Monday, April 13, 2009

Cleopatra's Perfume~Jina Bacarr's in the Manor!


Please welcome fellow Spice author, Jina Bacarr to the manor today! Today, Gina's given us an excerpt, which is really a prequel scene about the heroine's life before the book begins. But it sets the tone perfectly for Cleo! What really draws me to this book is the time-just before the outbreak of war, and the ultra cool cities the book has in it, Cairo, Berlin, London, SO suave and uber cool during that era.
The blurb is below, and and the excerpt follows. Let's give a warm and supportive manor welcome to Jina Bacarr!

Europe 1939
The world may be teetering on the brink of war, but that's no reason for the privileged classes to deny themselves the satisfaction of their deepest lusts. In exotic and exclusive clubs, they pursue the delights of the flesh with little thought to the world crumbling around them.

Eve Marlowe has everything she needs to lead the most decadent of lives: money, nobility, nerve…and an insatiable appetite for sexual adventure. She also has a singular treasure: a fragrance of ancient origin said to have been prepared for the Queen of Kings herself. Seductive, irresistible, even mystical—it is the scent of pure sensuality.

The power of this elixir is such that it sweeps Lady Marlowe into a game much more dangerous than those she played in the darkened rooms of kinky bars. As the Nazis devour Europe and North Africa, she embarks on a fevered journey, with sizzling stops in Cairo, London, Berlin—each city filled with new perils and pleasures for one anointed with pure lust.


Episode 1: Eve meets a monocled gentleman with a secret fetish.
April 10, 2009 by Jina Bacarr

The Berlin Sex Diary of Lady Eve Marlowe contains adult subject matter and is intended for readers 18+ only


23 February 1928

Berlin

I was a naughty girl tonight, dear diary. I wiggled my buttocks like a minette* when I met this interesting gentleman wearing a monocle.

Then I let him spank me.

My nipples tighten as I jot down my thoughts for my own pleasure for no one must ever see the contents of this journal. Only then can I focus candidly on the sexual meanderings of this cabaret dancer down on her luck.

So down and out I earned my sustenance on this night by bending over and allowing the monocled gentleman to spank my bare arse with a long wooden paddle until my buttock cheeks turned scarlet. I inhaled my own sweet scent mixing with my perfume smelling of carnations and cedar, the intoxicating odor unlocking a door I never knew existed, as if I had embarked on a glittering adventure and there was no turning back.

You don’t look like a Joy Girl.

My name is Eve and all you have to know is that I entered Berlin on a passport that says I’m of legal age. I have no desire to expose my true identity should a curious lover find my diary hidden among my lacy underwear and try to blackmail me. I will tell you that I have powder-white blond hair and men often remark that I have a good figure.

I’m not vain about my body, but I struggle to keep the seams on my black stockings straight and I revel in the applause from the audience when I dance. I am also the sentimental girl who sends postcards to her mother back home in New York, knowing she rips them up without reading them.

I am alone here in Berlin with no one to depend upon, dear diary, but I will survive. I am passionate about this. Obsessed. I hold in abeyance my secret self, letting it out only when I must, as I did tonight when the monocled gentleman struck my buttocks over and over again with the paddle, its dark enchantment holding me prisoner.

What choice did I have?

I have no job. The girlie show I came to Berlin with folded after two weeks when the manager’s wife shot him. She caught him fucking the lead act (a sister duo from Morocco) and ran off with the payroll. The story filled the newspaper columns for days.

Lustmord, the Germans call it. Lust murder.

Alone, jobless, I discovered that Berlin in the winter is dreary and cold, the sky gray overhead, clouds hanging low over the city making everything look bleak and sexless. But not at night when beckoning tiny white lights mysteriously appear, tempting me. It is a city of sin awash in an underworld of pleasure.

My foray into this erotic world began when Herr ______ asked me to join him at his table in a small café near the Hotel Eden where I had tried to find work. I noticed an exceptionally tall man in a black Fedora and cloak observing us, gloating like a god looking down at a pagan rite, living, breathing, watching the players perform. His presence made me tingle with an ecstasy I’d never experienced before, as if inviting me into his sinfully rich, private world.

Who was he?

The paleness of his skin belied the fiery dynamic of his persona, his broad shoulders, square jaw. He wore his long black hair tied back, the poetic lift of his dark brow giving him the air of a romantic cavalier. But it was his eyes that held me. Black pools of perpetual movement that lured me into their swirling depths. I could not escape the fatality of his stare, a look that was eternal. It was as if he could read my mind, knowing I was hungry and out of work. I swear he nodded to the monocled gentleman before the older man approached me.


