The news stories, editorials, photo captions, letters to the editor, columns and press releases appearing in the Sedona Red Rock News are written by hundreds of different Sedona residents.
Constance Israel, Larson Newspapers’ copy editor since 2008, faces the daunting task of making sure all those news items are correctly spelled, grammatically precise, factually accurate and stylistically uniform.
Israel balances that intense attention to detail with liberation. She lets loose by traveling, letting the winds of fate take her from one corner of the globe to another for months at a time.
Born in Birmingham, Ala., in 1962, Israel graduated from Mountain Brook High School in 1980, then attended the University of South Alabama in Mobile.
Israel graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in psychology, then returned to Birmingham and earned a second bachelor’s degree in social work from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Uncertain of what she wanted to do, Israel moved to Austin, Texas, and eventually went back to school.
With her degrees, she had worked in psychiatric treatment centers, but she said she wanted something “tangible.”
She enjoyed writing and reading, so Israel earned a Master of Arts in journalism from the University of Texas at Austin, “with no intention of ever becoming a journalist,” she said.
She went to work for a publishing house working on secondary educational materials.
After 3½ years, Israel took her first leap into the world beyond — with a globe-trotting trip most Americans only read about in novels or guidebooks.
In fall 1997, Israel quit her job, gave up her apartment, put everything she owned into an unlocked storage unit in a friend’s backyard and embarked on a six-month world tour.
She and a friend spent a month in Tanzania, in eastern Africa, where they climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, took safaris across the savannahs and visited Zanzibar.
While Israel had planned the trip with her signature attention to detail, she left India’s travel plans to her friend — who failed to secure Indian visas. When the two arrived in Delhi, they were held for 12 hours at the airport with threats of being sent back to Tanzania.
After hours of begging and pleading with Indian bureaucrats and negotiating with officials, they were granted a 24-hour visa. They spent three days traveling between the U.S. consulate and Indian offices before being granted a two-week stay.
Israel and her friend visited the Taj Mahal in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, but spent most of their time in the state of Rajasthan. Among their travels, they visited the “Blue City” of Jodhpur, the “Pink City” of Jaipur and the “Golden City” of Jaisalmer, all named for distinctive architectural colorations.
“Although it was the most difficult, India was one of the places I loved the most. It’s the most extreme place I’ve ever been,” Israel said, adding that for every horror she encountered, there was something equally amazing, from the food, architecture, culture, people or the wildlife. “I have a love-hate relationship with India. I’m always trying to master it. It’s an impossible place to be mellow.”
After two weeks in neighboring Nepal, Israel’s friend returned to United States as planned. Israel traveled alone through Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, New Zealand and the Cook Islands.
“Doing it alone was one of
the best learning, best opening experiences of my life,” Israel said.
Although Israel left with no job and no job prospects, when she returned, she walked into freelance writing and editing, which she did from 1998 until joining Larson Newspapers in 2008.
She embarked on her second tour in 2000, spending about four months in India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia. Due to a coup d’etat in the Solomon Islands, she got stuck in Australia, which also turned into a great experience.
Israel indulged in another passion in 2001, getting Nike, her “dream dog,” a husky she wanted ever since reading about the breed in fifth grade.
Israel moved to the Village of Oak Creek in 2004, partly because of the proximity to Utah’s Bryce Canyon National Park, where she has celebrated eight of the nine past Christmases.
She took another tour in 2006, visiting India with her brother, then traveling alone to Laos and the Solomon Islands. She said she’s more than ready to travel again.
“One of the most amazing things about traveling alone is it’s the best way in the world to crack yourself open,” Israel said. “You can have intellectual knowledge, but experience gives you emotional knowledge. Being able to see things firsthand makes everything real.”
