A native of northern Ohio, Howard D. Bott graduated from a military academy in Tennessee, where he encountered racial segregation, an experience that stayed fresh and bitter all his life. After hig...view moreA native of northern Ohio, Howard D. Bott graduated from a military academy in Tennessee, where he encountered racial segregation, an experience that stayed fresh and bitter all his life. After high school, Howard enlisted in the army, where he learned Russian at the Army Language School in California and taught radio voice intercept techniques at the Army Security Agency School near Boston. Pleasant memories of California drew him back to settle there after leaving the army. He had careers as a police officer and a licensed marriage and family therapist, with both careers satisfying in different ways his fascination with human relationships. His interests increasingly focused on American history, particularly the Civil War, and slavery in the American South. He is the author of three novels and numerous short stories. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife Nancy.view less