For as long as Michelle L. Rusk can remember, her life has been about creating.

What began as picture books at six years old in her hometown of Naperville, Illinois, eventually turned into novels. Then there was the constant redecorating of her bedroom growing up, learning to sew by making her Barbie dolls clothes, the experimenting in cooking that led to her paper bag pizza, and then challenging herself to set and accomplish goals as a competitive runner.

Whatever she was working on, it was about inspiring herself to keep forging forward while also surrounding herself with objects she treasured and colors that motivated her. 

In 1993, as a college junior, Michelle lost her 17-year-old sister Denise to suicide. As Michelle Linn-Gust, she then made her mark on the world by writing several books on suicide grief; (with the first, Do They Have Bad Days in Heaven? Surviving the Suicide Loss of a Sibling, published in 2001), speaking around the world about suicide and loss; earning a doctorate in family studies with a dissertation on how people use dogs to help them cope with the loss of a human; and becoming president of the American Association of Suicidology.

But during a time of contributing to the world through through education and knowledge,, Michelle lost both her parents, her father in 2005 and her mother in 2014. Her creativity endeavors had been put aside and she saw then it was time to inspire the world in a different way, through the items she creates and the stories she tells.

Michelle returned to her fiction and began to sew again, adding painting to the mix, then launched Chelle Summer in late 2015 as a lifestyle brand that encompasses all that she does and believes.

Today she lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with her husband Gregory and their three rescue dogs Lilly, Ash, and Goose.