Our 2021 White Pines Authors Part 1

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 40 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 2021 White Pines authors.

Author photo of Jahangir Asadi

Jahangir Asadi

Jahangir Asadi is an aspiring author and a professional Environment and Food Quality Technologist. He has a master’s degree in Science and a PhD in Environmental & Quality Sciences. Jahangir is internationally certified and is Lead Auditor for the food safety system HACCP, the food safety management system standards ISO 22000, ISO 9001, ISO 14000, and the Occupational Health and Safety Standard OHSAS 18001. He has participated in more than 110 audits in over twenty-five countries and is responsible for planning, developing, initiating, coordinating, implementing, and maintaining the most effective eco-labelling and environmental management systems procedures in more than eleven countries. These procedures ensure optimum production, food quality, environmental assurance, monitoring, and measurement is implemented. Jahangir was one of the first people to suggest the use of mobile phones as management system tools for recognized innovative behaviour to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

Book: International Pocket Guide for HACCP

This book is dedicated to the subject of the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point system (HACCP). The HACCP is a preventative system for assuring the safe production of food products. It is based on a commonsense application of technical and scientific principles to the food production process. The book outlines the most basic concept underlying HACCP, that of prevention, and goes on to explain that the food processor/handler should have sufficient information concerning the food and the related procedure they are using so they will be able to identify where a food safety problem may occur, and how.

Borrow International Pocket Guide for HACCP from the Library.

Book: International Eco Shopping Guide

This full-colour book is dedicated to the subject of eco shopping. When making purchases, consumers will shop based on price, quality, and the environmental impacts of the product. This book is aimed at helping consumers find the more sustainable products that they’re looking for by focusing on a classification and environmental labelling system provided by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

Borrow International Eco Shopping Guide from the Library.

What is Jahangir’s favourite part about writing?

As a Quality & Environment specialist, with more than seventeen years of experience in more than twenty-five countries, Jahangir’s favourite part of writing is sharing his experiences with others and providing information to future generations. Jahangir’s focus is on the environment and its protection and he hopes that ten thousand years from now, future generations will still be able to see flowers that provide bees with nectar and bees that provide flowers with the means to reproduce by spreading pollen from flower to flower.

What inspired Jahangir to write a book?

Jahangir wanted to create an accessible way for others to be informed about how they can protect the environment, as well as to create mindfulness when it comes to buying products. The world is shifting, and many want to be more environmentally conscious as climate change is on the rise. Jahangir hopes his books can help them in some way.

Tara McIntosh

Tara McIntosh lives in Port Moody with her firefighter husband Tom, sons Brayden and Liam, and their dog Bentley. Prior to writing her book, Tara founded and organized The Tri-City Women’s Conference, an inspiring event for women in her hometown, wrote an opinion column for the local paper, and taught parenting workshops with the Virtues Project at schools and events throughout Metro Vancouver. When she isn’t writing Tara loves spending time with her family and friends, boating with her husband, cooking, travelling the world, finding new recipes, reading, swimming, walking Bentley, meeting new people, and discovering new towns. You can find Tara online at firewifewise.com, and on Instagram and Facebook as @firewifewise.

Book: Fire Wife: Standing Strong in Your Relationship, Your Life, and Your Dreams

Fire Wife provides solid solutions for those who need answers to the unique challenges fire couples face. From setting clear boundaries with your firefighter and their tight-knit fire family to communicating assertively, this book provides tools of empowerment with chapters dedicated specifically to the partner of a firefighter.

Borrow Fire Wife from the Library.

What is Tara’s favourite part about writing?

Tara feels like she is composing music when she writes. She loves the rhythm of it all and the sound of a completed sentence. She especially loves the epiphanies she gets while writing. It's as though her heart and pen are connected. “I love writing!”

What inspired Tara to become a writer?

Tara always kept diaries from the time she was young and adored English all through school. She wrote a book of her experiences of being a Fire Wife because she always loves to help others and give them hope anytime they feel like things can't get better. Tara shares her stories so others know they are never alone.

