pair of rebels raised cane on Tuesday to participate in a historic
diversion (7)

 3 Create a mosaic of hawk in dilapidated 19 (10)

 4 For example, Annie Oakley’s beginning new version of harp number
(6)

 5 Slave scrambled to fuel a Western city (3,5)

 6 Second person, right as always (4)

 7 Pilot pressing disemboweled cat (6)

 8 Fiction of the past? (8)

13 Musical mistake: reusing many elements (4,2,4)

14 Stronghold favoring lock (8)

16 Bit of data kept in weirdly darkish storage device (4,4)

18 Muscle Beach’s leader: Scary Spice (6)

20 Cook no basil for people deficient in pigment (7)

21 Evaluate more than one: 10 seconds (6)

24 Woman comes through well enough (5)

25 Support piece of a plane (4)

SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 3490

ACROSS 1 STAG NATION 8 S + INK
9 GENE + VA 11 hidden (cantor)
12 C + ONE 13 STA(I)N
15 MI(RAC)LE (car rev.) 17 TR(AGED)Y
22 [k]LAT + ER (rev.) 23 initial letters
24 MIM[e]OS + A 25 CH(A + S)ER (search)
26 “beer” (bier) 27 PER(CUSS + I)ON

DOWN 1 AS + COT 2 TIN + CT 3 ANT + E 4 G(A + R.N.)ET
5 N.E. + PAL 6 IND + I + A 7 hidden 10 GEN + I.E. 14 final letters
16 “seeders” 18 RE(C)AP 19 A + ROSE 20 BA(I)RN 21 hidden
22 alternate letters 23 HOBO[ken]