About Gary Slaughter:

Gary Slaughter was born and raised in Owosso, Michigan. After graduating from the University of Michigan, he served six years at sea as a naval officer on destroyers.

Over the course of his distinguished business career, he became an expert on the management of corporate information technology. He traveled extensively, lecturing and consulting to clients both in the United States and abroad. During this time, his list of professional publications, including books, articles, and white papers, grew to more than four pages.

In addition, he founded several information services companies in which he played an active management role. He also served on the board of directors for many other businesses.

But, he always dreamt about his early years in Owosso where he observed with boyhood fascination the German prisoners of war who were interned at Camp Owosso located on the outskirts of town.

He saw POWs every day at the local canning factory where they worked under the watchful eye of their Army guards with tommy guns at the ready. When two German prisoners escaped with the help of two Owosso women, the subject of German POWs seized his young imagination, and it’s never let go.

Finally, in 2001, he did what many of people have imagined themselves doing. He put his business career on hold and sat down to write the “Great American Novel.”

Since then, he has authored four critically-acclaimed and award-winning novels including:

• Cottonwood Summer (2004)
  
  
• Cottonwood Fall (2006)
  2007 Benjamin Franklin Award - Finalist in Popular Fiction
  
  
• Cottonwood Winter: A Christmas Story (2008)
  2008 ForeWord Book of the Year Award - Finalist in Adult Fiction
  2008 Indie Book Award - Finalist in General Fiction
  2008 Indie Book Award - Finalist in Young Adult Fiction
  
  
• Cottonwood Spring (2009)

When not writing, he presents his “Behind the Book” talk to audiences of all ages. And because of his extensive knowledge of POWs in America during World War II, he frequently speaks on that subject as well.

Gary Slaughter and his wife Joanne make their home in Nashville, Tennessee.