About Jina Bacarr
I discovered early on that I inherited the gift of the gab from my large Irish family when I penned a story about a princess who ran away to Paris with her pet turtle Lulu. I was twelve.
I grew up listening to their wild, outlandish tales and it was those early years of storytelling that led to my love of history and traveling.
I enjoy writing to classical music with a hot cup of java by my side. I adore dark chocolate truffles, vintage anything, the smell of bread baking and rainy days in museums. I’ve always loved walking through history—from Pompeii to Verdun to Old Paris. The voices of the past speak to me through carriages with cracked leather seats, stiff ivory-colored crinolines, and worn satin slippers. I’ve always wondered what it was like to walk in those slippers when they were new.
You can follow Jina on social media:
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Jina also has a column here on the 11th of every month: Jina’s Book Chat.
A Few of Jina’s Other Books
Pearl S. Buck has always been one of my favorite authors. Most know her 1931 novel, The Good Earth, and film of the same name, for which she won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932. And in 1938, she was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature for her depictions of China, where she lived with her missionary parents.
A prolific author, she wrote more than forty novels, over twenty works of non-fiction, an astounding bibliography of short stories, and stories for children. Even a cookbook!
And while she’s famous to us today, her male contemporaries were anything but supportive, often disparaging her writing skills. This prompted her to write other works under the pen-name, John Sedges, which were well received and lauded. Thus, proving her point that the hostility was against her as a woman, and had nothing to do with her literary abilities.
So, this past summer, I treated myself to a visit to the Pearl S. Buck Historic House in Perkasie, PA.
I wanted to learn more about this author. Instead, I discovered a remarkable woman whom I admired all the more. She was an accomplished pianist. She wrote about and worked tirelessly for women’s rights, civil rights, and for the education and improvement of women’s and children’s lives all over the world. She was also one of the first to write about and champion the cause of the handicapped, chronicling her own personal experience in The Child Who Never Grew, a heart-breaking memoir of her daughter’s rare developmental disorder, originally published in 1950. (Reprint, 2017, ISBN 978-1504047968).
Her foundation continues to advocate for all of these causes today.
And just when I thought the trip couldn’t get any better, I learned that the Pearl S. Buck Historic House also offers writing courses and has its own press center to help authors self-publish.
In keeping with Buck’s work toward empowering women, I purchased the following two books in the gift shop.
A Rose in a Ditch, by Julie Henning, (Pearl S. Buck Writing Center Press, 2019, ISBN 978-1-704786-438), who writes about her life in South Korea and being rescued and then raised in the U.S. by Pearl Buck as her own daughter.
And, Where the Stork Flies, by Linda C. Wisniewski, (Sand Hill Review Press, 2021, ISBN 978-1-949534-16-0). Struggling with relationship issues with her husband and her daughter, a librarian encounters a time portal and a Polish peasant fleeing her own unhappy marriage. Together, with a little magic help, they get their lives back on track.
And guess what? Turns out Wisniewski and I have several writer friends in common. How great is that!
I wish you all new and inspiring learnings and discoveries in your reading and writing journeys.
Veronica Jorge
See you next time on November 22nd!
Second chance romance is a popular trope that covers a lot of situations. A chance to make up after a split. A second chance at love for “older” heroines. Another chance for love after heartbreak or trauma. Second chances come in many forms and readers love to experience them. Learn how to build your character’s backstory and make their second chance extra satisfying for your readers.
Deborah A Bailey has presented various writing workshops for SavvyAuthors.com and the Sayreville Public Library, including topics such as Writing Your Book in First Person POV, Creating Intimate Scenes Without Going All the Way and Introduction to Self-Publishing.
Her science fiction and paranormal romance novels include suspense, a bit of mystery and a lot of romantic heat. Her short stories have won awards from the Philadelphia Writers’ Conference and have been published in US1 Magazine and the Sun and are included in, Electric Dreams: Seven Futuristic Tales.
Website: https://dbaileycoach.com/brightbooks
0 0 Read morePresented by: Marianne Donley & Carol L. Wright
Date: November 6 – 17, 2023 (two weeks)
Pricing: A2P Member fee: $15 Non-A2P Member fee: $25
From Hanukkah Goblins to Ebeneezer Scrooge to Bad Santa, holiday stories run the gamut from heartwarming tales that enhance the celebration, warm the heart, and knit generations together, to those that highlight the frazzled nerves, generational conflicts, and dark humor that holidays sometimes bring to the fore.
With such a broad canvas, holidays give authors enormous range for storytelling, but there are still some elements that holiday stories nearly always share. This class will help you sort through the holiday frenzy to tell your story in a way that will leave your readers wanting more.
Marianne H. Donley, a retired teacher, now writes short stories, funny romances, and quirky murder mysteries. Her stories have appeared in a variety of anthologies, journals, and magazines. She also owns and manages the multi-author blog, A Slice of Orange. Marianne is a member of Bethlehem Writers Group, Music City Writers, Sisters in Crime, and Charmed Writers. You can follow Marianne’s various social media at: https://linktr.ee/mariannehdonley
Carol L. Wright writes mysteries and more. Her debut traditional mystery, Death in Glenville Falls: A Gracie McIntyre Mystery, was a finalist for two international book awards. Her short stories have appeared in award-winning anthologies and literary journals, and some of her favorites are collected in her book A Christmas on Nantucket and other stories. You can learn more at her website: https://CarolLWright.com
Together, Marianne and Carol teach both in person and online classes. They organize and judge a yearly short story contest. And just to keep busy, they have also edited six anthologies and are working on the seventh.
2 1 Read moreEvery fall my husband goes on his annual fall fishing trip with his dad. They head up north to brave the first chill of fall in hopes of catching walleye, perch and whatever else tugs on their line.
This fall fishing trip has become not only a tradition for my husband, but also for me. You see, I have a tendency of using the fall fishing trip to start projects. Not just any projects, these are the projects that I wouldn’t otherwise tackle. Painting, reorganizing, and ripping shelves off of walls. Don’t ask me why! it’s not that I can’t do these projects with my husband present. It’s just that I feel some weird desire to be like, “Look at this awesome thing I did while you were gone all weekend!”
It’s also worth noting that I do not properly plan out these things. It typically starts with me ripping a shelf off a bathroom wall or impulsively deciding to paint a bedroom.
I guess it’s fair to say that what I tackled this year wasn’t something that I could have planned to do, but I’m SO GLAD I did it.
I FINISHED my first draft of the next Mac and Cheese, Please, Please, Please book. It’s sooo fun!! I’ll be working again with Winda Mulyasari, the illustrator that I partnered with on my first children’s book.
After two years of working on this book, this feels like a MUCH larger accomplishment than a freshly painted bathroom.
0 0 Read moreA Slice of Orange is an affiliate with some of the booksellers listed on this website, including Barnes & Nobel, Books A Million, iBooks, Kobo, and Smashwords. This means A Slice of Orange may earn a small advertising fee from sales made through the links used on this website. There are reminders of these affiliate links on the pages for individual books.
They both have pasts they want to leave behind…
More info →All she wants for Christmas is to save the man she loves…
More info →Pindlebryth and Darothien struggle against betrayal, international intrigue, and an unseen puppet-master, as they race to follow a bewildering trail of ancient clues to locate the most powerful of the Artifacts.
More info →
The longest night. A vampire’s delight.
More info →A Slice of Orange is an affiliate with some of the booksellers listed on this website, including Barnes & Nobel, Books A Million, iBooks, Kobo, and Smashwords. This means A Slice of Orange may earn a small advertising fee from sales made through the links used on this website. There are reminders of these affiliate links on the pages for individual books.
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