Originally from Mexico City, Escandon, 42, is a former clay artist who still keeps a studio in the crater of an inactive volcano in Mexico. She and her husband own a Hispanic advertising firm in Los Angeles, but she spends most of her time writing. Shunning the term ““magic realism,’’ she prefers to call her work ““magical reality.’’ ““You go to Latin America and you see magic everywhere,’’ Escandon says. ““Last year the Virgin of Guadalupe appeared on the floor of the subway station in Mexico City and the authorities cordoned off the spot. They made a huge shrine. There was nothing strange about it. It’s more magic than magic realism because we live it every day.''
