Local Author Fair 2022

Welcome everyone to our first Local Author Fair at the Spruce Grove Public Library. This will be an open-house style event and a chance for everyone to meet their favorite local authors. There will be an opportunity to purchase new books from each author, bookish merchandise from the Friends of the Library and warm drinks at the tea bar, provided by the Cove Tea Company.

 

Continue scrolling for a list of confirmed authors!


Genevieve Graham

Genevieve Graham is the USA TODAY and Globe & Mail #1 bestselling author of The Forgotten Home Child, Letters Across the Sea, Tides of Honour, Promises to Keep, Come from Away, and At the Mountain’s Edge. Her latest novel, Bluebird, became a national instant bestseller upon its release in April 2022. She is passionate about breathing life back into Canadian history through tales of love and adventure. She lives near Edmonton, Alberta. Visit her at GenevieveGraham.com or on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @GenGrahamAuthor.


Garland Coulson "Captain Time"

Garland has spent over 25 years mastering time management. At first, he was determined to learn time management for his own career, but soon found himself helping others wherever he worked. Now he is known as “Captain Time, a time management speaker, author, trainer, and coach, helping thousands of people double or triple their productivity.

Garland calls time management the “missing” skill they don’t teach in school or university. No matter how brilliant or talented you are, if you are always running out of time, you can’t apply your skills to their fullest.

 Garland is the author of the Amazon best-selling “Stop Wasting Time.”

Time management isn’t just about work. One of the reasons Garland loves to teach time management is so that people have more time for what is important in their life. Time for family, friends, community.


Danielle Frey

Danielle Frey is a new mom, librarian, and first time author. Her work is creative non fiction and focuses on her first hand experience with mental illness. In her free time, she enjoys playing board games, watching hockey, and visiting with family. Danielle lives in Edmonton with her husband, daughter, and pet cat.


L.G. Anderson

L. G. Anderson is a lover of nature. She was inspired to write The Lost Spirit so her son would have a wholesome, nature-infused Halloween story to read at bedtime.

She supports many animal rescues around the world and is a strong advocate for the sustainable stewardship of habitat for animals in the wild.

Web site: www.TheLostSpirit.ca

Katherine Koller

Katherine Koller writes for stage, screen and page. Her first plays, Cowboy Boots and a Corsage and Magpie, were for CBC radio. Her full-length stage plays include her Alberta LandWorks Trilogy: Coal Valley, The Seed Savers and Alberta Playwriting Competition winner, Last Chance Leduc. Her opera, The Handless Maiden, received a recital reading in Vancouver and Hope Soup, for radio, was recorded at the Edmonton Fringe. Her web series, about Edmonton youth changing their world, is at sustainablemeyeg.ca. Art Lessons, her novel, was a Finalist for the Edmonton Book Prize and the Alberta Readers’ Choice Award. Winning Chance, her collection of short stories, won a 2020 High Plains Book Award and the Exporting Alberta Award. Short fiction has also been published in Grain, Room, Epiphany, Alberta Views and Edify and poems in Prairie Journal. Katherine is also a contributor to Edmonton City as Museum Project online. Her screenplays, Waterfall and Cowgirl Boots and a Mustang, are in development. Riverkeeper, her latest play, was a Finalist in the Jane Chambers Playwriting Award and the Alberta Playwriting Competition. Katherine co-produces Script Salon, a monthly new play reading series now in its ninth year, and Edmonton Script Salon Podcasts. www.katherinekoller.ca


Ruby Swanson

Ruby Remenda Swanson was born and raised in Humboldt, Saskatchewan. She has worked in public broadcasting at the CBC, and at the Children's Television Workshop in New York City. In 2016 Ruby travelled to Ukraine twice where she met with LGBT activists and parent allies and presented sessions at the 2nd International Conference of Parents who have LBGTQI children. In 2019 the translated version of her book was launched at Kyiv Pride in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Ruby was recognized by the University of Alberta Office of Safe Disclosure and Human Rights for her work to promote the rights of the LGBTQ community across campus. She was General Manager of the University of Alberta Botanic Garden and was a long time director of PFLAG Edmonton. Ruby lives in Edmonton with her husband.


Joan Donaldson-Yarmey

Joan began her writing career with a short story, progressed to travel and historical articles, and then on to travel books. Between 1990 and 2000 Joan traveled through and researched the provinces of Alberta and British Columbia, the territory of the Yukon, and the state of Alaska and wrote seven books them.

