Sisters: The Karma Twist
Available September 19! Forced by her friends to be the first at a party to get a psychic reading, high school English teacher Sarah McCall learns more than she understands about the suicide death of her younger sister, Jenna. She dismisses the idea of a karmic agreement, that she and her sister formed a pact as souls before entering their respective lives. But, after the ten-year anniversary of Jenna's suicide passes, the reading takes Sarah on a path of reflecting on her sister's life, her own life, and their lives together tightly intertwined with baseball, oatmeal cookies, and the dream of opening a bakery. Sarah realizes she must confront her fears that Jenna’s death left behind after baseball coach Mark Lennon approaches Sarah about providing her oatmeal cookies as part of a fundraiser for his team. However, the two aspects she does not expect are how her life begins to change and her accepting that maybe she and Jenna did agree to something more than is visible in her life.

Price: $15.00

The Australian Pen Pal
Michelle Linn-Gust's first novel! College English professor Rachel Monroe realizes life is about connections. Before her husband Tom’s death from cancer, he made her promise she would pursue all the goals and dreams she had left behind in her life. Knowing even in death Tom is leading her, Rachel completes her first fiction manuscript, one of the goals she had never accomplished, and finds a second career as a writer. When a publicity tour takes her from her Kansas home to several cities in Australia, she has the opportunity to find her Australian pen pal, Jenny Phillips, who had quit writing near the end of their senior year of high school. Rachel visits Coolum Beach, the oceanside town where Jenny lived most of the years the two girls corresponded. Rachel can sense a change, that Tom isn’t guiding her as he once was. She struggles with a new manuscript and reconciling her hope that somehow she’ll find Jenny. In the process, she meets Jamie Stephens, on vacation himself, and as Jamie’s life becomes intertwined with Rachel’s, she begins to understand that her connection to Jenny was not just about writing letters, but ultimately a guide for Rachel’s life.

Price: $9.99

Rocky Roads: The Journeys of Families through Suicide Grief
The grief journey following a suicide loss is not a quick and easy path. Because people are unique, as are the life experiences of individuals, the road can open up in several ways for each person. No one travels the same way. In Rocky Roads: The Journeys of Families through Suicide Grief, Michelle Linn-Gust, the author of Do They Have Bad Days in Heaven? Surviving the Suicide Loss of a Sibling, guides the family unit with a road map to navigate suicide grief as individuals and also as part of the family unit with the ultimate goal of strengthening the family even after a devastating suicide loss.

Price: $17.95

Seeking Hope: Stories of the Suicide Bereaved
Surviving suicide loss is often about telling the story. Each person who dies by suicide leaves behind a life shared with loved ones and a series of events that led to the suicide. Seeking Hope: Stories of the Suicide Bereaved features the stories of fourteen people in their own words of the losses that have forever changed their lives. These stories describe the endurance of traveling through grief. In addition, the proceeds from the book benefit a fund for suicide bereavement research at the American Association of Suicidology. The goal is that the stories shared here will help others who also must travel the same journey seeking hope after a devastating loss.

Price: $20.00

Ginger's Gift
Hope and healing through dog companionship
When Michelle Linn-Gust and her husband, Joe, brought Chaco, a charmingly neurotic mutt, to live with them, they didn't realize what they were getting into. Michelle had grown up in a close-knit dog-loving family, but owning a dog in her own home was a new experience. Not long after she and Joe became dog parents, Joe suffered a traumatic brain injury when a drunk driver crashed into his truck. Before long, the Linn-Gusts had four dogs, the maximum number allowed by the City of Albuquerque, and they couldn't seem to stop acquiring dogs. Whether Michelle was out running a road race or Joe was doing relief work following Hurricane Katrina, they opened their arms to 'just one more.' With no room for more dogs at their house, they set to finding a dog for Michelle's mother in Chicago. What they didn't realize was that the yellow Labrador dog wouldn't ever meet Michelle's Dad, the one person against having a dog in the house. Suddenly, Ginger's importance in Michelle's mom's life would be more than anyone could explain. In Ginger's Gift, Michelle tells the story of their lives as dog owners and of the ways that dogs have helped her and Joe through the difficult passages that all humans must face.

Price: $20.00

A Winding Road: A Handbook for Those Supporting the Suicide Bereaved
Now available! The journey after the suicide of a loved one is winding, always changing. For the people who want to support the bereaved, or are asked to support the bereaved (professional or volunteer), it can be difficult to understand that winding road, especially because of the stigma that suicide traditionally has held with it. Michelle Linn-Gust, Ph.D., and John Peters, M.Suicidology, have both traveled their own winding roads and now look to teach others in a global perspective not yet seen. Winding Road: A Handbook for Supporting the Suicide Bereaved discusses a myriad of issues around the topic from why suicide happens to helping children cope and how culture and religion take a role in how suicide and suicide grief are viewed. Mostly though, the book offers hope that the people who are supporting the bereaved can help understand the winding road so the bereaved don’t have to travel it alone.

Price: $15.00