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Local woman to talk about her new young adult book series at 4S Ranch Library

4S Ranch resident and author Kelley Gusich holding her three most recent novels.
(Elizabeth Marie Himchak)

Kelley Gusich, who writes under the pen names Kelley Kaye Bowles and Kelley Kaye, will talk at 4S Ranch Library Dec. 13.

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Kelley Gusich has three new books out, including two in a new young adult series with a mystical theme.

The 4S Ranch author, whose young adult books are published under the pen name Kelley Kay Bowles, has started a series called “The Meld.”

The former high school English and drama teacher said she realized that many of the teens she taught over 20 years would have loved to have some type of supernatural power. That inspired the theme in her book series.

“My experience is that all people would welcome a supernatural assistance for their problems,” Gusich said.

The Meld is an otherworldly group of six who bestow gifts on adolescents. Half of the members took lives for noble reasons, half for selfish ones.

William, a member who died in Europe in 1138, killed people as a soldier. But Catherine, who lived during the French Revolution, killed the women who were competing with her for suitors.

Gusich said these contrasting characters show that people make good and bad choices. “Making something positive or negative is true of everyone.”

On Tuesday, Dec. 13, Gusich will read an excerpt from “The Meld: Magic Please” during an author talk at 6 p.m. at the 4S Ranch Library, 10433 Reserve Drive.

In “Magic Please,” Colorado sophomore Millie Mahoney is the chosen recipient of a gift following the murder of her mother and the resulting self-destruction of her father. Her life is chaotic and The Meld gives her the ability to have all her written words come true. But The Meld does not tell Millie she is receiving the gift or how to use it.

“It is supposed to help her life be less chaotic, but it’s not,” Gusich said. “They don’t say you’ve got this gift. That is half the adventure ... part of the fun in the story.”

One of Millie’s friends is a girl name Tory Parker. Millie turns to her when experiencing this phenomena, saying she heard Tory has experience with paranormal events. Tory, who does not have any super powers, does have an adventurous nature. She agrees to help Millie figure out what is happening.

Because Tory’s character is crucial to the entire Meld series, Guisch said she decided to share Tory’s backstory through a prequel called “I Know It’s Daytime.” But instead of being all about Tory, the book focuses on classmate Anabelle Fleming. She is a newcomer to the small town of Pinewood, Colorado, who moved there with her mother following her parents’ divorce. Her mother is a famous author of thrillers and her father is the front man for a “monstrously successful rock band.”

Anabelle wishes for an average life and happy nuclear family. While trying to adjust to her less-than-ideal new situation, she starts hallucinating. The visions reflect her anxiety over family and school, and take the form of butterflies, bubbles, bruise-like auras and fangs on others. This is an inherited trait, not a gift from The Meld. Tory helps Anabelle figure out the visions. Because of this experience she is open to helping Millie in the other book.

“The Meld: Magic Please” came out in July and “I Know It’s Daytime” in September.

three books
“Strangled by Simile” is the third book in Kelley Gusich’s Chalkboard Outlines adult mystery series, while “I Know It’s Daytime” and “The Meld: Magic Please” are in her new young adult series. They are all published under pen names.
(Elizabeth Marie Himchak)

These young adult books, like her adult novels, are all set in Colorado, where Gusich lived and taught for many years. She has used her life experiences, including having multiple sclerosis, as inspiration for themes in her books.

Gusich said she was diagnosed with MS in 1994 and it is the reason she retired from teaching. Sometimes her characters also have health issues and its why she is drawn to paranormal themes.

“As humans, we’d all like paranormal assistance to get through the day,” she said. “I’d love to snap my fingers and have my horrible MRIs that make my brain look like Swiss cheese clear. So I write in this vein.”

Gusich’s other books will also be available for purchase at her talk, including “Strangled by Simile,” the third installment in her Chalkboard Outlines murder mystery series for adults published under the pen name Kelley Kaye. The book came out in May 2021.

The series revolves around a high school teacher, Emma Lovett, who ends up investigating murders in her community. It is considered a “cozy mystery,” very much in the style of the “Murder, She Wrote” TV show.

While Red Adept Publishing signed a three-book deal for the Chalkboard Outlines series, Gusich said she would like to write one more in order to wrap up Emma’s storyline before starting a new adult mystery series. The first two books were “Death by Diploma” (2016) and “Poison by Punctuation” (2018).

“I want to end the series properly,” Gusich said.

She is also the author of the young adult novel “Down in the Belly of the Whale,” first published in 2018 and now in its second edition printing with a new cover.

Gusich said she enjoys writing books but not the other aspects of book publishing, including marketing.

“I’m not that ambitious,” she said. “I like to tell stories, but marketing makes my head want to explode.”

Gusich said she sees writing as a way to share herself with her readers and called writing her passion.

She has been writing for decades. She started working on The Meld when her husband, Jim Gusich, was a summer sports camp counselor in the Berkshire Mountains in the early 2000s.

“I stayed in the cabin and worked on this story idea ... so it has been quite some time,” she said.

The family moved from Colorado to 4S Ranch in 2011. Her husband is a resource teacher working with students with special needs and a physics teacher at Del Norte High School in 4S Ranch. They are the parents of two sons — Grey, 16, and Griffen, 14.

After seeing her husband and sons off to school, Gusich focuses on book marketing in the morning, then writes for several hours each afternoon before turning the focus on her family when they return home.

What she writes depends on how her day is going, but Gusich said she embraces the young adult novels because she feels very young mentally.

“I am shocked at how old I am,” said Gusich, 53. “It is like my brain stopped a long time ago. Even all my mysteries are about teachers and teenagers.”

Health wise, Gusich said she is doing well despite contradictory medical evidence.

“It depends on if you ask me or the MRI, because my brain looks terrible,” Gusich said. “But the MRI says I am stable and I am grateful for that. ... I don’t feel as slowed down as my brain scan says.”

When not focused on writing or her family, Gusich also volunteers in the community. She has been a Friends of the 4S Ranch Library board member for a number of years.

All of Gusich’s books are available on Amazon, including her three newest. “The Meld: Magic Please” is $14.99 for a paperback and $5.99 as a Kindle version. “I Know It’s Daytime,” the prequel to The Meld series, is $15.99 for a paperback and $5.99 for a Kindle version. “Strangled by Simile” is $4.10 as a paperback and $4.11 in Kindle form.

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