After Midnight With Tosca Lee

What do you get when the Heretic asks New York Times Best-selling author Tosca Lee a few random questions? Apparently – this.

Heretic: After wracking my brains, I thought of one question. It’s odd. I’m really a curious person – till someone asks for questions. Maybe it’s just that I tend to want to really know someone, at their core. Which is terribly nosy of me. Anyways, I guess your answer will determine whether I write about it or not. So…
Are there any questions you wish someone would ask, because you’d really like to answer them? If so, what are they?
(Yep – that’s my question. Hard to believe I aced the interview project in high school.)

Tosca Lee: Hmm. Now that you mention it, I don’t know! I love answering questions about writing, and just normal stuff. By the time a book comes out, I’ve already answered the question about my inspiration for a book and what I hope people will take away so many times. LOL

Heretic: I kinda thought so. And now that I said I couldn’t think of any, I’m coming up with a bunch of random ones.

Tosca: Those are the best!

Heretic: Do you have any collections?

Tosca: Actually… I’m kind of a minimalist! I try to collect cool clothing items and kick-ass shoes. And I have a special box I keep notes and things from fans in.

H:  Teach me your ways, oh great one. And speaking of shoes. . . Also, I totally bowed to the computer. It’s that time of night.

T: Ooooo. You could totally kill someone with those things. And the blood would be camouflaged.

H: Hehehe totally. But I want spikes on the toe, too.

What’s your favorite place to eat out while on the road?

T: A greasy burger joint. Or… somewhere with fresh oysters.

H: Ok, this is just for my personal edification. How do you eat bacon and greasy burgers and still look stunning?

T: LOL! You are so nice. Partly genetics. Partly the Pilates, ballet or whatever else I can fit in that week.

H: You wouldn’t say I was nice if you could see the stink eye I’m giving you. I’m genetically inclined to be a chubby linebacker (except I’m not that athletic).

T: Not the stink eye! ;D I’m a big believer in ballet and Pilates. They’re wondrous–and every year I get older, more responsible for keeping me in shape than the genetics.

H: You’re gonna be 90 and still beautiful. Seriously. You’ve got a beautiful soul. Which just so happens to come in a very nice package and with expressive eyes. And a killer smile.

T: Aww, you are such a sweetie. Thank you, hon. If I am beautiful at 90, you’ll KNOW I’m on botox.

H: Nah, haven’t you ever seen beautiful wrinkly old ladies? Sure they’re wrinkled, but they’ve got the nicest silver hair, a beautiful smile, and their eyes are gentle and kind, maybe a bit sad, but still so much life and happiness.

T: Yes, indeed you’re right. I have seen a few ladies like that.

H: And mischief – sometimes they’ve got that, too. Hehe
I think I might have a character in the works.

T: Because they know they can get away with it. :>

H: Hehehe Or maybe they were always that way and that’s what kept them from shriveling up.
If that’s the case you have absolutely nothing to worry about.
*Pause*
Um, I was asking questions, wasn’t I?

T: I hope not to shrivel up!
LOL You ask good questions! Even if you give the stink eye.

H: Hehehe I tend to ask conversation starters. Maybe cause I like talking and you’re a fun person to talk to. ^.^
Next random question: What’s your favorite tradition? (i.e. holiday, family, cultural)

T: I like to make Cornish hen stuffing at Thanksgiving. And watch unromantic movies (Shaun of the Dead) on Valentine’s Day. As a Korean, we’re supposed to eat this gluey soup on New Year’s. I try to avoid that one.

H: Gluey soup made of. . .?

T: Rice cakes that disintegrate in the broth (hence the glue) and beef. It’s not horrible… just gluey. It’s called Duk-gook. It even sounds gluey.

H: Gook? 10 points for descriptive naming. I think I’d avoid it, too. It conjures images of leftover beef stew that has been reheated way too many times.
Pauses to make strange faces as though trying to remove gook from back of throat.
I think I made that image a little too vivid. . .

T: You’re pretty close.

H: *makes mental note not to try that*

T: LOL

H: Moving on… What’s one object or place that sticks out from your childhood, and why?

T: My back yard in Blacksburg, VA. It was huge, maybe a couple acres, filled with trees and little flowers that grew in patches of sun between them. I had an English bulldog named Oliver, and we used to run and play and hide back there, digging for lizards.

H: Digging for lizards? Were they the kind that had the little red fan under the chin?

T: LOL! No… more like salamanders. I put one in a box with air holes once, but didn’t know it needed dirt and water. A few days later when I checked on it, I picked it up by the tail and it broke.

H: Oops… I put an (already dead) mouse in a jar and watched it decay as maggots ate it.
Maybe I shouldn’t mention that on a public blog…

T: Gross. It kind of reminds me of the time that guy put McDonald’s French fries in a jar and they never decayed in Supersize Me.
Well dear, I’m off to get ready for sleep… thank you so much for the fun questions, and the company tonight.

H: Well, gross is pretty much my first reaction to McDonald’s.
Hey, it’s been great. Anytime. ^.^ *HUGS*

T: Thanks, hon!! Hugs!

H: Loving your bit on Israel. ^.^

T: Good! There’s more to come.

H: You’re welcome.

Yay!

Read Tosca’s “bit” about her experiences while researching in Israel starting here.

.Tosca Lee is a New York Times bestseller, author of Demon: A Memoir, Havah: The Story of Eve, and coauthor of The Books of Mortals Trilogy.  A master painter with words as her brush, she spends months and years researching and recreating the world of the past; allowing you to experience the beauty, and the horror, as though you were there yourself.  Easily the classiest geek you’ll ever meet, like an arts festival and geek con happening in the same place. Her night owl ways have led some to suspect that she is really a vampire in disguise, but we are pretty sure this is just rumor. In addition to her beautiful words and extensive research she is somewhat less known for her epic taste in shoes, and legendary love of bacon.

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Acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Tosca Lee brilliantly adapts the life of Judas Iscariot into a dazzling work of fiction— humanizing the man whose very name is synonymous with betrayal.

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Based on extensive research into the life and times of Judas Iscariot, this triumph of fiction storytelling by the author of Havah: The Story of Eve revisits one of biblical history’s most maligned figures and brings the world he inhabited vividly to life.

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In Jesus, Judas believes he has found the One—the promised Messiah and future king of the Jews, destined to overthrow Roman rule. Galvanized, he joins the Nazarene’s followers, ready to enact the change he has waited for all his life. But soon Judas’s vision of a nation free from Rome is crushed by the inexplicable actions of the Nazarene himself, who will not bow to social or religious convention—who seems, in the end, to even turn against his own people. At last, Judas must confront the fact that the master he loves is not the liberator he hoped for, but a man bent on a drastically different agenda.

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Iscariot is the story of Judas, from his tumultuous childhood to his emergence as the man known to the world as the betrayer of Jesus. But even more, it is a singular and surprising view into the life of Jesus that forces us to reexamine everything we thought we knew about the most famous—and infamous—religious icons in history.