Author Q&A: Marcus Brotherton and Tosca Lee

Today we're interviewing the co-authors of a new World War II historical fiction novel. 

Marcus Brotherton is a New York Times bestselling author and coauthor dedicated to writing books that inspire heroics, promote empathy, and encourage noble living.

Notable nonfiction books include Shifty’s War, Blaze of Light, A Bright and Blinding Sun, A Company of Heroes, and We Who Are Alive & Remain: Untold Stories from the Band of Brothers. 

Tosca Lee is the New York Times bestselling author of twelve novels—historical, thriller, and speculative—including The Line Between, A Single Light, The Legend of Sheba, Iscariot, and The Long March Home with New York Times bestselling author Marcus Brotherton.

SADYE: How did you come to see yourself as a writer, and what inspired you to seek publication?

MARCUS: My father was a minister and my mother was a journalist. So I grew up with a dual influence of loving words and being encouraged to think big thoughts about the universe.

I began my writing career as a newspaper reporter, then gradually transitioned to books. Books offered the big blank canvas I was looking for, where readers could be led on a journey of immersion and discovery. 

TOSCA: Despite writing a lot growing up and even winning awards for it, my early dreams and first professional aspiration as a young person was to become a professional ballerina.

I spent all of my time toward that end until an injury basically made that dream a much more distant possibility. So off to college I went.

It was during my freshman year that I first decided to take a stab at writing a novel—an epic historical tome about the Neolithic people of Stonehenge.

It was pretty much a disaster, but an offhanded comment in a rejection letter from Writers House that it was reminiscent of Clan of the Cave Bear (one of my favorite novels growing up) was all the encouragement I needed to keep trying!

SADYE: Tell us something about your writing process that’s unusual or that you haven’t revealed before.

MARCUS: I write on an old desk I found in the trash. Back when I was a reporter, I was freelancing on the side, and money was tight. I needed a desk for home but couldn’t afford one.

One evening, I spotted an old interior door that a neighbor was throwing away. I took it home and built a desk from it.

Every book I’ve published for the past 23 years has been written on it, so it’s become like a winning baseball glove. No way can I get a new one now. 

TOSCA: I love to eat buttered popcorn while writing, but have you ever tried to type with greasy fingers?

But it’s a known fact that if you hold the bowl up and poke out your tongue a kernel at a time will stick to your tongue. Voila! Clean fingers.

Also, no one really wants to share your popcorn with you when you do that. 

SADYE: Which of your characters would you most and least like to become romantically involved with?

TOSCA: Hank. Most because he’s the bad-boy friend and irresistible. But also least—Hank. For the same reasons. 

MARCUS: Claire is the kind of woman all guys fall in love with, although they might not realize their affections at the start.

She starts out as a best friend. But then a guy takes a second look at her and says, “Whoa. She’s truly something else.” 

We also feature a true-to-history female character in our book, Felipa Culala, commander of the Huks. She was a remarkable and fierce combat leader, but I don’t know who would’ve had the guts to date her.

U.S. guerilla Doyle Decker met her for real during World War II. He described her as “a gray-haired Filipina wearing two .45 pistols around her ample waist and carrying a Thompson submachine gun.”

The commander was known to roam her occupied homeland freely and wage her war in various clandestine ways.  

SADYE: What period of history would you most like to travel back to / what historical figure would you most like to meet, and why?

TOSCA: I’ve written stories set 2,000 to 3,000 years ago and can honestly say any time period without contact lenses isn’t good for me.

MARCUS: Tosca once wrote a book set in the Garden of Eden. I mean, c’mon. Who wouldn’t want to go there.

SADYE: What has been the most touching or memorable piece of reader feedback you’ve received?

MARCUS: I’ve interviewed a lot of World War II veterans.

One veteran’s wife wrote to me after he’d passed, saying she believed the book I did with him brought a spark back to him and literally added an extra couple of years to his life. Brought tears to my eyes. 

TOSCA: When a reader says something you’ve written changed their life, it doesn’t get much better than that.

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Learn more about Marcus Brotherton on his website, where his books can also be purchased; like his page on Facebook; and follow him on Instagram. 

Learn more about Tosca Lee on her website, where her books can also be purchased; like her page on Facebook; and follow her on Twitter and Instagram. 

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