Tosca, describe yourself for our visitors.
I am a headless chicken/management consultant/former pageant queen/dork girl/traveling fool/OCD daughter of the King. I love food, stories, movies, games and sleep (when I can get it). I travel for my consulting work, mostly, but also for fun, for family, for books… I can recite the entire pre-flight safety demonstration. That’s sad, huh?
When I do get time at home–I freely admit it—I am glued to my DVR. I have to know what happened on So You Think You Can Dance, or American Idol or Battlestar Gallactica, or Anthony Bourdain. I prefer to do laundry and cook something while watching any of these shows. I love to run off to the movies and eat buttered popcorn, and to get pilates workouts in with my instructor, Peggy, whenever I can. Peggy is my mom’s age and totally kicks my butt.
I spend the rest of my time doing expenses, communicating with the team of people that keeps me sane, fantasizing about shopping, assuring friends I’m still alive, and considering the merits of vegetarianism.
How do you find time to connect with God?
I would love to say that I have a life-long discipline of reading my Bible in the morning and at night. That I devote an hour every day to Quiet Time and prayer. But that would be a lie. I am not a disciplined person. I remember the One in random moments–while driving, getting dressed, or feeling guilty as I walk by my Bible. Or while considering the possibility that the plane I’m on at 35,000 feet might have engine failure. But God is the relentless pursuer and lover of souls. The One finds ways to connect with me—tracks me down and tackles me, sometimes to say, “Hey. I’m blessing you. Are you watching?” And it’s really humbling and amazing. Sometimes my beloved, Rick, tells me about his latest Proverb study, or I spy him reading his Hebrew Bible outside in the sun (I find this so very sexy), and I think, “Wait a minnut. I’m the Christian Author!” But then I remember that I’m just a girl who is a Christian and loves (well, sometimes loves—and sometimes hates) to write.
Ultimately, God hunts me down in still, quiet moments, and says, “I’m gonna show you great things.” And does.
Who are your favorite authors? Favorite books?
Right now, I’m in awe of Eric Wilson’s Field of Blood. The language is sumptuous, the research is exquisite, and the story is… you know what? I’m totally jealous. There, I said it. I want to know what that guy is eating for breakfast.
I have favorite authors and favorite books. The Red Tent. The Mists of Avalon. Anything by Anne Rice. Anne Lamott. Jean Auel. I love these women. David Sedaris. Anthony Bourdain–both sick and brilliant men.
I have many author friends, whom I admire for their brilliance and wisdom and compassion. God has brought many of them into my life in the last two years, and I am humbled and delighted. It’s like finding chocolate on your pillow, your sofa, your doorstep. Forget about salt of the earth. They’re the chocolate.
Tell us about your journey to publication.
I was publishing stories and articles and poems from third grade off and on… but always wanted to write novels. I wrote my first one in college. It’s still in my closet with all my skeletons. I cringe thinking about the idea of reading it. I was working on another novel—for nine, count ‘em, nine—years between ’93 and 2001 when the idea for Demon hit around 1999 or so. I didn’t want to give up this nine year project and thought, “I’ll do that fallen angel thing later, after I finally finish this book (AKA the Book That Will Kill Me). But my computer fried, and I froze up, so—with nothing else to write about—I started the Demon book. I ripped it out in three months. It was like God had shoved everything off my desk. So I thought, “Okay. Here it is. I did it. There must be a plan.” Then it sat on my desk for five years. FIVE YEARS. Five. But then it sold in a three-book deal. Whoever said God doesn’t have a sense of humor doesn’t know the God I know.
Tell us about your current book?
This is the story of Eve—told from her point of view. I always wanted to know more of the story—not just the Sunday school flannel graph version. I mean, why would a woman who walked with God listen to a snake? How would she know what it meant that she would die if she ate the fruit—if she had never seen death? Why did Adam eat it? What was the mark of Cain? Did he know that he was killing his brother? Why didn’t God accept his sacrifice anyway? Too many questions, too much vilification of one woman. I couldn’t stand it.
How did you come up with ideas for this book?
I honestly can’t remember how or when, but it was some time after I had written the first incarnation of Demon that I wrote what became the opening prologue of Eve—the beginning of a life story, told by an old and dying Eve at the death bed of Adam. I love the wise and earth-worn female voice. I was tired of Eve as Evil Seductress Woman. I don’t buy that. And I like putting myself in the middle of the most conventional tales and seeing them from a new and fleshed-out perspective.
What’s next for you?
A break. I’m really worn out from the last few years, which were full with work and travel, writing, divorce, selling my house and building a new townhome. I’m bushed. It’s time to make some soup, watch some TV, talk to Rick about his latest Proverb study, eat something totally bad for me. Again. Then I’ll write something else. It might be very different, though. Stay tuned.
Where can visitors find you online?
Please come visit me. Drop me a line. www.toscalee.com, www.demonamemoir.com, www.havahstoryofeve.com.
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