Gaijin Cowgirl
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Premier Virtual Author Book Tours
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Gaijin Cowgirl is a Action/Adventure,
Mystery/Thriller/Suspense, Crime Thriller.
If it were a movie, it would be rate PG 13, mostly for violence
Publisher: Crime Wave Press (March 8, 2013)
Category: Action/Adventure, Mystery/Thriller/Suspense, Crime
Thriller, New Adult
Tour Date: Mid May- Late June, 2013
Available in: Print & eBook, 380 pages
Tour Date: Mid May- Late June, 2013
Available in: Print & eBook, 380 pages
Blurb :
Working Tokyo nightclubs is easy money for beautiful and
troubled American Val Benson - until a client with a rather unusual hobby -
painting the private parts of his female liaisons - reluctantly gives up a map
to a stash of Japanese war loot and tempts his favorite girl into a dangerous
treasure hunt.
The Congressman's daughter is not the only one interested in the
map: yakuza, bent cops, human traffickers, rogue CIA agents and her father are
hot on her trail, snapping at her high heels.
So begins the dark, epic journey of a new anti-hero of Asian
Noir, a protagonist both ambiguous and courageous, and utterly unreliable. From
comfort women and tomb-raiding in Japanese-occupied Burma to the murderous
echoes of the Vietnam War, long forgotten crimes come roaring back to life, as
Val leaves a trail of destruction and chaos in her wake.
Together with her best friend, the equally unreliable nightclub
hostess Suki, Val travels through Tokyo, Hong Kong and Bangkok to the
Thai-Burmese borderlands for a dramatic showdown with her pursuers. Finding the
treasure before everyone else does is her only hope for survival, and perhaps
redemption.
Praise for Gaijin Cowgirl:
"Val Benson - a rich kid with a few family secrets in her
locker winds up in a Japanese hostess bar before entangling herself in a
treasure hunt for lost gold in the Thai / Burmese jungle. Along for the ride
are Suki (great name) her Japanese hostess friend, Muddy (again great name
choice) a gritty Australian treasure hunter, and Simon- a sarf Londan kick
boxer.
Reminiscent of Karin Slaughter's Tokyo the beginning opens with Val arriving in Tokyo, finding her feet in a hostess bar, and meeting an old flame who happens to be a lawyer working on busting former Japanese war criminals. One of whom is also Val's number one customer, painter of female genitals, and holder of a lost treasure map. Val goes to the client's home, takes the treasure map along with a bag of cash, battles C.I.A agents, watches the old war criminal nearly die, and escapes with her life, the cash, and the map. Her diplomat father gets her out of the country to Hong Kong where she meets up with Muddy and then onto Bangkok where the search for treasure starts proper.
Gaijin Cowgirl is a high-octane chase thriller; the action level only drops when the author fills us in with historical details - all of which are probably not a hundred percent essential to the plot - interesting nonetheless. The cast is wide and colorful and the backdrop always illuminating. This is a fine first novel by author Jame DiBiasio who moved to Hong Kong from New York in 1997. DiBiasio has researched and structured his novel well, tension rises and lowers, the plot is strong and well resolved. Val finds out something about herself, her family and her place in the world during this adventure. And that, my fellow readers, is what writing character adventure fiction is all about."-J. Newman, Amazon.com Reviewer
Reminiscent of Karin Slaughter's Tokyo the beginning opens with Val arriving in Tokyo, finding her feet in a hostess bar, and meeting an old flame who happens to be a lawyer working on busting former Japanese war criminals. One of whom is also Val's number one customer, painter of female genitals, and holder of a lost treasure map. Val goes to the client's home, takes the treasure map along with a bag of cash, battles C.I.A agents, watches the old war criminal nearly die, and escapes with her life, the cash, and the map. Her diplomat father gets her out of the country to Hong Kong where she meets up with Muddy and then onto Bangkok where the search for treasure starts proper.
