Samantha Adkins
Samantha Adkins has published two Christian romance novels, Emmy in Harding and After His Heart, and a young adult fantasy novel, Not As They Appear with CKN Christian Publishing. After his Heart won the 2019 Christian Indie Award for Romance Fiction. Enough is her tenth published novel and is inspired by the life of her grandmother.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Enough
Jenny Anstey
Jenny Anstey is an artist who often uses Bowen Island, her home, as subject matter. She studied fine art at UBC and Emily Carr University. Jenny works in a range of materials, from oil painting to bronze sculpture. Jimmy Jumps was her first project created with a digital tablet and pen. She is the author and illustrator of this title.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Jimmy Jumps
Ken Ashley
Ken received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. at UBC in the Zoology Department, specializing in aquatic ecology, and an M.A.Sc. and Ph.D. at UBC in the Faculty of Applied Sciences in Civil and Environmental Engineering. He is currently Director of the Rivers Institute at BCIT, and a Professor in BCIT's Ecological Restoration Program. This book completes the Rivers Institute's trilogy of books and companion documentary films on the Fraser River, including The Heart of the Fraser; and The Soul of the Fraser.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: The Nechakoh River
C. Peggy Atoche
C. Peggy Atoche is the author of many pieces of creative writing in both fiction and non-fiction. She enjoys unfolding her ideas into various writing forms: personal essays, articles, novels, children's literature, nonfiction of various types, and poetry. Her work includes a focus on existential/spiritual/faith themes and also addresses a variety of social issues. She lives in British Columbia, Canada.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Eternal Love: A Poetic Pathway to God's Heart and Mind
Patricia Barnes
Patricia has worked with almost every age group, from toddler to adult learners and every learning type - from kids who struggle in traditional classrooms to those who are more organized, clever, and insightful than she can ever hope to be. With over fifteen years of experience writing for websites, Patricia is excited about this, her first foray into the world of physical books.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Challenging Math Riddles for Kids: Fun Brainteasers & Logic Games to Develop Math Skills
Cam Beals
Cam Beals is an author and illustrator. He grew up on a small island off the southwest coast of Canada that was overrun by Unicorns. Like most of the human inhabitants there, he was forced to spend his time hiding in caves to avoid impalement. Cam passed the time by making up stories and drawing on cave walls. He now lives in a house in North Vancouver with his wonderful wife and two daughters. Only stuffed Unicorns are allowed.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Poop Dock, Tiffany the Impaler, Christmas Kitties
Bri Beaudoin
Bri Beaudoin is a cookbook author, food stylist, and Certified Holistic Nutritionist. She is the voice behind the popular vegetarian food blog Evergreen Kitchen (www.evergreenkitchen.ca). Her approachable and delicious recipes are developed for all kinds of eaters - veggie-curious, dedicated vegetarians, and vegans alike. Her work has been featured in numerous print and digital publications including Food52, Epicurious, Martha Stewart, BuzzFeed, Good Morning America, Globe and Mail.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Evergreen Kitchen: Weeknight Vegetarian Dinners for Everyone
Judy Bjornson
Judy is a Master Trainer both for exercises in the water and on land. Due to her genuine compassion and extensive disease/disability knowledge as it relates to rehabilitation/movement, Judy was selected as a Program Co-ordinator by the North Shore Vancouver Brain Injury Association. In all aspects of her life Judy strives to positively affect the lives of those she encounters. She decided to write a book from a kitty's point of view to communicate with young children because perhaps the most powerful path to healing for our children is through animals. A second book in the series of three introduces new characters with their own differences and teaches the value of how each of us contributes with our unique abilities to make the work a better place will soon be published. The illustrator, Sydney Kosnik was only 16 years old when she illustrated the book, winning an award for her illustrations and character design in New York.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: My BIG Floofy Feet
Sylvia Bourgeois
Sylvia Bourgeois was born and raised on northern Vancouver Island, in some of British Columbia's most beautiful small communities. Sylvia now lives in the City of North Vancouver, and she considers her family, friends, and time outside to be most important to her. If she isn't working her day job or on a boat with her husband, you can find her creating fine foods in her kitchen. True Moxie is Sylvia's first young adult novel.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: True Moxie
Patricia Bowles
Patricia Bowles is a retired public relations executive living in West Vancouver and Bowen Island, BC, Canada. Patricia was awarded the District of West Vancouver Community Award for Arts and Culture in June 2023.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Butternut Island - Max
David Bowra
David Bowra was a senior partner at a big 4 accounting firm until he set up his own company. He's spent his career handling troubles companies throughout Western Canada and the US. This is a sequel to his first book Banking on Murder. He moved from London in the late seventies and lives in West Vancouver.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Long Way Back
Nicki Boyd
