Who is Jina Bacarr?

She writes in her bio:

“When I was a little girl, I wanted to look like Barbie and hang out with Uncle
Scrooge on his wild adventures around the world. I also loved fairy tales and
dreamed of being a dancing princess and a geisha.

I revved up my mojo and embarked on my madcap scheme when I was a kid,
attending numerous parochial schools across the country and driving the nuns
crazy, including the good Sisters of Mercy.

After graduating from the University of California at Irvine in Fine Arts and Languages (French and German), I joined U.S. Army Special Services.
I was stationed in Germany and
then Italy on the Italian Riviera.

Click on my Army pic to hear my radio show, WAR LETTERS, Part ONE dedicated to our soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Click Here for PART TWO

When I returned to the States, I enrolled in graduate school in the masters
program at Cal State University at Long Beach in theatre. In grad school, I got a
job as a “companion girl” to Japanese businessmen, but my most exciting
Japanese adventures were yet to come.

Next I was on the road with a French cosmetics company. I visited nearly every
state from Maine to Florida to Texas and everywhere in-between. I was on an
odyssey that would make Ulysses look like a hitchhiker in the wrong galaxy.

I also tried Hawaiian/Tahitian dancing, ice dancing, and club dancing (skimpy
fringe outfit). My dream job came along when I got a job at a local SoCal radio
station writing commercials. Soon I was doing voiceovers and late night fill-in
deejay work. I’d found my passion. It would be awhile before I got my own
show…bills had to be paid.

Back to the “real world.” I put in many long hours working family law and
criminal defense cases as a researcher (taking night classes at law school and
my writing ability helped me get work in various law offices).

But the lure of show business kept whispering in my ear.
I became the first tour guide at Universal Studios to give the tour in German, a fun job showing around German tourists, who inevitably wouldn’t volunteer for the stunts on the soundstage.

I had to “fly” like Superman while speaking German.

While working in radio, I was a Rams cheerleader for two weeks during the off
season and participated in promotions (I was a mermaid in a pink sequin costume
during a parade — it was fun being carried by the players to the float!).

I changed my hair color and played a hooker and a dream girl on a daytime soap.
I was also the Japan consultant on KCBS-TV LA and MSNBC’s America’s Talking” as well as Tech TV’s “Wired for Sex” and Sky4 British TV’s “Saucy TV.”

Here I am on the set between takes.

I also had the opportunity to produce, write, even do the techie stuff for my own
radio show, “On the Wild Side.” I’ve also been the lifestyles editor on “The Tony
Trupiano Show” and appeared on radio shows from California to Canada.
CLICK HERE or on my TV pic to hear my RADIO DEMO (12:12)
High speed access works best.

This picture got me a lot of modeling work. I also did Japanese commercials. I became the Tofu Lady!
My commercials are probably still running somewhere in Japan.

Then I wrote a video game which gave me an entrée into writing animation and
working with the Japanese again. I’d learned to speak “male” Japanese from
the cameramen, so I received a lot of attention from the Japanese directors
working on my scripts. Those were fun days–and revved up my interest in
Japan and kimono.

Photo: Mike Elderman
I studied the art of kimono with a sensei, teacher, whose family has been in the kimono biz in Kyoto for four hundred years.
Here I am at a show dressed in a formal geisha kimono.

Click on My Kimono to see my Basic Steps to Wearing Kimono.
I put together my passion for art and fairy princesses. I decided geisha
were fairy princesses. If I couldn’t be one, I’d write about them.

First, I wrote business books about working for the Japanese — something I
knew well. From my companion girl days to doing Japanese commercials to
working for a Japanese movie studio as a writer, I understood their nuances,
way of thinking, even the intricacies of bowing.

When I wrote “The Japanese Art of Sex: How to Tease, Seduce, and Pleasure the Samurai in Your Bedroom” [2005 Ben Franklin Award Winner and September 2004 Book Sense Pick], it was only the beginning of my geisha quest.

I did numerous book signings for my book, “The Japanese Art of Sex.”

I’d play recorded Japanese music, tidbits from my radio show, tell stories,
answer questions, entertaining the audience as well as informing them.
CLICK HERE TO HEAR my “meeting” with Katsumoto from “The Last Samurai,”

As you can see by my photo at Border’s, I kicked off my geta and started dancing!

“The BLONDE GEISHA” became my passion. I wanted to tell the story of
becoming a geisha in 1895 Japan from a Westerner’s point of view.

I’m very excited to be the SPICE book for August 2006. It wouldn’t have
happened without my agent extraordinaire, Roberta Brown, Brown LIterary Agency.

Here I am receiving my roses for selling The BLONDE GEISHA and a second erotica to Harlequin at my local Orange County Chapter of RWA.
Like the geisha sisterhood in my novel, the Romance Writers of America is a wonderful support group. I’m proud to be a member.

I’m still that little girl who wanted to be a geisha. I’ve never lost that fairy tale
dream, that spiritual connection with the beauty and art of Japan. I’ve put it
all into The BLONDE GEISHA.

This is my favorite picture from my Borders’ book signings.
Check back soon for more pages and an excerpt from The BLONDE GEISHA!

Domo arigato gozaimashita.

Thank you for stopping by!

Best,
Jina