What does this writer do when I finish a book? Binge on new series ‘Youth’ on HBO Max and Chocolate by Jina Bacarr
October 11, 2026 by Jina Bacarr in category Jina’s Book Chat, Writing tagged as authorlife, kimono, writing, Youth HBO Max
Yep. Finished ‘Flight of the Stolen Children‘ from edits to copy edits to proofread. Now it’s in the hands of the gods… Team Boldwood.
So what does a writer do next after pulling all nighters for the past year?
Binge, baby, binge.
I love checking out the new shows and this one on HBO Max hit a bulls-eye with me.
Youth is a fab-u-lous new show I hope is around for a long, long time. I love it. Alex (Sharon Horgan) is a 50-year-old literary agent, divorced, a mom. And single. In episode 3, she’s attending the Frankfurt Book Fair (my publisher Boldwood Books is there this weekend showing our books).
Which brings back memories…
I’ve been to Frankfurt many times (Café Kranzler’s Pêche Melba was to die for!), but I’ve never been to the book show there. I have attended the US Book Expo (once known as the ABA) over the years and when I saw ‘characters’ dressed up to promote a novel in HBO’s ‘Youth’, it reminded me of the book show where I dressed in formal kimono to promote my book featuring Japan (I’ve had five nonfiction and fiction books about Japan published).
So here is a pic of me in kimono at the book show… in case you’re wondering how I put it all together [sash (obi), fan, head pieces, and special underwear], I studied the art of kimono with a sensei, teacher, from Japan for months to make sure I got it right!
Thank you, Ms Horgan, for my fave new show!
I’m so looking forward to Sunday’s new episode. The housecleaning will have to wait…
Jina
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‘The Flight of the Stolen Children’ is Book 2 of Lia’s Story
Book 1:
Check out: ‘The Stolen Children of War’ — Book 1 in Lia’s Story. Book 2 ‘Flight of the Stolen Children’.
A story told in Book 1 of this 2 book series about children hidden in plain sight in Occupied Paris 1943. In the circus.
Remembering…9/11 by Jina Bacarr
September 11, 2026 by Jina Bacarr in category Jina’s Book Chat, Writing tagged as 9/11, courage
where were you?
we all remember where we were that day, how we heard the news, the disbelief shattering our world, then the unbelievable media coverage no one could look away from…
i was still groggy from staying up into the wee hours to send off a book proposal to a publisher in San Francisco by email… unheard of in those days. Nobody took email queries but this publisher did.
what’s strange is that if i had waited to ‘give it a second look’ the next day, that day being September 11, 2001, i never would have sent it. it just wouldn’t have felt ‘right’.
what’s also strange is i was involved around that time in putting on a play i wrote for a church group in Malibu. Our theatre group was my rock of faith and compassion and hope during those days. it got me through that difficult time… going to rehearsals, rewriting, working with the producer, director and the actors… a solid group of talented people i will always cherish knowing.
the play festival opened in November 2001, a highlight of my life.
even though our hearts were broken, we did what we had to… to keep the light shining… and bring hope and courage to everyone we could with our stories and plays.
in case you’re wondering, my nonfiction book proposal was accepted and the book was published.
and finally, i decided to forgeo capital letters for this post… it seemed right somehow to keep it low key… out of respect. we all still feel the pain of that day, but knowing we’re stronger because we did carry on.
Jina
Jina Bacarr finished her edits finally for her upcoming Paris WW2 novel ‘Flight of the Stolen Children‘ and her editor said they were ‘marvellous’. giving thanks…
Who needs Vegas? I rolled a Lucky 7 in the London Book Biz
August 11, 2026 by Jina Bacarr in category Jina’s Book Chat, Writing
When I was seven
Books were my heaven
Tales of princesses and fairies galore
I loved to read more and more
Then I wrote stories about women so brave and good
And lucky for me they found a home at Boldwood!
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Happy 7th Birthday to my fab publisher Boldwood Books!!
0 1 Read more2+ 2 = ? Do you really need to know math if you want to be a writer? and I salute ‘Call the Midwife’ by Jina Bacarr
June 11, 2026 by Jina Bacarr in category Jina’s Book Chat, Writing tagged as call the midwife, Catholic nuns, circus, math, writingI remember tossing my slide rule into my flower-papered trunk when I graduated… it was a good friend back in the day. Got me through mathematics in college and somehow it survived along with my paisley bell bottoms and Laguna Beach Indian bracelets. It wasn’t a magic wand, but it felt like one. You still had to understand math to make it work.
Fast forward to a newsstory I saw recently about how students entering university can’t do middle grade school math.
Mention a slide rule and they double blink.
Like you’re stuck in another century. Oops… I was.
But the message is clear. We need to get our students to fall in love with math again. It starts with reading. Taking the time to become so absorbed in a book or math project you can’t put it down. I talk books whenever I can, my faves from childhood, Gothic romances I adored, thrillers and mysteries that made me think.
I wasn’t a math major, but I enjoyed the dance of watching numbers build the foundation for something amazing, it’s a story of a different color from writing a novel. But learning math taught me discipline, perserverence, trying different calculations, etc. The same traits you need to write.
I learned basic coding when I worked for a video game company. Again, basic math needed back then.
Logic and reasoning. Making your brain THINK.
