The Narrative with Jina Bacarr

Q. Your novels have been described as ‘sweeping emotional historical romances’. Where do you get your inspiration from?

The places I’ve been… people I’ve met.

I’ve been fortunate to have traveled extensively since I was a little girl when my father took me to museums in every city we visited… I became fascinated with the buttons and bows on the worn leather shoes I saw in glass cases and wondered what it was like to walk in those shoes when they were new.

Writing historicals takes me there.

I like to take a seed from my own life and twist it this way and that, the ‘what if’ factor, and see where it leads me. For example, I lost my mother before Christmas many years ago when I was a young woman like Kate in *Her Lost Love, *my WW2 time travel. Writing about how Kate feels connecting with Ma again when she goes back in time was a cathartic experience for me.

In The Resistance Girl, I used my own experiences going to convent school and working in the theater and at a film studio to create my French cinema star. In *The Runaway Girl, A Titanic Love Story, *I drew upon my memories growing up in a big Irish family; *The Lost Girl in Paris *about a Roma girl who becomes a parfumier in Occupied Paris was inspired by my time working as a perfume model… and the summer my parents and I were camping in Europe, got lost, and stumbled into a Roma camp in Belgium. The leader (he spoke French and I was studying French in school) invited us to set up our tent and break bread with them. And my next Paris WW2 novel again involves my Philadelphia roots and a tragic incident in my life revealed in the story…

“Knowing there are no boundaries to the stories I can tell… and that imagination is a magic carpet I can ride anywhere to any time.”

Q. With historical fiction, how much of what you write is carefully researched and based on factual information, and how much is creative license? Is it important to you that the story feels historically accurate?

I was born to do research.

I have maps, photos, brochures, books, train tickets, pamphlets, menus, receipts, hats, boots, hotel stationery, etc. I’ve collected since I was twelve. I often get bogged down with research – I love digging into the past. I always remind myself facts are important, but it’s the story that makes the readers laugh or cry.

Yes, it’s imperative to me that my stories are historically accurate. I learn everything I can about a place and an event, then drop my character with all their flaws into the scene and watch them squirm. The set, music, lighting, and the research create the scene, but when the actor [my heroine] walks out on that stage, the magic begins.

For example, in my upcoming Paris WW2 novel, I open on a specific day in September 1942 during the Nazi Occupation that is historically accurate and place my American heroine in the middle of the action. The scene also involves the secondary heroine standing outside the Hôtel Ritz. I’ve been to the Ritz, but I had to know what it was like back then. I searched and searched for photos – came up empty-handed until I found an old British newsreel showing Goering riding through the streets of Paris in an open touring car right up to the front door of the Ritz… with two armed sentries at the entrance.

I had my visual and further research confirmed the ‘rules’ the Nazis set up for entering the hotel, giving me the ability to make my heroines’ lives difficult and how they overcome that.

Q. What do you like most about being an author, and what do you find challenging?

Creating the story… that lovely bliss that makes you feel lighter than a cream puff when the ideas are flowing fast and furious and you’re discovering so many wonderful things about the time period that fascinate you and spark ideas for story beats and scenes. Your fingers can’t move fast enough on the keyboard when your characters butt in and insist on talking to you. They even bring the coffee.

Then the balloon goes pop and—

Next comes the challenge… writing and rewriting. That’s where tradecraft comes in, how to get into a scene and out for the most impact, which POV works best for the story. Cutting, trimming, rewriting to keep the pace moving. It’s like a giant jigsaw puzzle you dump out of a box. You know the pieces are all there, but putting it together takes time, patience, ingenuity, and a good eye. And my fabulous editor and her team, including the copyeditor and proofreader.

Q. Your audiobooks on xigxag are all narrated by Laurel Lefkow. How did you choose a narrator and what was it about Laurel that you were drawn to?

Laurel and I are simpatico – she ‘gets’ my heroines who can be a challenge to perform since they range from American girls from Philadelphia to French girls to Irish lassies. Laurel’s ability to bring out the characters’ nuances with her narration is impressive. Also, she handles the supporting characters in my stories with equal aplomb.

Q. What do you enjoy about working with Boldwood?

Team Boldwood!

The editorial staff and the authors are amazing… supportive, fun, informative, creative, hardworking… we’re a family and it doesn’t get any better than that. Also, how the editorial team shows amazing expertise in publishing our books in all three formats – e-book, print, and audio – on publication day.

Q. Is there a particular book that has changed your life?

Time After Time by Jack Finney

Mr Finney made me believe in time travel. I love his wit, his passion for the lady he loves, his historical accuracy and gripping detail that put you there in the moment. You can feel the chill of the cold, wet snow in New York’s Central Park in 1882… choke on the acrid smells in the fire scene… indulge in the rose water perfume of the past as two people from different times fall in love.

I strive to create that same, lovely ambiance in my stories.

Q. What are you listening to at the moment?

The Witch’s Tree by Elena Collins.

Atmospheric, lovely prose, and a great story. I love the author’s attention to detail… and how she evokes emotion with that detail.

Q. What is your favourite thing about being an author?

Knowing there are no boundaries to the stories I can tell… and that imagination is a magic carpet I can ride anywhere to any time.

And of course, having written.

There’s a great satisfaction to getting the words down on the page, like weaving a medieval tapestry with each word a lovely thread that ebbs and flows throughout the fabric to tell the story. And if you’re lucky, some of those threads are golden.

And no doubt, I love hearing from the readers/listeners.

There’s nothing more heartwarming to this writer’s soul than a reader/listener taking the time to pen a review and telling me the story stayed with her long after she finished it. And it made her cry.

My stories make me cry, too.

Every time.

Jina Bacarrbooks on xigxag

The Resistance Girl

The Runaway Girl

The Lost Girl in Paris

Christmas Once Again

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