Nicki Boyd was born in Quebec and grew up in Northern Ontario. After a rewarding career in teaching, she now lives in North Vancouver, BC, with her husband David. She enjoys her retirement years playing golf, hiking, travelling, reading and writing. The Canada Day Race is her second book and the sequel to her first short story, Rattled, published in 2021. This upper middle-grade, full-length novel is the continuation of Felix's tumultuous journey after the death of his mother and his quest to find a happy life with his aunt, his grandfather and his new-found friends.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: The Canada Day Race
Richard Boyer
For thirty years, Richard Boyer taught history at Simon Fraser University. Richard's academic research had a forensic bent, focusing on records of the Mexican Inquisition and what these reveal about the lives of ordinary people. His Lives of the Bigamists: Marriage, Family, and Community in Colonial Mexico was awarded the The Canadian History Association's Wallace K. Ferguson Prize in 1996 as the outstanding scholarly book in a field of history other than Canadian History.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Murder 101
Albert Brecht
Albert Brecht is a graduate of Toronto's Ryerson School of Journalism. Born in Holland, he spent his youth playing hockey and tennis in Toronto. He has lived in West Vancouver for the last 40 years, where he hikes the mountain trails overlooking the oceans. Albert is the author of three books and is currently working on his fourth.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: The Girl from Twisted Butte, Bungled Billions, Flying Through Rosedale
Andrew Cawood
Andrew Cawood has written the whimsical 5E Monsters series, the World of Myrr, and over thirty other bestselling RPG books. His Cawood Publishing company is dedicated to creating practical, inspiring products. Originally from South Africa; Andrew has been a teacher, counselor, and storyteller for many years. He lives in North Vancouver with his wife, daughter, and many fey.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Monsters of Feyland
Noah Chinn
Noah Chinn was born in Oshawa, Ontario, and has never really forgiven it for that. Shortly after university he moved to Vancouver, where he met his future wife, Gillian. He then spent the summer bicycling across Canada, which she thankfully didn't misinterpret as him trying to get as far away from her as possible.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Lost Souls, The Professional Tourist, Trooper 4
L. Andrew Coward
The author was born and educated in England, graduating from Downing College, Cambridge. In 1969 he moved to Canada where he had a 30 year career with BNR/Nortel Networks. In the course of this career he worked on many different aspects of the design of real time electronic control systems with billions of components. He became interested in applying the techniques for designing complex systems to understanding the brain, and his first book on this topic was published in 1990. Later, he took early retirement from Nortel to work full time on understanding the brain. He lives in Vancouver, Canada but for many years has carried out research and teaching in association with the Australian National University, publishing two further academic books and about 50 papers in the area of brain understanding.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Brain Mechanisms: Linking Cognitive Phenomena to Neuron Activity
Daniel Cowper
Daniel Cowper is a poet and writer from Bowen Island, whose family roots in British Columbia go back to the fur traders and the First Nations with whom they married. His first collection of poetry was awarded the Frog Hollow Press Chapbook Prize, and individual poems have appeared in numerous publications in Canada, the US, UK, and Ireland. He lives on Bowen Island with the poet Emily Osborne, and their young children.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Grotesque Tenderness
Karen Dodd
Author of the Nicoló Moretti Crime Thriller series and the Stone Suspense novels, Karen was born in Sussex, England and immigrated to Canada as a child. She now lives in a tiny seaside village on the west coast of British Columbia. Scare Away the Dark, the second book in her Stone Suspense series, won the Chanticleer CLUE Award. She is past president of the North Shore Writers' Association and current president of the Canada West chapter of Sisters in Crime.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Deadly Switch: A Stone Suspense, Scare Away the Dark: A Stone Suspense, Everybody Knows: A Nicoló Moretti Crime Thriller
Susan Drury
Susan Drury has spent the past thirty years discovering what it means to consciously accept that nothing ever truly goes wrong; we just haven't yet walked through the transformational doorway that particular challenge offers us. With a wide spectrum of professional training and clinical experience in cranial sacral therapy, shamanic healing, homeopathic practice and the Present Child Method, supported by a deep meditation practice and study of the Tao te Ching, Susan serves as a transformational teacher, guide and writer. She lives in West Vancouver, with her husband of thirty-six years, close to her three grown daughters and two grandchildren. This is her first book.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Elevating Your Origins to Love: A Guided Journey of Transformation, Healing and Power
France Fehr
France Fehr was born in Quebec and has lived in North Vancouver for over three decades. She has travelled around North America, Europe, and Asia, taking many photographs to share on Flickr, Instagram, and her blogs. When she is not on a trail in Europe, she keeps fit while hiking or cycling in British Columbia. On Foot in France, a travel memoir of her adventure on the Camino de Santiago is her first book.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: On Foot in France
Rosalind Ferry
Author Rosalind Ferry is a long-time North Vancouver physiotherapist who grew up in East Africa where her father worked as a doctor specializing in tropical medicine and her mother was a hospital nurse. She enjoyed an outdoorsy, freedom-filled upbringing with animals of one kind or another her constant companions. At the age of six, she developed a passion for horses, which has remained to this day. Ferry is also the author of the award-winning books The Posture Pain Fix and Self-Health Fix.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Dudu the Mongoose and Other Africa Stories
