Am author with a dark sense of humor.

Please, introduce yourself. Tell us about your personal life, family, education.

I have lived in many parts of the country, so I’m sort of a nomad. When people say, “you can always go home,” I have no frame of reference for that. The closest thing to a hometown I have is Springfield, Ohio, but I really have no connection to that town any longer. Besides Springfield, I’ve lived in: North Dakota, Georgia, South Carolina, Puerto Rico, Colorado, Cincinnati, Ohio, Kentucky, California, and now reside in Indiana!

I am married to my beautiful bride, Chrissy, and we have three beautiful children.

If you are a writer, are you an avid reader?

Oh, my, yes! I’m a huge book hoarder and love to read all genres, but my favorites are action/military thrillers and sci-fi. I’m always reading a book; I carry one with me anywhere I might have some spare time to sneak in a few pages! My to-be-read list grows daily. My wife is always after me for buying too many books! I’ll probably never read my full collection, but like I always tell her, I always have a book to read!

Writing Style

Have you developed a specific writing style and why?

My writing style has developed over time. I used to look up tips on how to develop your own unique writing voice and a lot of the advice, at the time, seemed unhelpful. “It’ll come to you the more you write!” Wow, I thought. Thanks. But it turned out to be so true. Instead of magically having my own writing voice overnight, it took several novels over several years to develop. I would describe my style as being cinematic. As much as I love reading, I got into writing from my love of movies. If you are a John Woo fan like me, there’s tons of subtle (and not so subtle!) homages to the great Mr. Woo in my writing. I would also say that I’ve injected my own dark sense of humor into my writing.

I tried to develop a style early on to distinguish myself from other writers in my genre. While it would be humbling to one day maybe being compared to one of the greats, or even just a popular author at the time, I never wanted to be known as an “X-author clone.” I always aim to write in a way that if I ever took a job as a ghostwriter or wrote under a pseudonym, you’d know it was me because of the writing style (and voice!).

Who is your favorite writer, and what is it about their work that really strikes you?

My current favorite author is Mark Greaney, and I have devoured most of his Gray Man novels! I love the gritty action, he’s awesome at writing settings, and I love his main character, Court Gentry (the Gray Man). What struck me the most when I discovered his Gray Man novels were the fact that he writes his action-thrillers in a similar manner as the ones I was writing. I used to struggle with my confidence in that I hadn’t read many novels like mine. The thrillers that I read in the past were Tom Clancy and Vince Flynn. And here I start reading THE GRAY MAN for the first time and I was blown away. His book not only rekindled my love of reading, but also instilled confidence in my own writing, knowing that there were authors in the genre that wrote gritty action that isn’t really classified as “techno-thriller.”

My all-time favorite author is Cormac McCarthy. I love how he’s able to convey powerful, deep meaning into his novels with a writing style many would call “simplistic” or “minimalist”. There’s no flowery language here. Just straight to the point, yet wonderful to read, though his writing style may take some getting used to. Reading his novels is like gaining new insight into the human condition every time. While many point to THE ROAD as his best work, I much prefer his novel, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, which I read before the film released.

Book Titles

How do you decide on the title of a book?

One of the things I love about titles for books, movies, videogames, etc. are titles which can convey multiple meanings. For my first novel with Next Chapter, WEAPONIZED, the main character, Foxy Valdez, was recruited into the mercenary underworld because of her tragic past. During her recruitment, that past was WEAPONIZED as a means of getting her to join. I could go into the other things in the novel which are also WEAPONIZED, but that would involve getting into spoiler territory! You’ll have to read the book!

Do you have a blog or website viewers can visit for updates, events and special offers?

You can find my website at http://www.briancottonbooks.com

The best place to connect with me, however, is through Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61558050352644. There, you’ll find the most up to date news, updates, excerpts, etc. I’m most active on this site.

Also, I am on X: @iam100cotton, though X isn’t necessarily my favorite place, I post updates on there on occasion.