Allow Me to Introduce Myself
I'm Jina Bacarr, and 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’m proud to say my Civil War time travel romance, Love Me Forever, is a Kindle Scout winner.
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.
About Love Me Forever
When Liberty Jordan travels back to Antietam in 1862 during a Civil War re-enactment, one stolen kiss with Union officer Major Flynt Stephens makes her wonder if she wasn’t sent here for a reason.
But Flynt is engaged to Pauletta Sue Buckingham, Liberty’s mirror image and a Confederate spy who lost her husband.
The war heats up when Pauletta Sue saves Liberty from rotting in a Yankee prison. Her price? Pretend to be her so she can fight for the cause. Can Liberty pull off the charade and find love with Flynt? But even if she does, would their love be able to stand the test of time?
Video: Women Soldiers in the Civil War
Here's a short video about the Women Soldiers in the Civil War from my book Love Me Forever. In case you didn't know, there were women on both sides of the conflict who disguised themselves as men in order to fight in the war.
(This video: Women Soldiers in the Civil War from "Love Me Forever" is from Jina Bacarr on Vimeo.)
For a fun video excerpt from my book, here's Southern Belle and Spy: Excerpt from LOVE ME FOREVER
(This video: Southern Belle and Spy: Excerpt from LOVE ME FOREVER from Jina Bacarr on Vimeo.)
If you'd like to see more of my videos, please visit my video page on Vimeo. Also, I quite often mention the PBS series Mercy Street so here's a link to this riveting series. Now, here's a post I wrote for today.
Love, Lust, and Civil War Medicine
by Jina Bacarr
Did you follow the recent PBS Civil War mini-series Mercy Street? I was glued to my TV every week watching the fascinating story of a Virginia hotel turned into a hospital for both Union and Confederate wounded in 1862.
I enjoyed watching the story unfold and how it paralleled my Civil War time travel romance, Love Me Forever, which also takes place in 1862 Virginia. It was like watching my pages come alive with Civil War medicine, a visit from Mr. Lincoln, hoop skirts, women's roles in both the North and the South, and of course, hot romance.
Like Mercy Street, I have two heroines:
Liberty Jordan, a time traveler from the future who goes back to Antietam dressed as a Confederate officer.
Pauletta Buckingham, a Tennessee belle and a spy bent on revenging the death of her beloved, a Texas Ranger.
An odd couple in every way. One is a strawberry-blonde, the other raven-haired. One believes in the Union; the other will do anything for the cause. One is in love with a man she can’t have…the other is engaged to a man she doesn’t love.
But these two women have one thing in common: believing in women’s equality. Here my time traveler, Liberty, questions her involvement in the war with belle Pauletta Sue.
“Liberty couldn’t stop questioning how she got mixed up with this crazy secesh woman and her insane scheme. She’d never seen a woman so passionate about a cause, so truly believing what she was doing was patriotism. The war had unleashed a fire in her, and the more Liberty understood about the protected, delicate lifestyle these women led, the more she knew a great movement was underway that went beyond their cause.
It wasn’t until 1866 that the American Equal Rights Association was founded, but this was the beginning of the movement leading to women’s freedom and that she could understand. What bothered her was that Pauletta Sue was on the losing side of the war and because of that, she might not benefit from the changes women embraced afterward. She worked so hard at her cause, Liberty believed she deserved better, but the belle wouldn’t listen to her.”
I love how these two women bond over the course of the story as did Union Army nurse Mary in Mercy Street with belle Emma. But as much as I enjoyed the series, I kept hoping they would touch on the role of women in the ranks. Brave women who fought and often died as soldiers because they believed in their cause. I’m hoping the series will be renewed and we’ll meet up with a female soldier in Season 2.
My hero, Major Flynt Stephens, a Union Army physician, ponders the idea of female soldiers when he finds out his Rebel prisoner is a beautiful woman (Liberty).
“The Rebel prisoner was a female.
Would his nurse give her away? Or was she waiting for him to say something? He couldn’t. He felt a stirring within him, something he didn’t want to admit, that brought a hardness between his loins. Did he dare imagine that a beautiful woman existed under all that blood and dirt? He’d heard stories about women enlisting in the army, both North and South, and fighting as men. A good set of teeth to rip open a bullet cartridge, a trigger finger that worked, and a firm handshake was all that was required to join up. It was no secret the promise of a steady paycheck was often the reason behind such reckless female behavior.
That didn’t solve his immediate problem.”
The stirring in the major’s groin brings up another subject. Sex. Which made me wonder: is sex better when you time travel? Hmm…here’s what I discovered.
5 Reasons Why Sex Is Better When You Time Travel
1. If you time travel back to the past before your first time, you won’t run into old boyfriends.
2. Time travel makes you lose weight. Honest. You always lose a few pounds going through that space-time continuum.
3. Sex was more romantic in the past…no cell phones, faxes, texting.
4. If you and your partner don’t hit it off in bed, you don’t have to worry about embarrassing pictures showing up on Instagram.
5. If you did like his performance in bed, you can go back in time and do it all over again…
Add Love Me Forever to Your Library: Amazon
Takeaway Truth
Jina: Thank you, Joan, for having me!
Joan: My pleasure. Readers, this sounds like a book you may want to grab!
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