Sonia Garrett
Sonia Garrett has worked as a dancer, clown, actor, and drama teacher. She has run her own business as a franchise owner for Gymboree Play and Music. And now, she seems to have settled down to being a mom, pre-school teacher, storyteller, and writer. Her published work includes two books in the Maddie Series and the Harriet Hall trilogy. Sonia lives in the gentle chaos of books and outdoor paraphernalia in North Vancouver - a home she shares with her teenage daughter and their French Bulldog, Toast.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Harriet Hall and the Miracle Cure
Sandy Gerber
Sandy Gerber is a multiple award-winning author, communications and marketing strategist, and TEDx speaker. As CEO of NEXT Marketing Agency, she set a new standard for innovative communications, growing the company from her bedroom into one of the Top 100 Fastest Growing Companies in British Columbia. Gerber's book, Emotional Magnetism has won eighteen book awards and is currently being translated into Korean and Arabic. Her awards include the Best Indie Book Award, Independent Publishers Medal (IPPY), Living Now Book Award, Literary Titan Medal, Reader Views Medal, Reader's Favourite, Shelf Unbound Best Indie Book, Feathered Quill, CIBA Grand Champion Award, Independent Press Award, Indie Reader Discovery Award, Non Fiction Authors Award, Quiet Warrior Literary Prize, Businessperson of the Year, Mompreneur of the Year, and a YWCA's Women of Distinction Finalist. She's enlightened thousands from the speaker stage and has coached hundreds of people in effective communication. Gerber counts winning a limbo contest at 14 as one of her greatest achievements.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Emotional Magnetism: How to Communicate to Ignite Connection in Your Relationships
Terry Gould
Terry Gould is a Brooklyn-born investigative journalist who has lived in North Vancouver for over thirty years. His best-selling books and articles on organized crime and social issues have earned over 50 awards and honors from numerous foundations, including the J. W. Dafoe Foundation's Best Non-Fiction Book Award, the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression's Tara Singh Hayer Press Freedom Award, the Crime Writers of Canada's Arthur Ellis Award for Best Non-fiction Book, and Spain's Jose Maria Portell Press Freedom Award. The author of five books and dozens of long-form investigative magazine articles, Gould has spent decades reporting from such nations in conflict as Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Colombia, Haiti, the Philippines, Russia, Bangladesh, China, and Cambodia. He has exposed the role of international organized crime in the corrupt governance of these countries and documented the individual lives of heroic journalists and police officers who have given their lives trying to end that corrupt governance. His last three books form a trilogy of exposés of nations run according to the principles of organized crime, offering ways to overcome the systemic corruption that plagues the lives of hundreds of millions of civilians. The first in the series, Paper Fan: The Hunt for Triad Gangster Steven Wong, follows in the footsteps of a Canadian 14K Triad official who staged his death in the Philippines to escape drug charges in Canada and then, despite being listed on Interpol's Red Alert Most Wanted List, went on to conduct his operations with impunity across Southeast Asia and with the profitable connivance of local governments. Gould's investigations of Wong led to Gould being put under police protection for six months. The second book in the series, Murder Without Borders: Dying for the Story in the World's Most Dangerous Places, was the first on-the-ground book that documented the lives of seven local journalists who were killed as a direct result of their work trying to end corruption in the world's most murderous countries for reporters. The third book in the trilogy, Worth Dying For: Canada's Mission to Train Police in the World's Failing States, follows Canadian police officers as they attempt to train honest police forces in some of the world's most corrupt and war-torn nations. Often witnessing the murders of the police they trained, the Canadians themselves have been wounded, stricken by PTSD, held hostage and tortured, or killed. Yet our cops persist in their international missions, believing that the most significant tool in securing justice and stability for people in states in crisis is a police force resistant to influence and corruption. To unwind from his international reporting, Gould cycles the North Shore's mountain trails with his wife and family.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Worth Dying For: Canada's Mission to Train Police in the World's Failing States
Cammi Granato
Cammi Granato is a pioneer in women's sports, playing through a time when hockey was considered a man's sport. She forged her own path as a child and has inspired many young girls to follow their dream no matter what others think. She was captain of the first USA Women's Olympic team, winning a gold and silver medal, and was the first of two women to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, a place that was reserved for men's hockey greats. Today, Cammi is the Assistant General Manager for the Vancouver Canucks and resides in North Vancouver with her husband and children.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: I Can Play Too
Bruce Grierson
Bruce is a veteran narrative nonfiction writer with a specialty in the social sciences. He is a longtime contributor to such magazines and newspapers as The New York Times Magazine, Popular Science, Psychology Today, The Walrus, The Globe and Mail, The Guardian, and many others. He lives in Lynn Valley with his wife and daughters.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: What Makes Olga Run?
