Mum on a mission

Penina's wishlist for Table Tucker was long
As a time-poor working mum Penina started on Table Tucker because she couldn't find a product in the market that suited her needs. Penina needed a book that would not only save her family money, but that would also take away the hassle of figuring out what to have for dinner. The book also needed to be healthy, budget, easy and quick. Penina's wish list was long!

After one year of writing Penina threw the first version of Table Tucker in the bin. At the time it was heartbreaking but the product needed more testing and work with evolving changes in market conditions. It was back to the drawing board. In 2008 Penina added Earth-happy principles, slam poetry, a new quick-scan recipe format and worked on her design skills to bring you the premium product that Table Tucker is today. It is with great pleasure that Penina can now share Table Tucker with her readers and the world.

Author Bio
Penina Petersen was born in New Zealand and brought up in Sydney and Auckland. After school she graduated from Auckland University with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. She then moved to Japan to teach English. In her summer breaks Penina would buy world tickets and trip around the world on little money.

As a traveller and temp Penina has worked many jobs. As a student she worked in retail, local markets and in customer service. While travelling she worked as a waitress, barperson, English teacher and Karaoke compere. After returning home she worked in newspaper and direct mail advertising. She then temped for several years in admin roles. More recently she worked in Richard’s signwriting business, was bushfire recovery officer for the Grampians and moved into tourism, economic development, marketing and website development.

Back in 2000 Penina left Auckland on a whim to spend the Millennium celebrations in Sydney with friends. She never really returned home. One day, on another unplanned adventure, she jumped on a bus to ‘check out’ Melbourne. There she met Richard, her soulmate, in a friend’s living room. After five years of city living, the couple chatted over dinner one night about getting out of the rat race and how cool it would be to go on an adventure together. A short time later the couple held a big garage sale and downsized their rental home into Richard’s tradesman van. They cancelled their wedding and eloped to Adelaide where they got married on the beach. They crossed the Nullarbor and enjoyed the road trip of a lifetime to Western Australia.

It was during her stay in the Australian outback that a pregnant Penina found the headspace to pursue her dream of writing a book. She formed plans for a number of books including Table Tucker.

After giving birth to Saxon, Penina returned to country Victoria with the family. During her stay in the country Penina’s passion for both writing and helping others was reignited. She set about finishing Table Tucker in her spare time while working a full-time job.

Penina has been writing since her mother gave her a diary for her fifth birthday. Her hobbies include singing and playing guitar, writing poetry, songs, short stories and funny anecdotes. She also loves to read, travel, paint and has a fascination for drawing portraits and caricatures.

Now 37, Penina retains a childhood fascination with the possibilities the world has on offer. She thoroughly enjoys finding practical yet creative solutions to everyday challenges. Richard jokingly refers to her as ‘the Scientist.’ She also has an insatiable thirst for learning new stuff and tries her hand at everything!

Table Tucker is the fulfilment of a life’s dream to ‘one day’ write a book and to get published. In the future, Penina would love to publish her poetry and write a novel.