About Russ

Hey! I’m a writer by day, musician by night, and this is my website. I live in Santa Barbara and I’ve written 25 short stories, most of them published. My most recent is called A Coyote at Beckett’s, about Sam Shepard playing with my band. We got too close, almost causing a psychic collision in our lives. The story is partly true, partly fiction. I’ll be reading it at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference later this month.

I write about realistic adventures. My short stories appear in Glint Literary Journal, The Quiet Reader, Ellipsis, Galway Review, and The Evening Street Review, among others. I’ve completed a Contemporary Realism novel, Love & War, which is currently seeking a publisher. I attended the Kauai, Santa Barbara, & Writer’s Digest conferences. Daytime, I manipulate the words in my stories and nighttime finds me usually playing music. Catch my music on YouTube performing in Santa Barbara with my Irish band: Dannsair.

I’ve been writing about 20 years now: here’s a link to a travel memoir about learning Irish Traditional Folk Music while traveling in the West of Ireland: The Quiet Man Fiddles. Which you can read or purchase on Amazon:

My Screenwriting BA is from UC Santa Barbara and I was also chosen for the 2017-18 Writer’s Guild Veterans Writing Project. My WGA screenwriting mentors were Clay Frohman (Defiance), and Jorge Rivera (Unusual Suspects, Betrayed).