Gaijin Cowgirl is a high-octane chase thriller; the action level only drops when the author fills us in with historical details - all of which are probably not a hundred percent essential to the plot - interesting nonetheless. The cast is wide and colorful and the backdrop always illuminating. This is a fine first novel by author Jame DiBiasio who moved to Hong Kong from New York in 1997. DiBiasio has researched and structured his novel well, tension rises and lowers, the plot is strong and well resolved. Val finds out something about herself, her family and her place in the world during this adventure. And that, my fellow readers, is what writing character adventure fiction is all about."-J. Newman, Amazon.com Reviewer
About the Author:
Jame DiBiasio is an award-winning financial journalist and
editor. He is author of the non-fiction The Story of Angkor (published by
Silkworm Books in 2013) and blogs at http://asiahacks.com. He lives in Hong Kong.
Contacts:
Jame on Twitter: https://twitter.com/JameDiBiasio
Jame on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jamedibiasio.author
About the publisher:
Website of Crime Wave Press: www.crimewavepress.com
Other Tour Locations:
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Author Interview:
I appreciate your taking the
time to visit with us today.
It’s my pleasure. Thanks for having me.
À Please
tell us about yourself and your writing.
Like most writers, I have a ‘day job’. But I rely on it to fuel my writing,
at least to some extent. I’m a financial journalist based in Hong Kong, and
that job has allowed me to travel widely and interact with people of different
cultures, over a period of many years. Although my novel, “Gaijin Cowgirl”, has
nothing to do with finance, it does take place in countries I visit regularly,
such as Japan and Thailand. And it’s set in the real world, so having a basic
handle on local history and politics is just as important as knowing about the
more sexy stuff that gets into the book. That said, I’ve been writing since I
was a kid, so that part is just, you know, DNA.
À Please
tell us a little bit about your upcoming release.
“Gaijin Cowgirl” was published in March by Crime Wave Press, which
specializes in Asian crime fiction. My book is a thriller based around an
American woman, Val Benson, who is working as a hostess in expensive
‘gentlemen’s clubs’ in Tokyo. Her number-one tipper is a sinister figure with a
map to treasure stolen in World War II. Violence, chaos and chases ensue.
À What
character was your favorite to write about in this series? Why?
Val, hands down. She’s an anti-hero, a superficial party girl, who relies
more on her looks than on her brains to manipulate men and get her way. She
makes a great hostess but when things get ugly, she has to dig pretty deep to
find an inner intelligence and courage to survive. Writing a story about bar
girls in Asia from a woman’s perspective was challenging but a lot more
rewarding. It made the difference between a serious novel and titillating
trash.
À Which
was your favorite scene to write?
I like cool, hardboiled dialogue, and I enjoy the action scenes. “Gaijin
Cowgirl” has plenty of both. There’s a bit where a corrupt CIA operator named
Maxwell tracks down Val and her buddies in a Bangkok bar. Val uses her looks
and charm to lull him into thinking she’ll give in to his threats. There’s a
few scenes like that, where Val manipulates men’s sexual impulses to advance
her quest – usually followed by something going wrong and that’s when the guns
come out.
À Were
there any scenes that were hard to write? Why?
The structure was a challenge. The story dips back in time, to World War II
Burma, and Vietnam-era Thailand, to link together a thread that connects Val’s
family with the mayhem taking place. Getting that right, and telling it in an
entertaining way, required a lot of thought.
À How
do you make your work unique from other authors in the same genre?
“Gaijin Cowgirl” is fiction but it’s based squarely in this world. It
unearths a lot of forgotten history – or history that certain groups would
prefer we forget. This includes how the Japanese enslaved ‘comfort women’ and
links that to modern-day human trafficking; the worst aspects of the US
involvement in the Vietnam war; and the realities of life in the underbelly of
cities like Tokyo and Bangkok. But while those themes are present, they exist
to serve the story. “Gaijin Cowgirl” is above all a crisply paced form of
entertainment.
À What
is the hardest thing about character development?
Sometimes it takes a while to really understand who your character is and
what he or she is about. It’s a discovery process that progresses as I write,
which can sometimes mean having to go back and change things – because the
character you finish with isn’t the same person at the beginning of the book. I
was a bit lucky with Val, though: I had her pretty pinned down at the start.
