I am so excited to have A.M. Strickland joining me for an A-spec April interview! Her latest book, Beyond the Black Door, is releasing this fall and I am beyond excited for it. It's a dark fantasy with multiple ace-spectrum protagonists and the cover is just gorgeous.
You can read more about Beyond the Black Door on Goodreads
You can read more about Beyond the Black Door on Goodreads
AdriAnne Strickland was a bibliophile who wanted to be an author before she knew what either of those words meant. She shares a home base in Alaska with her husband, her pugs, and her piles and piles of books. She loves traveling, dancing, vests, tattoos, and every shade of teal in existence, but especially the darker ones.
1. Thank you so much for joining me for A-spec April! Can you tell us a little bit about the asexual representation in your book, Beyond the Black Door?
Happily! My main character, Kamai, is asexual (as well as demi-biromantic). Her best friend in the book, Nikha, is also asexual, as is Kamai’s romantic love interest, but I don’t want to say much more about the latter for spoiler reasons—but! I can say the book’s primary romance is ace.
2. At what point in the planning and writing of Beneath the Black Door did you realize you were going to write an asexual character? What influenced this decision?
I wanted to write Kamai and the romance she experiences as asexual from the very beginning. She works through realizing she is ace in a highly sexualized world, and both comes to terms with it and nurtures love for herself as she is, even if she’s different—seemingly—from most people around her. I wanted to write her that way because that’s frankly what I felt like growing up: that everyone else was on a different wavelength, and it was both a tough and ultimately fulfilling journey to self-discovery. And I especially wanted to write an ace romance, because that was what I craved as a teen and never was able to find—especially a darker romance, because I was always drawn to those. Ace folks should have every type of representation: with romance and without, and, as far as the former goes, happy romances and the twistier kind. I definitely wrote the latter type of romance, as well as a platonic friendship that is just as important as any other relationship in the book.
3. What did you find most challenging and most rewarding about writing an asexual character?
I found that staying true to my own experience/wishes for the book to be both the most difficult and the most satisfying. The concept of asexuality isn’t simple in real life or in Beyond the Black Door—it is a wide spectrum that contains many different iterations of what it means to be ace, and all are valid. I wanted to write a character that reflected that nuance and stayed true to my own experience of asexuality, and yet was still easy enough for readers—both other aces and allosexual folks, as well—to understand and see themselves in. I also wanted to write a darker, imbalanced romance, because I’ve both experienced those and love reading them, but to do it in a way that doesn’t encourage unhealthy relationships. I strived for both complexity and yet relatability in my depiction of asexuality and the type of romance I wanted to write, and I found the process incredibly challenging, but the result very rewarding.
4. Without spoiling anything, can you tell us how you identify the orientation of your character on the page? Did you use the term “asexual” in the text and how did you come to that decision?
Because Beyond the Black Door is a second-world fantasy, I didn’t want to use technical terms that might draw the reader out of that world, but I did want to be very explicit. So I came up with my own terms for several of the sexual and gender orientations that my characters have in the book—“new soul” in particular for asexuality, which is defined on the page as someone who doesn’t experience sexual attraction. (“New soul” is based on “new moon”—there’s a gender/sexuality chart in the book based on the phases of the moon a la the genderbread person but without the creepy/pointless inclusion of “biological/anatomical sex” as a factor.) The word “asexual” itself is used in the cover copy.
5. In writing an asexual character, did you do research and consult sensitivity readers or did you rely on your own knowledge or experience?
Both! I primarily wrote Kamai based on my own experience/research into asexuality for my own self-discovery, but then I had a few sensitivity readers as well, for the asexual, aro-spec, and trans representation in the book. Of course any mistakes are mine!
Happily! My main character, Kamai, is asexual (as well as demi-biromantic). Her best friend in the book, Nikha, is also asexual, as is Kamai’s romantic love interest, but I don’t want to say much more about the latter for spoiler reasons—but! I can say the book’s primary romance is ace.
