Russell is a high school dropout who somehow still graduated from the University of Alabama in Huntsville in 2000 with a BA in Philosophy. At one point he had to explain to a professor why he had to miss class to take the GED exam.

Naturally, he began a career as a computer programmer. Later, he went on to earn a MS in Computer Science. Somewhere along the way he earned a black belt, and then added a few stripes to it and opened his own dojo. Because he never does anything the easy way, he started publishing company Silver Empire and has written some stories and even a novel or two. People seem to like them, so he'll probably write some more.

He lives in north Alabama with his wife Morgon, four kids and two dogs. They share a house that still manages to have more computing devices than living beings. He attends a Roman Catholic church, continues to run his dojo, and works for a small software company.