Laurel Gurnsey
Laurel Gurnsey has always been curious about life...soaking up adventures like swimming with sharks in Bora Bora, riding camels in Australia, racing around the track at Le Mans in a Lagonda or sharing her passion for travelling, history and the environment with students in her elementary school classes. She has written several romantic suspense novels and over 75 social/historical articles for three car club publications. Laurel and her husband Colin, live in Vancouver with their Sheltie Keira, and have been on the organizing committees of several major events.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Tremors of the Heart, Dancing in the Mist
Jason Haugh
Golf professional 1963-1980 , CPGA, British PGA, Bahamian PGA
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Golf for Beginners
Beth Hazell, co-author Dominic Szasz
Beth Hazell was born and raised in Hertfordshire, England and now lives in North Vancouver, British Columbia with her son, Dominic. They love to make up stories together, watch soccer (go Whitecaps) and explore the North Shore forests in search of bugs. Be Yourself, Little Hippo is their first children's book. Dominic loves to run and ask questions, lots of questions. He is currently very excited about going to school and is thoroughly enjoying his adventures in Kindergarten. Dominic believes hippos make great heroes, even if they have dirty feet.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Be Yourself, Little Hippo
Robert Heidbreder
Robert Heidbreder is an award-winning children's poet with over 20 books published. His titles include Eenie Meenie Manitoba, Drumheller Dinosaur Dance, and Roarchestra. His forthcoming book is My Cat Does Ballet. A former primary teacher for 30 years, he was winner of the Prime Minister's Award for Teaching Excellence. He lives in North Vancouver with his wife Jane and two sterling cats.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Alphabet Antics
Marcus Hondro
Marcus Hondro is an actor and writer who lives on Bowen Island. Hondro has played in blues bands, recording two albums for RCA Canada, and acted in theater and dozens of TV shows and films. He is a past member of Vancouver Theatresports. His novel, The Keeley Miller Finding Club is a compelling and humorous story that is chock-full of wonderful characters and unabashedly Canadian.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: The Keeley Miller Finding Club
Rosemary Keevil
Rosemary Keevil has been a TV news reporter, a current affairs radio show host, and managing editor of a professional women's magazine. She has a master's degree in journalism and is currently a journalist covering addiction and recovery. Rosemary lives in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada, with her partner and her two sheep-a-doodles. Rosemary has been clean and sober since 2002.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: The Art of Losing It: A Memoir of Grief and Addiction
Meghan Kemp-Gee
Meghan Kemp-Gee is an award-winning poet and teacher. She is the author of The Animal in the Room (Coach House Books, 2023), What I Meant to Ask: A Chapbook (Alien Buddha Press, 2022) and The Bones and Eggs and Beets (Small Harbor Editions, forthcoming). She also co-created Contested Strip, the world's best comic about ultimate frisbee (and soon to be a graphic novel). She is a PhD candidate at UNB Fredericton and lives in North Vancouver. You can find her on Twitter @MadMollGreen.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: The Animal in the Room
Erich Kunz
Erich Kunz was born as a result of a cancer experiment shortly before WW2. When he was 8 years old his father was killed and he had to take charge of a small farm. His left hand was his dominant hand and presented huge problems to be overcome. In spite if that he became a craftsman at age 17. A man died partly due to a calculation mistake of his and a lack of proper safety equipment, which caused him to become a freedom fighter. At the age of 18 he emigrated to Canada overcoming problems of language and his trade. But soon he became active in reconciliation with the Native community. He acquired a few more trades and became a plumbing and heating contractor employing up to 35 people. He was instrumental in avoiding a general strike before Expo 86 and as a result became an advisor to the provincial Government and active in church leadership for 12 years—6 as moderator. He lives with his wife of nearly 60 years in the Raven Woods, North Vancouver. They have 2 children, 6 grandchildren, and 2 great-grandchildren.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: A Blessed Life, From God's Perspective
Cathalynn Labonte-Smith
Cathalynn Cindy Labonte-Smith grew up in Southwestern Alberta and moved to Vancouver, BC, to complete her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia (UBC). After graduation, she worked as a freelance journalist until present. She became a technical writer in wireless communication and other high-tech industries, earning a Certificate in Technical Writing from Simon Fraser University. She later went to UBC to complete a Bachelor of Education (Secondary) and taught English, journalism, and other subjects at Vancouver high schools. She is a member of North Shore Writers and Editors Association. She is a member of the Civil Air Search and Rescue out of Boundary Bay Airport.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Rescue Me: Behind the Scenes of Search and Rescue
Lisa Lambert
Lisa Lambert is an executive operator, advisor, and business coach who partners with leaders and cross-functional teams around the world who are pushing the frontiers of innovation. Over the course of nearly 20 years advancing world-leading endeavours in science, technology, medicine, education, and sustainability, she couldn't help but notice the remarkable possibility high trust unlocked. Time and time again, she experienced and observed how high trust facilitated and accelerated the journey from exploration and ideation to generating meaningful insights and impact. This led her to develop a practical framework for assessing, strengthening, and even restoring trust, which she refined with the help of Rick Kitagawa. Together, they co-authored The Future Is Trust, an actionable guidebook to help leaders build and strengthen trust within themselves and with others so they can shape the future. www.rulenumbersix.ca