She called these books her Backroads series and in them she described what there is to see and do along their back roads. Once she was finished travelling she switched to fiction writing and has had five mystery novels published: ‘A Killer Match’ is the first in her Dating Coach Mystery Series; ‘Gold Fever’ is a stand-alone mystery/romance; and ‘Illegally Dead’, ‘The Only Shadow In The House’, and ‘Whistler's Murder’ are three novels in her Travelling Detective Series.

     ‘Romancing the Klondike’ is the first in her two-part historical/romance story about the Klondike Gold Rush. The second part, ‘Rushing the Klondike’ was published in August.

Joan has also published four young adult books. ‘Secrets of a Town Cursed’ is the first of her Town Cursed Series with ‘Lies in a Town Cursed’ coming soon. Both combine mystery/time travel/ and witches in the story. ‘Banished to the Fifth Planet’ and ‘Death on the Fifth Planet’ are a two part sci/fi story.  ‘West To The Bay’ and ‘West to Grande Portage’, are the first two novels in her series for young adults titled The Canada West Historical Series. She has had one holiday romance (written with her sister Gwen Donaldson)  published, titled ‘The Twelve Dates of Christmas’.

Joan was born in New Westminster, B.C. Canada, and raised in Edmonton, Alberta. Over the years she worked as a bartender, hotel maid, cashier, bank teller, bookkeeper, printing press operator, meat wrapper, gold prospector, warehouse shipper, house renovator, and nursing attendant.

Since she loves change, Joan has moved over thirty times in her life, living on acreages and farms and in small towns and cities throughout Alberta and B.C. After seventeen years on Vancouver Island she is now back in Edmonton with her husband and one orange tabby cat named purple.

Joan belongs to Crime Writers of Canada and Writer’s Guild of Alberta.


Robert Proudfoot

Robert Proudfoot is an Edmonton-based freelance writer, editor, and English tutor, who is also a member of the Writers’ Guild of Alberta. Although raised in Edmonton, Robert lived in Zambia as a high school and university student (1969 to 1973); and later worked in Nigeria as an agro forester (1988 to 1991). Robert’s writing reflects his intercultural experiences in Africa, Latin America, and Canada, where he encourages readers to appreciate our environment, and embrace humanity’s rich diversity, complex struggles, and fascinating history, to build progressive societies that are inclusive and equitable. 

Starting in 2019, Mr. Proudfoot self-published four books, which are available to readers at the Edmonton Public Library’s Stanley Milner Collection, Edmonton Public Schools or City of Edmonton Archives, or for sale at the 2022 Local Author Fair, in brick- and-mortar or on-line retail bookstores. These books include:
  • Enduring Art, Active Faith – 3 Generations Create! is a collection of short stories, essays, poetry, and photographic depictions of artwork made by three generations of Robert’s family. (FriesenPress Inc. ISBN: 978-1-5255-2818-7).
  • A Playful Policeman Meets the Citizen-Making Teacher is a biographical sketch of Robert’s grandparents lives in Edmonton over a century ago. (PageMaster Publication Services Inc. ISBN: 0-978-1-77354-213-3).
  • Come By Here, My Lord – Seen in a Mirror Dimly is a novel of a young Canadian’s coming of age in southern Africa, and celebrates friendships developed across racial and socioeconomic barriers during the turbulent early 1970s, when Zambia was asserting herself as a dynamic, African-led nation while apartheid and colonialism were slowly fading away. (FriesenPress Inc. ISBN: 978-1-5255-6956-2).
  • Amateurs on Safari is a 1970 travel memoir written by Robert’s mother, Norma Proudfoot, which recounts their family’s epic car camping trip across 6,500 km in East Africa, and presents Norma’s passion for wildlife preservation and African natural history. (PageMaster Publication Services Inc. ISBN: 978-1-77354-299-7).


Ryan Douglas Roth

Ryan has recently published his first book, a dystopian fiction titled Here No Evil.
In his career, Ryan has worked as an Historical Researcher and, more recently, as a Research and Data Analyst in the social sciences for both government and private sector. His fascination with philosophy, religion and politics energizes the themes in his writing, which tend towards the fantastic genres.
Ryan lives in rural Alberta with his wife and four children. In addition to writing, Ryan enjoys reading, archery, sword fighting and music.


