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The author is an Army brat, who was born in Womack Army Hospital, Fort Bragg, North Carolina on October 7th, 1977. He has lived on both coasts of the U.S., but has spent most of his life in the region of the U.S. known as "The South". Thus if you ask the author where he is from, he will normally respond with either "everywhere" or "the South".
The author is a Black Christian with socially conservative views, but, overall, has developed a cynical worldview that shows in his work. Through parental prodding the author has also developed pro-Black leanings that were sharpened and strengthened at his alma mater, Fisk University. Much of the author's initial works were penned there.
Creatively-speaking, the author believes that a writer ultimately pulls from his own experiences and fantasies when writing stories. Thus it is the author's belief that if one truly wants to understand a person, one should read their work.
This author's ultimate goal is to inspire thought on the subjects of religion, morality, and race.
Reviewed by Michelle Robertson for Readers' Favorite
Squirrels & Puppies: Dark Morality Tales by Russell Mebane is a collection of short stories which introduces readers to a deep, dark, gut wrenching state of emotions. Themes include morality, sexual behavior, interracial concepts, relationships, religion, futuristic technology, and superior beings. This book is not for the easily offended, but more for an open minded adult reader.
Readers love to connect with the characters or story plot of the book they are reading. Russel Mebane successfully reaches out to people, although in a dark and sometimes twisted way. The issues and concepts each story contains are similar to what some people might face in their everyday lives. Each story within this book has a moral hidden meaning, sometimes even a double meaning to it. For example, the author writes about a Red squirrel and its sexual encounter with a human. My take on the purpose of this story was the all too often scornful way people view interracial relationships, or it could be taken an entirely different way and be viewed as a relationship that - although uncommon and very disturbing - does happen between animals and humans.
The overall moral to these short stories seems to me to be: the world is a racist, disturbed, and messed-up place and if we as the human race don't clean it up, we will ultimately fail. I take my hat off to Russell Mebane for his intellectual, creative, intriguing style of writing. This book is unique with its plots and is a page turner.
