 Life started in the center of St. John's, Newfoundland for Tina. Happy in her corner of the world, she later moved with her parents to the burgeoning suburb (now a city) of Mount Pearl until her
family moved "around the bay" to Aspen Cove when Tina was seven. She is grateful to have grown up in a close-knit, rural community
with her parents and brother (but don't tell him she said that). It was there that she met her high school sweetheart, Vince Chaulk, from nearby Ladle Cove.
Upon graduating from Rockwood High school (if you did too, check out the Back Home on the Rock website), Tina moved, with her boyfriend Vince, back to the place of her birth to attend Memorial University of Newfoundland. There, she slept late, missed classes and generally took her education for granted until she finally flunked out, took a series of service jobs, wised up and finally returned to MUN to study hard and complete a BA in Religious Studies. (When asked if this means she is religious, she answers "if I studied Geology would you think I am a rock?")
Tina then went on to work at Talbot House, a detoxification center which later moved and became known as the Recovery Center. She worked there for eight years until she decided to return to MUN once again and follow her geeky love of computers to complete a Post-baccalaureate Diploma in Information Technologies. She landed a work term, then full-time job with the university in the Department of Computing and Communications.
Tina and Vince bought a home in Chamberlains, Conception Bay South, in 1992. In 2002, the two finally married in a small ceremony in St. John's after being together for only 21 years.
Always sure of her great procrastination abilities, Tina feels this marriage is
the greatest proof of them. Then in 2003, eight days before their first anniversary, Tina and Vince changed their lives by welcoming a bouncing baby boy, Samuel (Sam), to the family.
Through all the years, Tina wrote, starting with stories of alien abduction from about nine years old,
pounded out on her father's old manual typewriter. All the stories started, as Snoopy's do, with "It was a dark and stormy night".
Much writing followed and Tina had written three novels before trying to get published. In 2004, desperate to find some way to stay home with her young son when her maternity leave was up, she attended a Pitch to the Publisher event at the Word on the Rock book festival in St.
John's. Despite a fear of public speaking, she stood in front of four publishers and the public
gathered there and pitched her book, then titled Away. Publishers seemed interested and Tina
revised and completed the manuscript and sent it off to two publishers. Jesperson Publishing soon offered her a contract and the book underwent two title changes to become
this much is true.
In the meantime, Tina did not return to work at MUN. She divides her time hanging out with her son, writing, doing a little freelance work, editing WANL's WORD newsletter, and wondering how much money she could have now if she had gone back to work. She won a 2007 Provincial Arts and Letters Award in the Short Fiction category for her short story "Divided by Three". Tina is currently
working on three more novels, including one that she received two grants from the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council to work on, tentatively titled A Few Kinds of Wrong.
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Tina:
won a 2007 Provincial Arts and Letters Award in the Short Fiction category for her short story "Divided by Three";
received two project grants for writing from the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council;
completed four levels of American Sign Language;
is a Gemini;
usually reads several books at once (very Gemini of her).
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