2. At what point in the planning and writing of Beneath the Black Door did you realize you were going to write an asexual character? What influenced this decision?
I wanted to write Kamai and the romance she experiences as asexual from the very beginning. She works through realizing she is ace in a highly sexualized world, and both comes to terms with it and nurtures love for herself as she is, even if she’s different—seemingly—from most people around her. I wanted to write her that way because that’s frankly what I felt like growing up: that everyone else was on a different wavelength, and it was both a tough and ultimately fulfilling journey to self-discovery. And I especially wanted to write an ace romance, because that was what I craved as a teen and never was able to find—especially a darker romance, because I was always drawn to those. Ace folks should have every type of representation: with romance and without, and, as far as the former goes, happy romances and the twistier kind. I definitely wrote the latter type of romance, as well as a platonic friendship that is just as important as any other relationship in the book.
3. What did you find most challenging and most rewarding about writing an asexual character?
I found that staying true to my own experience/wishes for the book to be both the most difficult and the most satisfying. The concept of asexuality isn’t simple in real life or in Beyond the Black Door—it is a wide spectrum that contains many different iterations of what it means to be ace, and all are valid. I wanted to write a character that reflected that nuance and stayed true to my own experience of asexuality, and yet was still easy enough for readers—both other aces and allosexual folks, as well—to understand and see themselves in. I also wanted to write a darker, imbalanced romance, because I’ve both experienced those and love reading them, but to do it in a way that doesn’t encourage unhealthy relationships. I strived for both complexity and yet relatability in my depiction of asexuality and the type of romance I wanted to write, and I found the process incredibly challenging, but the result very rewarding.
4. Without spoiling anything, can you tell us how you identify the orientation of your character on the page? Did you use the term “asexual” in the text and how did you come to that decision?
Because Beyond the Black Door is a second-world fantasy, I didn’t want to use technical terms that might draw the reader out of that world, but I did want to be very explicit. So I came up with my own terms for several of the sexual and gender orientations that my characters have in the book—“new soul” in particular for asexuality, which is defined on the page as someone who doesn’t experience sexual attraction. (“New soul” is based on “new moon”—there’s a gender/sexuality chart in the book based on the phases of the moon a la the genderbread person but without the creepy/pointless inclusion of “biological/anatomical sex” as a factor.) The word “asexual” itself is used in the cover copy.
5. In writing an asexual character, did you do research and consult sensitivity readers or did you rely on your own knowledge or experience?
Both! I primarily wrote Kamai based on my own experience/research into asexuality for my own self-discovery, but then I had a few sensitivity readers as well, for the asexual, aro-spec, and trans representation in the book. Of course any mistakes are mine!
6. What was your first experience with seeing asexual or aromantic characters in fiction and media?
Explicitly, it was Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire, which was only published a few years ago! I can’t even tell you what this book meant to me. As a bonus, the main character Nancy’s relationship with the Lord of the Dead was dark and delicious on top of her being ace, which is exactly my jam.
7. What is your favorite book (or books) with asexual or aromantic characters?
At the risk of being repetitive, Every Heart a Doorway!
8. Do you know what you are going to be working on next and do you think we see more a-spec characters in your future stories?
I am working on both YA and adult fantasies, and yes, you will most definitely see more a-spec characters in my work.
Explicitly, it was Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire, which was only published a few years ago! I can’t even tell you what this book meant to me. As a bonus, the main character Nancy’s relationship with the Lord of the Dead was dark and delicious on top of her being ace, which is exactly my jam.
7. What is your favorite book (or books) with asexual or aromantic characters?
At the risk of being repetitive, Every Heart a Doorway!
8. Do you know what you are going to be working on next and do you think we see more a-spec characters in your future stories?
I am working on both YA and adult fantasies, and yes, you will most definitely see more a-spec characters in my work.
A huge thank you to A.M. Strickland for joining me today! I am so excited for Beyond the Black Door and I hope all of you are considering preordering this book.
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