Jessamyn Violet Takes Us Back to the 90s in Debut LGBTQ Novel

The debut LGBTQ novel by acclaimed musician Jessamyn Violet, Secret Rules to Being a Rockstar, spotlights music, art, and queer identity through the eyes of 18-year-old Kyla Bell, a teenage keyboardist immersed in the 1990s Los Angeles rock scene. Hoping to one day become a professional musician, opportunity comes knocking when Kyla is discovered by Ruby Sky, the magnetic frontwoman of her favorite band, Glitter Tears, and is asked to accompany them on tour.

However, to accept this once-in-a-lifetime offer, Kyla must drop out of high school, decline a full-ride college scholarship, and move to LA immediately to live with a volatile producer who has agreed to put her through “rock star boot camp.” Tumbling through the ups and downs in pursuit of stardom, Kyla is also blindsided by her emerging feelings for Ruby.

Although Violet and Kyla hold many similar traits, the author claims Secrets Rules to Being a Rockstar is not autobiographical.

Violet plays drums in the instrumental psychedelic rock band Movie Club, which is hitting the road with its Reading Rocking Rainbow Tour on April 18 in honor of the book. Not only will the tour combine Violet’s passions for reading and music, but it will be full of 90’s nostalgia.

OFM sat down with Violet to talk more about the book and tour.

Can you begin by telling us how it feels to release your debut novel, Secret Rules to Being a Rockstar?

It is in overwhelming and exciting time! It’s an interesting game, like managing your expectations and trying to do more then you think is necessary because the book world is in a certain place, so it takes a little more effort to sell copies. Bottom line is, I make $1 a copy, so it’s up to me to make it happen and at least generate a buzz to maybe put out another one. I have a bunch of books on the drive, and I hope to savor this unique feeling of the debut happening, which is definitely a lifelong quest. I started working on this book in 2009, and I finished it in 2011. It’s been through quite a journey since then.

Without giving too much away, what can readers expect?

Readers can expect a gritty and authentic story set in the 90s, and it almost borders on magical realism. This character is not me; I wasn’t a teenager until the late 90s, but this character is 18 and is asked to join a famous band for a national tour. I was such a music nerd in the 90s. It was explosive. Like, you would run home from school and listen to the radio; you couldn’t wait to hear this song played, and DJs were hilarious. It was a special time, and there were all sorts of things.

In my book, I wanted to vicariously live the life of someone who maybe stepped foot into the music scene in the 90s, but I put her through a lot. A lot of what she goes through is stuff that many women experienced back then, even if they weren’t necessarily in the Hollywood music scene—being told to lose weight and being pressured to smoke and drink. I’m sure that pressure is still there today, but it’s definitely changed. There was a particular brand of anorexia going on, and I think every girl experienced some sort of eating disorder around it after being told that they should look a certain way.

I haven’t read many books that address that, and I wanted to address it in some way. There’s also a lot of exciting, hot-and-cold moments between the main character, Kyla, and the lead singer of this band. The book looks at the relationship between older men and younger women, but it’s not as common to see these dynamics of grooming and manipulation between the same sex, especially for females in the 90s when it was a hard time to be queer.

I was called all sorts of names, and I was bold enough to be open enough to admit that I enjoyed both women and men. It was really a pansexual situation, but I didn’t have the vocabulary for it at the time. There were all sorts of weird stigmas around being gay, and it was certainly a very challenging time, also, because of AIDS. So, I wanted to feature a different tale from the 90s that I’m sure happened but hasn’t been told as much.

What do you ultimately hope readers take away from the book?

I hope that readers get inspired to keep putting themselves out there. As Kyla says at one point, ‘roughing themselves up in the name of art.’ It’s not like you have to do self-harm or that I’m advocating any sort of abusive situations, but the fact is, Kyla takes a risk. She dropped out of high school to go on tour with this band; she puts herself out there, and it enriches her own personal work. She finds herself writing better songs and maturing.

Looking at the art scene back in the 90s and comparing it to today, it’s obviously a very different situation. I hope that teenagers are inspired to take a little bit of the harder route to produce art. They should put their phones down for a chunk of time every day to read, write, or draw. There was this formative time happening when I was a teenager when I had a phone curfew at nine. I didn’t have computers or anything to distract me except books, drawing, and writing.

I look back at that time, and I’m like, wow, that was a very special time. I don’t think kids are getting that today, and there’s a lot of safety happening in book publishing that can give people the idea that reading is not exciting, but it is. You just have to find the right books. Reading is also our best weapon right now in this crazy world. It really is the exact thing they’re trying to phase out with everything. When you read, you develop your imagination; you learn to think for yourselves, and you inherit all this wisdom.

