We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kelley Gusich a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Kelley, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Who is your hero and why? What lessons have you learned from them and how have they influenced your journey?

My hero is most definitely my father, Donald Wilson Bowles. He was this obsessive reader and adventurer who ended up opening the first-ever American used bookstore (obviously used books have made the rounds in Europe for like, forever. My dad did it here, in Salt Lake City, in 1966). He traveled back and forth to that store—Salt Lake to Grand Junction and back—usually with his knees gripping the steering wheel and a book splayed across it, for years (true story!),

He brought us any books we wanted. He also brought books HE liked, and shared those with us as well. My love for YA started with Madeline L’Engel (our books), and for mysteries starting with cozies by Nancy Pickard, Jill Churchill and Julie Smith (his books) and graduating to more hard-boiled fare by James Lee Burke and Harlan Coben (also his).

He died in 2012, and I found out he, himself, had always wanted to write.

I was heartbroken to hear of this unrealized dream. I hope I can do justice to those dreams, in memory and in honor of him.

My journey as a writer has been very successful thus far, although I don’t have the Netflix limited episode series yet. I’m working on it. My father has influenced my writing journey every step of the way, even though he and I can only discuss it in my dreams.

Kelley, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’ve told the story of my father many times. He was one of those autodidactic learners, interested in school just for the hell of it. I think his final credit total for college was 325 college credits? Something like that? But no degree. So when he was getting ready to get married to my mother they had a discussion of their future. Bartending and waiting tables wasn’t going to cut the mustard anymore, especially if they wanted to have children and have one of them stay home with children.

“What should I do for a living?” he asked my mom.

She knew about his book obsession. “How many books do you have?”

He thought. “I dunno. 4,000? Maybe 5?”

“Maybe you should open a store,” she said.

So that’s what he did – opened the Central Book Exchange, which is as far as we can figure out the first used bookstore opened in the states, in 1966 -Salt Lake City.

If you’ve ever been to a used bookstore, you might be able to guess that it is not a font of financial wizardry. My mom got to be a stay at home mom until I was 11 years old, but she still made all our clothes and we still used that most amazing institution: THE LIBRARY, regularly.

We had actually moved to Colorado in 1976, but I was six, which is a whole different story – meant my dad was at the bookstore in Utah half the time in Colorado half the time, and we were at the library every single week. My dad would bring us books, but not near enough to keep us (me) satisfied. So we would walk to the bookmobile–yes we did have one of those in our neighborhood–or mom would take us to the central library in Grand Junction. We’d return our bag from the week before, and fill it again with books for the coming week.

One distinct memory comes from fourth or fifth grade—we had a book read-a-thon—one of those fundraisers where neighbors and friends pledge charitable money for each book read during a two week period.

I read 50 books! (Have I mentioned I was/am an obsessed bookworm nerd? Did I play on the playground? Maybe sometimes, but mostly I just sat out there and read.) Anyway, one neighbor had pledged A DOLLAR A BOOK, remember this is in the late 70’s-early 80’s. The neighbor was not happy. Didn’t even believe I’d read that many.

My gentle father went over to have a discussion with said neighbor.

I was pissed—a little bundle of fourth grade fury, insulted that anyone would question me about BOOKS, for Pete’s sake. I envisioned my dad rushing over and popping the guy in the nose for besmirching the honor of his little girl and questioning her literary integrity.

Did I mention he was gentle? Even-keeled, not tending toward fury for any reason. I don’t even remember if he got the neighbor to fork over the fifty bucks, or if he just went ahead and ponied up the money himself. Which was a much bigger deal for him than it would’ve been for our neighbor—that guy was quite wealthy. Maybe this is one of the ways he got so rich?

I won the read-a-thon, at any rate, and got to attend a dinner with some famous Denver Bronco football player. Woot woot.

Side note for a big irony that I realized sometime in my 30’s. My mom gave me a bunch of stuff she’d had stored in her house, including one of the prizes I’d taken home from the read-a-thon.

It was a stuffed dog, a mascot for the organization I’d been raising funds for: THE NATIONAL MS SOCIETY! At this point it’d been about six years since my own MS diagnosis, so I was able to laugh and scoff and ooh and aaah about the serendipity.

I am most proud of living in a city where teachers are valued enough to be paid a living wage, even though this family of four has to be frugal.

I don’t know if my books will ever make enough money for my husband, the teacher, to retire early (I guess I need a TV agent to score the Netflix limited episode series I’m envisioning. I’ve never even been able to get a literary agent, and I could wallpaper my entire HOUSE with the rejection letters I’ve received from those guys).

I’m also very proud my books tell stories which focus on the Happy Ending, even when the difficulties the characters have in getting there is present.
Kelley

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I know this probably sounds hokey, but my mission in storytelling has been most about my own personal mental health, and with it the realization my stories (remember the happy ending?) could help others with the same issues, I primarily write supernatural fiction, only because the real, non-fictional world is hard. And cozy murder mysteries because I’ve always read or watched mysteries and fancied myself a detective. Or an action hero, any life that’s helpful in a big, impressive way.

I’ve learned it’s pretty big to just share a smile and a good morning. Impressive in my opinion, and doesn’t require big muscles or a big bank account. Improved health and life is the mission, for me and hopefully people who get the same results when they read them.

Thank goodness.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Just recently I had to pivot dramatically in terms of my health.

I had been on a 3’times’per’week injectable medication called Copaxone. My KID, the oldest one, gave me the shots most of the time. Anyway, Copaxone is an early MS medication, but I can’t take most of the new ones because there is a PML risk.

If you’ve never heard of PML, it’s a brain infection that kills people.

MS. for the majority of us, is not considered a terminal illness, rather a chronic one. Continuous. Eternal. There all the time.
A common thread for all these terms is that each one involves breathing, for as long as possible.

Recently I had an MRI that was uglier than usual, with new lesions that were supposed to be happening more slowly than the past two years had shown. My neurologist is worried about complete disability somewhere in my future, so he prescribed me a pill–still an earlier medication–but one with a negligible PML risk.

The good news is this pivot gave me the word I’m looking for in all my MRI’s: STABLE.

I started a new medication a few months ago called Gilenya. It’s an old one too, but so far, so good. Fingers crossed!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://kelleykaybowles.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kelkay1202/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kelley.bowles.gusich
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelleybowlesgusich/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/kelkay1202
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVlte3qfP3gTpHOwjNjqDqg
• Other: https://linktr.ee/kelleykaybowles

Image Credits
Kelley Gusich