Log In
Subscribe to Blog
Back to SearchThe 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.
Now, with over 50 authors represented, the collection has grown to house even more creative and diverse submissions from members of our community. You can browse our White Pines Collection online to place holds on items, or in person at the Library.
Harmonie Garry
Harmonie was born in France where she pursued her childhood passion for theatre with a degree in performing arts, followed by a master's degree in scenography. She moved from France to Belgium to Canada. She stayed in Quebec for six years and has lived in British Columbia since 2019. Harmonie is a mom, a cultural ambassador in a French school, an author, an artist, and sometimes at night, she sleeps.
Harmonie has taken on all kinds of artistic projects with the aim to create life by provoking encounters. She falls in love with each medium that allows her to achieve this goal; she uses theatre, shadows, writing, illustration, painting, and collage. Find her at www.lerendrevivant.com.
Book: The Little Princess Who Didn’t Like Dresses
To the tune of nowhere and anytime, a little Princess battles the world for the right to wear what she likes, when she wants. Come and discover the wonderful adventure of The Little Princess, a children’s book that gently and humorously addresses the subjects of free will, and self-discovery through well-being and adventure.
Borrow The Little Princess Who Didn’t Like Dresses from the Library.
What inspires Harmonie to write?
Harmonie is inspired by many things: Potting, a new mother with a new baby, a new province in a new country, winter at the window, and too much creativity tingling in her fingers. This makes a colorful book written with love, between two baby naps.
What challenges has Harmonie encountered while writing?
Her challenge was to find the perfect way to translate the book from French to English without translating exactly word-for-word. Both languages carry different images and have a particular rhythm. For a children’s book, the rhythm and the dynamic between the words and images depicted is very important.
Karen Hein
Karen has been writing poetry and prose since she was in grade four. Some of Karen’s 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. She believes that mental wellness is possible for everyone and strives to make a difference in her community. Karen 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.
Book: Still Ripples
This booklet looks at the emotional ripples that can only be expressed through poetic words and phrases. Nothing is still, and life can be exciting when changes happen. A person never knows where exactly they will end up with life’s meandering currents, and this 50-page booklet is no exception. Written for all ages, poetry touches the soul, and can be very healing as well. Viva la poetry!
Borrow Still Ripples from the Library.
What inspires Karen to write?
Writing poetry is a way of expressing thoughts and pictures with words. She is inspired by the little things in life like love, kittens, and holidays. She is also inspired by nature, including the trees, the water, and the sky. Karen is a bit of a dreamer and enjoys making others think about simple things. She is a firm believer that poetry shouldn’t be complicated or difficult to understand. She tries to use simple language with universal ideas that appeal to most readers. Often, she uses writing prompts to come up with new ideas. Writing poetry has helped her focus on life and share some of her profound thoughts with others.
What challenges has Karen encountered while writing?
The most challenging thing about writing is coming up with new ideas. She has also been challenged to write form poetry. It is hard to conform to a set pattern and she often relies on her own style, but every poet needs to grow and learn new styles. When she first started writing poetry, nothing she wrote rhymed. It was a challenge to write rhyming poetry that made sense. Every poem she writes is a challenge to her, because she needs to express each thought as original and not as something that has been written before. Karen is proud of the books that took her years to compile and write. Each new book is a little more polished and finessed, and the reader can see the growth as her writing style has matured.
Cat Hendriks
Cat Hendriks was born and raised in South West London, United Kingdom. She escaped the busy city life and now resides in Coquitlam. As a photographer, storyteller, and dog lover, it was only natural for her to create Rescue Tales with the help of Maggie, her beautiful rescue dog who is both assistant and inspiration. Cat loves to explore and go camping with her friends and family. Her favourite things are making her daughter laugh and her dog’s wagging tail. Rescue Tales is her first book and she intends to continue the series to help support rescue organizations.
Book: Rescue Tales
This book will take you on a journey of love, laughter and tears as you read inspiring stories of rescue dogs who found their forever homes with lessons on how to love unconditionally, overcome challenges and help each other to grow. Embrace each personality with their "Doggy Nicknames" and "Doggy Superpowers" included, making the book great for kids. These rescue dogs are adopted from all around the world with their happy endings in British Columbia. A portion of the proceeds from the sales of the book will be donated to local rescue organizations.
Borrow Rescue Tales from the Library.
What inspires Cat to write?
The inspiration for Rescue Tales came from love and loss. Her first rescue dog, Karma, crossed over the rainbow bridge during the pandemic and she was devastated She loved Karma, and felt a piece of the family was missing. When she finally rescued a new puppy, she felt so blessed to have another rescue dog that was perfect for her. She wanted to thank rescue organizations for helping these amazing, homeless dogs find their forever homes and so the Rescue Book Project was born.
What challenges has Cat encountered while writing?
