Born in Wisconsin, she died in Chico, California.
https://www.losaltosonline.com/people/sections/obituaries/64029-mary-ellen-kindt-mckenzie
Second half:
...Ellen took piano lessons from an early age. She attended the Chicago Musical College during the late 1940s where she studied with Rudolph Ganz. She married Art McKenzie in 1950 in Chicago. In 1952 the couple moved to Palo Alto, CA, then to Los Altos
in 1960.
During the 1950s and ‘60s, Ellen was a member of the Two Piano Club and Fortnightly (piano) Club. She took up the violin and later the viola, playing quartets informally with friends and relatives. She gave piano lessons from 1958 to 2011, when she
moved to Chico.
Ellen began to write fiction in the early 1960s. Between 1968 and 1994 she published eight novels for children and one picture book, under the name Ellen Kindt McKenzie. She was an ardent conservationist, excellent cook and baker.
Ellen had a flare for writing humorous poetry, telling jokes, and making puns. Her lively imagination, sense of fun, and sunny outlook will be sorely missed.
https://www.google.com/search?q=%22ellen+kindt%22+mckenzie+books&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiuiKbSlu3bAhXSpFkKHTSHAoIQ_AUICigB&biw=1280&bih=558
(book covers)
https://groups.google.com/g/rec.arts.books.childrens/c/NTpsb8oXaoU/m/THsQeenHBQAJ
(birthday post from 2018, with bio, reviews, and synopses)
About Taash and the Jesters:
"An orphan boy who lives with a witch becomes involved in a dangerous adventure, from which he eventually emerges as the brother of a
king."
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