Hey, everyone! Earlier this month, author Nicole Field released From the Same Star featuring an asexual love interest, Steve, and today Nicole is here to talk a little bit about the book! In honour of Asexual Awareness Week, Nicole will be talking specifically about asexuality and the way that it relates to Steve’s BDSM play. There’ll also be a short excerpt at the end!
From the Same Star is the second book in Nicole’s Kismet series, following One Last Drop. One Last Drop focuses on other characters, so you don’t have to read that before diving into this one! Both are slice-of-life f/f romances with some BDSM elements but no explicit content.
Let me give you the plot description for From the Same Star and a short biography of Nicole, and then I’ll hand the blog over.
In the aftermath of her mother’s death, Angela struggles to recover and re-enter the world. When she meets Steve, who works in the café across the street, she feels able to take a step out of her grief-filled home. With Steve, she hopes to do D/s as a way to take a break from the pain consuming her, but discovers that in doing kink, you bring all of who you are with you, including grief.
Then Steve’s best friend is in a tragic car accident, and winds up in a coma, and Angela longs to offer support to Steve, as well as receive it.
*
Nicole writes across the spectrum of sexuality and gender identity. She lives in Melbourne with one of her partners, two cats, a whole lot of books and a bottomless cup of tea.
Co-creator of Queer Writers Chat and reviewer for Just Love: Queer Book Reviews. Also likes tea, crochet and Gilmore Girls.
Welcome Nicole!
Writing an Asexual Dominant by Nicole Field
First off, thanks to Lynn for hosting me during asexuality week.
I’m here to talk about my recent novel release, From the Same Star, and the asexual love interest of that novel – Steve.
When I conceived of the character of Steve, there were several things that I wanted to get across. Firstly: Although she is dominant by nature, she’s also an everyday person. She’s a waitress. She has long-standing friendships.
And she’s also on the asexuality spectrum.
To me, being on that spectrum was an integral part of Steve’s story, and the wider story that I wanted to tell. So much of the BDSM fiction out there is about the kinds of situations that are going to get one hot under the collar.
That’s not the intention of From the Same Star. This novel is not erotica. It’s a story about two people, and friendship, and healing, and BDSM.
Secondly: I wanted to show not just that Steve is an everyday person, but that she is human. I find the impression in media that dominants can’t be vulnerable to be very harmful. It’s an unrealistic expectation that might be okay in a fantasy narrative setting, but not something that’s so much set in the contemporary, real world as From the Same Star is.
Like One Last Drop before it, From the Same Star is a slice-of-life, f/f, slow burn romance novel with BDSM elements at its core. The dynamic that occurs between Steve and Angela is able to go a lot deeper than the one in One Last Drop because both Steve and Angela are more experienced in BDSM.
That doesn’t mean they don’t make mistakes. They do. And they also talk through their mistakes and manage to resolve them.
Steve’s sexuality doesn’t prevent any of that. Its presence only defines the direction that their dynamic will and won’t take in the story.
I’ve included a small snippet here:
“In the interests of good communication,” Steve said, once they were sitting in Steve’s room, both of them still holding hands, “I’m on the asexual spectrum. I don’t really have sex.”
Angela’s mouth opened in a silent ‘O’ of surprise. She didn’t exactly know what to say to that.
Steve went on. “I sometimes have sex, but it’s not often, and it’s not the point of my BDSM play.”
“But… kissing?” Angela found her voice again.
“The kissing in the living room…?”
“That was okay,” Steve said. She grinned. “More than okay, actually. After everything during the movie, I would have asked for it if you hadn’t.”
Thank you so much for visiting, Nicole!
From the Same Star is available in paperback and ebook. You can buy the paperback here via Amazon (or find it any other retailer!) and the ebooks are available via the publisher’s web store as well as the usual eretailers.
