B&H Thriller Book Tour Starts Friday!

This week on Friday, the B&H Thriller Tour launches. The four B&H authors taking part in this tour are Brandilyn Collins, Tosca Lee, Robin Caroll, and Jim Rubart. It will start in St. Louis, go to Philadelphia and Baltimore, and end up in New York. Note: additional New York area venues are being booked. Here's the schedule so far:

Friday, June 25: St. Louis area

2:00 – 4:00: Parable Bookstore
1716 Missouri State Road
Arnold, MO 63010
636-287-1231

6:00 – 8:00: Family Christian Store
167 Mid Rivers Mall Dr
St Peters, MO 63376-4309
636-278-2895

Saturday, June 26th

12:00 – 2:00 PM: Mainstreet Books
307 South Main Street
St. Charles, MO 63301
636-949-0105

4:00 – 6:00 PM: Lifeway Christian Store
11977 Saint Charles Rock Road
Bridgeton, MO 63044
314-344-0014

Sunday, June 27th
2:00 – 4:00 p.m. Barnes & Noble
721 Gravois Road
Fenton, MO 63026
636-326-2148

Thursday, July 1: Philadelphia area and Baltimore
11:00 – 1:00--Lifeway Christian Store
2320 Industrial Highway
York, PA 17402
717-757-5311

4:00 – 6:00 PM--Lifeway Christian Store
White Marsh Plaza Shopping Center
7900 Honeygo Blvd
Baltimore, MD 21236
410-931-8038

Friday, July 9th: New Jersey
7:00-9:00 PM: Borders
290 Commons Way
Bridgewater, NJ 08807
(908) 231-0111

Saturday, July 10: New York area
1:00 – 3:00: Barnes & Noble
290 Baychester Ave.
Bronx, NY 10475
718-862-3945

NOTE: Brandilyn will be signing posters that look like this too (click to enlarge). Very cool:

Ted Dekker teams with Tosca Lee for new trilogy

This just in from Ted Dekker's Facebook page:

Is it possible to write a story that eclipses the scope and impact of The Circle Series? Ted thinks so and he said as much at the Chicago Gathering on Saturday. In fact, he dropped a bombshell to the collective gasp of the 300 people in the room. Not only does he think it's possible, but it's already being written for a Summer 2011 release from Hachette Book Group.

It's entitled Forbidden and it's unlike any Dekker story you've read to date.

For those who weren't there to see the video trailer on Saturday, here is the synopsis:

Four hundred eighty years have passed since civilization's brush with extinction. Perfect order reigns. Humanity's greatest threats have all been silenced. There is no disease, no malice, no hate, no war. There is only peace.

Until the day when one man discovers the truth: Every single soul walking the earth is actually dead. The human heart has been stripped of all that makes it human. Now only he is alive and only he has the knowledge that can once again awaken humanity.

But the way is treacherous and the cost is staggering. For, indeed, in that day life itself is...Forbidden.

But this is going to be different, Ted explained. To pull this story off right would require a unique blend of Dekker style thrills and grit told with masterful prose like he's never delivered before. It would mean going beyond himself in a completely new way. It would mean collaborating with someone as unique and edgy as he is to create something better than he could on his own.

So the search began to find that one writer to elevate this story and make it larger than life. We thought it was an order too big to fill and we almost gave up. Then we found her.

Those at the Gathering met her already, but now we'd like to introduce you because you're going to hear a lot more about the extremely talented Tosca Lee very soon. Trust us.

For those who are unacquainted with her, Tosca is the acclaimed novelist of the groundbreaking (and controversial) books Demon and Havah. She's also working on a novel about Judas...told in first person. If you met her you might think she is the long lost female side of Ted. And you might be right.

She's grit and beauty in one package and has a way of finessing the English language in a way that's best described as lyrical.

Forbidden is the first in the series that will likely become a trilogy. The collaboration process is unlike anything he's done before. It had to be. Ted said that it had to be seamless and feel 100% Dekker or the world would never see it. As a collaborative title, it will be completely different than House, Kiss, or Burn.

More details will be released soon about this exciting venture and you'll be the first to hear about it right here. We haven't seen Ted this consumed with a story since the Circle. And if that's any indication of what's to come we should all get ready for the ride ahead.

