About M.K. South

For over 25 years I worked in international finance and development, which took me to, or through, many of the countries that show up in my fiction, including the ones in this novel. Reports, appraisals, pitches, meetings in rooms I could probably still draw from memory. It was the day job, the one I was oddly fond of. Until I wasn’t anymore. And I started writing fiction on the side. About how history affects our lives, about cultural differences, about acceptance of historical facts and people who are different from us.

From behind the pen name M. K. South, I have been writing about how impossible relationships ignite and survive. “Survive” is the key word. I suspect my background has something to do with this. Mixed race, the child of parents from culturally disparate worlds who traveled thousands of miles to be with each other, I did the same, first with my parents and sibling, then again with my husband.

I grew up watching an empire collapse, new nations form, enemies become friends. I experienced the aggression from the three largest countries in the world on the country I belonged to at the time. Now I watch, with heartache, how countries that were once close as brothers became enemies, maybe for decades to come.

English isn’t my first language—I have three to choose from—but it’s the one I think and write in, sliding between American and British depending on who’s speaking. Every book sends me down a research rabbit hole I didn’t expect—okay, so I’m a compulsive researcher and often struggle to stop at a reasonable point. But that’s one of my favorite parts of fiction writing too.

I now live in the UK, which has become a safe haven, though the wanderlust hasn’t left my DNA—I still travel every chance I get.

As for genre, I don’t like being caged inside one, especially on the premise it’ll help a book “fit” on a shelf. Life doesn’t fit on a shelf. It’s messy, heartwarming, complicated, sometimes painful, brutal, and I believe that fiction that pretends otherwise is patronizing its reader.

You can ask me a question here or send me an email at mk@mksouth.ink.