Heber Valley author transforms life’s struggles into inspiring books

Award-winning author Heidi Tucker details the power of storytelling and why she was called to write. Photo: Take a Hike Photography // Lexie Larson

Award-winning author Heidi Tucker details the power of storytelling and why she was called to write

By Jacquie Symes, Neighbors of Heber Valley

Born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, Heidi Tucker spent her childhood summers in Utah. These beginnings instilled a deep-rooted love and connection to the outdoors, a feature Utah certainly flaunts proudly. Heidi graduated from Arizona State University and married her high school sweetheart, Kevin Tucker, now a practicing attorney in the area. The two grew a family of three girls and a boy, all of whom were raised in Arizona and attended college in Utah, never to return to their desert home. 

With an empty nest (and during what she describes as a low point in her life), Heidi’s calling as an author came to her during a dream on a flight from Phoenix to Salt Lake City. A business major and avid reader, Heidi didn’t know she had it in her to become a successful author.

“In the dream, I saw my hands holding a book, and I knew that it was my book. I flipped through the pages in that dream, and I recognized the writing. I knew this was a book about hope and getting through the struggles of life. When that plane hit the runway at the Salt Lake City airport, I woke up, and I felt like I was on fire. I knew it was more than a dream. I knew it was an inspired calling that I had to answer. It felt very, very real. I sort of grappled with that for a while and eventually found the courage to sit down and write from my heart. To write the book that I had been called to write.” 

Heidi’s first book, Finding Hope in the Journey, was very personal. “It’s almost my journal; I share thoughts and stories about hope, positivity, and enduring the struggles of life. It has been my #1 seller. I think people need to find hope in their own journey. And although there are personal stories in there, as readers, we pick up a book, and if it touches us, we translate the details in the book to our own life.” 

Heidi believes the best teachers are stories. As she describes, if you want to teach or motivate someone, tell them in the form of a story and watch the feelings and emotions of your narrative translate to true connection and learning. This guiding principle led Heidi through her next four books and allowed her to provide a rich history of telling important truths, sharing meaningful stories, and leaving a legacy, not only for her own posterity but for those she has written for and about.

The four books following Heidi’s debut memoir came to her from those who had read her work and trusted her to tell their story.

Whatever one feels, whether it’s the universe or one’s own spirituality, I know it was meant to be. I wrote their stories each time without intending to write another book, and now I’ve just finished my fifth book. Each one is about people who have risen up from the ashes of incredible despair and tragedy in their lives to find hope and light. They end up making this real difference in the world.” 

But Heidi is selective in the books she will take on; each requires a two-year commitment, intense emotional immersion, and most of all – an attribute that is uniquely hers – the commitment, honor, and pressure to tell it right. “When I’m writing a book, I want readers to ask: With the difficulties, trials, and struggles I have in my own life, how can I rise above and do something to be a light in the world? How can I find hope? How can I make a difference to make the world a better place? I think stories, true stories like the ones I write, help us do that.”

Eventually, called back to her roots, Heidi and Kevin left Arizona to make Heber Valley their home. “It feels like home, we love it. It’s spiritual for me to get away and into the outdoors. The beauty and the smell, away from everything.” For Heidi, the wilderness is food for her soul. A place to gather her thoughts, find inspiration, and take inventory of what matters most. “Even though Heber is a little bit rural,” says Heidi, “it’s quite a contrast from the city life of Phoenix. I find myself needing to unplug and escape into the mountains so that I can feel those emotions to inspire me.”

Before adding “award-winning author” to her list of accomplishments, Heidi’s career as a bookkeeper and account manager utilized the critical, mathematical side of her brain to earn a living and make a life. “I’m counting dollars and cents to the penny,” Heidi reflected, a heavy contrast to simultaneously reading endless books and holding a long-established love for writing. “I love dabbling in both. It’s really challenging for my brain.” Heidi describes her journey into authorhood as a calling, one in which she aims to provide people with an abundance of hope and inspiration. 

Today, the greatest compliment Heidi can receive is when her readers from all over the world take time to reach out and give her feedback about her books. “The most common message I get will say, ‘I cried when I read your book,’ and my response is always, ‘I cried when I wrote it.’ That’s such a compliment to me because it means I connected with you. My goal is for you to feel the story, not just read the words. If I can bring out emotion in you as I pour that emotion into myself to write it, then I feel I have accomplished that.”

Heidi is committed to finding a clear sense of “why” when she takes on a story. In her most recent book, A Necessary Lie, Heidi remembers early in the process witnessing the couple’s two young boys during her initial interviews. “I watched them come into the room and just play with their parents. Those two boys became my ‘why.’ They don’t just need to know that their parents escaped from North Korea; that will be obvious, they will know that growing up. But they need to feel their story, understand where they came from, why their parents left, and the incredible love story between them. They need to feel that. The depth of that whole journey from North Korea, that is their heritage, that is their background, that’s who they are.”

A sneak peek into each of Heidi Tucker’s works in her words:

Servie’s Song The true story of one mother living in Zimbabwe, Africa, who encounters a devastating loss, leaving her unable to care for six children. In a heart-wrenching sacrifice, she surrenders to a desperate plan to leave her children and find work in the United States. It is a door that feels impossible to walk through. But perhaps, the only door which holds any promise.

The Secret Keepers The true story of a woman whose childhood mind captured scenes from her unthinkable abuse, then kept them deep inside as secrets. As Margi searches for answers to frightening memories, we witness her relentless perseverance in uncovering protected secrets to seek understanding and truth.

Bridge of Miracles The true story of an impoverished, barefoot boy living in the largest slum in Africa who finds hope in the belief that with God’s help, he can do anything. After arriving in the United States with only fifty dollars in his pocket, Amram’s steadfast determination to achieve higher education and ultimately run for President of Kenya is an astounding story.

A Necessary Lie This inspiring, unforgettable true story takes you on a journey through life in North Korea and the heart-wrenching decision two people make who will risk everything to escape.