Cat has experience with photography, but not writing, so writing the book was a unique challenge. She enjoyed blogging in the past, but Rescue Tales was a unique struggle because she wanted to do the owner’s stories justice. When she started the project, it was a rainy fall and so scheduling photoshoots was difficult. She learned so much while publishing Rescue Tales, and has come to admire the amount of work that authors put into their books.
Matteo Iuzzolino
Matteo is a young author from Burnaby who loves to play soccer. Dear Soccer is a picture book in the form of an illustrated letter he wrote to soccer, thanking it for everything it has given him. When Matteo is not writing or playing soccer, you can find him reading, kayaking, or playing his ukulele. You can learn more about Dear Soccer on Matteo’s Dear Soccer YouTube channel.
Book: Dear Soccer
Dear Soccer is a book whose purpose is to show kids and remind parents the benefits of being active. Soccer was chosen as the subject of the book because the author loves soccer. The book's subject could be different activities and the book would still have the same purpose. An exercise for parents and kids is to think of an activity which your child enjoys and work together to write a letter addressed to the activity explaining why you are thankful to participate in the activity.
Borrow Dear Soccer from the Library.
What inspires Matteo to write?
Matteo loves to write because it is fun! Writing allows him to be creative and tell stories about a variety of interesting topics. He likes how he can use writing to express his feelings and opinions about important topics. Matteo was inspired to write Dear Soccer because it reminds kids and parents about the benefits of being active and how this can help them to become better people. He hopes that writing Dear Soccer can inspire other young people to write books about topics they feel are important.
What challenges has Matteo encountered while writing?
Choosing writing topics is often a challenge for him because he is interested in too many topics. Choosing the best words to express what he wants to communicate is another challenge. When writing Dear Soccer, he spent a lot of time thinking about illustrations on each page. Matteo wanted to make sure each illustration was fun and helped tell the reader a meaningful story.
Arzina Nurani
Arzina is a local Coquitlam author who grew up in Tsawwassen, where she graduated high school with a double Dogwood diploma. While finishing her Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration she completed a semester abroad in Paris, which ignited her thirst for travelling. In 2009 she was officially diagnosed with PCOS and after a decade of inconsistent information and confusion, she took it upon herself to discover health practices and strategies that aligned with her and her body. She wrote this book to help others overcome the worst of their symptoms, feel empowered again, and discover their own inner strength.
Book: The 3-Part Beginner’s Guide to Manage PCOS Symptoms
PCOS is a common condition that affects 1 in every 10 women of child-bearing age. It’s characterized by problems related to ovulation and excess levels of androgens, male hormones, that can stimulate hair growth in women, leading to acne, hirsutism (increased body and facial hair), weight gain and difficulty becoming pregnant. This book focuses on natural remedies to help manage PCOS symptoms including regulating irregular periods, managing symptoms such as anxiety and depression, reducing body hair growth, balancing mood swings, and improving sleep quality. This book is unique because it is action oriented. There are exercises at the end of each chapter that help you to start making lifestyle changes right away. These action-driven exercises provide you with tools to put your new knowledge into practice.
Borrow The 3-Part Beginner’s Guide to Manage PCOS Symptoms from the Library.
What inspires Arzina to write?
Arzina is passionate about embracing natural remedies to manage PCOS. She wants to share what she has learned with others so that they can ease their symptoms. She is inspired by everything around her, from conversations with friends to researching new health practices. She envisions that The 3-Part Beginner’s Guide to Manage PCOS Symptoms will be the first of many books that help women improve their hormone balance.
What challenges has Arzina encountered while writing?
One of the biggest challenges Arzina has encountered while writing has been the research process. PCOS is under-researched and it can be difficult to determine the accuracy of the information available. She draws from what she has discovered works for her through trial and error and cross-references those findings with medical journals and professionals.
Gisela Woldenga
Gisela was born in Germany and has been living in Canada since 1954. She is married with three children. Gisela has been writing since childhood and started as soon as she could read.
Book: Chords of Dissension
Maestro Daniel Abogado is a successful and sought-after conductor. His life is music, and his recent marriage to Elvira Torres, a talented cellist in his orchestra, makes him feel complete. Especially so, since they are awaiting the birth of his first child. But one day, Daniel interferes with a beating on the street. From then on, his blissful life is turned upside-down. Physical and psychological threats appear out of nowhere. When Daniel gets kidnapped, he’s certain that he recognizes the voice of one of the attackers - the one the other thugs refer to as 'the boss', but Daniel can’t recall who the voice belongs to. After he gets released, the hunt for clues and voices intensifies. But can Daniel discover who is behind the voice before the boss gets tired of playing cat and mouse and decides to make good on these threats to end Daniel’s life?
Borrow Chords of Dissension from the Library.
Book: A Score to Settle
Maestro Daniel Abogado is a successful conductor. His life is music although it involves hours of traveling from city to city and lots of time poring over scores of classical music. Tragically his wife of ten years has died two years ago. He is now the only parent caring for sixteen-year-old Mia and ten-year-old Julian. His music helps him steady himself. When he reports a dangerous driver he unwittingly disturbs a diamond smuggling ring. Threats against Daniel and his children escalate into attempts on his life. With the help of the police, he tries to stay safe enough to fulfill his many obligations as a conductor, looking after his children and help catching the vicious gang. Will he stay alive long enough to be successful?