Another challenge is writing characters from other cultures, whose first
language isn’t English. Making them real and giving respect and understanding
to their values, and avoiding cliché and cheap shots, takes time. Even harder
is capturing the mindset and ear of characters from around the English-speaking
world. I’m an American; if I get an Asian voice wrong, most readers won’t
notice, but it will be painfully obvious if a British or Australian voice is
off.
À Why
did you decide to write in this genre or about this storyline?
Do you pick the genre or does the genre pick you? I don’t know. I read a
lot more widely than thrillers and noir, but those are the most fun. And they
are a great way to delve into deeper subjects – corruption, human trafficking –
as well as explore cultural clashes, and remain dedicated to the need and
desire to entertain.
À What
do you hope that readers can take away from your stories?
First that they really had fun; that investing in reading “Gaijin Cowgirl”
was a rewarding use of their free time. After that, I hope they’ve learned a
little something about culture and life in Asia, and some of its history –
including some of the less salubrious interactions with the US.
À What are your favorite books to read and why? Do you have a favorite genre?
I read widely and not just in one or two genres, although I do enjoy noir
and thrillers, particularly American hardboiled stuff and British espionage. I
go for the classics: Raymond Chandler, Dashiel Hammet, Hemmingway, Graham
Greene, John Le Carré. And also some of the ‘newer’ guys such as Elmore
Leonard, Denis Johnson and James Ellroy: they’ve been around a long time too,
but their voices are more contemporary. I’d also throw Steven King in there.
But I like other stuff: modern British writers like Ian McEwan or David
Mitchell, Japanese modernists from Tanizaki to Abe, the short stories of Yoko
Ogawa. I actually read Greek tragedy for pleasure.
À What
can we expect from you in the future? Are you currently working on
anything?
You bet. Another publisher, Silkworm Books, is coming out with a
non-fiction book of mine this August called “The Story of Angkor”, which is a
history for tourists visiting the famous monuments in Cambodia. I have another
Asian noir that should see the light of day next year.
À Where
can readers find you?
I blog at http://asiahacks.com and
tweet on @JameDiBiasio, and there’s always Facebook: www.Facebook.com/jamedibiasio.author to be precise.
À
Any upcoming events?
My publishers at Crime Wave Press have lined up a series of book tours over
the internet. Given I live in Hong Kong and most English-speaking readers are
elsewhere, the virtual world is the way to go these days.
À Any
last words? Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
If you like thrillers, foreign adventures, action, great characters, strong
dialogue, martial arts, hostesses, crime, seduction, history, pace,
anti-heroines and something new, then you know what to do. (“Gaijin Cowgirl” is
available on Amazon.com for both ebooks and paperback versions.) Other than
that, I appreciate the chance to visit here. Thanks for the questions.
Thank you so much for chatting with us today.
Review:
Having read the blurb I was expecting a story that
was something like a cross between “Golden Girls” and “Terminator”. Not quite a blockbuster type movie, but
better than a ‘B’ movie. So I was
pleasantly surprised to find this story to be quick-witted, with plot twists I
totally didn’t see coming, and fabulous characters with quirky personalities
and human foibles that made them endearing.
That said, if this was a movie I would not take my children. While there is violence, it was in line with
the era of the story and could be handled with a discussion (given that I have
14 and 17 year old teens), but some of the twisted sexual issues are not things
I would want to have to explain. This is
especially true to the things based on true accounts. I find the discussions we have about wars and
history difficult enough without adding creepy sexual issues to the matter. That however is strictly a personal
preference as I prefer to keep my naive children naïve.
I have nothing but praise for the story. While, at times, the story seemed to wander a
bit, this was always proven to be important later.
I give this book 4.5 out of 5 clouds. I could have done without the particular
depravity of The Painter.
This
product or book may have been distributed for review; this in no way affects my
opinions or reviews.
Thanks for taking part in the tour and hosting Jame. I'm glad you enjoyed Gaijin Cowgirl so much!
ReplyDeleteMindy, thank you for taking time to review Gaijin Cowgirl. I also appreciate your trying a different kind of book (and am glad you enjoyed the experience). I agree, it's not for kids! But I hope your adult followers will have fun with Gaijin Cowgirl. Regards,
ReplyDeleteJame DiBiasio