Our 2019-2020 White Pines Authors Part 4

The Port Moody Public Library created the White Pines Local Author Collection to highlight and support local authors, poets, and illustrators from our community. We launched the collection in May 2019 with 12 inaugural authors. Over the last year, we have received many exciting, new submissions and now have more than 30 local authors who are a part of this special collection.

You can browse our White Pines Collection online to place holds on items, or in person during our Controlled Access hours.

Over the next few blog posts, we will introduce you to all our 2020-2021 White Pines authors.

Photos of author Jim Peacock and illustrator Dawn Mattson

Jim Peacock and Dawn Mattson

Author Jim Peacock spent 15 years as a journalist in Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, New York, and Vancouver, with additional years in Vancouver in the practice of media and public relations. Born in Alberta, he resided for more than 50 years in Port Moody and now lives in retirement in Port Coquitlam. He began his book-writing activities in 2018 and published a memoir, Remember the Good Times, in 2019. In partnership with illustrator Dawn Mattson, he published a second book, Fun with Words: The ABCs of Heteronyms and Homonyms in 2020.

Illustrator Dawn Mattson, born and raised in Vancouver, is a resident of Surrey. She and husband Ray have three sons and one granddaughter. Since very early in life, she’s had a passion for graphic arts, drawing, painting, and teaching others to paint. She’s had a years-long desire to do illustrations for a book for children and youth, a dream that now is being fulfilled in Fun with Words and at least two other children’s books.

Book: Remember the Good Times: Personal Memories of Career and Family

Remember the Good Times recounts Jim’s life spent on the world stage of journalism and media. Woven in are anecdotes of milestones in his life with his wife, Jean, and daughters Virginia, Kerry, and Peggi in the Glenayre subdivision of Port Moody. Written with appreciation of key details that make up a life well lived, Remember the Good Times highlights the value of good work, good friends, and most of all, family.

Borrow Remember the Good Times from the Library.

Book: Fun with Words: The ABCs of Heteronyms & Homonyms

Fun with Words is just that, an illustrated and alphabetical listing of heteronyms and homonyms -- words that are spelled the same or sound the same but have different meanings. How about a “bare bear”, a “dear deer”, or a “hoarse horse”?

Borrow Fun with Words: The ABCs of Heteronyms & Homonyms from the Library.

What are Jim and Dawn’s favourite part about writing?

Jim says his favourite part of being a writer is hearing that readers enjoyed the book; Dawn enjoys the creativity involved in doing the illustrations.

What inspired Jim to be a writer and to write Remember the Good Times and Fun With Words?

Jim has been a writer since his early high school years, when he would report on school sports for the local daily newspaper. This led to a fifteen-year career as a journalist and more than twenty years in media and public relations. It was colleagues from this long career, along with friends and family, who first encouraged Jim to write a book. They suggested he record memories from his career, community life, and family experiences.

Jim was again encouraged to write a book in 2018 when he moved to be closer to the long-term care home where his wife of nearly 67 years spent her final ten months. He was relaying his stories about covering the aftermath of the Kennedy assassination for The Canadian Press and how he came to wear a McDonald’s restaurant wristwatch when the person he was sitting with gently ridiculed his stories, saying Jim should write a book. Jim’s wife, Jean, passed away on September 19, 2018. Shortly after his family celebrated her life, Jim set about the task of writing his memoir. Half a dozen boxes of files recording much of his life’s activities helped him prepare each chapter, as did words written by his three daughters and some of his grandkids for Jean’s celebration of life. The result was Remember the Good Times, which Jim self-published in 2019.

Playing with words and sharing heteronyms and homonyms with two granddaughters over at least 15 years inspired the words for Jim’s second book. With the help of artist Dawn Mattson, they were able to bring those words to life!

Photo of author Elby Wordsmith

Elby Wordsmith

Elby Wordsmith was born in the beautiful Lower Mainland, where he lives, loves, and “learns life’s lessons”. He has lived there for most of his life, except for four years in Fernie and fourteen years in Victoria. His priority is his family, and he enjoys the challenges, experiences, and the exciting future. Elby describes himself as “a Renaissance Man in a cyberspace world.” He is a poet, an unpublished songwriter, a painter, a dance instructor, a college instructor, a tutor and mentor, an empath, and a volunteer director on non-profit boards. Elby can shoot a bow, is an avid reader and chess player, and enjoys fine food and beverages. He is eternally a romantic and an optimist.

Book: Clouds in a Cloudless Blue Sky II

Clouds in a Cloudless Blue Sky II is a book of poetry covering Elby’s seventy-plus years of life experience. The poems in this book touch on love, despair, joy, tragedy, humour, dreams, and whimsy.

Borrow Clouds in a Cloudless Blue Sky II from the Library.

What inspired Elby to become a writer?

Elby “caught the poetry bug” while taking a high school English Literature class and he has made it a lifelong passion. He poetized on and off through his middle years until life got in the way, but revived the passion upon semi-retirement. He hopes to leave a legacy for his children and granddaughter, and dreams of achieving a bit of acclaim as a poet.

