Tina Pinson resides in Grand Junction, Colorado with her husband of 30 years, Danny. They own and operate Omega Avionics. The Pinsons have three grown sons, two beautiful daughter-in-laws and 5 grand children.
Tina began her first novel in elementary school. Her love of writing has caused her to seek creative outlets be it writing poetry, songs, or stories. She had four years of journalism, a half a year of college, took a fourteen-month correspondence course through The Writer’s Institute. Tina has been involved with American Christian Fiction Writers for seven years.
Her first novel, In The Manor of the Ghost, was published in June 2010 (read an excerpt here). Tina’s second novel, Touched by Mercy, became available on December 1st (read an excerpt of Touched by Mercy here).
Tina, thank you for stopping by on such a chilly December day! Congratulations on the release of your second novel, Touched by Mercy. Readers, check out Tina’s contest to win a NOOK!!!! Grab a hot cup of mint cocoa with mini marshmallows on top so we can have a chat 🙂
Tell us what instigated you writing Touched by Mercy.
The catalyst for writing Touched By Mercy arose from my own healing from abuse and desire to see others whole. Having been molested as a child, I related to some of what Sam felt. Her insecurities and her belief that she would never be good enough, were mine more than I care to admit. Yes, I gave Sam deeper problems to deal with, but the emotions and scars are cast from my own. I know there are many out there going through the same insecurities, thinking somehow they did something wrong and don’t deserve God’s love unless they prove themselves, and through Touched By Mercy, I hoped to show them how much God loves them and walk them toward hope as well.
I see you and your husband run an Avionics company. Can I say WOW?! That sounds kind of big and scary, tell us what you do there.
We put in all that lovely instrumentation, (GPS’s, Transponders, Multi-function Displays, DME’s, Gyro’s, Weather and Traffic units and more) anything that you see in the airplane panels. You name it, we’ve probably installed it. Usually it takes tearing the interior out and the sidewalls as well so that they can run wiring (think lots of little wires) through the airplane. We’ve worked on Jets and smaller. We work in General Aviation and Corporate. Hubby doesn’t have his pilot’s license, but he gets to fly with the owners and pilot’s as they test out the instrumentation. I’ve flown some, but my exciting part of the business is paperwork and bookkeeping. And believe me, when the FAA gets involved there is just a bit of paperwork to deal with.
Paperwork and bookkeeping, that doesn’t sound as scary as the Avionics part! I see you enjoy gardening as I do. My favorite part of gardening is trimming and puttering. How about you?
I like the puttering, not so sure I’m great at the trimming, but I try. I like the watering and picking the fruit to eat. That time of year I
just love being out in the yard and getting some sunshine. My grandchildren and I have worm hunts and the kids play in the dirt.
Cute grandkids!! There are photos on your website of you and your husband at Grand Mesa. Since you live in Colorado, you must visit there often. It looks absolutely stunning. I’ve never been to Colorado, tell us about Grand Mesa.
Some people may not realize it, but Grand Mesa is the largest flattop in the world. It has many lakes and is a 
dormant volcano. Or so they say. There is a ski area, Powderhorn, up there, but sometimes we don’t get the snow like the rest of the Rockies, but the locals like it. There is a lot of fishing and hunting, and of course, camping. If you stand up on the Mesa at a place called Land’s End, you can feel the electricity in the air on your skin. Your hair will stand on end. The station there has been hit by lightning several times. Here is Colorado we have Color Sunday. The day when you head up into the high country and see the array of colors since things are cooling down. The aspens are awesome. A lot of people head up over the Grand Mesa where you can look down the valley. It’s really beautiful scenery.
Hit by lightening . . . I won’t get into my lightening story here. How about a fun question. You are headed to a deserted Island and can bring only two things with you, what do you bring?
Hmmm – maybe a motor home cause it has everything in it. That’s a tough little question. I suppose I should say I’ll take along my tanning lotion and hammock, which is fine as long as I get to take my clothes with. But then I’d starve, so I’d need my Swiss Army knife and a roll of duct tape, then I can build me a hut and cut down my food. Wow, that sounds like a lot of work. Maybe I’ll just have hubby pack the RV then I can bring him and a camper outfitted with all the things I want.
Ohh, an RV – good answer. Traveling in an RV has always been a dream of mine, but unless I get sent to a deserted island and can bring this infamous RV, I don’t think I’ll ever be in one! Anyway, back to the interview . . . Plotting. One of my favorite topics. Please share with us how you plot.
I usually dream my stories, in Technicolor of course, so I’m sort of what you call a Seat of the Pants Writer. As my characters and the story moves along the dream might change. When I start to write, I will make outlines or lists of my scenes as I’ve seen them in my head, and then I write them out. As I said, they aren’t written in stone though.
Tina thank you for your time today, it was fun! And congratulations again on your newest novel Touched by Mercy.
Thank you, Heidi. I appreciate the invite. You’ve been a great hostess and the questions have been fun.
In honor of the release of Touched By Mercy Tina is running a contest, Win a Nook… Touch Mercy for the month of Dec. 2010. Check out her blog under the Touched By Mercy Contest page for the particulars.
Join Tina on Twitter and Facebook. Check out her website — http://www.tinapinson.com/
Purchase Tina’s books at:
Desert Breeze Bookstore.
Touched By Mercy http://tiny.cc/0rgkm
In the Manor of the Ghost http://tiny.cc/we4ul
Amazon:
Touched By Mercy http://tiny.cc/k5tgw
In the Manor of the Ghost http://tiny.cc/doc8w
Barnes & Noble
Touched By Mercy—available soon
In the Manor of the Ghost http://tiny.cc/oh767
Christian Books Distributors
Touched By Mercy – available soon
In the Manor of the Ghost http://tiny.cc/4u5h9