Scaring Up a New Generation of Readers With Ally Russell

PHOTO COURTESY OF ALLY RUSSELL

It’s August, but author Ally Russell is in an autumnal mood.

Writing spooky stories and sipping cocoa at her desk while a black cat purrs on the window sill helps create the illusion that it’s mid-October and not a sweltering summer day.

The 39-year-old currently resides in Bellefonte, Pa. — home of Big Spring Spirits, a distillery with a local site on the South Shore  — but she grew up reading “Goosebumps” and watching horror movies with her family in Garfield.

Now she’s the one giving young readers the chills.

IMAGE COURTESY OF DELACORTE PRESS

On Sept. 19, she’ll be at Aspinwall’s Spark Books for an all-ages event celebrating the release of “Mystery James Returns From the Grave,” the follow-up to 2025’s “Mystery James Digs Her Own Grave.” Russell will be joined by Karuna Riazi, author of “A Bit of Earth.” The party’s free to attend, just be sure to RSVP online.

As a horror-lit-lovin’ writer with a column called Dig in With Graver, you can bet your banshee I’ll be there! Mystery is my kind of heroine: she began her life in a cemetery, can smell ghosts and lives in a haunted funeral home.

Russell was happy to revisit the eerie world she created for middle-grade bibliophiles — and 40-something food editors.

Inspired by authors such as R.L. Stein, Christopher Pike and Stephen King, Russell began penning stories when she was just a kid fascinated by creepy forests and cryptids.

In 2011, after earning an English degree, she landed a job at Charlesbridge, a children’s book publishing house in Boston.

She moved back to Pennsylvania in 2024, around the same time her first book was published. “It Came from the Trees,” a modern twist on the old Bigfoot legend, became a national bestseller.

I mean, who doesn’t love a good Sasquatch tale?

Whenever a young reader attends one of Russell’s book signings and places a well-loved copy of “It Came from the Trees” or “Down Came the Spiders” on her table, it gives her hope.

She encourages budding authors of all ages to write when they feel excited about the ideas swirling in their head. It also helps to wear a pair of glow-in-the-dark glasses.

“If writing feels like a chore, you’re less likely to do it,” she says, adding that having a deadline to work toward is a great motivator.

IMAGE COURTESY OF DELACORTE PRESS

During the pandemic, she participated in Pitch Madness, or PitMad, a popular quarterly social media event on X (formerly Twitter) where authors pitched their completed, unpublished manuscripts to literary agents and editors. Seasoned pros took notice of the amateur’s work.

Two years ago, she was able to quit her corporate job and turn the page to her true passion.

There’s a literacy crisis in America, but, thanks to local writers, librarians, organizations such as Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library and businesses including The Raven’s Quill, The Book Deli and The Shelf Love Society, print isn’t dead and buried.

Mystery James is also on the case to make sure that doesn’t happen.