My backpack is almost always stocked with two books: The Canadian Press Caps and Spelling reference guide, and an anthology of the hundred best crossword puzzles from the New York Times. Every morning, I sling this bag over my shoulders and head to my newsroom, where I sneak in puzzles between interviews and story meetings. Valemount, the BC village where I work, is just two hours from Jasper National Park. Being the newsroom’s only full-time reporter, I became the de facto wildfire correspondent when the site went up in a blaze this past July. My workdays this summer consisted of long, hazy hours of wildfire reporting, bookended by—what else?—crossword puzzles. 

Perhaps it’s sheer exhaustion that made crosswords and journalism start to blur together, but as the summer went on, I began to see parallels between my writing and my penchant for puzzles. The click of suddenly ...