Nebraska Author Tosca Lee

A list of works by Nebraska author
Tosca Lee

Tosca Lee was born in Roanoke, Virginia, to a Korean father, Professor Sang Moon Lee, and a Caucasian mother. Professor Lee was an opera fan, and in fact had early dreams of an opera career, and ended up naming his daughter Tosca in tribute to his favorite Puccini opera. In interviews, Lee has described herself as a “geek-nerd” while growing up, loving superheroes and science fiction – she kept waiting for Luke Skywalker to sweep in and carry her away. In her youth, Tosca trained as both a ballerina and a pianist, though a combination of her height and injuries ended her ballet career aspirations.

Tosca Lee attended Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, where she earned a BA in English. She also studied International Economics at Oxford University. Lee has commented in interviews that she’s always been a writer, even in her youth, and won writing contests early in her life. After one year of college, she first uttered the comment “I think I want to write a novel!” During her period at Smith College, she wrote her first complete novel, which has never been published.

In the early 1990s, Lee worked for Smart Computing Magazine, and also wrote two computer books. When a family friend suggested she try out for a beauty pageant, Tosca eventually did enter and ultimately won the title Mrs. Nebraska in 1996. She later went on to become first runner up in the Mrs. United States pageant in 1998. She was able to use her pageant fame to support efforts to fight breast cancer. While involved in the world of pageants, Tosca remained a freelance technical writer, and also wrote and worked on her second full novel (also currently unpublished). In the years following her pageant experiences, she occasionally worked as a model.

Around 2000, inspired in part by her participation in a collaborative online storytelling and role-playing group, she wrote the novel that ultimately became Demon: A Memoir, though it wasn’t sold until 2006 (and published in 2007). In 2003, she began working for the Gallup Organization as a leadership consultant to Fortune 500 companies, involving international travel around the Pan-Pacific region, Europe and the U.S. At the same time, she wrote what was to be her second published novel, Havah: The Story of Eve. In 2010, Lee committed herself to making a living as a full-time writer and left her position with Gallup. She collaborated with bestselling Christian Suspense author Ted Dekker on the Books of Mortal trilogy (Forbidden, Mortal, Sovereign 2011-2013). Since then, Lee has focused on her own non-collaborative works, with such titles as Iscariot and The Legend of Sheba showing up on bestseller lists in the Christian fiction marketplace. In addition to her historical fiction, Lee has also written adult supernatural thrillers and contemporary apocalyptic thrillers, but overall remains firmly in the Christian fiction genres.

Tosca Lee enjoys travel, cooking, history, and theology, and lives in Lincoln, Nebraska, with her husband Bryan and three of four stepchildren still at home. She is a notorious night-owl, she loves movies, playing videogames and football with her kids, and sending cheesy texts to her husband. She has an active presence on social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), and she loves snacks…particularly bacon.

[Author Photo credit: By Tosca Lee – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31979326]

Additional information about Tosca Lee can be found at the following Web sites:

Tosca Lee’s Novels and Novellas:

Demon: A Memoir
(2007)

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 everything changes with 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.

Christy Award Nominee

ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year SilverAward Winner

Havah: The Story of Eve
(2008)

Eve, exiled to a life outside paradise, nears death. As she waits, she recounts the story of her creation and a cruel existence. Revisit the birth of humankind through the eyes of the first woman ever to live. Myth and legend shroud her in mystery. Now hear her story. From paradise to exile, from immortality to the death of Adam, experience the dawn of mankind through the eyes of Eve, the woman first known…as Havah.

ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Bronze Award Winner

The Keeper
(2011)

The Keeper is the short story prequel to Forbidden, the first novel in The Books of Mortals series.

In the Russian wasteland, a man named Talus bears a secret so terrible that it will cost him no less than his life to share it… a secret so terrible that he must share it in order to find those who will help him protect the knowledge that will one day save humanity. He has chosen two brothers, both hermit monks, to join him in his quest. But time is short… and no man is ready to receive the news that Talus must now share with them both: That they are both already dead. First there was the Circle Trilogy. Now a new stunning epic begins… E-novella format only.

