Russ Williams
 Official Website

 Novelist, Screenwriter & Poet

 About the Author     

Russ

Russ Williams is a native of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and grew up in Nashville, Tennessee. During the 1970s, he received a bachelor's degree from the George Peabody College of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, where he studied English, music and education. In the same decade, he completed a bachelor's degree in journalism and broadcasting at Evangel University in Springfield, Missouri. In 1981 he received a master's degree in communication, journalism, and creative writing from Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois, near Chicago.

While in his 20s, he lived in Appalachia for several years and worked variously as a school teacher, professional musician, restaurateur, and bookstore manager. Russ was also the lifestyle editor of The News Chief (daily) in Winter Haven, Florida, during the early 1980s. He has worked as a technical writer for the computer industry and has done a variety of free-lance writing.

Russ has a son, John Mark, who lives with his wife, Jennifer, and teaches language for the U.S. State Department in Washington, DC. Russ is also the proud grandparent of a delightful young grandson, Jake.

Russ has published short stories and poetry in regional literary magazines, Arkenstone, the Ozark Review and The Epiphany. His teleplay "Shy's Hill," based on a Civil War theme, was produced in connection with the PBS television station in Springfield, Missouri. Russ was a journalism intern with Sojourners magazine in Washington, D.C., during the summer of 1979. For Sojourners, he wrote an article on the politics of Pat Robertson that predicted Robertson's run for the presidency a decade later. The article included a personal interview with the future candidate.

Also a screenwriter and film producer, Russ has returned to one of his major loves, film-making. He has written and produced a horror film, Darkest Night. produced by his film company, Gothic Pictures International. Darkest Night is now released in North America and is also available in Europe. The film was shot in the Philippines. It is available from Kings of Horror YouTube channel, as well as several other VOD distributors.

If you want to buy a DVD copy of Darkest Night through Amazon, click here.

The Night Hunter is Russ' first published novel, in 1990. It has since been re-released by another publisher. He has written four others: The Sword and Chalice (1981), Fall of the Sparrow (1986), What Gift, Oh Father, Father (1995), and Past Help and Grief (1998). By popular demand, The Night Hunter is now still in print, in electronic and paperback editions.

If you want to buy a copy of The Night Hunter, through Barnes and Noble, click here.

Though Russ' stories contain strong elements of horror and suspense, he calls his writing style "Gothic realism." His stories are real-world and character-centered. His subject matter, though rooted in the everyday and ordinary, contains overtones of other, supernatural realms. In the course of his narratives, these alternative realities violently collide with and eventually dominate ordinary life. However, in the end, usually the reader must determine what is real and what comes from "beyond."

Russ writes in the Gothic tradition of such famous figures as Charlotte and Emily Brontë, Edgar Allan Poe, Shirley Jackson, H.P. Lovecraft, Flannery O'Connor, and William Faulkner. These are his favorite literary authors. His work also shows influences from the Latin American "magical realists," especially Gabriel García Márquez and Miguel Ángel Asturías.

Poetic imagery and rhythm infuse his writing style, so much so that his narratives could easily be called "poetry in prose." It is most likely that this quality of his prose results from his love of and extensive work in music. His poetry in turn is much like chanted speech. Often, he seeks to blur the distinctions between poetry and prose, seeing both as the same but with different rhythms. His published novel The Night Hunter has been a great seller.

Russ also  wrote the script for and co-produced the independent film, The Last Year (2002), which received select theatrical release and excellent critical reviews. He was also a co-producer. The film is currently available on DVD. Russ was also a producer for several other films in Hollywood from 1995 until 2002.

If you want to buy a DVD copy of The Last Year, through Wolfe Video, click here.

Nowadays, Russ continues his efforts in creative writing, including starting work on a new novel As Dreams Are Made, set in Los Angeles, Nashville and Southeast Asia. Currently, his primary artistic literary efforts now focus on his poetry, which he is publishing in his Blog in this site (click here for his poetry and essays).

Currently, Russ resides in the Palm Springs area in southern California. He lived in Los Angeles for 20 years and then in Malaysia in Petaling Jaya near the nation's capital, Kuala Lumpur. He lived in Malaysia for four years.

His favorite pastimes include music (all kinds, notably classical), film, hiking outdoors, photography, the natural sciences (especially astronomy and geology) spirituality, Medieval history and studies in Gothic literature, as well as myth and legend.

 

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