Our 2026 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.

Now, with over 100 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 under the green White Pines sign.

Bob Cowin

Bob Cowin issued oodles of memos and reports as a bureaucrat working in post-secondary education. After retiring from Douglas College, he switched to writing creative nonfiction—rather more fun and a great way to celebrate the activities and perspectives of the local people he encounters. A lifelong resident of British Columbia, Bob has lived in the Tri-Cities since 1986

Lightning Nerds and Gearheads: Conversations about Engineers and their Workplaces

Lightning Nerds and Gearheads is a layperson’s glimpse into engineering. Through author Bob Cowin’s six conversations with people in the profession—including a marine engineer, an electrical engineer, and everything in between—Lightning Nerds and Gearheads touches on what makes engineers tick, what draws them into the profession, and perhaps most fascinating of all, how they facilitate the systems and processes which make our modern world possible.

Borrow Lightning Nerds and Gearheads: Conversations about Engineers and their Workplaces from the Library.

What inspires Bob to write?

Bob enjoys learning about people's lives, especially what their experiences have meant to them. His writing is a vehicle for some in-depth conversations with individuals about their activities and points of view. This information becomes his source material. In exchange, the people he meets get their experiences documented and shared with the world, albeit with Bob's own spin on their stories. It's mutually rewarding.

In a similar vein, Bob's writing brings him into contact with other local writers, fostering a type of conversation he doesn’t get in many other places. So, the paradox is that the solitary act of writing enables him to connect with real-life people in a manner that he finds very fulfilling.

What is the most challenging part of being a writer for Bob?

Bob’s challenges have changed over time. At first, making revisions was a chore. Now, he enjoys looking at the third or fourth draft to see if he can replace a verb with a more evocative one or to tighten a paragraph.

One of today's challenges is to be patient in selecting a topic for his next project. Bob knows that if he chooses the right topic, he'll become energized, and the first draft will practically write itself. However, waiting for the right topic to emerge can take longer than he'd like.

Matthew Klein

From Vancouver, BC, and completing his studies at BCIT for Journalism, Matthew has always had a passion for writing and visions of storytelling. Science Fiction and Fantasy have always been a special genre for him and his adventurous nature. Whether it’s movies, TV shows, comics, books, music, or drawing, he has always dreamed of what it would be like to be in a world far away. Combining the themes of drama, adventure, science, crime, politics, and self-discovery, he has initiated his ideas and passions into every page of his writing, with the sole focus of his readers’ enjoyment.

Find out more about Matthew on X at @authormattklein and on Instagram at

@authormatthewklein

Zone

What is freedom, if you’ve never known the sky?

In the shining sprawl of Valar—a massive, high-tech metropolis where everyone has everything they need, Mikus Nett, a young, ambitious, nineteen-year-old, lives in a world powered by robots, ruled by routine, and filled with conflicting voices he can't escape. As his regulated life starts to crack, secrets rise from the depths of the city - and from within his own circle of friends. When society begins to lose its grip, who do you trust—your closest friend, a rising leader, a princess, or an outsider?

Borrow Zone from the Library.

What inspired Matthew to become a writer?

Matthew is inspired by his inherent passion for sci-fi, storytelling, adventure, and the expansion of ideas of worlds and characters beyond what we know.

What have Matthew’s biggest challenges been while writing?

What challenges Matthew is the discipline that having a good work ethic requires. He has the imagination, but the desire and will to see projects through is entirely dependent on his ability to find time to work on it. Little by little, it will grow.

Bob Cain

Bob Cain is a Canadian author, entrepreneur, and wellness advocate whose writing explores resilience, healing, and intentional living. Drawing from lived experience, including a long and ongoing battle with cancer, his work blends personal narrative with reflective insight, offering readers an honest and grounded exploration of what it means to endure and evolve. Bob is the creator of the 24HrDay philosophy, and an author focused on aligning daily life with purpose, presence, and care — for self, others, and the planet.

Find out more about Bob from his Facebook at /bob.cain.142 and LinkedIn at /in/bob-cain-84a76516/

Find out more about the 24HrDay at https://www.24hrday.com, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61578300419001 and on Instagram at @24hrday

24HrDay: A Cancer Survivor’s Raw Journey into Healing, Hope, and Potential

When Bob Cain was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer, his world cracked open. But instead of giving up, he leaned in — and began building a system to take his life back, one day at a time.

24HrDay is the extraordinary true account of how one man turned a health crisis into a mission for personal transformation. Through radical honesty, daily rituals, and a powerful mindset shift, Bob forged a new way of living — one rooted in presence, purpose, and personal accountability. What started as a survival strategy became a universal framework for anyone seeking clarity, strength, and meaning — even in the face of overwhelming challenges.

Borrow 24HrDay: A Cancer Survivor’s Raw Journey into Healing, Hope, and Potential
from the Library.

What inspired Bob to write 24HrDay?

Bob always wanted to write a book, but he assumed he needed more life experience before he'd have something meaningful to say. In March 2024, while in Mexico with his life partner, D’Arcy Saunders, that changed. After his Stage 4 colon cancer diagnosis, he had a phone call with a close friend, Randy Robles — who later wrote the foreword for 24HrDay — and he encouraged Bob to write about the journey as it unfolded. He began journaling the very next day and committed to telling the story honestly.

Bob’s background spans the liberal arts, music, neuroscience, engineering, and a long career in sales, marketing, and environmental leadership, alongside a deep interest in philosophy and Eastern traditions like Taoism and Buddhism. Writing became the place where all of those threads came together. Later, time spent in the hospital strengthened the work by allowing Bob to write in real time and learn directly from doctors and nurses. “Ultimately, I’m writing to create a life-affirming story about facing mortality — and choosing to live well.”

What have Bob's biggest challenges been while writing?

The greatest challenge for Bob has been his health. Periods of painful bowel obstructions at home made it extremely difficult to nourish himself and led to intense physical discomfort, which forced him to stop writing for nearly three months in the fall. Paradoxically, the hospital became the place where much of the book was written. Being immersed in that environment helped Bob to write with greater honesty and accuracy — capturing the reality of treatment, procedures, and daily life inside a hospital. Writing alongside doctors and nurses, and learning directly from them, allowed him to convey the medical and human aspects of the story as truthfully as possible. Bob used a two-month hospital stay as an opportunity to document the experience in real time.

Philip Hemmings

Philip Hemmings is a Canadian author based in Vancouver whose writing centers on the idea that life’s struggles are not random, but purposeful lessons designed to strengthen specific areas within us. Drawing on faith, lived experience, and insights from neuroscience, 3 Seconds on Earth frames personal hardship as part of a larger process of growth and preparation. Set against the incredibly brief backdrop of our time on earth (3 seconds) compared to the vastness of eternity, the book explores the transition beyond this life through accounts from near-death experience survivors, weaving in fascinating real-life stories and examples that bring its themes to life and invite readers to live with greater clarity, courage, and compassion.

Find out more about the book at https://www.3secondsonearth.com/ , on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61577450615605# and on Instagram at @3_seconds_on_earth

3 Seconds on Earth: Breaking Free from Anxiety, Regret, and the Fear of Death

Life is short, but eternity is forever. In 3 Seconds on Earth, author Philip Hemmings invites readers to see life through a fresh lens that transforms fear, regret, and uncertainty into peace, purpose, and strength.

At the heart of the book is the idea of paradigm shifts—new ways of seeing that reveal how our struggles are not setbacks but training grounds. Just as gym equipment works different muscles, life’s problems strengthen patience, endurance, resilience, and faith. What feels like resistance is actually preparation. Each hardship becomes an opportunity for God to shape character and equip us for a greater purpose.

Borrow 3 Seconds on Earth: Breaking Free from Anxiety, Regret, and the Fear of Death from the Library.

What inspired Philip to write 3 Seconds on Earth?

With the benefit of age, experience, and quiet reflection, Philip began to see a pattern in his own life and in the lives of others: resilience is often forged, not chosen. Through seasons of struggle and difficulty, he came to believe these challenges were not meaningless but permitted—sometimes assigned—to strengthen the very areas we or those close to us would one day need most. Many of these insights were shaped during regular time each morning spent with God, where stillness replaced noise and perspective slowly formed. In a world full of distractions pulling us toward the loudest and shiniest things, it’s easy to forget how brief our time on earth really is and how deeply it shapes our eternal path. What once felt like wasted years spent in life’s valleys revealed themselves as preparation, forming the person Philip was becoming.

What have Philip’s biggest challenges been while writing?

For Philip, the biggest challenge in writing was simply getting started. He had to accept that the ideas didn’t need to be perfectly organized at the beginning — that structure, clarity, and rewrites would come later. The real work was forcing himself to start writing, even when the full shape of the book wasn’t yet clear. Writing turned out to be a journey rather than a straight line. Another challenge was learning when to let go and submit the book, knowing there would always be more he could add. As one author wisely told him, “That’s what the next book is for.”

Mallee Stanley

Mallee Stanley (pronounced M’lee) is a B.C. writer whose first novel, set in Uganda, You Can’t Clap with One Hand, was published in 2025. Her novel set in Tanzania, Slow Poison, will be published this year.

Although she now calls Canada home, she has lived overseas in Africa, Asia, and Australia for over forty years, so her writing has an international flavour. She has completed five historical fictions set in East Africa, Sri Lanka, India, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and Canada with a through line dealing with racism and patriarchy. She often writes in women’s voices, and her stories are inspired by personal experiences during her travels.

Mallee is now working on her sixth manuscript sharing her chapters with the Port Moody Writing Group.

You can connect with Mallee on her travel blog at https://malleestanley.wordpress.com/author/malleestanley/ and get her best reads and writing tips at https://readandwrite.blog/author/malleestanley/

You Can’t Clap with One Hand

Growing up in a South Asian household in Uganda, Guli becomes an expert at crafting successful schemes to outwit her father and his misogynistic ways. Years later, when Idi Amin seizes power, the Nile becomes a grim stream of death and Guli fails to outsmart her husband. His ambition blinds him to the truth and thrusts her into a perilous situation with long lasting consequences. You Can’t Clap with One Hand is a Gujarati expression which loosely means, it takes two to make a relationship work.

Borrow You Can't Clap with One Hand from the Library.

What inspired Mallee to write?

Mallee's life experiences were the first inspiration because she left Australia with a one-way air ticket to India. She thought she would only write one book, but ideas have kept coming! Especially when she hikes, Mallee finds herself having conversations with characters in her head.

What have Mallee's biggest challenges been while writing?

Mallee realized she wasn't great at writing when she first started twenty-five years ago, but determination kept her going; and attending the Port Moody writing group, whom she thanks for teaching her so much. The most challenging thing for Mallee is getting the first draft done because after that she loves editing.

About the White Pines Local Author Collection

0 Likes