Forbidden
Co-written by Ted Dekker
(2011)

Books of Mortals, Vol. 1

New York Times bestselling author Ted Dekker teams with Tosca Lee to create this gripping thriller set in a desolate future.

Many years have passed since civilization’s brush with apocalypse. The world’s greatest threats have all been silenced. There is no anger, no hatred, no war. There is only perfect peace… and fear. But a terrible secret has been closely guarded for centuries: Every single soul walking the earth, though in appearance totally normal, is actually dead, long ago genetically stripped of true humanity.

Fleeing pursuit, with only moments to live, a young man named Rom stumbles into possession of a vial of blood and a piece of cryptic writing. When consumed, the blood will bring him back to life. When decoded, the message will lead him on a perilous journey that will require him to abandon everything he has ever known and awaken humanity to the transforming power of true life and love.

But the blood will also resurrect hatred, ambition, and greed.

Set in a terrifying, medieval future, where grim pageantry masks death, this tale of dark desires and staggering stakes peels back the layers of the heart for all who dare to take the ride.

Christian Retailers Choice Award

Christy Award Finalist

Mortal
Co-written with Ted Dekker
(2012)

Books of Mortals, Vol 2.

Centuries have passed since civilization’s brush with apocalypse. The world’s greatest threats have all been silenced. There is no anger, no hatred, no war. There is only perfect peace…and fear. A terrible secret was closely guarded for centuries: every single soul walking the earth, though in appearance totally normal, is actually dead, long ago genetically stripped of true humanity .

Nine years have gone by since an unlikely hero named Rom Sebastian first discovered a secret and consumed an ancient potion of blood to bring himself back to life in Forbidden. Surviving against impossible odds, Rom has gathered a secret faction of followers who have also taken the blood-the first Mortals in a world that is dead.

But The Order has raised an elite army to hunt and crush the living. Division and betrayal threaten to destroy the Mortals from within. The final surviving hope for humanity teeters on the brink of annihilation and no one knows the path to survival.

On the heels of Forbidden comes Mortal, the second novel in The Books of Mortals saga penned by Ted Dekker and Tosca Lee. Set in a terrifying, medieval future, where grim pageantry masks death, this tale of dark desires and staggering stakes peels back the layers of the heart for all who dare take the journey.

The Books of Mortals are three novels, each of which stands on its own, yet all are seamlessly woven into one epic thriller.

Iscariot
(2013)

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.

The most reviled man in biblical history comes to life.

In Jesus, Judas believes he has found the One — the promised Messiah and future king destined to overthrow Roman rule. Galvanized, Judas joins the disciples, ready to enact the change he has waited for all his life.

But Judas’ vision of a nation free from Roman rule 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 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.

Iscariot is the story of Judas — from his tumultuous childhood and tenuous family life as a devout Jew to a man known to the world as the betrayer of Jesus Christ. But even more, it is a singular and surprising view into the life of Jesus himself, an intricate account that will cause you to ask: “Would I have done the same thing as Judas?”

ECPA Christian Book of the Year – Fiction

Best in Christian Fiction – Library Journal

Sovereign
(2013)

Books of Mortals, Vol. 3

Nine years after Rom Sebastian was thrust into the most unlikely of circumstances as hero and bearer of an unimaginable secret, the alliance of his followers is in disarray. An epic battle with The Order has left them scattered and deeply divided both in strategy and resolve in their struggle to become truly alive and free.

Only 49 truly alive followers remain loyal to Rom. This meager band must fight for survival as The Order is focused on their total annihilation. Misunderstood and despised, their journey will be one of desperation against a new, more intensely evil Order. As the hand of this evil is raised to strike and destroy them they must rely on their faith in the abiding power of love to overcome all and lead them to sovereignty.

Sovereign wonderfully continues the new testament allegory that was introduced in FORBIDDEN and continued in MORTAL.