B&H Publishing Signs Tosca Lee

Nashville, Tenn., July 8, 2009 - Award-winning author Tosca Lee will release her highly-anticipated third novel in 2011 under the B&H Fiction Pure Enjoyment line. Written from the point of view of the most reviled man in Christendom--Judas--Tosca will again give readers a powerful and enlightening glimpse into the spiritual realm.

"We are thrilled to have Tosca writing for us," said Karen Ball, executive editor for fiction at B&H Publishing Group. "She's a true craftsman. Combine that with her remarkable ability to see inside those we most despise--a demon, Eve, and now Judas--and you get powerful stories of truth and grace that intrigue and challenge readers."

Her two previous books, Demon: A Memoir and Havah: The Story of Eve, created quite a stir in Christian fiction. Demon: A Memoir was a 2008 Christy Award Finalist, 2008 ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Silver Award Winner and 2008 ACFW Book of the Year, Speculative, Second Place. It earned rave reviews across the faith spectrum, including the distinction of, "The most creative, mind-twisting novel of this summer," from Infuzemag.com.

Havah, her sophomore novel, let readers inside the heart and mind of the world's first woman from her creation to Adam's death. Havah is a 2009 ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Bronze Award Winner and ChristianFictionReviews.com Top Pick for 2008. In a starred review, Publishers Weekly called it, "Passionate and riveting... Lee's superior storytelling will have readers weeping for all that Havah forfeited by a single damning choice." Historical Novels Review called it, "...a fascinating novel about human relationships at the dawn of time."
Lee-- Mrs. Nebraska-America 1996, Mrs. Nebraska-United States 1998 and first runner-up to Mrs. United States--has a deep passion for story. "I was a serious pianist from a young age, and used to practice an hour and a half every day. But when I was in the midst of a great book, I'd sneak it into the piano room and read a page between playing each piece-or as much as I could until my mom said, 'I'm not hearing any music!'"

Lee started writing after obtaining her degree in English and Literature from Smith College in Massachusetts. For more information regarding Tosca Lee, please visit www.toscalee.com. For more on upcoming titles in the B&H Fiction Pure Enjoyment line, log-on to www.pureenjoyment.com. Tosca's current titles are available at booksellers everywhere and on-line.

Read our interview with Tosca Lee.

Tosca Lee Book Giveaway

Our friend Tosca Lee is giving away copies of her brand new book Havah over at her blog! If you've ever wondered what Eve could've experienced in the garden of Eden, then this is the novel for you.

Check out the contest here.

Summary of Havah:

What was it like to be the first woman on earth, to wake to a brand-new creation---and Adam? Why did she become so beguiled by the serpent? In this lyrical retelling of the biblical narrative, Lee brings Eden to life, revealing the dawn of mankind from Eve's viewpoint.

Read our interview with Tosca.

Havah: The Story of Eve by Tosca Lee

Coming in October 2008 from the acclaimed author of Demon: A Memoir. Tosca Lee has this brief excerpt of Havah on her website:

I have seen paradise and ruin. I have known bliss and terror.

I have walked with God.

And I know that Elohim made the heart the most fragile and resilient of organs, that a lifetime of joy and pain might be encased in one mortal chamber.

I still recall my first moment of consciousness—an awareness I’ve never seen in the eyes of any of my own children at birth. Of course the memory is fainter now, like the smell of the soil of that garden, like the leaves of the fig tree in Eden after dawn—dew and leaf green. It fades now with that sense of something once tasted, savored now in memory.

His eyes were blue, my Adam’s.

His breath a lost sough, the scent of earth and leaf mold that was his sweaty skin has faded too quickly. So like an Eden dawn—dew on fig leaves.

How I celebrate that blue, shrouded now in shriveled eyelids—he who was never intended to have even a wrinkle! But even as I bend to smooth his cheek, my hair has become a white waterfall upon his Eden—flesh and loins that gave life to so many.

I think for a moment that I hear Elohim, and that he is weeping. It is the first time I have heard him in so long, and my heart cries out: He is dead! My father, my brother, my love!

I envy the earth that envelopes him. I envy the dust that comes of him, and my children who sow and eat of it.

This is my love song: I will craft these words into the likeness of the man before I too return to the earth of Adam’s bosom. It is my testament to the strength of the heart, that it has such capacity for joy, such space for sorrow, like a vessel that fills and fills without bursting.

My seasons are nearly as many as a thousand. So now listen, sons, and hear me, daughters.

In the beginning, there was God…

But for me, there was Adam.

Read our review of Demon here.
Read our interview with Tosca here.