You have already received international acclaim by being the drummer for the instrumental band Movie Club. What initially inspired you to write Secret Rules to Being a Rockstar?

I started drumming while writing this book. I grew up playing piano, and I had never played piano in bands because I was classically trained, so it was sort of a solemn, somber thing for me, but I definitely got the itch to be in a musical conversation again while writing this book. Like I said, I was trying to vicariously live this life of someone who got an exciting adventure in the music scene in the 90s. I do hope to develop it further and go on Kyla’s journey more, but I really did it to have the best of both worlds. I’ve always been a musician and a writer, and I could never just do one thing.

They both cry for my attention, and this was a way to fuse it. Then I was like, let me fuse it even more by drumming, and I wrote most of this book in a rehearsal space in San Francisco where a drum kit was sitting right there. It was just calling out, you know? I actually started a band with someone in my graduate program who was also a musician and poet, and she had a beautiful voice. We performed for our thesis presentation, and that was my first performance as a drummer. I was kind of emerging from this cocoon of grad school, which was a wonderful time creatively.

What is something you learned about yourself throughout the writing process?

I learned that I like to go on the adventure with the character more than I like outlining (laughs). That’s a very long process, but as far as fueling the magic, feeling the flow, and developing that excitement, I like riding by the seat of my pants because the challenge is, can you entertain yourself? If I find myself stagnating, then pick up and start somewhere else. I moved to LA when I was just a year out of college from Boston, and I found the experience in LA to be very wild.

I had a unique experience, but also very general. So, I think finding a unique character and putting them through a general experience. Kyla goes out almost every night to an event or party. and that’s what it’s really like in LA. It’s hard to find excuses to stay home. It’s a little more mellow now because COVID set everyone at a slower pace, socially, but I wanted people to get caught up in the journey with Kyla.

You will be embarking on a national Reading Rocking Rainbow Tour this spring along with the release of the book. What can you tell us about that?

This has also been a lifelong dream of mine. Since I wrote this book, I have long wanted to do a book/band tour around the release because I think it’s fun to set a different standard for readings. I do think that traditional readings have their pluses and minuses, but I wanted to shake it up a little bit and make it more of an interactive discussion. It’s hard when you’re talking about a book that most of the people there haven’t read, but I wanted it to be more about the setting of the book and get people in the mood to read a story about the 90s.

So, it’s going to feature me in a late-night talk show environment where I’m sitting behind the drum kit with a microphone. My special guest, who’s either an author or someone from the crowd that grew up in the 90s, they’ll volunteer to come up, and there’s going to be funny, conversation starting quizzes, and we’re basically reliving the nostalgia, talking about things you haven’t thought about in forever. Like, what band posters did you have on your wall? What articles of clothing summed up your 90’s experience? What’s the most embarrassing product you bought in the 90s?

The overall goal through the discussion is to show how some things were fun and maybe seemed better in the 90s, but it’s important to remember the positive ways that we have progressed as a society. Like, there’s so much more vocabulary if you’re queer in any way, and it’s almost like a total flip. It’s almost trendy to call yourself that, and in the 90s, you would just try to fit in to some extent, or you would go in a far direction like goth, black lipstick, and Marilyn Manson. I think accountability has gotten better, body positivity and self-image has gotten better, and people aren’t caring about what others say.

I’m just trying to find some positives to bring to the table because we all need positivity right now, and then we want to rock out and have fun. I want the whole event to be a fun thing. I’d love for this to turn into a thing where authors are putting out cool books; they can possibly pair up with a band, and take this on the road. Shake up the reading scene and get more people to book readings and live music events. People should be able to enjoy both at the same event, and it will make twice the impression on them.

Before we wrap up, are there any other upcoming projects or anything else you would like to mention or plug?

Movie Club will be dropping a new album very soon, and I just hope people come out and support the cause. That way, we can keep doing this as much as possible because we need to keep books and the music scene doing. It’s so very important to culture.

You think we can expect another book from you in the future?

Absolutely! I’m going to try my damndest!

Stay up-to-date and connect with Violet by following her on Twitter and Instagram @jessamynviolet, and tickets for the Reading Rocking Rainbow Tour can be purchased at jessamynviolet.com. Secret Rules to Being a Rockstar is now available to purchase at all major book retailers.

Photos courtesy of Erin Naifeh