Uncaged welcomes Tosca Lee
Uncaged: Can you tell readers more about your latest releases, The Line Between series? How many books are you planning on for this series?
The Line Between, which released earlier this year, is the story of a young woman named Wynter Roth, who has just been expelled from a self-contained doomsday cult right as a pandemic begins to sweep across the nation. As she struggles to start over in a world she’s been taught to regard as evil, she finds herself face-to-face with the apocalypse she’s feared all her life—until the night her sister shows up at her doorstep with a set of medical samples and Wynter learns there’s something far more sinister at play.
It’s a thriller set on the American prairie filled with action, conspiracy, and even a touch of romance.
Wynter’s story continues—and concludes—in A Single Light, which released September 17. Right now, there are just these two books in the series. The duology is, however, in development for TV, so I always say that if the series got made and there were demand for more, I could probably be arm-twisted into writing another. ;D
Uncaged: How much do you edit out of your books?
Mostly just the repetitive or boring or stupid stuff. Anything unnecessary that will slow the story down. I used to really, really overwrite my books—by tens or hundreds of thousands of words. Thankfully, experienced helped me grow out of that!
Uncaged: What do you have coming up next that you can tell us about?
The TV development—by Radar Pictures (Jumanji) and Ed Burns’ Marlboro Road Gang Productions—is fun and exciting to follow. Meanwhile, I’m about to start pitching two new historical novels to publishers, so we’re a bit in an in-between phase, project-wise. Writing-wise, however, I’m really excited to announce that two of my writing friends, bestselling authors Nicole Baart and Kimberly Stuart and I are putting on a writing intensive this coming June called Alchemy Writers, in which we’re basically teaching our participants everything we wish we’d known. You can learn more about that at https://alchemywriter.com/.
To read the full interview, see the issue below.
TOSCA LEE is the New York Times bestselling author of eleven novels, including The Line Between, A Single Light, The Progeny, The Legend of Sheba, Iscariot, and the Books of Mortals series with New York Times bestselling author Ted Dekker. Her work has been translated into seventeen languages and optioned for TV and film. She is best known for her meticulous research, masterful prose, unexpected points of view, and high-octane thrillers.
Lee is the recipient of numerous awards including a Literary Titan award for The Line Between and the 2014 ELCA Book of the Year in Fiction for her portrayal of the infamous betrayer of Christ in Iscariot, which Publisher’s Weekly calls “impeccable and masterful.” The Legend of Sheba was a finalist for the same award the following year. In addition to the New York Times, her books have appeared on the IndieBound and Christian bestseller lists, Library Journal’s Best Of lists, and as part of Target Stores’ “Target Recommends” program.
She has been called the “queen of psychological twists,” and “in a league of her own,” her work praised by Publisher’s Weekly, The Historical Novel Society, Kirkus, Booklist, Woman’s World, Romantic Times, BookReporter, BookRiot, The San Francisco Book Review, The Dallas Morning News, and The Midwest Book Review as “deeply human…” “powerful…” and “mind-bending.” She can currently be heard on American Airlines’ in-flight entertainment system on the Beautiful Writers podcast alongside writing luminaries Lee Child, Elizabeth Gilbert, and Dean Koontz.
Lee lives with her husband and two of four step-children still at home in Nebraska and shares her adventures as an author, city-girl-turned-farmer’s-wife, and insta-mom of four (or five, if you count her 140-pound puppy)—on social media.Kristal primarily writes for her publisher, The Wild Rose Press, although she self-released “Hand-Carved Wolf” and “Thief of Hearts.” She writes paranormal, contemporary, and erotic romance.
Enjoy an excerpt from
The Line Between
Tosca Lee
Dystopian Thriller
When Wynter Roth finally escapes from New Earth, a self-contained doomsday cult on the American prairie, she emerges into a world poised on the brink of madness as a mysterious outbreak of rapid early onset dementia spreads across the nation.
As Wynter struggles to start over in a world she’s been taught to regard as evil, she finds herself face-to-face with the apocalypse she’s feared all her life—until the night her sister shows up at her doorstep with a set of medical samples. That night, Wynter learns there’s something far more sinister at play: that the prophet they once idolized has been toying with the fate of mankind, and that these samples are key to understanding the disease.
Now, as the power grid fails and the nation descends into chaos, Wynter must find a way to get the samples to a lab in Colorado. Uncertain who to trust, she takes up with former military man Chase Miller, who has his own reasons for wanting to get close to the samples in her possession, and to Wynter, herself.
Excerpt
CHAPTER ONE
IOWA, SEPTEMBER
Conventional wisdom dictates that there’s an insurmountable divide—an entire dimension of eternity and space—between Heaven and Hell. Lucifer managed to make the trip in nine days, at least according to Paradise Lost. That equates to a distance of about 25,920 miles, assuming standard rules of velocity.
But I can tell you it’s closer to a foot and a half. The distance of a step.
Give or take an inch.
Magnus stands near the gatehouse, shirtsleeves rolled up, collar unbuttoned beneath his brown vest. He nods to the Guardian in the booth and the industrial gate begins its mechanical slide. There’s a small door to the side of it just large enough to admit a single person, but I won’t be leaving by the Narrow Gate. My departure must be a spectacle, a warning to those assembled behind me.
I can feel their eyes against my back like hot iron. The glares mottled by anger and fear. Sadness, maybe, but above all gratitude that they are not me.
Two Guardians stand at my sides ready to forcibly walk me out in case I balk or my twenty-two-year-old legs give out beneath me. I glance at the one to my right and swear he looks impatient. Hungry, maybe; it’s just before lunchtime. I’m crossing into eternal damnation, and all he’s thinking about is an egg salad sandwich—and not even a good one. It’s Wednesday, Sabbath by the solar calendar. Rosella is managing the kitchen, and that pious sandwich is full of chickpeas without a single real egg in it.
The gate comes to a stop with an ominous clang. The road beyond is paved with gravel, a gray part in a sea of native grass strewn with gold and purple flowers in stark contrast to the carefully and beautifully manicured grounds behind me. A meadowlark sings somewhere nearby as a combine rumbles in the distance.
To read the rest of this excerpt, please see the issue below:
