Friday, October 27, 2017

$1.99 Kindle eBook Countdown ~ Goth Girl, Virgin Queen by JoAnne Keltner #YA #Giveaway

Welcome to the 2-week blog tour for Goth Girl, Virgin Queen by JoAnne Keltner.

Follow the tour and connect with bloggers, read reviews of the book, read guest posts, and meet the author.


Read an Exclusive Excerpt:
They [Jackie and Jason] drove a ways out of town, past trailers and tiny frame homes. The Oktoberfest was near the highway. She parked in the grassy lot beneath the overpass, and then they walked across a frontage road to the fest, passing under a banner that read, “Ravenwood Oktoberfest.”
Music came at her from all directions—hip-hop from the roller coaster, rock from the Tilt-a-Whirl, and pop from the Himalaya. Red, blue, and yellow bulbs blinked in rhythmic patterns; rides spun and jetted outward; and voices screamed and boomed over loudspeakers. The contrasting movements and sounds clashed in midair. She wanted to close her eyes and press her palms to her ears.
Relax, Jackie.
But she couldn’t.
As they walked down the main path of the carnival, surrounded by a drove of people, emotions swirled around her and she couldn’t distinguish one from the other. It was one huge cauldron of sensations churning inside her.
The camera strap tugged at her neck, and the camera bounced against her stomach. She wanted to hold the lens to her eye and shield herself, but she figured she’d trip.
Jason reached for her, like he wanted to put his arm around her shoulder. But then he hesitated. “You okay?” he asked.
She nodded and sucked in a deep breath.
Zeta waved at her from behind a group of boys in baggy pants and hoodies. “VQ,” she called. Zeta was the only person who could call Jackie VQ without making Jackie cringe. Trish was with her. The two of them looked like total freaks: Zeta in black tights, pointy-toed boots, and a red-and-black striped sweater, a fuzzy scarf tied around her neck; Trish in a black tutu over her jeans, a short, black leather jacket, and multiple ponytails sticking out all over her head.
Nearing the two, Jackie stumbled and grabbed Zeta’s arm for support. Stung by raw emotion, Jackie pulled her hand away like she’d touched a hot burner. Zeta was pure electric, switching on and off sporadically and so fast that she was neither happy nor sad, but energetically sassy. Trish was usually cool to the touch, her predominant mood: melancholy. Her mind was like a snowy TV station, the images faint and ghostly.

People stared at the four of them. Though, usually, not many people ever recognized Jackie with her makeup and black hair—not many people outside of school, that is. She no longer had to worry about them tugging on her or touching her. She only had to worry about what she touched and where she stood.

 Book Information:

Title: Goth Girl, Virgin Queen

Author Name: JoAnne Keltner

Genre(s): Young Adult Paranormal

Length: Approx. 298 pages

Release Date: December 3, 2015

About Goth Girl, Virgin Queen:

Calling Jackie Turov psychic makes her cringe. But Jackie’s no normal seventeen-year-old. She picks up emotions from people and objects like a freak. The emotions make her sick, and the guilt she feels for lying to her church when she was twelve causes her to deny her psychic abilities.

So Jackie goes goth to make others stay away from her and forget her past. But her past is soon resurrected when her jealous friend Trish invites a demon, a persecutor of healers, to steal away Jason’s love for Jackie. The demon causes Jackie to be bullied for the lie she told and puts her best friend, Jason, in danger.

Jackie must learn how to use her gift to protect Jason and herself and to heal the negative energies of those around her. To do so means she must overcome her guilt and accept who she is before the demon claims her soul.

 Enter the Goodreads Giveaway (ends October 31, 2017)



https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/252425-goth-girl-virgin-queen

Grab Your Copy from Amazon for only $1.99 Oct. 26-27, 2017!



Amazon http://amzn.to/2yx3uCH

Read an Excerpt:

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.
Meet the Author:



JoAnne Keltner is the author of Goth Girl, Virgin Queen (Solstice Publishing, 2015) and Obsession. 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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