Authors Fair and Readings

Authors Fair and Readings on Saturday, June 15

Join the Port Moody Public Library for a day of celebrating our local author community! Browse local author tables, talk with other writers and readers, and pick up a new book, or five; or stop by the Fireside Reading Room to hear readings from local authors of all genres.

Schedule of author readings

1:00pm - Neil McKinnon
1:10pm - Carmy Stubbs
1:20pm - Janis Bridger
1:30pm - David Secunda
1:40pm - Nika Askari
1:50pm - Melody Fowler
2:00pm - Gabrielle Lefay
2:10pm - Alf Dumont
2:20pm - Bonnie Jacoby
2:30pm - W.L. Hawkin
2:40pm - Karen Hein
2:50pm - Gisela Woldenga

Author bios

Neil McKinnon

Neil McKinnon was raised in Saskatchewan. He served in the RCN and has been a businessman, archaeologist, university lecturer, and freelance writer. He has worked in China, Japan, Mexico, Canada, and the U.S. and holds a B.Sc in math and BA and MA in archaeology. His articles have appeared in Canadian, Mexican, and U.S. publications. He has two previous books. Tuckahoe Slidebottle was short-listed for the Stephen Leacock Medal and the Alberta Short Fiction Award. The Greatest Lover of Last Tuesday was published in 2015. A Ticket to the Grand Show is his first nonfiction book. He has served on literary juries and edited/published academically.

He and Judy live in Port Coquitlam and have been married for 59 years. They have produced two globe-trotting daughters and inherited two brilliant grandchildren.

Website: authorneilmckinnon.com

Carmy Stubbs

Carmy Stubbs is a lover of the Word and its power for transformation and healing. Through her poetry, short stories, writings, and illustrations, she explores the creative force of the Heart and the finding of one’s True Voice. Carmy is the author of the novel The Six Knowings of ASAIRA, a metaphysical fantasy, where all her loves - the poems, the magic, the storytelling, and the search for the Divine - weave themselves alchemically through text and illustration.

She lives in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, with her husband, Antonio, and their little dog, Milo.

Website (The Alchemy of Story, Poem & Illustration): carmystubbs.com

Instagram: @carmystubbs

YouTube (Storytelling & Poetry with Carmy Stubbs): @carmystubbs123

Janis Bridger

As a child, Janis wanted to be a nurse, paleontologist, accountant, and monster truck driver. She didn't become any of those and traveled through the South Pacific and Europe instead, before earning a diploma in professional photography and working in the dark for a few years. She eventually found her way to teaching and stumbled into a teacher-librarian position. She continues to share her passion for books, social justice, and outdoor education with her students. Obaasan's Boots is Janis' first book, co-written with her cousin, Lara Okihiro, about their Japanese Canadian family's experience during WWII.

Website: janisbridger.ca

Instagram: @janisbridger_creates

David Secunda

Originally a visual artist specializing in fibre arts, David Secunda transformed into a performance artist as he experimented in ritual style performance art at art show openings and conferences such as the International Sculpture Symposium in 1978. Through the 1980's, David performed physical theatre, experimented with giant woven fibre masks and puppets, and toured nationally and internationally with Imago and Theatre of Giants. In 1989, he became a theatre arts teacher in Coquitlam, directing musicals, and many of Shakespeare’s plays. Since retiring from teaching, he has appeared in several plays including Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde.

Since 2017, David has been directing, co-writing, and collaborating with his daughter, Joylyn Secunda on their one-person touring comedies, The Moaning Yoni and The Routine. David has written many performance pieces for his touring groups and plays for students. His novels, Fluid and Balancing Act, both coming-of-age stories, explore the creative process during tumultuous times.

Website: davidsecunda.art

Nika Askari

Nika Askari is a young author of thirteen years old. She is currently studying at Moody Middle School, but she has a lot of adventures and mysterious magic ideas in her imagination. These ideas led her to write her fiction adventure book, The Enchanting Tale of the Haunted Mansion. If you like a series of action & adventure and you want to support the young author, check out her book!

Melody Fowler

Melody, a free-spirited soul from Vancouver, retired three years ago from the corporate world to pursue her passions for writing and painting full-time. Her diverse career spanning law firms, a crown corporation, and a psychologist's office gifted her with a unique perspective on the human condition, which she skillfully weaves into her writing.

