Crossing Frontiers with Creative Vision

"Everything is copy," Nora Ephron’s family famously trumpeted, meaning that anything that happens to you is ripe for writing about. So true! I’ve developed my own adaptation: “Render it all”— not only my experiences but any media source I read, watch, and listen to inspires my work.

That happened again this week. I was writing a narrative for a job opportunity in California. It was clear in interviews that beautiful physical surroundings are the lifeblood of this community — and a huge part of its novelty. How to convey this vitality to prospective applicants?

I turned to something else entirely. I dug in to read Vampires of El Norte, Isabel Cañas’ sophomore novel that debuted this month. Cañas depicts life on the Texas-Mexico border in the 1840s in visceral detail — from wrestling with fauna to living in relationships to smelling and tasting the food to feeling and knowing faith. After all, developing a sense of place isn’t just about describing the physical landscape, but extends to portraying the people, culture, history, all the sensory elements, and the intangible mood. Cañas does a masterful job of capturing all of these — in a gripping and authentic alchemy. In addition, her novel has earned praise for adeptly blurring genres: historical fiction, romance, horror, and adventure.

Cañas’ atmospherics inspired me to play with images as I was trying to capture an exquisite place far from the Rio Grande Valley — and with the subtlety expected in business writing. As part of my process, I also studied some photos of this place. I found ways to portray the community’s warmth and its one-of-a-kind physical landscape. At the heart of this place and this role, I discerned balance and joy.

I always value the ways reading and writing are reinforcing — and how by imbibing the creative spirit, you can cross all boundaries to form something original and right.