Jina Bacarr, author of the sizzling, sensuous novel, The Blonde Geisha, chronicling the adventures of an American who becomes a geisha in 19th century Japan. The Blonde Geisha is a Harlequin Spice novel.
Bio: Jina Bacarr loves adventure in exotic locales, which led her to write the award-winning non-fiction book, The Japanese Art of Sex, and the RIO Award-winning novel, The Blonde Geisha, the only erotic novel to win the Mainstream Fiction category. She worked as the Japanese consultant for KCBS-TV, MSNBC, The Pleasure Zone, Tech TV's Wired for Sex and British Sky Broadcasting's Saucy TV. She's also acted in Japanese TV commercials, worked as a companion girl for a Japanese company, wrote forty scripts for daytime television (including thirty animation scripts) and has had three plays produced in Malibu, California. Along the way, she learned to speak six languages and is an art history devotee, which led her to pose as an artist's model, first in Laguna Beach, then in Italy. Her travels have taken her to nearly every state in the U.S. and around the world. For her erotic novel Naughty Paris (SPICE, July 2007), she drew upon her experiences living in the City of Light and her love of French Impressionism to re-create the raucous and erotic world of 1889 Paris.
Tell us a little bit about yourself, O woman of mystery! What prepared you in early life for becoming a writer?
Was it a long-harboured secret desire or a flowering at a certain point in your life? I was a child in a time when you inhaled life through the beauty of the flowers and the running streams and feared nothing but the occasional jack rabbit or lizard crossing your path. Even then, they became characters in my stories as I wandered through the woods, looking for adventure. Fairy tales were my guidebooks to lands where I'd never been and the inspiration to seeking out a place for myself there. I always acted out stories with my imaginary heroines racing through one crazy adventure after another. I lived in many different places, so I played out my adventures everywhere, from the Pennsylvania woods to the battlefields of the Civil War to the beautiful horse farms in Kentucky to the surf in Southern California. I also had to opportunity to travel to Europe with my family when I was growing up and I became fascinated by the beauty of Versailles, the green glimmer of Ireland, and the musical charm of Italy. I wrote my first book when I was fourteen, a Nancy Drew-type story about a teenage girl who goes to Paris to solve an old mystery from World War II. I soon realized I had to experience life before I could write about it. Along the way, I wrote for a travel book publisher, a computer magazine, kids' and daytime TV shows, plays, and nonfiction books. Writing is a craft, like acting. First, you have to study your character, find out what makes them tick, then learn your lines. Once you've gotten under their skin, the magic begins...
How did you end up in Japan?
As I mentioned I also write plays--and I love the theatre. I auditioned for a cola commercial when I was getting started--it was for a Japanese commercial. Then I did more Japanese commercials for tofu. Around the same time, I also had the opportunity to work as a "companion girl" for a major Japanese company near Disneyland. They hired girls to attend dinners for visiting Japanese businessmen--very classy and quite a unique experience. Kinda like being an American geisha. How did it change you? I always had a Zen for adventure, so Japan became a new world for me explore. I loved the French Impressionists and knew the Post-Impressionists drew upon the "shunga" or erotic spring drawings of 19th century Japanese artists (often called "reading with one hand") to create their evocative style, so I began to study Japan with an artist's eye--and that meant the geisha, the pinnacle of artistic accomplishments.
Erotic romance – as opposed to erotica -- is booming in the States. Its success has taken some publishing houses almost by surprise. What is the source of its wild popularity, do you suppose?
When I wrote a monthly column called Sweet Savage Byte for a computer magazine, who knew years later mainstream would meet bitstream, making erotic fiction available at the click of a mouse. The Internet's easy access and anonymity made it all possible and opened up sexuality for women in a playing field long reserved for men. [Also, if I may draw from the press release I wrote:] Sex isn't the taboo it once was. HBO's Sex in the City made it okay to pop a vibrator into your shopping bag along with a pair of stilettos. Women want that same freedom in choosing the books they read.
