Brian South

Biography

Brian South grew up in Ohio, moved to Indiana, and finally settled in Illinois. He'll go wherever a good story takes him, be it the next state over, the comic book store, the humor section, or even the wild world of zombie fiction. Brian holds a BA in English from the University of Notre Dame, where he won the Richard T. Sullivan Award for fiction writing, as well as a Masters in Writing and Publishing from DePaul University. He and his wife, Sarah, live in the Chicago area with their three sons, Finnegan, Sawyer, and Oliver.

Smashwords Interview

What's the story behind your latest book?
I set out to write The Zombie Sheriff Takes Tucson: A Love Story as a book that I'd want to read. I kept telling myself "FUN" as I worked on the novel. When I'd get bogged down at a particular plot point or with an unruly character, I asked myself what I would want to read at that point--where would I want the story to go if I were reading the book?

I wrote this book for people with my sense of humor. It's possible I wrote this book for one single person... But man, did I have fun writing it. There would be times when I would finish a chapter and just start laughing I found it so funny (is that crazy? that's probably crazy.).

The Zombie Sheriff Takes Tucson: A Love Story is a comedy couched in a horror book, set in the old West--the same way The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a comedy couched in a sci-fi book. They both exist to be funny; the rest is there for support.
How do you start working on a new project?
When I begin a new project, I do one of two things.

1. I vomit all over the page. Words (usually very, very stupid words that make no sense at all; also a couple words that are pretty great) flow through my fingers and create an inscrutable mass of pixels on the screen. This can take minutes, hours, or weeks. After this literary hurling has been completed, the hard part begins. I sift through all the crap that's on the screen before me, deleting, cutting, copying and pasting, and organizing. If I'm lucky, I'm left with a few sentences that contain some semblance of a good idea.

2. I plan the crap out of the project without writing a single word of it. Ideas (usually very, very stupid ideas that make no sense at all; also a couple ideas that are pretty great) flow through my fingers and create an inscrutable mass of pixels on the screen. I plan characters' backstories, their favorite kind of ice cream, I plan where the story begins, where the story is before it begins, where it could end but doesn't, and I plan things that never see the light of the computer screen. This can take minutes, hours, or weeks. After this literary obsessive-compulsiveness has been completed, the hard part begins. I sift through all the crap that's on the screen before me, deleting, cutting, copying and pasting, and organizing. If I'm lucky, I'm left with a few sentences that contain some semblance of a good idea.
Read more of this interview.

Where to find Brian South online

Books

This member has not published any books.