Meet Lisa Schnebly Heidinger | author (ten books published, one coming out now, two in the pipeline)

We had the good fortune of connecting with Lisa Schnebly Heidinger and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Lisa Schnebly, is there something you believe many others might not?
That there is a best way to do just about anything. We are as individual as our fingerprints, and one size rarely fits all. (That said, my dad always remarked, “You’ll get something out of it you don’t exepct,” and most of the best advice books survive because there are lots of broadly applicable tips.) I say in speeches that if Hemingway and Fitzgerald would have edited one another’s work, neither would have sold a single copy. By doing what draws us, calls us, excites us, we are acting in our best arena. We bring authenticity to what we love, and to me, authenticity is the secret sauce, where the magic happens. Anyone can do what you do, but no one can do it the way you do. No one brings your experiences, perspectives, reflections, impressions to it. Writing is, at best, telling the stories only you have been given.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I got where I am one attempt, one mistake, one opportunity at a time. I remember apologizing to my dad over lunch when I was a receptionist and college dropout; telling him I was glad he had three other kids who would make something of themselves. He was unflustered. “Your career will find you,” he said. “Mine did when I was visiting a friend at the radio station. He asked if I wanted to do the ID at the top of the hour, and when I keyed the mic and said, “Crown Jewelers time, three o’clock’ I knew I’d found my career.” Well, when I went to court with my journalism major boyfriend and a bailiff was telling us things the jury wouldn’t find out, I knew I’d found mine. Getting on with the Green Valley News before I had the degree was the game-changer. I gradually chipped away at the BA in Journalism at UA. I really wanted television, and it was a wild way to get in. I worked Victim Witness and a NY Times reporter rode with us and my picture appeared there. Good Morning American flew me in to appear, and I took that tape the KGUN in Tucson and said, “If I can do live TV surely I can work here.” The News Director said, “Okay, I’ll hire you. I just gave my two weeks’ notice, so you’ll be someone else’s problem.” And it went on from there,. Since then, telling Arizona stories, in every possible way, has been what I do. Now we are launching the Celebrating Arizona podcast — the newest way to be a bard.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
OH, boy. My favorite thing. First is my famous (in some circles) 48-hour tour of Northern Arizona. People think the state is all cactus. So leave at noon for Flagstaff from the Valley; see Percival Lowell’s observatory and his amazing quotes on his mausoleum. Dinner at Lumberyard where you can see the Peaks and trains from the patio. Bed early. Up before dawn to drive to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon and have breakfast at the elegant El Tovar. Walk down the Bright Angel trail a ways, see the Kolb Studio seemingly built on thin air, the Harvey museum with a fireplace of all the rock layers in the canyon. Lunch on the El Tovar lounge patio watching cloudplay. Leave driving east to see Cameron Trading Post, one of the originals here. Drive through Wupatki, my favorite ancestral Native site, and see the ball court and blowhole. Back to Flag for a lovely dinner at Josephines, an old stone house where I fell in love with my husband. Up early, down through Sedona for breakfast and to the Valley. No, I have a week! See Sedona Schnebly (my great-grandma for whom the town was named) places in Sedona, the creek on their old property, now Los Abrigados. Lunch at Creekside, then to Jerome. Dinner at Haunted Hamburger, stay at Connor Hotel, historic delight. Walk the crooked streets, read about the sliding jail. Next morning over Mingus Mtn. to Presccott for historic Hassayampa breakfast and learn about Buckey O’Neill the Rough Rider. (I’m runninng out of room — similar experiences at Hermosa Inn Phoenix, Arizona Inn Tucson, down to Sonoita and Tombstone and Bisbee. Now I really want to go. So many stories.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
What a great question!
This may seem odd, but my shoutout goes to KTVK-TV3.
Some people like to say “television news” is an oxymoron, but I learned more about both Arizona, and good writing, while I was their Northern Arizona Bureau at our Monte Vista Hotel office than any other single source. Well, them and my dad: he was the wordsmith who formed me and all my best qualities over years of traveling the state.

Website: celebratingAZ.com, arizonawriter.com

Facebook: Lisa Schnebly Heidinger

Youtube: Lisa Schnebly Heidinger

Other: check Amazon or alibris for my books!

Image Credits
Steven Toya,
University of Arizona Press