Russell A. Vassallo was born in Newark, New Jersey, on April 24, 1934.  He graduated from Seton Hall University where he majored in political science and literature with minors in education, religion and philosophy.  After graduating from Seton Hall School of Law, he gained employment as an insurance investigator, worked for a major law firm, started his own investigation business and finally, after ten years, took the New Jersey Bar Examination, passed on his first attempt and became a practicing attorney. 

As a child, Russ was besieged by asthma and bronchial pneumonia so he spent many winters alone in bed.  He consumed the adventurous the classics of Robert Louis Stevenson, Rudyard Kipling, Bret Hart and others. 

          The craze to write intertwined with his legal practice.  Hundreds of letters to the editor appeared in local and national newspapers, not to mention his being a favorite speaker at many affairs.  It was seldom he wrote a short Appellate Brief or a succinct business letter.  A friend once said of him:  "It would take Russ twenty minutes to say the building is on fire."

          While he was an attorney, Russ raised four children and struggled through a difficult period when he obtained custody.  In 1983 his life was to change forever when he met his wife, Virginia.  Thunderstruck was how he described her impact on him.

          When depression threatened him after retirement, Virginia encouraged him to battle back by writing.  To his surprise, he discovered that growing older, maturing and becoming a senior citizen had given him the insight he’d always lacked.  As praise for his writing grew into a small fan club, his self esteem rose and his depression disappeared.  Now he hopes writing will not only cure him but will aid animal charities as well as people suffering depression.  “You can fight back and win,”  he laughs.

          Russ is an avid fan of western lore, a member of the Single Action Shooting Society, and he trail rides and handles his own horse training.  He suffers the loss of all his animal friends and thus, in his stories, holds out the hope they are waiting for all of us just over the horizon.

          Russ is retired now and he and Virginia live on a farm in central Kentucky where Russ works the land, rides horses and lives an active and productive life.  Russ has written two books about his animal friends, but he is by no means limited to animal stories.    In fact he often works on several stories at once.  He is now working on Street Wise, a novel about his friendships with mobsters.

         Writes Russ Vassallo, when asked what Tears and Tales is about:  "It's about a man who discovers he'll recover from colon cancer and yet he doesn't want to survive.  It's about a wife who loved him insanely and yet can't convince him of his own worth.  It's about a dog named Nikki who died on the very day the man had cancer surgery and about the anger he felt because he could not say goodbye.  Yes, and Tears and Tales is about life, faith and restoring hope.  It's about a tiny messenger that visits with a depressed, angry man, and it's about a horse with a soul that cried for his canine friend that is dying.  It's about a drunken duck that transforms an immature boy into an independent man.  Tears and Tales is essentially a book about animal and human rescue.

           "It's about me, my wife, my animal friends.  It's about the hopes and dreams of every man and woman who loves and needs to be loved.  It's about not letting go and sometimes having to let go.  It's about laughing and crying and wanting to return to read, to laugh, to cry again."

          Of his new found career, he has this to say:  "As long as people read and enjoy what I write…I’ll keep writing."  You can reach the author by email at Russ@krazyduck.com.