Books – Carolyn R. Russell, Author

Find Yourself in a Good Book

Forthcoming in 2023

Death and Other Survival Strategies

A midwife and her talking horse stumble into the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. A recent college graduate meets her fairy godmother in the powder room of a fancy nightclub. A young boy confronts a terrifying family secret.

Carolyn R. Russell’s cross-genre collection of flash explores the far realms of our most basic instinct. Adaptation and resilience vie with expedience and desperation in stories that cut a wide swath across the vagaries of how humans (and non-humans) respond to uncertainty.

Q&A

★★★★★ “A riveting mystery that unspools a sensational mix of humor and adventure.” Elizabeth Lorayne, award-winning author of Piratess Tilly

Something very creepy is going on inside the Eco Trooper Club's gloomy warehouse.

Quinn Bard has been forced to join a club at her high school in the new town she hates. Her first meeting leaves her questioning her sanity.

Despite her family’s joyfully chaotic home life, things get worse. Quinn is shocked to discover a sinister conspiracy at the heart of the club’s mission, and there’s something very bizarre about the group’s adult leader, Nadine Stent.

Enlisting the help of her older sister Arista, Quinn learns that the club’s student members are unhappy hostages. What mysterious power does Stent hold over them? And what kind of twisted scheme has she dragged everyone into?

In a race against time, the two sisters and new friends work to expose Stent’s evil plot. And together they have adventures funnier, stranger and more thrilling than Quinn ever imagined possible.

If Quinn and her allies succeed, it’ll be a new beginning for her. If they fail, innocent people will go to jail, and families will be destroyed. Including Quinn’s.

In the Fullness of Time

How far would you go to find the truth? What secrets would you keep?

In a future where people joyfully arrange their own deaths, a young woman battles the consequences of a biotechnology gone horribly wrong and the cruel theocracy that enforces a sinister solution.

The planet has been decimated by an attempt to alter its ecosystem. It seemed like a good idea at the time: eradicate mosquitoes and eliminate their lethal infectious diseases. Four generations later, the air is steamy and toxic, food is hard to come by, and the human population has exploded. Appalled by the cruelty of the secular church that forms the government, Somerset Whitman, born into its ranks, has joined a secret revolutionary cell in order to fight for the poor and hungry.

But who to trust when nothing is as it seems, and no one is who they appear to be?

"In this YA dystopian thriller, a teenage girl fighting against a fascist government learns an astonishing truth that changes everything. After environmental disaster and ensuing wars, the future ... seems grim for most. Seventeen-year-old Somerset Whitman is more fortunate ... her family are clerics, and for generations they've lived in a huge 'Tempedral, ' where, Somerset says, 'It's our job to ... brainwash Seekers into requesting Reverie'--an event that no one returns from. Secretly, Somerset works with a resistance cell. ... With intelligence and energy ... Russell creates a believably paranoid atmosphere and shows how propaganda and advertising contribute to propping up fascist governments. However, the book never feels didactic, thanks to Somerset's naturalistic narration and well-rounded characterization. An intriguing and thoughtful adventure." Kirkus Reviews