

Former Special Forces Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army turned novelist Brad Taylor talks to us about his latest thriller 'Into The Gray Zone' and offers us a sneak peek at his next Pike Logan novel, set in Argentina.
Brad Taylor was born on Okinawa, Japan, but grew up on 40-acres in rural Texas. Graduating from the University of Texas, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Infantry. Brad served for more than 21 years, retiring as a Special Forces Lieutenant Colonel. He holds a Master’s of Science in Defense Analysis from the Naval Postgraduate School, with a concentration in Irregular Warfare.
In 2011, Brad published his debut novel, One Rough Man, which was an immediate success and launched the Pike Logan series. Now with more than 18 installments and nearly 4 million copies sold, the series has consistently hit the New York Times bestseller list. When not writing, he serves as a security consultant on asymmetric threats for various agencies. His latest thriller is Into The Gray Zone. You can find Into The Gray Zone and Brad's other books on the Suffolk Libraries catalogue.
I don't really remember my FIRST introduction to reading, as I was always a voracious reader as a child. I was the kid who flicked on the flashlight and read under the covers after my mother turned out the lights. In school, one of the few reasons you could leave a classroom was to visit the library, and I used that to maximum ability. In order to encourage my siblings and me to read, my father said he'd buy any book we wanted, so long as we read it. My other siblings had that in place for years, my privileges were revoked in lieu of a library card after about six months.
Writing was always in the back of my head, even as a child. Maybe not as a career, per se, but that I would write a book. It was just a bucket list thing I'd carried around with me. I was an instructor during what would become my final assignment in the Army, and after my previous assignment in a Special Mission Unit, I found I had a lot of time on my hands. I decided to use it, and I wrote One Rough Man. Much to my surprise, it sold, and I had to make a choice. I was supposed to return to the SMU in the Army, and if I did, I couldn't publish the book due to the classified nature of the assignment. I'd already served more than twenty years, so I decided to turn down my next promotion, hang up my boots, and retire to give writing a try.
Pike is most definitely a mixture of people with whom I've served, but honestly, when I began writing One Rough Man I simply wanted to write a story of redemption. That was the theme, but I had no experience or instruction in writing fiction, so I hit the Google machine and was told, "Write what you know". I was a counter-terrorist operator, so that's what Pike became, but it wasn't a driving force for what I wanted to write. If I'd have been a cop, Pike would have been a policeman, if I'd have been a priest, Jennifer would have been a nun, but the theme of redemption would have remained.
I get this question quite a bit, and honestly, I think it's not quite accurate. I'm always writing, no matter where I am or what I'm doing. Walking the dog, working out, taking a shower, driving to the grocery store, I'm always developing the story in my head. What you're really asking is, "What is your typing routine"? And the answer is...I have no routine. I don't have a writing desk, and I'm fortunate in that I can type just about anywhere, no matter what's happening around me. I started out writing at volleyball games and gymnastic meets for my daughters, and have typed on airplanes, in barracks, in a car, you name it. After I retired, I tried to develop some sort of "writing ethos", and I just don't have one that I stick with. I have a laptop and a backpack, and I just take that somewhere and start typing. Currently, I'm calling our own Charleston Library Society home.
It's a geopolitical thriller exploring hybrid warfare - sometimes called the Gray Zone - between nation states, something that's occurring in countries all over the world much more than the average person realizes. In the case of Into The Gray Zone, it's between China, India, and the United States. China uses a proxy force in an attempt to conduct economic sabotage in India, but the men chosen to execute China's mission have other ideas. Things spiral out of control, leaving the Taskforce racing to prevent a global catastrophe.
Most definitely. Usually, I get a germ of an idea from a random news story, which then engenders a ton of library research, followed by research on the ground. In this case, I read a story about India attempting to assassinate a Sikh dissident in the United States, and actually succeeding in assassinating someone in Canada, which, given current world events, seemed odd. So I started researching it and a story evolved. First, I read a plethora of books about the geopolitics of India and the history of its Research and Analysis Wing - their version of MI-6 or the CIA. From there, it was on the ground research, in this case, traveling from Mumbai, to Goa, up to Delhi, and then on to Agra and Jaipur. A lot of writers can describe a scene by using something like Google Earth or photos from TripAdvisor, but I find that I can't capture the atmospherics of an area unless I travel there. We used to call it the "sights, sounds, and smells of the battlefield", and I find it invaluable to put boots on the ground.
Definitely. I've been out of the game for more than a decade now, and time marches on, but I want to stay realistic, so I keep in touch with plenty of people from my former world. The feedback I enjoy the most is when I make up a widget or a piece of technology that I never had - but I know would work - and am told it now exists.
I'm currently banging away on the next Pike Logan, this one set in South America, specifically, Argentina. My wife and I just returned from the on-the-ground research, traveling all over the country, and I'm now working through the plot and piecing together the story.
I suppose I should pick something erudite or historically significant here to make me look worldly, but unfortunately, I'm not built that way. I don't know how much country music you guys listen to in the UK, but if I had to pick one song it would likely be "In Color" by Jamey Johnson. It's about a grandfather reminiscing on his life, going through the great depression, fighting WW II, and then on to marriage. As a writer, it's amazing to me how much of a story is punched out in that one song. Give it a listen and tell me if you don't agree.
I'm a twin. Fraternal twin, but a twin nonetheless.