About Me

Born in Upstate NY sometime in the 80's, Jess Russell has been writing since the fifth grade. Her first story was written about a giant fish named Fred who let her ride on his back across lake Ontario to Niagara Falls. The following year, her Halloween story entitled, "The Ghost in the Graveyard" won for best story in her class. After that, writing became the one thing her confidence excelled in. Jess wrote all throughout high school, and began writing poetry at age fourteen. A stint of depression, and time spent in the children's psych department helped fuel her writing, using it as her own personal therapy. Suffering with social anxiety, and feeling unable to fit in, she spent most of her high school years secluding herself from others, watching from a distance. This helped her to understand how people interacted with one another, and Jess was able to create characters from them in her mind. Her love of music, and writing song lyrics, pushed her to major in music in junior college, but soon realized she was much better, and more confident in her ability, to write stories. (But she still writes poetry when inspiration hits.)

In March of 2005, at the young age of twenty, Jess gave birth to a beautiful baby boy named Dylan, and moved to Binghamton, NY. The next three years of her life were filled with ups and downs, happiness and depression, but she came out the other side stronger, and even more inspired. The Aubrey Nightingale story (official title is yet TBD)  is partly based on her time spent living in the Southern Tier, then changes into a magical world to where Aubrey escapes, filled with dragons, magic, and love. 

Jess has over twenty unfinished novels, a handful of short stories, and a plethora of poetry she is working on. She soon hopes her ADD will calm down and allow her to concentrate long enough for her to finish at least one novel for publishing. 

Jess has been published in a short story anthology by 7DS books called, "Linger." Jess' short story "Calliope" was published in the collection in October 2013. 

Jess currently resides in Upstate, NY, in a small town just south west of Rochester, with her son, husband, step-son, and three cats.

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