Skip to main content

Interview with Tosca Lee

Captain's Log, Stardate 08.13.2007

Today I have a fun interview with author Tosca Lee talking about her novel, Demon: a Memoir!

One night changes everything.

Recently divorced and mired in a meaningless existence, Clay drifts from his drab apartment to his equally lusterless job as an editor for a small Boston press--until the night Lucian finds him and speaks the simple words: "I'm going to tell you my story... and you're going to write it down and publish it."

What begins as a mystery soon spirals into chaotic obsession as Clay struggles to piece together Lucian's dark tale of love, ambition, and grace...only to discover that the demon's story has become his own.

And then only one thing matters: learning how the story ends.






And now, here’s me and Tosca!

What inspired you to write Demon?

Through the 90s, I was into online, collaborative storytelling. By “into,” I mean totally addicted. My group and I loved writing up stories for new characters and playing them off one another. Actually, we were obsessed. Anyway, around 1999 I was trying to come up with a new story character—something different. An angel. No, an expatriate angel. What would that be like? Would she go around tempting people to smoke? To shoplift? To lie… to eat carbs?

I mean, definitely to eat carbs. But the other stuff… it seemed really petty. It didn’t fit with the wider and serious scope that I think beings in the spiritual realm really fill. So I started thinking about the world—and particularly humans—from a fallen angel point of view. And I realized that the demonic vendetta wasn’t about being petty, but about being vindicated.

Side note from Camy: There’s a really neat href="http://www.demonamemoir.com/story.html" target="_blank">Story Behind the Story page on Tosca’s website.

What's your favorite scene from Demon?

Well, in terms of imagery, which I’m really in to, it’s in chapter five when the fallen angel invades Clay’s dreams with the memory of Lucifer’s attempted ascension to heaven. It was a trip to imagine what this was like, to fix it with words, you know? This is what I love about writing.

But personally, I giggle every time I read the scene where Clay is on his way to Cabo. There’s a short, Asian man there with a receding hairline wearing gold-toe socks. That’s totally my Dad.

How neat you have a shar pei! I have a mutt named Snickers who's the biggest butthead on the planet, but just too darn cute to stay mad at. Any fun dog stories you want to share?

Attila the Flatulent Wonder is quite the adventure to live with. The story that comes to mind is from a few years ago, when Attila had a black cat, named Chicken (I always thought it’d be funny if I said “Chicken” when my husband called to ask what was for dinner). Turns out Attila was allergic to the cat, but we didn’t know that then. Anyway, I realized one day that Chicken really didn’t require a lot of litter-box cleaning. Which was fine with me but after a while it did sort of give me cause to wonder. Because you know, some things are just supposed to happen in that litter box. But it was basically clean, all the time. I couldn’t figure it out.

Then one day I saw little bits of cat litter sprinkled all over the hallway rug where Attila liked to take his special treats and eat them.

Lo and behold, he had been eating Kitty Crunchies.

ROFL!!!! Sounds like Snickers, she loves those things. Almond roca for dogs.

If you were a dessert, what would you be and why?

I’d be Death By Chocolate. Total cocoa rigor mortis.

Do you prefer coffee or tea, and why?

I am trying to give up coffee. I was doing fine until just now. Thanks. Thanks a lot.

Oops. Sorry about that. (I sound at least a smidgen sorry, don’t I?)

What novel are you reading right now?

I’m reading so many theological commentaries right now while working on Havah: The Story of Eve, that I haven’t had a chance to ingest in mind candy. I’m going to go crazy in a few more days and read a bodice-ripper or a stack of People Magazines or something because I won’t be able to take it any more.

I’ll send you some of my husband’s Star magazines. :)

You're off the hotseat! Any parting words?

The Kitty Crunchy thing was gross, wasn’t it.

