Influences
Memories inform the creative spirit. Memories from a Florida childhood: men floating in silent skiffs among the tangled roots of the mangrove trees to check their crab cages. A sudden flash to shock-tall buildings in the man-made canyons of Manhattan. Then a reminder of home as I peer up to see palm trees stretch their swaying necks high above a Los Angeles boulevard.
Diverse landscapes influence style. The experience of different places, different faces allows an expansive view of the world that can be expressed in the simplest marketing advertisement or most complex screenplay.
My writing reflects these varied geographies. I can write and edit materials on dramatically different topics, from clinical medicine to parenting advice columns, from opinion on crime and the social landscape to instructional pieces on hand-feeding a baby bird. I can digest information and create compelling copy no matter what the topic.
A co-worker once told me, “People have no idea what you can do by seeing you on paper. They have to work with you to know how committed and creative you are.” I wouldn’t trade that ability for the world. This isn’t arrogance. This is appreciation: for a childhood that was filled with Tchaikovsky and Rembrandt; an adolescence filled with guitar and competitive swimming; and an adulthood filled with new cities, new faces, and new experiments.
