Printfresh x Simon & Schuster | Meet Author Rebecca Serle
We swooned over this season's Printfresh x Simon & Schuster pick 'Expiration Dates' by Rebecca Serle. Now, it's our pleasure to chat with Rebecca about finding "The One", how her real life experiences shaped the novel and her thoughts regarding overrated meet-cutes. Follow along in this season's special Q&A!
What inspired ‘Expiration Dates’?
Sixteen years of dating? No but really! I was always looking for The One. I honestly can't remember a time before I was searching for my happily ever after. But it was a long road, and I had a lot I wanted to say about what it means to be single, and searching. I feel like this book is one long conversation with my friends, my readers.
Did your real life experiences help shape this story?
Yes and no. I think Daphne and I had similar lessons in dating but also different ones. I see each man, each chapter, as being a different lesson. In a lot of ways that's what dating is, right? You learn things about yourself. If we're lucky, and we're paying attention, we can move on with a little bit of gold from each experience. There's a quote, and I'm sorry I don't know who to attribute it to and I'm going to paraphrase it here but it says something like "every person you meet provides a set of directions. The hope is that one day you might arrive to someone who doesn't have a set of directions, where you just stay." That.
“Rebecca Serle has finally set her sights on romantic love”....what inspired you to write about romance now, compared to your other novels?
I think in a lot of ways my books really mirror where I'm at in my own life, or the questions I'm asking in my own life. When I sat down to write Expiration Dates I was really asking the questions of romance. What is it supposed to look like? When is my end coming? And what does that mean? I've been saying a lot that I really believed meeting my husband would be the crescendo, the climax of my Being Single story. But really, it was the start of something else entirely.
What’s your favorite part of the book?
Hugo.
What’s an interesting fact about the book or your writing process that readers may not know about?
I wrote the Stuart chapter in the parking lot of a car wash dictating into my phone.
What’s one thing you’d like to share with shoppers who read ‘Expiration Dates’?
Trust the timing of your life! When I was in graduate school I was going through a breakup and lamenting to a friend about it "taking so long" to find a real relationship (I was 22- lol). He took out a piece of paper and on one end wrote "Life is Short" and on the other end wrote "There is Time." I have it framed in my office. I think in many ways that's the thesis of the book.
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