Rebecca Serle, EXPIRATION DATES
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[0:33]Rebecca Searle is back on Mom's Don't Have Time to Read books
[0:36]to discuss expiration dates, a novel.
[0:38]Rebecca is the New York Times best-selling author
[0:40]of also of one Italian summer in five years
[0:43]the dinner list and the young adult novel
[0:45]is the edge of falling and when you remind.
[0:48]Rebecca also developed the hit TV adaptation,
[0:51]famous in love based on her YA series of the same name.
[0:54]She is a graduate of USC and the new school
[0:56]and lives in Los Angeles with her husband.
[0:58]I'm at Rebecca through our mutual friend,
[1:00]Sarah Lynofsky, who is, by the way,
[1:02]the same person who suggested I start a podcast.
[1:04]Welcome, Rebecca.
[1:05]Thank you so much for coming back on Mom's Don't Have Time
[1:08]to Read books to discuss expiration dates.
[1:10]Congrats.
[1:11]Thank you for having me.
[1:12]Thank you for having me.
[1:13]You're welcome.
[1:14]There are so many things that I enjoyed about this book,
[1:17]but the LA references were fabulous.
[1:20]I'm like, okay, now I'm at Tower Bar.
[1:22]As I read it here in New York, it's so nice,
[1:24]because I feel like I'm actually out there
[1:26]with the palm trees on the cover
[1:28]and all the landmarks and the hotspots.
[1:30]And anyway, so thank you.
[1:32]Thank you for that.
[1:33]I know we inadvertently have some like,
[1:35]Beverly Hills Hotel colors going on with the green,
[1:37]even though there are no scenes
[1:39]that actually take place there, but yeah.
[1:41]It's just the general vibe.
[1:43]It's a general vibe.
[1:44]Yes.
[1:45]And I really wanted, I really wanted this
[1:47]to not be a beach cover, because it's really not about,
[1:50]I mean, there's a little bit in Malibu,
[1:52]but it's really about the city of Los Angeles,
[1:55]which I did not a thing that people always necessarily
[1:57]associate with work about LA.
[1:59]I think it can be a lot about that beach.
[2:01]And this is really about like the town in a way.
[2:04]So yes, awesome.
[2:06]I almost like never go to the beach there.
[2:08]I don't know.
[2:09]I never go to the beach.
[2:10]I've never been once Hollywood
[2:11]where a large section of this book takes place
[2:14]where our narrator lives.
[2:15]And I mean, I never go.
[2:17]Before I was married, I have a really dear friend
[2:21]who lives in Malibu.
[2:23]And I would go out there a lot of weekends
[2:24]and I would spend time out there,
[2:26]but now I have a husband.
[2:28]I don't get to do that stuff.
[2:29]It's perfect.
[2:31]You're like, see ya.
[2:32]Take it out of here, Malibu.
[2:33]Have a nice day.
[2:34]Okay, expiration dates.
[2:36]Tell us what it's about, please.
[2:38]expiration dates is about Daphne Bell.
[2:41]She is a young woman in her 30s
[2:44]that since the time she was a kid,
[2:46]every time she meets a man,
[2:48]she receives a slip of paper with his name and a number on it.
[2:51]And that number is the exact amount of time
[2:53]they will be together.
[2:54]Our book opens with Daphne receiving a slip of paper
[2:58]that just has a name and the time is blank.
[3:00]And so it's really a question of what that means.
[3:04]It's amazing, such a great concept.
[3:06]And then it lends itself so well
[3:08]to these excerpts where not excerpts,
[3:11]but chapters about each relationship that came before
[3:15]and how long and what was on the card.
[3:17]And it's so clever, the whole packaging.
[3:19]There's an episodic element
[3:20]like you were saying to the book,
[3:22]but I never want that to feel like anecdotal in a way
[3:24]because I feel like then you're just skipping through
[3:26]and you don't care.
[3:27]So all of the chapters that are just about her past loves
[3:30]are revealing something about her and who she is
[3:33]and why she's single and like the way she deals with that,
[3:36]which was very true of my life too.
[3:39]I didn't think, no, they didn't come across as skipping.
[3:42]I was just saying it's a great way to structure the story
[3:46]because you go back, I don't know.
[3:48]It's just, they're not like parentheses on the side.
[3:52]No, it's like this, it is the story.
[3:55]It's a fun video to structure the story.
[3:56]And also I rate like my books are so a lot of times
[4:00]that the main story is like pretty slender,
[4:03]what you're trying to say between two people.
[4:05]And so I think like it helps broaden out the world
[4:09]and just give you a sense of who this woman is.
[4:11]Because her, the story of who she is
[4:14]is found like both in the relationship that you see
[4:17]her having throughout the book,
[4:18]but also in the relationship she's had in the past
[4:20]and how she's gotten to that place.
[4:22]So have you been, you were doing a deep dive
[4:24]into your own past relationships?
[4:26]Is that where this came from?
[4:27]Yeah, I mean, it's interesting because there's a lot
[4:32]of hallmarks of certain kinds of relationships.
[4:34]There's a chapter in here that's titled Stewart
[4:37]that like really, I, I mean, I guess I hope not.
[4:41]I hope won't resonate with whoever
[4:42]because it's kind of terrible,
[4:44]but there are a lot of just markers
[4:46]of different kinds of men and different kinds
[4:50]of relationships in here.
[4:51]Certainly that I experienced.
[4:54]And that I think most people do if you,
[4:55]if you're single for a long time, you know,
[4:56]I was almost 37 when I met my husband.
[4:58]So I had been out there a lot.
