Trina Hoaks

Trina has been interested in writing all her life. As a young girl, she often was reprimanded for ignoring her school work to focus on writing poetry and short stories and to draw. She eventually took off her creative thinking cap to focus on her studies.

When she was 14, Trina stumbled upon what she thought was an amazing opportunity - especially for someone her age. The local newspaper in her small town needed a typesetter. The paper was a free publication that consisted of eight pages. In addition to publishing the paper, the company published paperback books. Trina quickly began working in that part of the company, too, editing copy and doing paste-up work. She worked there for about a year.

When Trina entered college, she initially wanted to earn a degree in journalism, but after realizing that she had to write about what other people wanted her to write, she changed her major to psychology. However, prior to changing her major, she worked for the college newspaper, which had a circulation of approximately 30,000. She held the position of Features and Entertainment Editor and contributed articles to various areas of the paper as well.

After leaving college, Trina worked as a freelance writer off and on completing random assignments that she obtained through word of mouth. However, her desire to write eventually gave way to financial realities that hit home when she separated from her husband of 10 years. She was forced to find steady work.

After several years of being in the workforce, Trina decided to reinvent herself and get back to writing. With the advent of the internet, she found that it was much easier to find writing gigs that allowed her to write about what she wanted. She wrote a few pieces for a number of businesses before settling into writing three columns for Examiner.com. She also contributes content to Suite101.