Ismeni
(2014)

A mysterious beauty, a destiny set in the stars. Born under an inauspicious sign, young Ismeni is feared by her own people. The single thing she prays for: to live an invisible life. But that is not to be for the young woman who has captured the attention of the king’s youngest son. A story of love, passion, and twists of fate through the eyes of the woman who will one day give birth to the legendary Queen of Sheba. Prequel to The Legend of Sheba. E-novella format only.

The Legend of Sheba: Rise of a Queen
(2014)

Her name is legend. Her story, the epic of nations. The Queen of Sheba. A powerful new novel of love, power, and the questions at the heart of existence by the author of the award-winning “brilliant” ( Library Journal ) and “masterful” ( Publishers Weekly ) Iscariot .

There is the story you know: A foreign queen, journeying north with a caravan of riches to pay tribute to a king favored by the One God. The tale of a queen conquered by a king and god both before returning to her own land laden with gifts.

That is the tale you were meant to believe.

Which means most of it is a lie.

The truth is far more than even the storytellers could conjure. The riches more priceless. The secrets more corrosive. The love and betrayal more passionate and devastating.

Across the Red Sea, the pillars of the great oval temple once bore my name: Bilqis, Daughter of the Moon. Here, to the west, the porticoes knew another: Makeda, Woman of Fire. To the Israelites, I was queen of the spice lands, which they called Sheba.

In the tenth century BC, the new Queen of Sheba has inherited her father’s throne and all its riches at great personal cost. Her realm stretches west across the Red Sea into land wealthy in gold, frankincense, and spices. But now new alliances to the North threaten the trade routes that are the lifeblood of her nation. Solomon, the brash new king of Israel famous for his wealth and wisdom, will not be denied the tribute of the world — or of Sheba’s queen. With tensions ready to erupt within her own borders and the future of her nation at stake, the one woman who can match wits with Solomon undertakes the journey of a lifetime in a daring bid to test and win the king. But neither ruler has anticipated the clash of agendas, gods, and passion that threatens to ignite — and ruin — them both. An explosive retelling of the legendary king and queen and the nations that shaped history.

Finalist for Christian Book of the Year – Fiction

Best in Christian Fiction – Library Journal

The Progeny
(2016)

Descendants of the House of Bathory, Vol. 1

New York Times bestselling author Tosca Lee brings a modern twist to an ancient mystery surrounding Elizabeth Bathory, the most notorious female serial killer of all time.

Audra Ellison has no idea why she’s had her memory wiped clean, only that she chose to erase her past to protect someone else. But soon, a handsome stranger tells her she’s special. Unique. That she has the power to influence the minds of others. And that her life is in danger.

She soon discovers that she is the descendant of a serial killer, the infamous “Blood Countess” Elizabeth Bathory, and that she, like all her relatives for generations, is being hunted for the sins of her ancestor. She also discovers that she erased her memory to forget something important–important not only to her, but to those who want to see the line of Bathory ended for good.

Reunited with others like her — young, powerful Progeny living defiantly on the edge of extinction in Europe’s underground–she is hounded by danger at every turn and driven deeper into the inner circles of two ancient orders intent on destroying one another with a weapon only Audra can find. And as those around her start disappearing, Audra realizes the only thing that can save them all is piecing together a past she no longer remembers.

As she works to unravel the web of secrets and lies, Audra is thrust into a world of faith and doubt, of truth and deceit, of life and immortality, and she must decide who to trust — and what to believe. What she ultimately uncovers will change everything she thought she knew about who she is and what her lineage means.

A kaleidoscopic thriller that brings the underground world of the ancient cities of Eastern Europe to life like never before, The Progeny is a taut, breathless story of centuries-old intrigue and modern love and forgiveness.

Realm Makers’ paranormal book award

Realm Makers’ Book of the Year

FirstBorn
(2017)

Descendants of the House of Bathory, Vol. 2

From New York Times bestselling author Tosca Lee comes the much-anticipated, high-speed sequel to The Progeny , about the powerful descendants of Elizabeth Bathory, the most prolific serial killer of all time.

