Japan Gets Early Taste of Sexy Takeover Tale

Jina Bacarr hasn’t sold the foreign rights to her recently published Hollywood novel to Japan yet, but millions of Japanese are now familiar with both Bacarr and “Avenue of the Stars.”

The Jan. 11 issue of Focus, a popular Japanese weekly magazine, featured an article on the Huntington Beach author whose steamy novel, co-written with Ellis A. Cohen, chronicles the Japanese takeover of a Hollywood movie studio.

Bacarr was interviewed over the phone by a reporter in Japan and posed for the magazine’s Los Angeles-based Japanese photographer in her home wearing a traditional Japanese kimono and rice-powdered make-up. (Bacarr, who is taking a class in the art of kimono, wears the same costume to her book signings.)

Bacarr said she had never heard of Focus but was told by her Japanese language teacher that the magazine is widely read in Japan, mostly by men. “She said it’s basically a scandal type of thing”--a cross between People magazine and the National Enquirer.

In addition to articles on a Japanese rap singer and Japanese engineers coming to the United States to work, the magazine’s Jan. 11 issue features a story on a Japanese man who killed his daughter for her life insurance money, and an assortment of cheesecake pictures of unclothed and scantily clad women.

Bacarr said her Japanese teacher helped translate the article, which says “Avenue of the Stars” is a “sensational big hit in Los Angeles, and people are talking about it.”

The article goes on to summarize the plot, emphasizing the novel’s corrupt Japanese billionaire businessman’s hatred of America. “This is not realistic, but a story that is bigger than life,” the article notes before mentioning two of the novel’s most X-rated scenes.

“I was shocked,” Bacarr said with a laugh. “The part they said about me was really nice, but you couldn’t print in your paper some of the stuff they said about what the book is about. I mean, they didn’t hold back anything that happens in the book.”

The magazine, Bacarr said, “makes me sound very pro-Japan.”

Indeed, the article inexplicably concludes by noting that Bacarr’s “own personal car is a Toyota because, as Bacarr-san says, ‘American cars are always breaking down.’ ”

“I think I said that just as a joke,” Bacarr said with a laugh. “I expect any day for a new Toyota to pull up in my driveway. I’ll never get a Chrysler commercial, I guarantee.”

Writing Workshop: Author and communications consultant Joan Talmage Weiss will conduct a six-week writing workshop, “The Book Inside You,” Thursdays from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. beginning tonight at Upchurch-Brown Booksellers, 384 Forest Ave., Laguna Beach. Fee: $125. Information: (714) 499-0011.

Book Signing: Berkeley author Chelsea Quinn Yarbro will sign her new historical horror novel (“Out of the House of Life”) and the paperback reissue of her first mystery novel (“Bad Medicine”), featuring a crime-solving American Indian attorney, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at Aladdin Books, 122 W. Commonwealth Ave., Fullerton.

National Writers: Entrepreneur magazine columnist Jill Amadio will speak at the meeting of the Southern California chapter of National Writers Club at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Irvine Marriott, 18000 Von Karman Ave. Members, $10; non-members, $12. Information: (714) 968-5726.

Poetry Reading: Poets Andrew Demcak and Alexis Krasilovsky will read at the Cafe of Dreams poetry reading at 8 p.m. Monday at Diedrich Coffee & Espresso Bar, 474 E. 17th St., Costa Mesa. Information: (714) 646-0323.

Readers’ Theatre: Steve Mellow’s Readers’ Theater will feature an Evening with the Orange County Black Actors Theatre at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Newport Beach Public Library, 856 San Clemente Drive. Included will be readings from the works of Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Ralph Ellison and Maya Angelou. Free. Information: (714) 972-1690.

Send information about book-related events to: Books & Authors, View, The Times, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, Calif. 92626. Deadline is two weeks before publication.