Shohreh Afshar

Shohreh has been living in Canada since 2001, spending time in both Toronto and Greater Vancouver before moving to Port Moody in 2008. She has worked in different capacities as a teacher, engineer, analyst, IT professional, and project manager for a number of industries including health care and education. Shohreh’s formal studies have been in the fields of engineering (BSc), humanities (MA), teaching/learning methods, human rights for children, and child abuse prevention. Technical writing has been an integral part of her entire career. She also enjoys writing poems, articles, children books, and animation scripts as a hobby. When she’s not writing, Shohreh enjoys travelling, painting, and hiking.

Book: Take Care of Yourself

In this book, a teacher and her class discuss concepts about taking care of themselves in uncomfortable situations. Together, they imagine some examples and instances that help to define the concept of taking care of yourself. The reader and class learn together what these uncomfortable feelings are; what to do when facing these uncomfortable situations; the necessity of having a trusted circle; and why it is important to take action.

Borrow Take Care of Yourself from the Library.

What is Shohreh’s favourite part about writing?

Shohreh enjoys capturing the core concept of an idea. She finds that when this occurs, it is the most interesting part of writing. This is especially important in writing poems when an idea comes to her, which can be anytime and anywhere. Spotting the source of poetic imagination (if possible at all), or tracing back the chain of thoughts and what triggered them, or how they resulted or manifested in the occurred concepts, is amusing and interesting for Shohreh.

What inspired Shohreh to become a writer?

Shohreh cannot claim that it was a conscious decision to be a writer at a definite point of time or stage in her intellectual development. Her interest in writing evolved organically as she learned more and reflected on life and the human condition in general, and on her own life experiences, more specifically. At times, Shohreh wrote as a necessity to respond to the societies she interacted with.

Alexia Adams

A former world wanderer, Alexia Adams writes contemporary romance stories that reflect her love of exotic destinations and diverse characters and cultures. She currently lives in Port Moody with her husband and four children and dreams of a world without housework. As a flight risk mom, romance is her escape and she can often be found with her nose in a book, pretending she’s somewhere else.

Book: The Vintner and the Vixen

After witnessing a murder, Maya Tessier needs to disappear. She escapes to the cottage in France she inherited from her great-grandmother, where she hopes to start a new life and concentrate on her art. Jacques de Launay does not like strangers on his estate, especially when they’re a sexy redhead who reminds him of all he’s lost. But if he lets her stay, more than his heart may be at risk.

Borrow The Vintner and the Vixen from the Library.

Book: The Sicilian's Forgotten Wife

Bella Vanni has accepted that her presumed-dead husband is long gone, so it's a huge shock when he knocks on her door and announces his desire to resume their marriage. She can't trust his answers on where he's been or why he left, and she certainly isn't keen to walk away from the life she's constructed for herself in his absence. But when Matteo's freedom is threatened, Bella must decide which is most important to her: everything she's painstakingly built or a second chance at a love that never died.

Borrow The Sicilian’s Forgotten Wife from the Library.

Book: An Inconvenient Love

With the Italian economy in turmoil, Luca Castellioni can’t afford a distraction from running his successful property restoration company. However, he needs an English-speaking wife to cement a crucial deal. When his British bride-of-convenience undermines the foundations around his heart, he’s forced to restructure his priorities. Is he too late for love?

Borrow An Inconvenient Love from the Library.

What is Alexia's favourite part about writing?

Alexia loves exploring different cultures and languages in her writing. Her ability to travel has been curtailed not only by the pandemic, but also by personal circumstances, so she has set her books in exotic locations that she’d love to explore in person. To find inspiration for her books, Alexia will research all the places she wants to visit and incorporate them into her stories. Her current work-in-progress is set in Tunisia. She also enjoys learning about people and cultures and expanding her knowledge of the world. She can’t wait, though, until she can once again research in person rather than through books and the internet.

What inspired Alexia to become a writer?

Alexia started writing after the birth of her fourth child when she decided to become a stay-at-home mom (or trophy wife, as she prefers to be called). To preserve her sanity—and stop her brain from singing the map song from Dora The Explorer on an endless loop—she wrote down one of the stories that she’d had in her head for years. The more she wrote, the more stories formulated in her brain and she found that she was hooked! Alexia always has a cast of characters in her head, waiting to tell her their tale, some more insistently than others. With all these voices in her head, she wonders if writing saved her sanity or pushed her over the edge.

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.

0 Likes