Wrote Break Up, Make Up or Shake Up (Manor House $19.95) about dealing with unsatisfactory relationships. The book offers strategies, advice and exercises from true-life stories and consultations with experts for coping with relationship difficulties during stressful times (such as pandemics), transitions such as retirements and other life challenges.

Labonté-Smith's second book, Rescue Me (Caitlin $26) takes readers behind the scenes of some of North America’s riskiest search and rescue operations. She shares real-life stories as told by volunteer members of Search and Rescue teams -- who find the lost, and rescue the injured in the most extreme conditions and situations the wilds of North America throw at them. From rescuing avalanche victims in blinding snowstorms, to climbing into vehicles teetering on cliff edges to free passengers from mangled metal or crossing wafer-thin ice to save an injured cross-country skier, these dramatic first-hand accounts will forever change how people prepare for their next outdoor adventure.

Labonté-Smith has been a freelance journalist for 40 years. She holds degrees in creative writing and education from U.B.C.

BOOKS:

Break Up, Make Up or Shake Up (Manor House, 2020) $19.95 978-1-988058-60-3

Rescue Me: Behind the Scenes of Search and Rescue (Caitlin, 2022) $26 978-1-77386-094-7

[BCBW 2022]