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: The Future Is Trust: Embracing the Era of Trust-Centered Leadership
Christie Lea
Christie Lea is a Canadian author and mother living on Bowen Island, British Columbia, Canada with her two children. Christie has been writing all her life, however, her professional career started just three years ago. After suffering serious health complications resulting from a PTSD diagnosis after thirteen years of being a first responder, Christie left her vocation and began to explore other avenues of expression as part of her healing. Safe In Starry Arms was born naturally out of this process and while the story is based on the experiences of a little boy, it represents Christie's own deep struggle with anxiety, depression, disconnectedness and fear.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Safe In Starry Arms
Pauline Le Bel
Pauline Le Bel is an award-winning novelist, an Emmy-nominated screenwriter, a singer/songwriter with 5 CDs of her original songs. She is the author of Whale in the Door: A Community Unites to Protect BC's Howe Sound, and Becoming Intimate with the Earth. She is the founder and creative director of Knowing Our Place, a reconciliation initiative. She lives on Bowen Island.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Whale in the Door: A Community Unites to Protect BC's Howe Sound, They Ask Me Why I Sing So Loud, Becoming Intimate with the Earth
Louise Loike
Louise Loik is a journalist who has been tromping around Bowen Island peering into ferns, ponds, lakes and rocky crevasses for decades. Beasts of Bowen Island is a product of her life-long interest in ecology and wild things. Louise has been published in The National Observer, The Financial Times, The Globe and Mail, and other publications. She was one of the first foreign journalists allowed into Siberia to document environmental issues you can find her moving snakes, lizards and frogs off the roads wherever she goes, and at home, hurt, lost, abandoned animals of all variety can regularly be found sharing her home.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Beasts of Bowen Island - Nexwlélexwm - Amphibian & Reptile Discovery Guide
Warren Lowe, illustrator Carolynn Elliot
Warren Lowe grew up in West Vancouver just off Taylor Way, he then settled in the Seymour area of North Vancouver to raise his own family. When his grandson Hendrix was born 100 days pre-mature, Warren was inspired by the dedication, professionalism and care provided by the extraordinary team at BC Women's Hospital. With the help of numerous medical professionals Hendrix successfully overcame his bumpy start to life and is thriving today. Warren authored Hendrix and the Hedgehog as a means to give back, donating 100% of the proceeds to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Having written the book, Warren reached out to his sister Carolynn Elliot to illustrate the book. Carolynn also grew up in West Vancouver, and then raised her own children in the Edgemont Village community of North Vancouver. In addition to writing this wonderful book and being an incredible and loving grandfather to 4 amazing grandsons and 1 awesome granddaughter, Warren is an acclaimed wildlife and landscape photographer, and a firefighter with the South Green Lake Volunteer Fire Department. Carolynn Elliot, was a decorated and award winning high school art teacher, and has been an instructor for Simon Fraser University and Queen's University on the topic of Art Education. She has been privileged to work with several notable BC artists over the years, including Robert Davidson and the late Gordon Smith.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Hendrix and the Hedgehog
Paul Lucas
Paul Lucas is a professional guitarist whose focus on jazz and original music has kept him on the stage for over 50 years. The unusual part of his story is that much of this time was spent in the outback of British Columbia, Canada. Born in South Shields, England, he moved with his family to B.C when he was nine. His was a musical, theatrical family and Paul began to see a future in music when he was in university. A composer, performer, teacher, and author of several instruction books, his love of the wilderness kept drawing him into the mountainous back country. In 1979 Paul left the comforts of Vancouver music scene to build a cabin on the Yukon border, choosing to live a 'wood and water' life off the grid. This book is about the work, the people, and the adventures of a guitar player living in the North. You can't make this stuff up!
(Comic art provided by Lynn Johnston of For Better Or For Worse.)
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: A Guitar Player On The Yukon Border
Colin MacCallum
Colin, a December baby, started at Hyndland Primary School, Glasgow, Scotland, in September 1939, before he was five years old. Three years later Colin went to The High School of Glasgow until he was 17. He went into a Chartered accountant's office for some six months and then was called up for National Service in the Royal Air Force; he served for one year in England and on Active Service: two months, Egypt and 10 months, Cyprus. After two years as an apprentice draftsman in a large boiler company, he became a student apprentice and graduated with an external B.Sc., Mechanical Engineering, London University 1963. In 1965, he married and moved to Gothenburg, Sweden, as a boiler designer. His three sons were born in Sweden. In 1974, Colin and family moved to Vancouver, BC. He worked for a Consulting Engineering Company, specializing in feasibility studies and conceptual engineering. He established his own company and held various patents on combustion air systems. He wrote 30 technical papers presented at various conferences. He retired in 2021, having published three books of poetry along the way.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Victoria Dreaming - Stories in Rhyme
Janice MacLean
Janice D. MacLean's dynamic career in business leadership has spanned over thirty years. She's work with extraordinary professionals and held leadership positions in business, marketing, operations and project management in a wide variety of industries. During the past twenty years, Janice's focus on business consulting and project management has included professional services in leadership coaching, business development, employee engagement, change management, communications, community relations, brand strategies, and product launches. Although this is her first book, Janice has authored blogs and business articles, been a conference presenter and guest instructor at universities, chamber of commerce(s), and business development programs.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: BACK to BLACK - A Post-Pandemic Playbook