Why didn’t he approach me himself?

Stroking my arm in an intimate manner, the monocled gentleman bought me a glass of hot, spicy glüwein to keep out the cold, then he said in a raspy voice, “You’re too pretty to work as a kitchen maid, Fräulein. I have a better job for you.”

What could I do? I hadn’t eaten in two days, so I nodded and went with him to his hotel. I was disappointed the tall man in the black Fedora and cloak didn’t follow us. I couldn’t explain why, but his presence induced a need in me that left me breathless, made my nerves bristle, my blood run hot.

I kept up my courage, imagining I was entering a scenario without rules, without soft caresses, without illusions, but not without guilt. The gentleman assured me he wasn’t interested in a sexual coupling, but I didn’t know he had a paddling in mind until he removed all his clothes except for his bowtie, socks and garters. And his monocle.

Curious, I took off my knickers and bent over the royal blue silk brocade chair. The silk was cool to my touch, expensive, luxurious, like everything else in the fancy room. When I heard the whoosh of the spanking paddle slicing through the air, I took a deep breath and lifted my buttocks in anticipation…to be continued.


Next time: Eve discovers the joys of paddling from the Berlin intellectual with the monocle.
* minette: French word used here to describe a girl active in BDSM.

18 comments:

Victoria Janssen said...

Hi, Jina!

Great cover, too.

Charlotte Featherstone said...

Isn't this cover GORGEOUS???? Just love it!

Charlotte Featherstone said...

I'm off with my daughter to see the new Hannah Montana movie, as well as having some lunch. I'll check back in later in the afternoon!

Jina Bacarr said...

Good morning, Charlotte, Victoria!! So glad to be here in the manor. I've been looking forward to hanging out here with my fellow Spice authors.

Any questions anyone has re: Spice, writing, Cleopatra's Perfume, the prequel, please ask.

Thankz for having me today.

Amanda McIntyre said...

Hi Jina
Its a pleasure to have you at the manor! Your writing takes readers to so many interntaional locales and time periods. I know that in real life you have experiences that have influenced your writing.
Hopefully, I won't be stepping into more of your interview yet to be posted iff I ask that you share with us, some of your background?


Exquisite cover, btw!

Cheers,
Amanda McIntyre

Jina Bacarr said...

Hi, Amanada,

I've had a wild, crazy career which has taken me to many exotic places.

I've worked as the Japanese consultant on KCBS-TV, MSNBC, TechTV's Wired for Sex, Canada's The Pleasure Zone, British Sky Broadcasting's Saucy TV, and La Biennale Arts Festival in Venice, Italy.

I've also contributed as a nonfiction writer to the Men's Health Guide to the Best Sex in the World, Passport to Pleasure, The Vision Board and my book, The Japanese Art of Sex, was featured on the naked sushi segment of 69 Sexy Things 2 Do Before You Die for Playboy TV.

I'm fortunate to be multi-lingual, which helps in writing about the places I love. I believe learning the language helps you understand the culture.

Jina

Anonymous said...

Hi, Jina and the ladies of LIT!! Oh, and Craven-Moore--whom we don't see so oftern anymore. He's neglecting his admiring ladies :( tsk tsk

Anyway...Wow, that was some opening! And I agree, the cover is beautiful!! My interest is peeked. My only question is does the story have romance in it? I'm big on that. I'm all for the hot and steamy, but I like some romance tossed in there as well.

Jina Bacarr said...

Hi, Barbara,

I'm glad you enjoyed what I call a "prequel" to Cleopatra's Perfume. It's not in the book but the beginning of episodes of what happened to the heroine before 1939, when the book begins.

The romance begins on page 1 through the hero's point of view [you can read the beg. on B&N at:
http://tinyurl.com/CleoPerf-Excerpt -- click on "read excerpt" under the cover]. He's involved in a sizzling scene with the heroine and an SS officer in 1941--when she mysteriously disappears, he finds her diary and reads about her extraordinary journey [and his part in her story] from Cairo to London to Berlin.

--more in the next post--

Jina

Jina Bacarr said...

To continue re: Cleopatra's Perfume:

I also love the steamy stuff, but it's the romance that makes it work for me.

