D. Steven Russell

Published Novels & Literary Works

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A Cottonwood Breeze

It’s 1927 and Lucas Schmidt is plowing behind a beige plow horse.  Time leads Lucas through the Dirty Thirties, World War II, technology, loves, and children.  Time is eternal on a western Kansas farm, but the world won’t hold still.   

East Land County

East Land County is an imaginary, paper-sized place between Lane and Ness Counties in western Kansas. Only two farmers share the sand road that leads to Tommy and Chew’s place, and even those neighbors do not visit two old bastard bachelors. 

Fetus in Fetus

Tino appears to be a pregnant Chilean boy who finds an unlikely path from village scorn to life as a brilliant astronomer. His love for Beverly, a young surgeon from Tucson, Arizona, becomes more brilliant and enlightening than the vastness of space. It takes time to see that one cannot see one’s story unfolding. If the final line defined Tino’s life, he would never have begun it. It did not. 

No Time for Commas

In an autobiographical setting, No Time For Commas follows the author’s life as two brothers grow up on a western Kansas farm in the 1950s and are hurled into the 21st century. The story is a testament of man’s life on earth and the miracles that come from pain and joy. 

Principles and Lies

Shelby and Lizzie always loved each other. A storm of life tosses their hope in different directions—drugs, abuse, loss. But hope is stronger than the torrent, and life is fairer than its misdirection—because Shelby and Lizzie always loved each other. 

A Rerun Fading

Adrienne Tyler is a Muslim cop. It’s hard enough to become a detective being a woman in a good ole boy department but she happenstances into Jerry Blondt, a freckle-faced detective who sponsors her. Her terrifying experience with a serial killer leads to a career hunting them.  An angel oversees Adrienne’s path and guides her journey. The story’s characters lead one on a trek of eclectic characters and dramatic events. 

Satan Nicks

A mud-ugly child is born in rural Mississippi and grows up with moonshine and pot as the family business. He marries a pregnant prostitute whom he deeply loves and begins an unlikely life journey.  Uncharted and ungodly events forge a man who loves deeply and metes out vengeance when those he loves are hurt. Satan Nicks is the name his father gave him, but it’s not who he is. 

Coming soon:
Figments of Memory
Coming soon:
Kansas Red

D. Steven Russell (aka/Douglas Steven Russell) was born in Garden City, Kansas on September 10, 1949, and was raised on a farm in western Kansas. He
attended Dighton High School and then went to the University of Kansas.

At the University of Kansas, Doug studied Political Science and Human Resources, with a minor in Journalism. He received his Bachelors in 1971 and went to graduate school in City Management, where he got an MPA in 1973.

After working for about seven years in City Management for Berkeley, Missouri and Page, Arizona, Doug went to Boeing in Wichita where he worked for nine years in Business Planning, Navy Marketing, and Program Management. After Boeing, Doug framed houses for a year to refocus his life and then went to work again in local government, working for Sedgwick County, Kansas in their Department on Aging and ultimately being promoted to HR Director. After 11 years, Doug moved to New Orleans, where he served as Human Resources Director for the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority. He retired in 2010.

Doug wrote from an early age. In 7th grade, Doug’s class wrote short stories and then voted on the best story to run in the local newspaper, the Dighton Herald. Doug won the class vote and had his short story run in the newspaper.

D. Steven Russell began writing in 2004 and released his first book, No Time for Commas, in 2006. It is an autobiography with 5% fiction stirred in. Doug has published six books since that time, including A Rerun Fading, Principles and Lies, A Fetus in Fetu, East Land County, A Cottonwood Breeze and Satan Nicks. He is currently writing two more books, Figments of Memory and Kansas Red.

Doug is married to Lisette de la Houssaye Russell and lives happily in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.

Satan Nicks

NOW AVAILABLE!

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My Music

I have uploaded 10 songs I’ve written in hopes that it will help you know me better.

If you like the lyrics, you’ll probably like my books.

  • Track 1: Whispers of Lisette
    Track 2: Burn Em’
    Track 3: Man From Yesterday
    Track 4: 300 Years
    Track 5: Out There
    Track 6: Beaver County Jail
    Track 7: Annie Wheeler
    Track 8: Echos of Sowing
    Track 9: Hooky From School 
    Track 10: This Place