Kim Richelle is an author of books and illustration in mythology.  Her books don’t fit tidily into a category or genre. Yet she has written tomes and tales of faerie and tarot, written and illuminated for adults.    

 

In her book, Banshee, Shedding the Cloak of Control, Richelle tells the story of growing up in her beautiful and conservative hometown. Banshee was published in 2019; the recently updated hard cover became available in March, 2021. As a lifelong artist, Richelle struggled with the community’s resistance to creative self-expression. The mythological Banshee represents her frustration. In the book, Banshee initially embodies self-hatred and adopts a view of negativity toward women others have instilled in her. The faerie Rue coaxes her to resist the cloak of control and find a way to say “no more” to the status quo that causes self-hatred, silence, suppression. 

Richelle is an elegant illustrator and writer who has embraced mythology and her own gift of clairvoyance since childhood. She attended Charlevoix schools and studied at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. She is married, the mother of two children and three step-children and lives in Charlevoix.

 

Richelle is well-known in the community and describes Charlevoix as idyllic in her personal message explaining her story and strong convictions included the book. Richelle donated her time in 2018 to paint a public mural of Great Lakes fish in the Charlevoix Fish Cleaning Facility near Ferry Beach.

Banshee is the first book published under Richelle’s indie press, Psykhe Press. She was especially drawn to indie presses and their stories after extensive searching and contemplation of publishing possibilities and prospects. 

 

She published her first book, The Day Rue Flew, in 2000, through her first indie press, Out in Left Field. She hopes to help publish other’s works through Psykhe Press, named for the goddess of butterflies, soul and breath. 

 

Richelle plans to soon publish her next illustrated book, Faerie Fobia, which focuses on fear, suppression and bias toward homophobia and other prejudice. She plans to publish a total of nine themed tales, the Books of Ruevelation. She hopes her books will help others who are suppressed and alienated to reach out, speak out.