Ken MacQueen
Before turning to fiction, Ken MacQueen spent 15 years as Vancouver bureau chief for Maclean's, winning multiple National Magazine Awards and nominations. He traveled the world writing features and breaking news for the magazine, and previously for two national news agencies. He has written extensively on crime, politics, disasters, and the shifting fortunes of the late Queen Elizabeth II and her clan. All of this is potential fodder for future fiction, though the Queen as action hero always seemed unlikely. Hero Haters, set in the Pacific Northwest and rural Pennsylvania, is his debut thriller. He covered nine Olympic Games and drew the athletic prowess of Jake Ockham, his protagonist, from tracking elite rowers in training and on podiums in Athens, Beijing and London. He and his wife live in North Vancouver, where he's beavering away at a sequel.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Hero Haters
Rhonda Mailey
An avid reader and writer all her life, Rhonda is drawn to the dark side of things. Masters of the horror genre like Shirley Jackson and Stephen King laid down spooky, creepy tunnels that she gladly follows. She's always been fascinated by ghosts, demons, Egypt, and generally things that go bump in the night. Reginald wasn't born a demon. As with villains and serial killers, something truly horrific triggers their rage and Rhonda enjoys exploring those pivotal events that turn good to evil. A North Shore resident since elementary school, Rhonda has been writing professionally for decades in radio, television and public affairs. This is her first published novel.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Reginald
Barb Mathieson
Barb Mathieson has been an educator on the North Shore for many years, teaching both elementary school and as faculty at Capilano University. Two of her passions are early childhood literacy and outdoor education. This is Barb's first book and is a collection of original stories that Barb shares with her students, both young and old, while out in nature on the North Shore. In the stories facts are mixed with a sprinkling of magic so as to engage children's imaginations and open their hearts to listening to nature. It is Barb's hope that through the power of stories, children will come to see nature as someone they can learn from and respect, as opposed to something simply here for their use/disposal.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Coming to know: Storytelling in/with nature. Nature stories to share with children
Rosemary Messmer, anthology compiled by Sue Dumais
Rosemary is a mom, a Certified Intuitive Healer, and a Registered Clinical Counsellor. She has a private counselling practice located in North Vancouver, Canada, where she offers both traditional therapy and intuitive counselling. In this book, she shares her empowering story of discovering her inner light and becoming a healing presence for others. When Rosemary is not working or hanging out with her kids, you are most likely to find her reading a novel, doing her own healing work, or enjoying a walk in the forest. To learn more about Rosemary visit www.lightupyourheart.ca
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: We Are ALL Healers: Ordinary People with Extraordinary Intention Will Heal the World
Anelynda Mielke
When Anelynda was a kid, she lived in her imagination. Then she went to school, and church, and her friends' houses, where she learned about the importance of living in the 'real' world. As she got older, she learned more about how to be successful, how to get a 'real' job and a 'real' relationship and a 'real' education. The worlds inside her mind became less important in light of 'reality.'
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: The Convert's Daughter
M.J. Milne
M. J. Milne is s a Canadian artist, author, and screenplay writer. She was born and raised near the rainforests of Vancouver, B.C., Canada. Her writing and artistic abilities, love of travel, and interest in the inner worlds of Spirit emerged early. Milne studied at the Vancouver School of Art, Simon Fraser University, and the University of B.C. Later, her imaginative landscape paintings were sought after by art collectors. During her stay in northern B.C., working in an isolated gold mine, her connection with nature heightened. Her search for spiritual answers began soon after a series of profound occurrences transformed her life. As a result of these experiences, she wrote two books, one fiction, one non-fiction.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: 12 Golden Keys for a New World
Brian Mulligan
Brian Mulligan spent his career in the marine industry mostly skippering patrol vessels. In his youth, his studies took him to the US and back and an early love of motorcycling morphed in a passion for the pedaled variety. For more than 35 years he has lived with his wife near Deep Cove, and when he's not in the saddle he'll be kayaking the Pacific Ocean or spending time with his children and his community.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Drinkin' Thinkin' - A Canadian Cyclist's View Atop an American Barstool
Stuart Newton
Stuart Newton is a retired school teacher who taught secondary English in the UK, and is now living in North Vancouver. He spent 20 years teaching in London ; travelling up to Yorkshire in the summers. Stuart also writes poetry and essays on a variety of subjects.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Mayfair Games, Yorkshire Fair: Tales from a Big-Hearted County
Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas
Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas is a visual artist, author, and mischief-maker. His works are informed by political experience, an upbringing in a lineage of artists and leaders, and a lifetime of curiosity. His large sculptures are in public art collections across British Columbia, with more on the way. His work has also been transformed into an opera, The Flight of the Hummingbird, for which he was the librettist. His publications include Flight of the Hummingbird, RED: a Haida Manga, Carpe Fin, and War of the Blink. In 2022, UBC Press published a catalogue of his work, Mischief Making: Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, Art, and the Seriousness of Play, by Dr. Nicola Levell.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: JAJ: a Haida Manga
