A Conversation with Local Author Jordan S. Keller

By Mary Casey-Sturk

On a sunny afternoon, I sat down with local author and Kilgour School alumnus, Jordan S. Keller, at a local bookstore (of course). It was while a student at Kilgour that she wrote her first “book.” 

Keller shared that her short assignment quickly turned into a book. “I remember the homework assignment. We were studying fables and myths, and the homework assignment was to write a three-paragraph myth explaining something in nature. The first paragraph was to describe the problem, the second paragraph is supposed to be describing the mythical thing and how its magic fixes it, then the third paragraph is how life was better after the magic.”

“I wrote three whole pages over the weekend, and I don’t know how I got an ‘A’ on the assignment!” Her story of shooting stars and a pack of space wolves is one of her fondest memories of her time at Kilgour. “My mom said she still has it somewhere,” added Keller. 

Keller, a graduate of Kentucky’s Morehead State University, lived in central Kentucky for many years before returning to Cincinnati. These days, she shares her home with her husband, Charlie, their cat and a Labrador Retriever mix. Lucky for her readers, listeners and fellow writers, she shares her words with us.

Keller, along with author Crystal McQueen created the Everyday Writers Podcast sharing tips and resources that have helped them in their careers. Having met at a writer’s workshop in 2021, they became fast friends and, although they wrote in separate genres and styles, they found each other’s advice to be encouraging.  

She’s also a founding member and host of the Queen City Fiction Writers Group. This intimate group meets regularly, and every spring, they go on a weekend writing retreat. “We all cook food together and we do two-hour writing sessions with breaks in between for the two days. It’s great and by the end of Sunday, everyone’s goofy and silly because all our brains are drained,” laughs Keller.

Her roots are in journalism, sharing, “I’ve worked in journalism and I did a lot of freelance work. In college, my focus was with Morehead State public radio.” 

Keller’s articles also appeared in the Ashland Independent and the Lexington Herald Leader.  She’s enjoying the freedom to write what she wants these days and has previously published Ashes Over Avalon, a superhero romance trilogy and Failing Gravity, a cyberpunk dystopian novel.

In her latest book, A Sea of Ships and Souls, a novel geared to readers aged 12+, she takes young readers on a journey. Keller shares, “The newest novel is a young adult ocean adventure fantasy, and it’s geared more towards a younger reader.  I wanted to write a younger story because kids would come up and look at my superhero novels, and I wanted to write one aimed at a younger audience.”

She muses that sometimes her stories are parallel to events happening in her real life. “I don’t realize it until after the book is out, but all of my books have featured a moment in my life.”  Continuing, “In the new novel, A Sea of Ships and Souls, main character Jace has a great life, but wants more and wants to be an epic sailor that people sing songs about in taverns. He faces many obstacles and is reminded he’s not “good enough.” He succeeds against all odds and has his epic adventure. I was writing that story while I was trying to have my own adventure (getting earlier books published), so it was neat to realize that I was writing about Jace achieving his dreams too.”

Advice for Budding Writers

“Never give up, because there will be so many obstacles that are going to make you feel like you will never get published. You must remind yourself that everyone started at the same starting point.” Keller continues, “When you’re looking at someone’s finished project, you realize that they had to work to get there too. I tell young authors to finish that first draft and don’t worry how bad it is, the first draft is supposed to be bad. Don’t compare yourself to other authors you see because you don’t know everything they had to do to get where they’re at or how long it took. Perseverance is the key when you’re finally ready to do the querying to get published traditionally. If that’s the route you choose, you’ll get hit with rejection, but those notes aren’t saying your work sucks, it’s just in that moment for that publisher, it won’t work.”

“In my writing group, we encourage each other to keep pushing forward, keep going. Our meetings are really nice because if we’re kind of struggling, we have the support group to turn to,” adds Keller.

Keller’s books are available at local booksellers and online. To learn more about Keller’s books and the Everyday Writers Podcast, visit jordanskellerauthor.com.