The author is a cat-lover, a minor league baseball fan, and a voracious reader of all genres. XIANNE, a work of speculative fiction, is his first published novel and is, in his own words, ."..as autobiographical as I will ever dare to be." Mr. Grayson currently lives in the southern United States. He has remained single--and celibate--since the death of his wife of 11 years at the turn of the century.