Gregory Robb

University provided Greg with a six-year head start when he sent dot matrix-printed manuscripts all over the world. Most of them were rejected at first, as this was the rite of passage for budding writers. He proceeded undaunted, until a top-ten contest result would lead to an acceptance. He used all the passion from that acceptance until, by the mid 1990s, Greg was becoming widely regarded as a serious wordsmith. By the time he graduated as a high school English teacher, Greg produced works ranging from columns aimed at Canadian writers to business profiles for AOL-Time Warner.

Greg loves to explore written forms. Therefore, he is just as happy penning a radio editorial as he is doing a blog with formatting. His work has tapped into his historic loves of radio, television, and music. However, Gregory models himself after American writer George Plimpton, who believed that a good writer should be able to tackle any topic with authoritative acumen. As it was, through his career, Greg progressed to become a national copy editor for web sites as well as a stalwart contributor to the content of prominent corporations. All the while, he never lost sight of the fundamental love of having a story to tell and a blank computer screen on which to do so. That remains Greg’s biggest privilege.

Book: Transience: From Failure to Future in a Scarred Family

Transience demonstrates how a reasoned examination of family history can assist one generation to repair the painful legacies of its predecessors and break the chains of abuse. This memoir brings to the reader one man’s roller coaster testament to the power of healing through expression. It is a human story written from experience and presented with reflection and emotion; concluding with the individual‘s commitment to love and light.

Borrow Transience: From Failure to Future in a Scarred Family from the Library.

What inspired Greg to become a writer?

The transition from periodical work to books was a natural progression that emerged with urgency upon the death of a parent. Greg’s previous work had been getting longer and deeper in shorter forms, which meant that he was gravitating towards the longer form. It was that simple; not so simple to actually do it, though! But that story needed to be told for reasons that become clear for anyone who reads Transience. The whole experience was most rewarding for its education. Greg learned a great deal in the process, and he foresees many more books. He has already completed his second book and a third is well underway. Essentially, the first book opened up the floodgates to more!

What is Greg's favourite part of writing?

Greg’s love of writing is very much the love for a soul mate, and there are so many things to love. Chiefly, it's the joy, freedom, and creativity that drives him. Naturally, that manifests itself throughout the writing process, so he can admire and appreciate any part of that process at different times. It could be the moment of first creation; it could be the moment of editing to the point that an idea perfectly declares itself. It has certainly been the moment of completion, although the completion of any story or book is part of a continuous journey. Undoubtedly, a massive joy is knowing that somehow his ideas and expression may have touched someone in some way -- even if he’s never met (or may never know) that person. He’s just as thrilled to write now as he was at the beginning, almost thirty years ago.

Photo of author Kaitlyn Johnson

Kaitlyn Johnson

Kaitlyn Johnson is a twenty-four-year-old author. She started writing when she was fourteen, with her first published works being a short story and a poem when she was in high school. Since then, she has published three books, titled The Time It Takes, Seven Oaks, and Seven Oaks: Changes. She is currently working on the third installment of the Seven Oaks series. She is a big fan of writing, travel, and her cat, Fe, who each of her books have been dedicated to so far.

Book: The Time It Takes

Raleigh Carlisle has been interested in the extraterrestrial ever since she can remember. However, after a brief encounter with the unidentified, she wakes up to find that the world she once knew is long in the past. Now, armed with only a foreign book, Raleigh must find a way to navigate her new world and find her old memories. Can she figure out what happened during her absence and pick up the pieces? Or will she be constantly plagued by those forgotten moments?

Borrow The Time It Takes from the Library.

Book: Seven Oaks

Kimberly Clay has spent most of her life trying to escape. From high school friends-turned-enemies, to the absence of her father and her own anxiety, it seems like she’ll never get that fresh start. Recently accepted to her hometown university, Kim returns to Seven Oaks with the hope of starting over, only to find a whole new set of problems in the seemingly perfect town. Even with its charm and beauty, nothing in Seven Oaks is as it seems. And it all begins with one missing student.

Borrow Seven Oaks from the Library.

Book: Seven Oaks: Changes

In the second instalment of the Seven Oaks series, Kimberly Clay is back and better than ever. At least, that’s what she keeps telling herself. Halloween is fast approaching in the town of Seven Oaks, and despite her excitement, Kim has more pressing issues at hand: a funeral for a girl long forgotten, the haunting of ghosts from the past, and even some mystical new paranormal potential.

Borrow Seven Oaks: Changes from the Library.

What inspired Kaitlyn to become a writer?

Kaitlyn wishes she had a dramatic and meaningful answer for this question, but the truth is, it was just because everybody else was doing it! She was fourteen and all of her friends were writing their own fanfiction stories, so she started writing as well. Within a few months, the trend died out for them, but Kaitlyn hasn’t stopped writing since!

What is Kaitlyn’s favourite part about writing?

Kaitlyn’s enjoys the escape of completely immersing herself in another world. She finds that writing is a very natural way of both putting aside the things in her life, and using them to her advantage in a way that expresses her feelings in a healthy way. She loves creating different worlds and being able to escape into them.

About the White Pines Local Author Collection

The Port Moody Public Library created the White Pines Local Author Collection to highlight and support local authors, poets, and illustrators from our community. We launched the collection in May 2019 with 12 inaugural authors. Learn more about this collection and how you can become a White Pines Local Author.

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