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July Featured Author: Jina Bacarr

Jina Bacarr : July Featured Author

Jina Bacarr discovered early on that she inherited the gift of the gab from her large Irish family when she penned a story about a princess who ran away to Paris with her pet turtle Lulu. She was twelve. She grew up listening to their wild, outlandish tales, and it was those early years of storytelling that led to her love of history and traveling.

She enjoys writing to classical music with a hot cup of java by her side. She adores dark chocolate truffles, vintage anything, the smell of bread baking and rainy days in museums. She has always loved walking through history—from Pompeii to Verdun to Old Paris.

The voices of the past speak to her through carriages with cracked leather seats, stiff ivory-colored crinolines, and worn satin slippers. She has always wondered what it was like to walk in those slippers when they were new.

THE ORPHANS OF BERLIN

THE LOST GIRL IN PARIS

RESISTANCE GIRL

THE RUNAWAY GIRL

HER LOST LOVE

A NAUGHTY CHRISTMAS CAROL

A SOLDIER’S ITALIAN CHRISTMAS

COME FLY WITH ME

LOVE ME FOREVER

SISTERS AT WAR

SISTERS OF THE RESISTANCE

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Once upon a manuscript…by Jina Bacarr

June 11, 2018 by Jina Bacarr in category Jina’s Book Chat, Writing tagged as books, chocolate, Cinderella, coffee, fairy tale, prince, writing

You know the drill. You write a wonderful story, pour your heart into it, and send it off.

Then you wait.

You drink coffee, refuse to let anyone come between you and your phone so you can check your email 24/7, you obsess, eat chocolate, exercise to work off said chocolate so you can eat more, then give up eating altogether because your throat is so tight from the stress, you binge watch everything you can on TV so you can forget the horror of waiting and wish you’d fall into a hundred years’ sleep so the pain will go away.

A major run-on sentence. But that’s life in the “waiting to hear back from the publisher who requested the full” in the manuscript world.

Okay, so what do you do?

Write another book.

You’ve heard it before and I agree, but it’s also important to take some “me” time. After all, you’ve been taking care of your characters, who can be quite demanding, keep you up at nights, make you cry and drink coffee nonstop, so now it’s time to put your feet up and relax.

Then work on another book.

Writers are not machines.

We need nurturing, healthy food, exercise, fresh air, and social interaction. So as I sit here writing this and waiting to hear back on my manuscript, I’m going to do just that.

I’m going for a walk to the nearby coffee shack, have a mocha coffee and, God help me, a warm croissant oozing with raspberries and melting chocolate chips.

And just breathe.

And yes, I’m bringing my phone with me.

Just in case the editor calls…

Jina

PS – I’ll update my post when I hear anything on my m/s – an Italian billionaire prince story and his Cinderella.

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My Endless Summer of Reading by Jina Bacarr

May 11, 2018 by Jina Bacarr in category Jina’s Book Chat, Writing tagged as author, books, friend, Library, May, prom, promposal, reading, Summer

It’s the reading month of May!

In case you didn’t know it, May is #GetCaughtReadingMonth, so I decided to challenge myself to do “a graphic a day with someone reading a book.”

I’m a third of my way through the month, and I’m hanging in there. So for this month’s blog, I’m going to post some of them for your viewing and reading pleasure.

First, here’s a graphic I really love because it says so much about how lucky we are to choose what we read.

Which brings me to my own version of the Endless Summer

When I was thirteen, I spent my free time in the old library by the beach with its dusty shelves and cracked, wooden floor. It was the summer I discovered boys and surfing.

And the library’s adult section.

Reading everything I could find there. Romance sagas in hardback, mysteries with provocative covers. Adventure stories girls weren’t supposed to read.

Until a lady wagged her finger at me and told me to go back to the kids’ section.

I didn’t.

Even then I knew I wanted to write, and to write what was in my heart, I needed the freedom to discover all kinds of writing.

