Banshee

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 just-published book, Banshee, Shed the Cloak of Control, Richelle tells the story of growing up in her beautiful and conservative hometown. 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.
"I expect suppression affects women in small and large communities nationwide. We yearn for self-expression, freedom of thought, and fear misogyny," Richelle said."
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. Banshee is the first book published under Richelle's new indie press, Psykhe Press. 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 homosexuality. She plans to publish a total of nine themed tales, the Books of Ruevelation.