What does it offer women?
Freedom. We can be strong, independent, and career-minded, but when it comes to the bedroom, we're often bound by old-fashioned ideas. With the popularity of erotic fiction, women are talking about sex with their partners.
When did you decide to start writing novels?
After writing action/adventure scripts for kids and daytime TV, etc., I wanted to go back to my first dream as a young teen and write novels. I felt I had learned the basics, but writing novels was a whole new act...
Tell us a little bit about your path to publication.
I wrote a couple novels that explored Paris, art, music, etc.--everything you're not supposed to write about. I also wrote too sexy...not exactly the fast track to publication. But I kept writing and submitting and writing and submitting...yes, it's perseverance and timing. When I learned Harlequin was opening up their SPICE line, I couldn't wait to submit. Here was the opportunity to combine my sexy prose with adventure.
What was the genesis of The Blonde Geisha?
The Blonde Geisha started out as a "what if" years ago when I took a kimono class. I was the only gaijin or foreigner in the class and I remember thinking when I slipped on the silky kimono, could I be a geisha? Did I have the mental strength, artistic ability, and discipline it takes to follow the life of the flowers and willows world? Then it occurred to me I would need all of those things to make it as a writer. And so began my journey...
Why and how did you decide to write it? The Blonde Geisha is a coming of age story about a girl who believes in fairy tales with geishas as the heroines. It's my own fairy tale come true. Was it difficult putting yourself in a young American’s head in late 19th century Japan? I can answer this question with a story: I studied the art of kimono with a sensei, teacher, at a school that makes kimono in Kyoto. I was the only Westerner in the class, which included young girls, their moms, an entertainer or two, and me. We'd sit around on the small square stage talking and drinking tea before class started. I loved that time, laughing and talking with the other students (my Japanese was pretty good then and one entertainer spoke some English). We'd ooh and ah at the gorgeous kimonos in the shop, running our fingers over the hand-painted silk, then we'd start class. The lessons were very organized in a classical way, like studying ballet. The art of kimono is performed like a ceremony, as in the drinking of tea, and requires certain steps that must be followed precisely to achieve the desired effect. There are no safety pins, zippers, or buttons. It's all done with long silken ties and a lot of maneuvering. One night after closing time, a man and woman entered the shop, ringing the bell. They were American tourists and didn't realize the shop was closed. This just isn't done in Japan. My teacher and the other students looked at me as if to say, "You're American, tell them we're closed!" I couldn't say a word. I was so completely immersed in the sisterhood I'd formed with these women, I had become part of their world -- as Kathlene, my heroine, does with the geisha in the Teahouse of the Look-Back Tree. I never forgot that moment. I wanted to impart that same emotion and strong feeling of sisterhood in my story.
What kind of reactions are you getting from your readers from The Blonde Geisha and Naughty Paris?
I'm thrilled readers have discovered the mystical world of geisha! My story is a "what if,", i.e., what if a prominent Japanese landowner retained the old ways (keeping bodyguards who were a throwback to the samurai) and what if he had a vendetta against a gaijin or foreigner who had a beautiful daughter... Naughty Paris hasn't been released yet, but reviewers are saying it's like the best chocolate you've ever had--and the most decadent. I'm thrilled how much they love the hero/artist--Hot, hot, hot! was how one reviewer described him..
What are you working on now? Another erotic romance set in an exotic time and an exotic place?
Naughty Paris will be released in Italy in December; after that, my next book is GEMINI BLONDE about a female sex agent : She used her body as the ultimate weapon against terrorism. It's set in Zurich, Syria, and Paris (oh, how I love Paris!).
Do you go to writers’ conferences and if you do, what do you get out of them?
I love writers' conference!! It's the opportunity to meet readers and find out what they like or dislike about the books they've read as well as the chance to connect with publishing professionals and other writers. Writing is a solitary pursuit--we don't get to hear the applause the way you do in the theatre. I consider writers' conferences my "theatre." |
