Diversity Matters: A Guest Article by Lisa Acerbo
- Swords & Sapphics team
- 27 minutes ago
- 3 min read
This week, we're joined by author Lisa Acerbo, who shares insight into why she decided to switch gears by making the love interest of her newest romantasy novel, Death and Coffee, a woman — and, more importantly, why diversity matters. Grab a coffee of your own and dive into this wonderful guest article!
When I wrote the initial drafts of my romantasy novel Death and Coffee, I had a traditional male/female romantic pairing. The main character, Prudence, met and fell in love with a handsome doctor. During one of many rounds of revision, an ARC reader told me the love interest in the novel was too perfect, too flat, too cliche. I had written prescribed characters and lackluster drafts. My original idea had not been a great one, and I needed to rethink the process. In doing so, I changed my romantic pairing to female/female. This allowed my character to become multidimensional and authentic because I, as a writer, could be authentic. Writing my novel solidified an understanding of why diversity in all genres of writing matters.
Diversity builds empathy. We connect with characters, people, and stories. As readers, we feel for them, love or dislike them, or in my case, write fan fiction about them. Novels allow the reader to live many lives, suffer many challenges, and revel in serialized success. Prudence, my main character, is faced with the death of her mother in Chapter One. It is the catalyst for her journey. It was also a way to help me come to terms with the recent loss of my mother-in-law. Though my work is fiction, the emotions and feelings embedded in my characters are real.
As an author, you hope this translates to the reader. Science says it does. Claudia Hammond, in her BBC article, "Does Reading Fiction Make us Better People," suggests "as we begin to identify with the characters, we start to consider their goals and desires instead of our own" (2019). This has been confirmed by research from the National Library of Science. Reading makes us more compassionate and willing to help others.
Reading creates conversations. It's one of the things I love about a good story. You want to share it. My daughter and I constantly trade book recommendations, exchange book reviews, and discuss plot twists. When I changed my characters to a female/female pairing, we had a hearty discussion, one that went well beyond the novel to our thoughts on the world and the importance of being an ally. Novels can help increase awareness and acceptance. Reading can help foster honesty and transparency. That is often hard to do without a book as the anchor.
Finally, diverse characters allow readers to view the world through a new lens. Reading opens a kaleidoscope of experiences, and individuals witness unique and interesting cultures, encounters, and perspectives. I know it’s true because in the research for my novel, I learned so much. Writing opened my eyes to unknown and, at times, unfathomable experiences. Death and Coffee starts in 1661 at the Hartford Witch Trials. Researching the witch trials in Massachusetts and Connecticut, thinking about the persecution of women, and developing a deeper understanding of why they were put on trial made me look at local history differently.
But not every learning experience is so dire. My main character, Prudence, is lucky enough to be a part of the French artistic movement called Le Belle Époque and learn taxidermy. With each of these experiences, readers also glimpse the diverse and fascinating world around them, past and present. Death and Coffee is one small story, but with a world of books, readers cannot only imagine a life full of diversity, they can also continue to expand it through conversation, empathy, and action.
About the Author
Lisa Acerbo writes quirky romance, science fiction, and fantasy. She is the Director of General Education at Post University and holds an EdD and MFA from Western Connecticut State University. Her short stories and poetry appear in Scarlet, Poor Yorick Literary Journal, Ripples in Space, Universe in a Bottle by Flying Ketchup Press, and Whatever Happened to Hansel and Gretel? by Fathom Publishing (a finalist in the 2024 Best Books Awards in the category of Fiction: Anthology). Her romantasy novel, Death and Coffee, was published in 2025 by NineStar Press. Her next novel, The Netherworld Witch, a YA Fantasy, is arriving in 2026 from NineStar Press. When not writing, you can find her walking in the woods with her rescue dogs.
For more of her work, follow her at:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laft100/
Website: https://lisaacerbo.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lisa.acerbo.7