stl_reader asked Sally Malcolm:

Why ruin Love Around the Corner by including a gratuitous insulting comment about being a Republican? It was ignorant--Leo would have been more likely, as a small business owner, to be concerned that his pen pal was a Democrat. Food for thought. Also, not all U.S. romance readers are Democrats. Do authors not get that readers come in many flavors? Maybe think on that next time before you go there.

Sally Malcolm Hi, thanks for your question.

I’m sorry that you were offended by what was intended to be a humorous line.

For my part, the line was a character choice for Leo with the purpose of illustrating his character, rather than an authorial statement about Republicans. At the start of the story, Leo is very judgemental. It’s his big character flaw and it leads to the central problem of the book—that he’s already rejected Alfie in real life because he thinks he’s a ‘dumb mechanic’. So it makes sense to me that he would make sweeping statements about Republicans in the same way he holds sweeping opinions about mechanics. To put it bluntly, Leo is a snob. The story is about how his prejudices are challenged.

I think a great deal about what I write and how my characters behave. Leo is a highly educated young gay man from New York, heavily into literature and the arts, and I see him as naturally left-leaning. His passion is books, not business—he’d always intended to leave the commercial side of the shop to his (now ex) partner, after all. I also believe it’s very likely that Alfie, a blue-collar guy running a small family business, might lean to the right. In which case, Leo would have to learn to nuance his opinions of Republicans in the same way he learned to nuance his opinion of mechanics. If he’s learned his lesson, that shouldn’t be a problem. :)

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