While Michelle Linn-Gust, Ph.D., is best known for her work inspiring people around the world to cope with loss and change through her speaking and writing, her dream since first grade was to write fiction novels. In 2011, she saw that dream come true with the release of her first novel, The Australian Pen Pal. This year also marks the ten-year anniversary of her first book, Do They Have Bad Days in Heaven? Surviving the Suicide Loss of a Sibling, that chronicles the suicide loss of her younger sister, Denise. Look for her second fiction project, Sisters: The Karma Twist, released in September 2011.

She is the President of the American Association of Suicidology. Read more about AAS at www.suicidology.org and the Tierney Service Award she recently won.

As Michelle’s career takes a new direction, be sure to read her new blog on this site as she chronicles the life lessons she has learned to get where she is today.

Follow Michelle on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

The Australian Pen Pal was featured in an article in The Coolum Beach Advertiser, the town where most of the book takes place and where Michelle wrote part of it.

Story time with Michelle! Listen to her read a chapter from The Australian Pen Pal on the Fascinating Authors web site here.