Mandy Eve-Barnett

Mandy Eve-Barnett is a multi-genre author writing children’s, YA and adult books and has nine books published since 2011. Utilizing her life experiences of South Africa, England and Canada she creates distinctive and unusual narratives, that immerse her readers into story. She is currently the Secretary of her local writers’ group, the Writers Foundation of Strathcona County, and hosts their monthly meetings and creates a weekly writing prompt for their website. Mandy is a strong writing community advocate and participates in When Words Collide, Woodbridge and Words in the Park annually. Mandy has also judged The Robyn Herrington Memorial Short Stories contest for a couple of years. She is past Secretary of the Alberta Authors Cooperative and past President of the Arts & Culture Council of Strathcona County Council.

Mandy’s stories contain adventure and surprising twists, her ability to create unique viewpoints makes her stories exciting and engaging. Her children’s books are Rumble’s First Scare, and Ockleberries to the Rescue. Her YA novellas are entitled Clickety Click and Creature Hunt on Planet Toaria. For her adult readership, Mandy has written The Twesome Loop, Life in Slake Patch and The Commodore’s Gift, as well as a two-novella series (more to come!) The Rython Kingdom and Rython Legacy. You can find out more about Mandy at www.mandyevebarnett.com


Jacqueline Carmichael

Over a century ago, Alberta homesteader George Anderson “Black Jack” Vowel went off to war. What happened to him and many other Canadian men (and women) is the subject of Heard Amid the Guns: True Stories from the Western Front 1914-1918 (Heritage House Publishing, 2020), by St. Albert resident Jacqueline Carmichael, an award-winning journalist and the granddaughter of George Vowel. Carmichael, who is also the author of Tweets from the Trenches, brings stories and artifacts from the war to life through stories and images. 

Jacqueline Larson Carmichael is the author of Heard Amid the Guns: True Stories from the Western Front 1914-1918 (Heritage House Publishing, 2020), as well as Tweets from the Trenches: Little True Stories of Life & Death on the Western Front (2018). Her books have been featured on a number of media outlets, included CBC Radio, CHEK News, the Globe & Mail, the Times Colonist, BC BookWorld. She has written for the Edmonton Sun, the Dallas Morning News, Entrepreneur Magazine, and others, and was editor and publisher of The Westerly News (Glacier / Black Press.) She was awarded first place for feature writing by the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors association. She taught journalism to gifted students in the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s New Challenge program, and at the Alberta Legislature. Carmichael has traveled on the former Western Front. She is the granddaughter of two prairie men who served from 1914-1919 in the First World War.  


Mary Margaret

Being a full time single mom, full time educator, and a full time smart a$$ didn’t leave Mary Margaret a lot of time for writing. But a strange dream she’d had at the age of sixteen haunted her and built and twisted and evolved in her imagination well into adulthood. 

For a decade after her children entered her life she stayed up late, avoided social events before Covid made it cool, and hid her secret passion from her family and friends with absolutely no intention of sharing it with the anyone.

Then in 2020, the world shut down, she was laid off from her job. And upon reaching her 35th birthday and the end of her third novel, she wondered what she was even doing with her life and why would she continue putting fingers to keys with no real end result. So after deciding 35 was far too old to wait for the traditional route of queries and rejections, she published her first two books independently in the summer of 2020- Time After Time: Backward, and Time After Time: Forward. The following summer the third book in the series, Time After Time: Frozen was released. 

Early 2022, Mary Margaret collaborated with several citizens from her hometown of Olds, AB, to write a picture book based on the adventures of her cat Benjamin, who had become a local celebrity. It’s called This Is Ben.

Her Time After Time saga has received such rave reviews as-
“You’re just the hidden gem of Central Alberta!”— A friend’s mom.
“I might read the second one.”— A colleague.
“I can’t read them until after my cataract surgery.” — Grandmother.
“Why are they all so sad?” — Step-grandma.
“Come for the romance, stay for the feminism and mental health.” — Ben the Cat

Mary Margaret continues to write the next chapter in the saga while promoting the books she has out, tending to her ever-growing social-media following— accessible from her website https://marymargaretauthor.com — and raising two strong young women. 


Jacqueline Kimberly

Jacqueline Kimberly is a library technician student at MacEwan University and first time author. She writes poetry as a way to express herself creatively and to put her thoughts into words. Aside from writing, she enjoys meditating, painting, and reading in her spare time.