So thank you to Sister Jovita at St Peter’s who created magic on her blackboard when I was in the sixth grade and instilled in me a love for math. Here she is from an old family film…
(The brief shot of a pretty girl at the end is my BFF Claire at St Peter’s.)
I’m grateful to my educators as I was growing up, mostly the good sisters from different orders (I attended too many schools to list here). Which is why I became such a big fan of the nuns at Nonnatus House. As I watched the finale on ‘Call the Midwife‘, I cried. The faith, confidence, never-giving-up attitude of the nuns has been an inspiration to me (I’ve never missed an episode since it started). It’s been a loving, brilliant trip ‘back to my Catholic school days’. I so loved the sisters at all the schools and convent I attended. They laid the groundwork for my writing career. I feel so fortunate to have studied under their tutelage.
I salute you… everyone involved with ‘Call the Midwife‘, and I can’t wait for the film and prequel in the works.
I may even dig out my slide rule… but I’ll skip the bell bottoms.
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Waiting for notes on Book 2 of Lia’s story — my Paris WW2 circus saga!!
Here is Book 1:
My latest Paris WW2 novel:
Check out: ‘The Stolen Children of War’ — Book 1 in Lia’s Story. I’m now writing Book 2 ‘Flight of the Stolen Children’.
A story told in Book 1 of this 2 book series about children hidden in plain sight in Occupied Paris 1943. In the circus.
5 absolutely fabulous treats I will never forget for #EatWhatYouWantDay by Jina Bacarr
May 11, 2026 by Jina Bacarr in category Jina’s Book Chat, Writing tagged as chicken soup, cookies, eatwhatyouwantday, food, Germany, pizza
I’m slaving and I mean slaving over getting my latest book ‘Flight of the Stolen Children‘ finished and I keep promising myself a ‘treat’ when I hand it in to my editor.
The list is getting longer and longer…
And perfect for today’s blog #EatWhatYouWantDay.
So, what are your all-time favorite treats… something you enjoyed that comes with a memory stamp, like where you ate it and why it’s so special to you.
Here are mine:
Pizza Margheritaat the Ristorante Pizzeria Acqua Pazza in Campo Sant’Angelo in Venice, Italy when I performed at La Biennale Arts Festival (video to come). My editor and I came upon this amazing restaurant late at night with such beautiful golden lights I swear it was lit up by fireflies.
Philly Soft Pretzels at recess at Saint Vincent’s School run by the Sisters of Charity of Saint Joseph in Philadelphia. I would stand at the tall wrought iron gate every day pokinfg my nose through the bars, waiting for the Pretzel Man to come and buy my 2 ooh so good soft pretzels.
Pêche Melba (peaches and vanilla ice cream) at Café Kranzler in Frankfurt/Main Germany — I’ve been to Frankfurt many times since it’s a popular destination airport to Europe from the US. I so enjoyed making a stop at this charming cafe with its lovely pastries and violin ensemble before venturing on to other cities in Europe by rail.
Chicken Velvet Soup at L.S. Ayres Department Store Tea Room on the eight floor in Indianapolis, Indiana — and the dining room at the Grand Hotel Nuremberg where Allied legal teams and the press took their meals during the infamous trials in post WW2 Nuremberg, Germany. The soup was served in a silver carafe and I imagined supping the soup in post war Germany — the trials figure into a chapter in one of my books, Sisters of the Resistance.
And because I need a little Christmas…
The super-big, buttery-richChristmas Tree Cookieswith chunks of red and green sprinkles I couldn’t get enough of in the UCLA Alumni Center dining room. I enjoyed a scrumptious holiday buffet there with the director of my play produced that year at the Malibu CompanyTheatre called ‘The Christmas Piano Tree.’
The best Christmas cookies I’ve ever had (except the cookies my maman made. Nothing beats that.)
So, what’s your favorite treat(s), where you ate it, and why it’s so memorable?
Tell me in the comments section… I look forward to reading them.
Now back to our regularly scheduled craziness… writing book 2 in Lia’s Story.
[PS — I have some cool memory graphics I want to add, but honestly, I don’t have time to find them in my secret room where I keep all my stuff in old trunks, boxes, even a suitcase without wheels (remember those?). I’ll update the post with them after my m/s is done. Thank you!]
My latest Paris WW2 novel:
Check out: ‘The Stolen Children of War’ — Book 1 in Lia’s Story. I’m now writing Book 2 ‘Flight of the Stolen Children’.
A story told in Book 1 of this 2 book series about children hidden in plain sight in Occupied Paris 1943. In the circus.
If it’s not horrible enough my heroine Lia de Montieri, Queen of the Trapeze, has to fight the Nazis and a despicable Gestapo man in 1943 Occupied Paris, she also comes up against a depraved creature known as ‘The Magician’ because of his amazing ability to restore a woman’s face…
He lurks in the shadows only coming out to threaten what Lia holds most dear…
‘The Stolen Children of War’ is the story of a mother’s sacrifice, make that ‘mothers’, when Lia helps a Jewish woman about to be deported by helping her little girl and young boy escape.
And oh, there’s that adorable baby elephant, too.
‘The Stolen Children of War’
Amazon Kindle:
US: https://a.co/d/7iR9Xar
UK: https://amzn.eu/d/9RF8E77
AU https://amzn.asia/d/9hlZVS3
It is 1943 in Nazi-occupied Paris, and nobody is safe. Nobody, except perhaps one small group of people, who’ve always existed outside the law… in the circus.
Boldwood Books
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