Borrow A Score to Settle from the Library.
What inspires Gisela to write?
Many ideas come into Gisela’s mind. Some of them are serious, and some would be fit for a children’s book. She is inspired by pictures, or things that are close to her heart that she wants people to know about. As a music lover, she was inspired to write her last three books about the character of Maestro Daniel Abogado. To Gisela, writing is a great balance between physical and mental work.
What challenges has Gisela encountered while writing?
Gisela has had to think about many questions over the years of writing. Will readers understand what she is writing about? Will readers get bored? Will she get a publisher? Fortunately, after eight books published she has stopped worrying as much. Sometimes she has to fight with her computer and start all over again, which is the worst thing that has happened.
Hui Zhang
Zhang Hui is a Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant (RCIC) and writer. She lives permanently in Burnaby with her family but is still a lawyer and arbitrator in China. She believes in writing for a good cause and she hopes the Canadian Immigration Handbook may serve as a tool to help people with immigration needs protect themselves from immigration fraud.
Book: Canadian Immigration Handbook
This is a primer on Canadian immigration, which sorts out and converts a sea of Canadian immigration information from various sources into a single book. The book may serve as a reference to immigration practitioner program students for their Entry-to-Practice Exam preparation. It also aims to provide new immigration practitioners with a search tool when they need to locate a particular piece of immigration information. In addition, it functions as a road-map to help immigration prospects navigate their way through the Canadian immigration labyrinth. Immigration, all in all, is about legal status, namely, who can come and remain in Canada. The status of individuals in immigration context decides whether Canada is open to them and through which channel they may seek entry to and remain in Canada. While Canadian citizens and registered Indians under the Indian Act have absolute access to Canada, the access to other individuals is subject to the assessment of two factors: eligibility and admissibility.
Borrow Canadian Immigration Handbook from the Library.
Book: Feast: An Anthology
With a contribution by Hui Zhang. Whether deep underground in a Welsh mine, in a beautiful garden villa in Italy, or across time in a pillaged castle, food has the power to heal, divide, comfort, and destroy. In Feast, their first anthology, sixteen authors from Coquitlam Writers Group interpret the universal theme of food. Between the pages of Feast, a woman weighs her rivalry with her waistband against her rivalry with her Bible study leader. Two former Red Guards in China seek restitution for a supposedly bad watermelon. An impromptu education around a cheese tray puts the loyalty of a newly formed friendship to the test, and a young woman faces the darker aspects of her relationship with food. Join us for a ritualistic feast in the jungles of the Amazon. Visit a warm kitchen heavy with the scent of baked apple pie, and travel to a desolate Vancouver warehouse where French Cuisine is on the menu. Whatever the setting or the food, Feast strives to make the reader think about how we view food, and how food affects our lives in ways we may not have contemplated before and leave you wanting to devour just one more
Borrow Feast: An Anthology from the Library.
What inspires Hui to write?
Canadian Immigration Handbook had been on Hui’s mind after she published a similar book in Chinese in 2018. She worked on it on and off before teaching the Immigration Practitioner Program in May 2019. Her students, future immigration practitioners, asked her to recommend a book that contained all the basics of Canadian immigration. She tried to find one, but failed, and began to work on her book regularly and consistently. This book was partially inspired by her students. It also carries her best wish for people with immigration needs - she hates to see fraudsters take advantage of vulnerable immigrants and newcomers. She hopes that if immigrants know the basics of Canadian immigration and where to find the information they need it will be harder to defrauded them.
What challenges has Hui encountered while writing?
At first, it was the structure of the book and how to organize all the basics in a logical flow. After, it was the language. She remembers the days when she spent hours moving the sections and subsections around to organize them. There were days that she stared at the screen but barely got anything done. Words scampered around as if mocking her, or they remained silent in the dictionaries. Putting them together properly, and sometimes finding a proper word, challenged her on a daily basis. Day in and day out, she kept marching on. Gradually, she felt the connection between her words and identity as a writer. She picked up the pace and felt at ease while she was writing. Probably the biggest challenge was the changing nature of immigration. Temporary COVID-19 measures changed frequently based on the development of the pandemic. It kept her busy re-writing some parts of the book again and again. Fortunately, her editor, Eileen Velthuis, came up with a brilliant idea, which was to move the temporary items to an online kit that would allow them to update it easily. So, all of the challenges turned out to be blessings in disguise.
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
Login to Like or Post a Comment
Make sure to log out of your current account before proceeding.
No login? Please enter your details below to continue.
Browser Compatibility Notification
It appears you are trying to access this site using an outdated browser. As a result, parts of the site may not function properly for you. We recommend updating your browser to its most recent version at your earliest convenience.