Lianne Oelke
Lianne Oelke has a degree in philosophy and works in the film industry - which may explain a lot about her debut novel, Nice Try, Jane Sinner. Or not. She lives, camps, and thinks about cats in North Vancouver.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Nice Try, Jane Sinner
Emily Osborne
Emily Osborne's poetry, short fiction and Old Norse-to-English verse translations have been published in journals and anthologies such as Vallum, CV2, The Polyglot, The Literary Review of Canada, and Barren Magazine. Safety Razor (Gordon Hill Press, 2023) is her debut book of poetry. In 2018, Emily won The Malahat Review's Far Horizons Award for Poetry, and her chapbook Biometrical was published by Anstruther Press. Currently, Emily lives on Bowen Island, BC, with her husband and two young sons. She edits poetry for PULP Literature magazine and is working on a book of Old Norse verse translations.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Safety Razor
Noah Orenfant
Noah Orenfant- Artist and writer. After graduating in English Literature, she completed a visual literacy program at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Canada. A resident of North Vancouver, she loves outdoor activities. Nature and her children inspire her to create artwork. Her first children's book, Seeds, was inspired by growing vegetables in a community garden while raising two children.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Once Upon a Time -The Last Christmas Story
Frances Peck
Frances Peck worked for decades as an editor, ghostwriter, and educator before returning to her first love, writing fiction. Her debut novel, The Broken Places, was named a Globe and Mail best book of 2022 and was shortlisted for the Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize. Uncontrolled Flight, her second novel, anchored in the worlds of aerial firefighting and air accident investigation, is another literary page-turner, one that probes love, loyalty, grief, and the ways we try to conceal and redeem our lives. Early readers have called it "a compelling read overloaded with turbulence" and "part tragedy, part mystery, and totally impossible to put down." Learn more at francespeck.com.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Uncontrolled Flight
Kirsten Pendreigh
Kirsten Pendreigh is a children's author, poet and journalist. Her books for children celebrate our early instincts to love and nurture the natural world. They include LUNA'S GREEN PET, MAYBE A WHALE and WHEN A TREE FALLS. Kirsten's poetry is found in Canadian literary magazines and anthologies including BEST CANADIAN POETRY. Kirsten lives on Vancouver's beautiful North Shore.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Luna's Green Pet, Maybe a Whale
Catherine Peters
Cathy Peters is a former inner city high school teacher from British Columbia. She is a wife, a mother of three remarkable children, a business partner, public speaker and an author. Cathy lives with her husband Allan in North Vancouver, BC.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Morning, Child Sex Trafficking in Canada and How To Stop It
Emmanuel Puga
Emmanuel Puga is a psychologist and entrepreneur with an outstanding trajectory in the world of business and social impact. The author decided to write Start Now after reading dozens of self-help and leadership books. He realized that no book addressed his real need: to live in balance and find inner peace, while remaining part of the routine of the city and the corporate world.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Comienza Ya, Maldita Sea
Ilana Quinn
Writing under a pen name, Ilana holds a Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of British Columbia, where she took numerous English literature and creative writing courses. She enjoys nothing more than imagining and writing the lives of historical women. You can find more of her work on Wattpad under the username @purplejeans, where she won a 2020 Watty Award for her French-Canadian historical fiction book, Daughters of the King. She lives in North Vancouver with her family.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Daughter of the Mob
Peter Raabe
Peter B. Raabe received his P.H.D. in 1999 from U.B.C. He began his teaching career at the University of the Fraser Valley in 2003 teaching philosophy. He published a book in 2014 titled, Philosophy's Role in Counseling and Psychotherapy, which became the textbook for a unique course he developed called Philosophy for Counsellors. Peter retired in 2021 and was awarded Professor Emeritus status. He lives in North Vancouver with his wife.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Philosophy's Role in Counseling and Psychotherapy
Vi Roden
Vi Roden is a community and social activist. She brought changes to the BC Women’s Prison at Oakalla, founded Act2--the first organization for sexually abused children--and initiated progressive programs and structural changes to the West Vancouver Seniors Centre.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: My Name is Vi… Not Violet
Hedieh Safiyari
Hedieh is an Iranian Canadian woman, a mother, activist, health professional, and the founder of PromptHealth, a wellness app. She worked as a clinician for almost 20 years and created an app to empower those seeking wellness solutions and wellness businesses. She has used her voice to inspire and empower people on social media over the past year. Understand U and Understand U Journal came out of the TikTok journey with all the questions asked by her and answered by thousands of people.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Understand U
Kassie Sambaraju
Kassie Sambaraju started writing to express herself as an activist and problem-solver. A lover of metaphysics and philosophy, she has sought from a young age to understand pain and suffering through the spiritual guidance of a diverse array of religious and academic texts. She enjoys art, culture, cycling, yoga, and spending time outdoors. Kassie lives in Vancouver, BC. In the Shadows of Death is her first book.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: In The Shadows Of Death
John Schreiner