Enjoy the freedom to choose what you want to read!

By the way, I didn’t listen to her and kept sticking my Irish nose wherever I smelled a good story…

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So for #GetCaughtReadingMonth, here are some of the graphics I’ve posted so far:

You can find all the #GetCaughtReadingMonth graphics I’ve done so far and check them out all this month of May on Twitter and my Facebook pages:

And finally, since it’s prom month:

Ever wanted to be Prom Queen?

Kaylee is tired of being bullied by the Duchess in Crystal Girl and sells her soul to get thin

Here’s the story of Kaylee and her promposal . . . from a hottie devil!

CRYSTAL GIRL: Kindle & KU: http://a.co/ipzidx8

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How far would you go to get thin? by Jina Bacarr

January 11, 2018 by Jina Bacarr in category Jina’s Book Chat tagged as books, dance., fantasy, gown, prom, teen paranormal, young adult

The holidays just ended and already I’m getting emails from a major department store telling me it’s not too early to prep for prom.

Seriously?

I took a look at the dresses offered and I have to admit, $445.00 is pretty pricey for a dress you may only wear once. Or twice.

If you’re lucky, you get to wear your prom dress to a college dance, but by then it will be so “yesterday.” Not to mention it won’t fit if you fall victim to the Freshman Fifteen.

But what if you’re not going to the prom because . . . well, you hate yourself because you’re not thin. Who’s gonna ask you?

It gets worse.

When your arch enemy, the Duchess, bullies you about your weight, you lose it. Announce to the universe you’re going to

run against her for prom queen and you’ll anything to get thin. Anything. Even sell your soul.

Uh-oh.

Guess who shows up…and is Luke the hottest, sexiest devil you’ve ever seen. He promises you that you’ll get thin if you do what he says…

Find what that is in CRYSTAL GIRL when Kaylee makes a deal with the devil to get thin and win Prom Queen.

Available in Kindle and Kindle UnLimited

With all the talk about how women are viewed in the workplace, let’s not forget appearance is also a key factor. Actresses have been “ordered” to lose weight to get a part. Models, it seems, live on lettuce. And the rest of us, well, we see these gorgeous ladies looking like celery stalks and get on ourselves because we don’t look like that.

Thank goodness people are talking about how much women are paid in the workforce compared to men, and how they have to struggle against unwanted advances from men in power.

But we’re also victims of ourselves. The obsession to be thin. It’s not a new problem. I’m doing research now for a story set in the Victorian era and I came across an “X-ray” drawing of a woman’s ribs from using a corset. Pushed, squeezed into an unnatural, skeleton structure. No wonder women turned green. Literally. It was called chlorosis.

That’s not to say we shouldn’t keep a healthy weight. Healthy is the keyword here.

So if you’ve ever uttered those words, “I’ll do anything to be thin,” check out Crystal Girl and find out the price Kaylee paid before she found her way back.

CRYSTAL GIRL is based on a play I wrote that was produced at the Malibu Stage Company Theatre. It was very exciting to see my characters come alive on stage!!

Thanks for listening,

Jina

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Royal Noel: This ain’t your mama’s Little Red Riding Hood by Jina Bacarr

December 11, 2017 by Jina Bacarr in category Jina’s Book Chat, Writing

Royal Noel: a fairy tale romance with a twist from Jina Bacarr on Vimeo.

What if Little Riding Hood had other plans than going to Grandma’s house . . . like a castle with a handsome duke?

It’s Christmas and what could be more fun than a new Twisted Tiara story in my Princesses with a Past series for the Kindle Worlds Royals of Monterra.

ROYAL NOEL is a sweet romance fairy tale with a heroine with a past . . . she’s an international jewel thief called The Princess.

Had so much fun writing this with Gennie and her duke . . . and there’s a royal baby, too!

This is Book 4 in my Twisted Tiaras series featuring the Risconti Family in Sariah Wilson‘s Royals of Monterra KW series.