Alongside her husband Arric, Melody co-authored the multi-award-winning novel How We Healed, a fictionalized account inspired by Arric's grandmother's life and their conversations with her, imparting profound life lessons. Additionally, her poetry collection Life Lyrics offers an intimate glimpse into her observations about herself and others, with the intimacy of a diary.

Melody now resides outside Vancouver with her husband Arric, where their backyard, affectionately dubbed the "Fowler Vineyard," continues to produce exceptional wines and jellies.

Website: melodyfowler.com

Facebook: /PoeticGem

Instagram: @melodyfowler_poeticgems

X (Twitter): @LadyLuckMelody

Tiktok: @melody_fowler

Gabrielle Lefay

Gabrielle Lefay – a pseudonym – has lived on the west coast of BC all her life and feels very fortunate to now live in Port Moody. Gabrielle studied English literature then creative writing at university. She put aside writing for several years while raising kids, renovating houses, running a family business, and working as a clinic manager in integrative health. The Shield of Light: A Fairy Tale for Our Times is her first novel.

Website: gabriellelefay.com

Alf Dumont

Alf served in the United Church of Canada for over forty years. Some of his positions included minister at Tottenham-Rich Hill United Church Pastoral Charge (1975-1977) and Beverley Hills United Church (1978-1984), and Keeper of the Circle or Principal of the Dr. Jessie Saulteaux Resource Centre (1984-1988), a theological training centre for First Nations people entering ministry in the United Church of Canada. Alf was the first speaker of the All Native Circle Conference, a non-geographic conference of First Nations congregations from 1988-1992. He returned to pastoral ministry in 1992, serving St. John’s United Church in Alliston until 2012. During this time, he also held a position as Adjunct First Nations Staff at Emmanuel College.

Alf retired in 2012, moving with his wife Barb to Coquitlam. Since retiring, Alf has been an Elder at the Indigenous Services Centre at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT). Alf works to help build bridges of understanding between Christian and traditional Ojibwa spiritual ways, both at BCIT and with United Churches in British Columbia.

Bonnie Jacoby

Bonnie Jacoby writes adventurous fantasy and futuristic science fiction for teens. As a resident of the beautiful Pacific Northwest, Bonnie's love for nature is reflected in her stories, transporting readers to worlds that are both familiar and fantastical.

Her debut book, Dreams of a Dragon Girl, is a magical fantasy with hidden dragons, where a young girl discovers her own strengths and stands up for those in need.

Bonnie's tales are about respecting all beings, no matter how different they may seem.

Website: bonniejacoby.com

Instagram: @bonniejacobyauthor

W.L. Hawkin

W. L. Hawkin writes “myth, magic, and mayhem.” Her Hollystone Mysteries feature a coven of Vancouver witches who solve murders using ritual magic and a little help from the gods. The books—To Charm a Killer, To Sleep with Stones, To Render a Raven, To Kill a King, and To Dance with Destiny—follow Estrada, a free-spirited magician and coven high priest. Her standalone novel, LURE, won a National Indie Excellence Award. In her latest release, Writing with your Muse, she explains her creative process and teaches techniques to inspire writers. Find Wendy at Blue Haven Press.

Website: bluehavenpress.com

Facebook: /wlhawkin

Instagram: @w.l.hawkin

Karen Hein

Karen has been writing poetry and prose since she was in grade four. Some of her interests include children’s stories, music, art, nature, and the elusive human nature. She has been attending college and is striving towards her dreams of working more from home. Her company, The Troupe de Poetry, is off to a promising start.

Karen believes that mental wellness is possible for everyone and strives to make a difference in her community. She is currently working on her memoirs, her next book of poetry, some children’s stories, and her journals. She now resides in Port Coquitlam, where she is surrounded and supported by many close friends and her family.

Website: karenheinpoetry.ca

Gisela Woldenga

Gisela Woldenga was born in Germany and has been living in Canada since 1954. She started writing as a child, as soon as she could read, but really started getting into it in the 1990’s when she joined a writer's group in Port Moody.

Gisela has published nine books, four for adults, and five for children, along with many short stories and poems, and is currently working on her tenth.

Website: giselaauthoractress.com

Facebook: /Gisela.woldenga.7

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