John Schreiner Based in North Vancouver, B.C., John Schreiner is among Canada's most prolific authors of wine books. He has authored 20 since 1984, including three Whitecap bestsellers: British Columbia Wine Country, The Wineries of British Columbia and John Schreiner's Okanagan Wine Tour Guide. The sixth edition, now called Okanagan Wine Tour Guide and published TouchWood Editions, was released in April 2020. In 2017, TouchWood also published his Icon: Flagship Wines from British Columbia's Best Wineries, winner of a Gourmand World Cookbook Award. His memoir, Goodgrog: A Life in Wine & Journalism, was published in 2023. John juggled his passion for wine with a 40-year career as a business writer for The Financial Post until retiring in 2001 to devote himself totally to wine. He has frequently judged at wine competitions, has been an accomplished home vintner and has chaired the selection committee for the Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival. He blogs actively on johnschreiner.blogspot.ca.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Goodgrog: A Life in Wine and Journalism
Julia Simpson
Julia Simpson is a crochet designer, stuffed animal lover, and self-professed nerd who lives in North Vancouver, Canada. In 2017, Julia started her crochet business, Wayward Pineapple Creations, where she shares her amigurumi patterns, crochet tips, and doll photography.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Amigurumi for Beginners: Learn to Crochet Creative Figures with 20 Easy Patterns
Kelly Snider
Kelly Snider is a best-selling author and story curator who thoughtfully collects and preserves stories through creating events, writing books, interviewing guests on her podcast and facilitating life-changing story workshops. She is an expert at extracting stories and identifying value and strength within the narrative. As an acclaimed event producer, she highlights her clients' individual stories, needs and goals. Since the 1990s, Kelly's story-focused events have raised over twelve million dollars net for charities around the world.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Your Story Your Strength
Cressida Spicer
Cress Spicer. ECE Infant and toddler certificate. 3rd level deaf blind intervening. Certified in MindUp mindfulness for schools. Certified Reiki Master Teacher over 22 years, Certified Bodytalk Practioner 17 years. Over 25 years experience working as a student support worker supporting children on the autism spectrum in various school boards in England and Canada.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Childhood Autism Insights into their Mysterious World
James O. Stitchman, co-authors Rosie R. Stitchman and Samuel J. Stitchman
James Stitchman, the inspiration behind Papa J Tailor, has spent his lifetime coaching, teaching, and interacting with children through various amateur sports involvement. A natural story-teller, he would share stories with the community children, as well as his grandchildren, Rosie and Sam. As Rosie and Sam grew, they began adding to their grandfather's stories, and the three let their imaginations run wild. From that, the Rosie and Sam's Dude Ranch Adventures series was borne. A follow-up to Thunder and the Werewolves, published in 2021, the Stitchman grandfather and grandchildren writing team have reunited to pen Thunder and the Grizzly Bear Cub, the second book in the Rosie and Sam's Dude Ranch Adventures series. Rosie and Samuel live in North Vancouver, British Columbia with their mom, Thea; their dad, Brendan; and their rescue dog, Winnie. James lives in Vancouver with his wife Kathryn.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Thunder and the Grizzly Bear Cub
Gail Sye
Sadie is a sassy, funny cat telling her tale as she stays with a bachelor in his home while her humans are on vacation. Her curiosity steers her into all kinds of predicaments as she bonds with him and his family. It is a light and fluffy short story, full of love, and a fun read for all ages.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: SADIE'S SAGA.....Sadie and the Big Guy
Russell Thornton
Russell Thornton's collection The Hundred Lives (Quattro Books, 2014) was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize. His Birds, Metals, Stones & Rain (Harbour Publishing, 2013) was shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award for Poetry, the Raymond Souster Award and the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. His other titles include The Fifth Window (Thistledown Press, 2000), A Tunisian Notebook (Seraphim Editions, 2002), House Built of Rain (Harbour Publishing, 2003; shortlisted for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize and the ReLit Award for poetry), The Human Shore and The Broken Face (Harbour Publishing, 2006 and 2018). His most recent collection is Answer to Blue (Harbour Publishing, 2021). Thornton's poetry has appeared in several anthologies and as part of BC's Poetry in Transit. He lives in North Vancouver, BC.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Answer to Blue
Melanie Ting
Melanie Ting is a USA Today best-selling author of hockey romances. She writes, wrangles cats, and cheers on hockey in beautiful North Vancouver.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Coast to Coast
Calvin Wharton
Calvin Wharton has been published in numerous magazines and anthologies in Canada, the U.S., Wales, Sweden and Denmark. He is a former chair of Creative Writing at Douglas College and editor of Event magazine. He has been a writer in residence at the University of Wales and had a Coracle Europe Literary residency in Tranås, Sweden. His books include a collection of short fiction, Three Songs by Hank Williams (Turnstone); the non-fiction, Rowing (with Silken Laumann, Boston Mills); and a poetry collection, The Song Collides (Anvil). His recent book of poetry, This Here Paradise (Anvil), was published in the fall of 2022.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: This Here Paradise
Peter Woodbridge
An agricultural economist, Peter Woodbridge spent much of his business career travelling and working globally, often visiting places steeped in history and intrigue. He brings to the world of fiction his passion for in-depth research and a knack for storytelling. Readers will enjoy the memorable characters and fascinating plots he creates for his crime and mystery novels. He lives in Vancouver, Canada.
Titles in the 2023/2024 Collection: Girl With a Vengeance