Face-to-face with her past, Audra Ellison now knows the secret she gave up everything — including her memory — to protect. A secret made vulnerable by her rediscovery, and so powerful neither the Historian nor the traitor Prince Nikola will ever let her live to keep it.

With Luka in the Historian’s custody and the clock ticking down on his life, Audra only has one impossible chance: find and kill the Historian and end the centuries old war between the Progeny and Scions at last — all while running from the law and struggling to control her growing powers.

With the help of a heretic monk and her Progeny friends Claudia, Piotrek, and Jester, Audra will risk all she holds dear in a final bid to save them all and put her powers to the ultimate test. Love, action, and stunning revelation reign in this thrilling conclusion to The Progeny.

The Line Between
(2019)

In this frighteningly believable thriller from New York Times bestselling author Tosca Lee, an extinct disease re-emerges from the melting Alaskan permafrost to cause madness in its victims. For recent apocalyptic cult escapee Wynter Roth, it’s the end she’d always been told was coming.

When Wynter Roth is turned out of 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 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.

Filled with action, conspiracy, romance, and questions of whom — and what — to believe, The Line Between is a high-octane story of survival and love in a world on the brink of madness.

A Single Light
(2019)

In this gripping sequel to The Line Between, which New York Times bestselling author Alex Kava calls “everything you want in a thriller,” cult escapee Wynter Roth and ex-soldier Chase Miller emerge from their bunker to find a country ravaged by disease, and Wynter is the only one who can save it.

Six months after vanishing into an underground silo with sixty others, Wynter and Chase emerge to find the area abandoned. There is no sign of Noah and the rest of the group that was supposed to greet them when they emerged — the same people Wynter was counting on to help her locate the IV antibiotics her gravely ill friend, Julie, needs in order to live.

As the clock ticks down on Julie’s life, Wynter and Chase embark on a desperate search for medicine and answers. But what they find is not a nation on the cusp of recovery thanks to the promising new vaccine Wynter herself had a hand in creating, but one decimated by disease. What happened while they were underground?

With food and water in limited supply and their own survival in question, Chase and Wynter must venture further and further from the silo. Aided by an enigmatic mute named Otto, they come face-to-face with a society radically changed by global pandemic, where communities scrabble to survive under rogue leaders and cities are war zones. As hope fades by the hour and Wynter learns the terrible truth of the last six months, she is called upon once again to help save the nation she no longer recognizes – a place so dark she’s no longer sure it can even survive.

Fast-paced and taut, A Single Light is a breathless thriller of nonstop suspense about the risks of living in a world outside the safe confines of our closely-held beliefs and the relationships and lives that inspire us.

The Long March Home: A WWII Novel of the Pacific
co-written by Marcus Brotherton
(2023)

Jimmy Propfield joined the army for two reasons: to get out of Mobile, Alabama, with his best friends Hank and Billy and to forget his high school sweetheart, Claire.

Life in the Philippines seems like paradise — until the morning of December 8, 1941, when news comes from Manila: Imperial Japan has bombed Pearl Harbor. Within hours, the teenage friends are plunged into war as enemy warplanes attack Luzon, beginning a battle for control of the Pacific Theater that will culminate with a last stand on the Bataan Peninsula and end with the largest surrender of American troops in history.

What follows will become known as one of the worst atrocities in modern warfare: the Bataan Death March. With no hope of rescue, the three friends vow to make it back home together. But the ordeal is only the beginning of their nearly four-year fight to survive.

Inspired by true stories, The Long March Home is a gripping coming-of-age tale of friendship, sacrifice, and the power of unrelenting hope.

Early Computer Books Attributed to Tosca Moon Lee:

Windows Sound Funpack/Book and Disk
by Tosca Moon Lee, Lorinda Johnson and Mike Gable
(1993)

Deals with how to work with sound files. Oriented around Windows 3.1.

Absolute Beginner’s Guide to PC Communications
by Tosca Moon Lee, Lorinda Johnson and Mike Gable
(1993)

Oriented around Windows 3.1.