AUTHOR'S BIO: _____________________________________________ Why did I write Crimson Snow? Blame my Mother. She worked as a housekeeper for a wealthy but aging socialite who possessed a striking resemblance to the late Grace Kelly. Her name was Marilyn Obolensky but I called her Mrs. O. To me, Mrs. O always reminded me of the sad Miss Havisham figure out of Charles Dickens's Great Expectations. Jilted by time and a lost love, the widow past her days in her grand but decaying Grosse Pointe Farm home gazing up at a life-size portrait of her dead husband a Russian noble named Prince Serge Obolensky. Prince Serge wore his imperial Russian uniform well; tall, pencil-thin, he radiated such confidence. Seeing it, I often asked myself what went so wrong in Russia that poor old Serge ended up in a room full of dust. The answer is Crimson Snow. In publishing most of my life, I work for The Dayton Daily News and live with my wife, daughter and son in Dayton.