Camy here: LOLOLOLOL! I liked it, but then again, I’m weird. Thanks for being here, Tosca!
Labels:

Popular Posts

Brainstorm - character occupation

Captain's Log, Stardate 03.23.2009 Hey guys, I could use some help. In my current manuscript, The Year of the Dog , which is a humorous contemporary romance, I have a minor character, Eddie. He’s my heroine’s ex-boyfriend, and they’re on good terms with each other. He’s a bit irresponsible, but not so much so that he’s a complete loser. He’s got a very easy going attitude, he forgets to pay his bills sometimes, he’s friendly and charming. He’s adventurous and fun to be around, but he’s a little forgetful sometimes, and he tends to spend a little outside his income. I need an occupation for him. What would a charming, easy going, slightly irresponsible guy do for a living? He’s not too irresponsible, because otherwise readers will wonder what in the world my heroine saw in him to date him in the first place. She was attracted to his charm, his easy going attitude (her family’s uptight, and he was a nice contrast), and his adventurousness. But his forgetfulness and irresponsibility ...
64 comments
Read more

Chinese Take-Out and Sushi for One

Captain’s Log, Supplemental My agent sent me an article from Publisher’s Weekly that discussed this incident: Chinese Take-Out Spawns Christian Controversy And here’s also a blog post that talks about it in more detail: The Fighting 44s This is Soong-Chan Rah’s blog: The PCS blog In sum: Apparently Zondervan (yes, my publisher), who has partnered with Youth Specialties, had put out a youth leaders skit that had stereotypical Asian dialogue, which offended many Christian Asian Americans. In response to the outcry, Zondervan/Youth Specialities put out a sincere apology and is not only freezing the remaining stock of the book, but also reprinting it and replacing the copies people have already bought. I am very proud of my publisher for how they have handled this situation. The skit writers have also issued a public apology . (I feel sorry for them, because they were only trying to write a funny skit, not stir up this maelstrom of internet controversy. I’ve been in youth work long enou...
39 comments
Read more

Window shopping

Captain’s Log, Stardate 03.14.2005 Knee update: I went to the doctor today for a checkup, and saw his assistant. I’ve been concerned because there’s still inflammation in my knee joint, and it’s been almost 4 months since the surgery. She said she’d talk to the doctor about it tomorrow and call me. Sometimes he suggests laying off the PT to see if that causes the inflammation to go away, but I don’t know if that will work because lately I’ve been pretty active outside of PT. At PT today, the therapist did ultrasound and some sort of electrical current on the joint. Hopefully that will make the inflammation start to go down. I’ll know by tomorrow, probably. Writing: Mt. Hermon conference starts this Friday! On Thursday night, I’ll be at the Santana Row Borders bookstore to help out (and hopefully learn a bit, too) at a booksigning for several of the ACFW authors who are attending Mt. Hermon . That should be lots of fun. I had a good brainstorming time at ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Japanese language learning process in more detail

I blogged a few weeks ago that I’ve jumped back into my Japanese language learning after being lazy and letting it slide. I’ve been keeping my Japanese language study habit for about a month now, and I wanted to blog about my process in more detail. One thing I had noticed about my Japanese is that I tended not to do it if I left it to do at the end of the day. I realized that it was just like my exercise—if I didn’t do it first thing in the morning, it never got done. So I started doing my Japanese right after my exercise in the morning. I treated it like one of my “frogs,” as I read about in the book Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time . The book is based off of a Mark Twain quote: “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” It suggests doing your “frogs”—your important things that you’re likely to procrastinate doing—first thing in the morning in order to get it done, and ...
2 comments
Read more

I GOT A CONTRACT!

Captain’s Log, Stardate 03.29.2006 I had a wonderfully funny blog post planned for today, but I got sidetracked by some news yesterday! Zondervan has offered me a three-book contract on my Asian chick-lit series ! I’m still stunned by everything that’s happened. The series is actually a 4-book projected Asian chick-lit series about four cousins who fall under the infamous family title "Oldest Single Female Cousin," and their ruthless, wealthy grandma applies pressure on each of them to improve their lack of love interests. I think the first book is tentatively scheduled to be released in August 2007. The blurb on the series is on my website here . Brandilyn Collins posted to the ACFW loop about my writing journey, and Tamara Cooper asked that I share it. And since you all know how much I like to talk , here it is. My writing journey: Like most writers, I have wanted to write since I was very young. (In high school, I wrote a fantasy novel that will never see the light of day ...
32 comments
Read more