In my story, it's 1939 and Lady Eve Marlowe is stopping in Port Said, eager to get away the disapproving stares of curious passengers. She's young, beautiful, rich, but she's just lost her husband, Lord Marlowe. They spent their honeymoon in Egypt so she comes back here to recapture that magic...

Then she meets the handsome French/Egyptian, Ramzi...

In my story, Eve has 3 loves, 3 obsessions...which man will win her heart forever?

Jina

Kristi Cook said...

Jina, thank you so much for spending time with us here at the Manor! The book sounds fascinating--how cool to give us a 'prequel' episode!

I'm SO happy to see a book set between the wars--probably one of my favorite periods to read about, and a time virtually ignored by the romance/erotic romance community.

And the cover?!?! OMG! It's gorgeous!

Jina Bacarr said...

Thank you, Kristi, for your comment. Harlequin does an outstanding job with all the Spice covers!!

The year 1939 was a fascinating time in history. The US took an isolationist stance, believing we shouldn't become involved in the war in Europe. What people don't realize is that the rich society class made Europe and Cairo its playground...I wanted to explore this through the eyes of a young woman who had the money and the power to have anything she wanted...except the man in her life.

She also ignores the coming war--which has its consequences. I take the reader to London during the Blitz [the American hero becomes an RAF pilot--there were 8 Americans in the RAF before we got into the war).

And finally to Berlin during that time when the Hotel Adlon was THE place to be seen--including American journalists who weren't yet affected by the war (though some were detained and imprisoned by the Gestapo). Btw, the Hotel Adlon burned down and the new hotel was built across the street.

I have more info/stories about this time, the British Foreign Service [MI 6], Cairo, Berlin, spies, the Resistance, perfume, etc. so if you have any questions, plz ask!

Jina

Charlotte Featherstone said...

Jina, What challenges did you come across when researching when this era, as well as the cities. Did you have any troubles say researching the naughty bits in Cairo?

Anonymous said...

Hey, Jina! Thanks for the info. I'll definitely check it out! The story sounds great.

Yeah, I'm BIG on romance. Always have been a sucker for a good sigh... :)

Jina Bacarr said...

Hi, Charlotte,

You asked about challenges in writing Cleopatra's Perfume:

1. creating the backstory of the perfume--making it believable. Since Cleopatra's tomb has never been found, I decided maybe she didn't committed suicide after all, but disappeared! Without giving anything away, that became the basis for the magic of the perfume.

2. I've been to most of the locations in the book and unfortunately both of the major hotels in the story in Berlin and Cairo have been replaced by modern counterparts in different locations. I was fortunate to find research materials with enough info about the hotels so I could duplicate them in my mind.

3. Cairo is a city that still retains much of its history--as far as the sex scenes, I thought about clubs I've seen in Paris, Hamburg, Berlin, etc. and combined that with what I've read about re: the wild times of the '20s and early '30s and came up with my own club, The Cleopatra Club.

4. I also watched old, old movies from the early '30s for tips on fashion, cadence of speech (esp. English flicks), hairstyles and sexual mores.

And one more thing, Charlotte--I was surprised when I noticed that you and I used the same name in our stories (in your book, Addicted) relating to a character/place in the field of medicine. (Mine is fictional, as I imagine yours is, too.) You'll see what I mean when you get to that part of the story in 1941!

Btw, Addicted was fabulous!! Totally enjoyed it.

Best,
Jina

Charlotte Featherstone said...

The mysteriousness of Cairo really calls to me. I love those ancient cities!

Hmm, now I might just have to flip forward and read that page you're talking about! lol!

thanks for reading Addicted. I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Jina Bacarr said...

Hi, Charlotte,

Re: the identical name in our books, Addicted and Cleopatra's Perfume: so as not to spoil the story for you, go to page 343 in Cleopatra. It's in the heading. You'll see what I mean!!

I so agree with you re: Cairo. I've always been fascinated by the fact that the pyramids and the Sphinx are so close to the city--all that history within a few miles!

I'll be around today if anyone has any additional questions, so please don't hesitate to ask me!

Thankz again for having me in the manor. I've totally enjoyed it!!

Best,
Jina

Unknown said...

Cleopatra's Perfume sounds great!

Jina Bacarr said...

Thank you, Amy!!

Btw, Episode 2 of my Cleopatra's Perfume Prequel "Eve discovers the sublime delights of paddling" is up on my blog.

The link is:
http://tinyurl.com/BerlinSexDiary-2

Thankz again for having me in the manor.

Best,
Jina