Author Interview, Tosca Lee

Tosca Lee received her BA in English and International Relations from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. She has also studied at Oxford University.

As a Leadership Consultant, Tosca regularly works with managers and leaders of organizations throughout the Pan-Pacific region, Europe, and the U.S.

Tosca is a former Mrs. Nebraska-America 1996, Mrs. Nebraska-United States 1998 and first runner-up to Mrs. United States and has been lauded nationally for her efforts to fight breast cancer.

In her spare time, Tosca enjoys cooking, studying history and theology, and traveling. She currently resides in Nebraska with her Shar Pei, Attila

What book or project is coming out or has come out that you’d like to tell us about?

My novel, Demon: A Memoir, which just released in June.

Tell us about your journey to publication. How long did it take before your novel was published?

This journey went in fits—kind of like a seizure. I wrote the book in three months around 2000… and then proceeded to get rejected by the best in the industry. The chief complaint was the second-person narrative; Lucian, my fallen angel main character, was speaking directly to the reader in what was basically a monologue. It was a bit too experimental for most editors, who wanted a more traditional narrative—you know, with dialogue and other characters.

What mistakes have you made while seeking publication?

Not getting an agent right away. I am so glad that Joyce Hart came into the picture and took over the shopping-around duties. Whew!

What’s the best advice you’ve heard on writing/publication?

Do your part, do the work and then surrender the results (thank you, Sophy Burnham). Of course, your part of the work extends beyond the actual writing and rewriting to getting out there and arm-twisting people into buying the book as well. It includes long hours of talking about a story that, by the time it’s published, you never want to read or talk about again. It includes subtly and diplomatically leveraging all of your connections and winning over influential others who will share it with their social network. But after all of that, it means knowing that you did your best, or at least the best you could think to do at that time, and releasing the results to God.

And then bugging God about it.

What is the worst piece of writing advice you’ve heard?

Write what you know. Holy crow, if I did that, I’d be writing about gastro-intestinally challenged shar peis, pageant tricks you can do at home with duct tape, and the best place to use the bathroom at Chicago O’Hare airport.

What is something you wish you’d known earlier that might have saved you some time/frustration in the publishing business?

That barring a miracle, it’s going to take some time. Might as well write the next book. And the one after that.

What are a few of your favorite books?

The Red Tent, The Mists of Avalon, Interview With the Vampire, Clan of the Cave Bear, anything by Anne Lamott. I love her.

What piece of writing have you done that you’re particularly proud of and why?

You know, my answer to this question could change with the day. Some days I think I’ve got some brilliant stuff, some days I think I’m the biggest poser in the universe. Today I think the prologue to my next book, Havah: The Story of Eve, reads pretty good. I mean, well. (You can read it at http://www.demonamemoir.com/, under Coming Soon).

Can you give us a view into a typical day of your writing life?

If I’m between projects, I may not write at all. By the “if you write, you’re a writer” rule, I guess that means I’m not a writer those days. But sometimes I don’t want to be a writer. I want to frantically clean my house. Or watch movies. Or get out of town. But even then writing has a way of creeping in—particularly when I travel.

If you could choose to have one strength of another writer, what would it be and from whom?

What a question! I wish I had Austin Boyd’s discipline. Do you know that man gets up at 4:30am to write? He is the VP of a multi-million dollar company. He works 60 hours a week. He doesn’t watch TV. He probably gets five servings of vegetables a day, too.

How does someone live like that?? But he does, and he gets books out doing it.

Do you have a dream for the future of your writing, something you would love to accomplish?

Here it is, my ultimate fantasy: I’m walking through purgatory—I mean, Chicago O’Hare—and see someone in a gate waiting area holding a suspiciously familiar book. Lo and behold… it’s Demon. Or my next book, Havah: The Story of Eve. I stop dead in my tracks, the heavyset businessman on my heels runs smack into me, and I make squawking noises as I fall. As the business man attempting not to trip over my head curses out loud, we stop traffic and cause a scuffle, but by golly, the person reading my book is so absorbed she never even notices.

That’s my dream.

What is your favorite and least favorite part of being a writer?

I love getting to pour it onto the page. To have those moments where I look back, re-read, and say, “Yes. That’s it. That’s the thing exactly.”

My least favorite part is when I come back to the same passage the next day and decide it’s all crap.

How much marketing do you do? Any advice in this area?

As much as I can. I have a publicist who dovetails media opportunities with my travel and at-home schedule. I work closely with my publisher’s media relations manager to brainstorm events I can take part in, influencer mailings, and endorsements. I have a graphic art guru who designs my stationery, bookmarks, flyers and posters. And he has a small cadre of people who create my web presence. I’ve enlisted all my friends to leverage their connections to help promote the book. I travel anywhere, do TV and radio appearances, talk to schools, book speaking engagements and give readings. I carry bookmarks everywhere I go and hand them out to anyone who won’t shrink from something with the word “Demon” on it.

In short: I’m brazen. I’m shameless.

Wanna buy a book?

Parting words?

No, really. Wanna buy a book?