Kylie Doyle

Kylie is a Canadian writer, and content creator living in Alberta who has dreamed of becoming an author and enchanting a new generation of readers since she was a young girl. Living a quiet life with her fiancé, their children and their family dog Beuford, she spends her days writing, travelling, and creating content that she hopes both inspires and creates lasting change.


Marie Gervais

Dr. Gervais is on a mission: increased capacity for workplace happiness through leadership development. By implementing the S.W.E.L. model of safety, wellbeing, encouragement and learning she helps build capacity for workplaces that are inspired, productive and profitable. Using online courses and coaching, Marie emboldens supervisors and managers to build their people skills and experience visible results. As a writer, podcaster, visual artist, and musician, she combines research and the insights of conversations with diverse populations to highlight the collective wisdom of lived experience. Happily married, mother of four adult children with partners from various races, ethnicities and religions, and grandmother of five beautiful grandsons, Marie Gervais strives to live an inclusive and diverse life that infuses the oneness of humanity into work, learning, family and society.

Website

More about "The Spirit of Work"


Connie Inglis

Connie Mae Inglis has a passion to share stories. She has spent much of the last 25 years in Southeast Asia with her husband and children, serving as a literacy specialist, teacher, and editor. This cross-cultural living has fed her curiosity and given her lots of material for telling stories, always with the desire to offer restoration hope. Along with her one novel, Rewriting Adam, Connie has had poetry, short stories, and devotionals published. She and her husband divide their time between Edmonton where she focuses on her grandkids, and Southeast Asia with her ministry focus. But wherever she goes, she writes.


Vivian Zenari

Vivian’s first novel Beth and Ralph’s Children was published by Inanna Publications in summer 2022. Her prose and poetry has appeared in periodicals across North America. She is working on another novel, which focusses on a pro-slavery fraternal order during the American Civil War. She lives, works, and writes in Edmonton. Her to-read book stack is tall.


Alison Clarke

Alison Clarke is a poet, fantasy author, and visual artist who is also the Amazon #1 bestselling author of Phillis: A Poetry Collection, and the award winning young adult fantasy trilogy, The Sisterhood. Alison was the 2021 Writer In Residence of the Alexandra Writers’ Centre, and is now a creative writing instructor with the Alexandra Writers’ Centre.  She has recently won the 2020 Fil Fraser award for her contributions to literary and visual art. 


Jeff Nixon, AKA Joseph Mirelle

Joseph Mirelle, AKA, his real name, didn't start writing until after he was born. His first work, "Better Finish Before the Rain Comes" was written with sidewalk chalk when he was five years old but ended up going down the drain because he took too long to publish. Over half a lifetime later he tried again. At eleven he wrote a story with his finger on the hardwood floor about when he thought his mom should buy a vacuum. It was called "When The Dust Settles." When she swept it under the rug he wanted to stop writing forever but failed to when he began to list the pros and cons of the decision. Of course, the pros far outnumbered the cons, but the last reason not to give up his self-publishing dream was... "I can save my work now."

Book Overview

Riley Kushinski is stuck in the most boring school in the world! A school so miserable pigeons refuse to perch on its ledges and seagulls find the garbage disgusting. The school’s oversized principal Mr. Wentworth does nothing but sweat profusely and encourage the teachers to treat the students like prison inmates. His passion for classical music far outweighs his enthusiasm to educate and his inept ability to separate work from his leisure pursuit results in an immeasurable desire to conduct the school as if it was an orchestra.

Riley has never enjoyed a day at school, ever. Finally, there is hope. Jack Floyd, aka “Scoops,” the school’s newest student, who like Riley, is also not thrilled about being stuck at yawn high. Scoops is ready for anything, especially if it involves pranks, insults, and of course, girls. Anything but bullying, trying to impress others, or taking orders from teachers with absolutely no personality!
Held captive within the pathetic walls of John Smith High School, Riley and Scoops might as well enjoy themselves. Besides, ridiculous antics and hilarious quips are a lot more fun than doing what you’re told.





November Is…National Novel Writing Month

SGPL challenges you to participate in NaNoWriMo 2022
  • Meet fellow writers from your community.

Novel Facts

The average novel has 250-300 words per page.

If you plan to write 500 words an hour for 25 hours a week, you can write 50 000 words in 4 weeks!!

Need some motivation? Check out these author pep talks!

Share your story 

Use the hashtag #NaNoWriMo, and tag #SGLibrary in your tweet, Instagram photo, or Facebook post: