John X. Grey (1968 - ) is the more marketable and memorable pen name for Edwin Ray Haney, born in a small southern Ohio town and still living there (a place he thinks of as parts unknown or terra incognita). Feeling like an outsider to his community, despite having lived there for his entire life, Grey prefers that city remain anonymous at present. Graduating from Marshall University in nearby Huntington, West Virginia with a Bachelor of Arts degree in May 1990, the History major (Geography and Political Science minor) sought a Master's Degree from the same institution and worked there two years as a graduate assistant in the History Department, only to drop out by 1995 failing to complete his thesis (commented upon by one faculty member to be as interesting as "watching paint dry"). Adrift and living at home, he accepted Jesus Christ as savior and gradually came to believe his calling was to write fiction, interested in such authors as Stephen King, H. P. Lovecraft and Harlan Ellison among others.Beginning in August 1999 under this pen name, the would-be author worked on his first novel and some short stories, finishing his first short story in January 2000 (accepted for publication in 2010 and published in 2011) and first novel (still unpublished) the following June. Grey went on to write more than one hundred short stories (some now published in various anthologies from a handful of small presses since November 2009), a few novellas (one published in December 2010) and 11 novels (two self-published in 2011 and more to come)by November 2011 - the last completed one a winner in The National Novel Writing Month contest.His overall writing awards are still few to date: one short story placed eighth in the 2002 Science Fiction Writers of Earth Short Story Contest, and another was nominated for a 2011 Pushcart Prize honoring small press fiction (it did not win). An adult orphan, John X. Grey regrets his parents passed away in 2006 before seeing their only child achieve his non-professional small press publication credits after 2009 and his first professional token payment sales during 2011. Those were on February 1 with the short story "The Vampire Hunter's Requiem" for the Pill Hill Press anthology LEATHER, DENIM & SILVER: LEGENDS OF THE MONSTER HUNTER, July 17, 2011 the story "Knocking them dead" to Pill Hill Press' sequel volume THE TRIGGER REFLEX: LEGENDS OF THE MONSTER HUNTER II, and August 5, 2011 the vampire-vs-werewolf story "Last of the Hunted" in Wicked East Press' ONCE BITTEN ~ NEVER DIE anthology.Deciding to take a major career step after years of rejections by various large or small book publishers and literary agents, Grey used an opportunity given him by CreateSpace to self-publish one novel with the offer of a free proof copy. The writer formatted the same novel losing at the 2011 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, his 2009 science-ficiton parallel worlds adventure story WORLDJUMPERS, created a cover and submitted it for review. On August 23, 2011, WORLDJUMPERS went on sale at CreateSpace and three days later at Amazon.com. Grey has since self-published a second novel first written in 2004, the vampire hunter noir novel A LEGACY OF BLOOD, published in December 2011. After that volume's lackluster flat sales, the author held a 20-book free paperback giveaway for the title in March 2012 which proved somewhat successful in gaing the novel additional readers.The novels WORLDJUMPERS and A LEGACY OF BLOOD are both available as paperback and Kindle editions at Amazon currently. Grey's next self-published novel for 2012 tackles a different genre in superhero fantasy with THE CIRCLE OF LIGHT, a tale of one hero team's destruction and rebirth while facing a conspiracy against all superheroes orchestrated by The Circle's only ex-member.Grey's newest novels are his self-published other-worlds fantasy novel SISTER HELENA OF THE SWORD, volume one in the Sepharata Saga intended trilogy, and the Dark Moon Press edition of his young adult horror novel CLAWS OF T'BIRSK, released in August and September 2012 respectively.