Today I’m hosting author JoAnne Keltner as part of the blog tour for her new book: Goth Girl:  Virgin Queen. JoAnne has kindly done a guest post about what inspired her to become a writer. Check it out!

I was inspired to become a writer by many things. My dad’s love of movies and his imagination¾both of which both rubbed off on me¾greatly influenced me. I was also influenced by his ability to tell a story verbally. (Unfortunately, the verbal skills didn’t rub off.) One time when I was about seven, he told me a story about him and his friends exploring a haunted house and how one of his friends had disappeared in that house. I was at the edge of my seat, listening and believing it was true. When he confessed that he had made it up, I was amazed at how his words and descriptions had made me believe. I remember thinking at that time that I wanted to make up stories, too.

I was also influenced by books. I loved books. Loved to hold them. Loved to read them. Loved to order them from Scholastic, saving up a pile of dimes and quarters to make my purchases. One of my earliest memories of wanting to be a writer was when I was in the first grade and created, with crayons and Manila paper, a picture book about squirrels. I loved the fact that I had just created a book.

However, I didn’t begin writing stories until after I was married and had kids. Then, I wrote short stories and attempted a few novels, but my adult characters and plots were boring. I didn’t find my genre until I started reading MG and YA novels in Spanish in order to practice my language skills. When I did, something happened. I started to imagine teens in place of my adult characters, and the story seeds I had been trying to develop into novels became more interesting. This specifically happened to me with the initial seeds for my novels Obsession and Goth Girl, Virgin Queen. Both would have had adult protagonists and would have been totally different stories than what they had finally become had I not found my genre. I found that writing YA allowed me to use my imagination to the fullest, and it was much more fun.

But I didn’t fully commit myself to becoming a writer until my oldest son decided to get a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. So my son inspired me too! I realized I was letting my dream of being an author slip away. So, I made a plan to succeed, enrolled in some writing courses, read a lot of books on writing, and wrote every day to learn the craft.

The medicine cabinet mirror—dotted with rust and turning gray—made the powder foundation on Jackie’s face look ashen and her jet-black hair, blurry. She looked like a shadow of a girl. She smeared black lipstick on her lips and shook out her shoulder-length hair. Her straight-cut bangs veiled her mascara-lined eyes, and the layered ends of her hair stuck out in defiant wisps.

Some of the kids at school—the ones she didn’t hang out with—called her Goth Girl. Some, whose memories wouldn’t die, called her VQ for Virgin Queen.

Jackie preferred Goth Girl, to be one of the living dead, to be numb to the emotions that plagued her. But this was what she wanted, not what she got.

Goth Girl or Virgin Queen, she was a freak, absorbing the emotions around her like a sponge. Sometimes the emotions made her sick. Sometimes they made her see things.

Because of this, she kept to a tight-knit group of goth friends—Jason, Zeta, and Trish—and avoided social activities. She attended high school only because Mom wouldn’t let her homeschool. Mom was afraid she’d hang with Babu all day, making piroshki and doing needlepoint instead of studying. Jackie, afraid of what life offered a freak like her beyond high school, had to admit that hanging with Babu all day was tempting.

Typically, Fridays were movie nights for Jason and her, but tonight would be different. Tonight, she’d subject herself to a hodgepodge of emotions from crowds and rides and the very ground she’d walk on to protect Jason. For this, she would need physical and spiritual strength, which she sought from Babu these days.

Babu’s door was cracked, and Jackie slowly pushed the door open. “Babu?”

The room smelled of beeswax and down. A candle burned on the shrine on the dresser. The flickering flame animated the icon of the Virgin of Vladimir and cast shadows across the picture of Babu, Grandma, Mom, and Jackie. Although Babu didn’t speak English, and Jackie didn’t understand much Russian, Jackie knew Babu kept that picture on her shrine to pray for Grandma, who passed away several years ago; for Mom, who divorced Dad; and for the girl who saw the Virgin when she was twelve—for the girl she had become as a teen.

Babu sat in bed, a country quilt spread over her legs, her thumb pressed against a knot of her prayer rope, her head bowed sleepily, and her lips wording prayers.

“I wanted to say goodbye,” Jackie whispered.

Babu crossed herself and then smiled at Jackie, her gold eyetooth shining from the light of the bed-stand lamp. She patted the empty space beside her. “Sadees.”

Jackie sat down beside Babu at the edge of the bed and took Babu’s hand in hers. Babu’s hand was warm and knotted with arthritis. Jackie rubbed her thumb over the bumps on Babu’s knuckles; her black fingernails were a sharp contrast to Babu’s flour-white skin.

She wasn’t afraid to touch Babu’s hands and absorb her emotions. Jackie got a good feeling from her. Babu filled Jackie’s inner vision with white light. She renewed her spirit. And this is what Jackie needed for the commitment she had made for tonight.

“Kooda eedyosh?” Babu asked.

“I’m going out,” Jackie said as if Babu understood her. This is how they communicated: Babu telling her stuff she couldn’t understand, Jackie telling Babu stuff she couldn’t understand. Somehow they carried on fine this way.

“Eedyosh sdroozyamee?”

“I’m going with Jason.”

Babu rubbed the top of Jackie’s hand and ran her thumb over black fingernails. “Fsyevo kharoshevuh,” she said in a comforting tone and gently squeezed Jackie’s hand. Then she cupped her hands around Jackie’s jaws and pulled her forehead to her lips. Jackie imagined Babu’s kiss imprinted on her forehead and carrying Babu’s blessings and love with her tonight.

JoAnne Keltner is the author of Goth Girl, Virgin Queen (Solstice Publishing, 2015) and Obsession (Musa Publishing, 2013 ed.). As an only child and avid daydreamer, she spent hours alone in her backyard on the South Side of Chicago, which she imagined to be everything from an alien planet to the Antarctic. She currently lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, with her husband, four dogs, cat, and three chickens. When she isn’t writing or freelance editing, she’s obsessively streaming popular TV shows.

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