[5:01]And I think the book reflects a lot of, you know,
[5:03]a lot of the chapters of my own life too.
[5:06]I like the guy in Paris on the work trip.
[5:09]Oh, it's fun.
[5:10]Like the most kind of in my life.
[5:12]Yeah, there's some wish fulfillment too.
[5:15]And I definitely got to have a little bit
[5:17]of revisionist history with my own life, you know,
[5:19]because fiction gets to be the most realized
[5:22]version of things, a lot of times in real life,
[5:24]it's, you know, it's not,
[5:25]it's not really that like complete pinnacle.
[5:27]And so it was fun to get to go back
[5:29]and go in my memory bank and play with different relationships.
[5:33]And then also just like, you know,
[5:35]make them really, really fruitful
[5:37]in a way that they probably were in my own life.
[5:41]Well, I feel like now your books are developing
[5:43]certain themes and characteristics.
[5:45]Like do you feel like that too?
[5:47]Like this is, you know, it has to,
[5:49]something not otherworldly that's not the right way
[5:51]to say it, but that there's just something like
[5:54]that wouldn't necessarily happen.
[5:57]And it all has to do with love.
[5:58]And the way things should be.
[6:00]And the universe in a way, right?
[6:03]It's like, completely.
[6:05]I mean, there's always a little bit of magical realism
[6:07]in there, you know, something that's happening
[6:09]that's outside the norms or the boundaries
[6:12]of our own plane of existence.
[6:14]Like she gets notes in this one
[6:15]and wanna tie in somewhere.
[6:16]She obviously like meets her mother
[6:18]who's not alive and not 30.
[6:20]But I really, like I just think the question
[6:23]and I, you know, I think you and I talked about this
[6:25]probably when we met for in five years.
[6:28]The question that I'm really interested in life
[6:30]is what do we control?
[6:32]How much is in our control?
[6:34]And how much is just going to happen
[6:35]regardless of the choices we make?
[6:37]And what the relationship between those things?
[6:40]I mean, I think I struggle a lot in my own life being like,
[6:42]is this, is this in my control?
[6:44]Is this because of something I've done?
[6:45]Like what is the role of fate?
[6:46]And what is the role of free will?
[6:48]And how do we determine which is which?
[6:49]And so I think all of my books in our way
[6:52]are trying to explore that.
[6:53]I mean, I think it's probably like a pretty
[6:56]unanswerable question.
[6:57]That's good, then you won't run out of material.
[6:59]Yeah, exactly, exactly.
[7:01]Like I think there's plenty for me still to ask about that.
[7:05]But that's really, you know, I think we write,
[7:07]obviously I'm not the first writer to say this.
[7:09]Like we write to figure out how we feel about our lives
[7:12]and about the world.
[7:13]And that is the thing that I'm just constantly wrestling with.
[7:16]So it shows up in all of my work.
[7:19]Do you feel that you're approaching love stories
[7:20]differently being in love?
[7:23]You know what's so interesting?
[7:24]And so this book I wrote right before I met my husband.
[7:27]I wrote my, and this is in the acknowledgements
[7:29]at the end of the book, but I wrote my editor, Lindsay Sagnet.
[7:32]And I said to her, I really want,
[7:34]like I think I'm ready to really write my book
[7:36]about looking for love.
[7:37]I always knew that I wanted to write it,
[7:39]but I couldn't really figure out how the story was going to end
[7:42]because it hadn't ended for me.
[7:44]And I didn't know like what's the answer?
[7:46]Who do you end up with?
[7:47]Like what's the message?
[7:48]What are you, what am I trying to say to women?
[7:51]What am I trying to say to myself?
[7:53]And so I just felt like, you know what?
[7:55]I'm just going to write it.
[7:56]I don't know how it ends, but I'm going to write it.
[7:58]And I wrote her and I said like I really,
[8:00]I think I need to do this.
[8:01]And I think if I write it true, he'll be there at the end of it.
[8:04]And that's exactly what happened.
[8:06]I wrote it.
[8:07]And then three months later, I met him.
[8:08]But your question is interesting because my books,
[8:12]even though some of my characters have been partnered,
[8:15]my books in a lot of ways have been about looking forward.
[8:18]And sort of like that search.
[8:22]What's going to be?
[8:23]Who am I going to be calm?
[8:24]What am I going to end up with?
[8:26]And now that I'm with someone and in all of the complexities
[8:30]that marriage brings, and I think that it's very real.
[8:33]I mean, I don't have to say that to anybody who's married.
[8:36]It's not just the challenges of partnership,
[8:40]but it's also like all of the real world things that come
[8:43]when you choose somebody to be in life with.
[8:47]No, it's their family.
[8:48]It's your family.
[8:49]It's aging parents.
[8:51]It's we were just talking about before we got on.
[8:53]It's endless house renovation.
[8:56]All like life becomes very about the details
[8:59]and very about the concrete.
[9:01]And I think that my work is starting not so much
[9:04]expiration dates, but I think my work going forward
[9:06]is really starting to reflect that.
[9:08]Like what does it mean to not be out there in the search anymore,
[9:11]but be here dealing with what has come?
[9:15]Yes.
[9:16]Yeah.
[9:17]And hopefully not wondering about other ways
[9:19]life could have gone.
[9:21]Yeah.
[9:22]Exactly.
[9:23]What does it mean to really just be present with this thing
[9:25]that is?
[9:26]Yes.
[9:26]Yes.
[9:27]I know.
[9:27]Yeah.
[9:27]It's a lot.
[9:28]It's not the university license.
[9:30]I did it at the university.
[9:31]You know, it's all things.
[9:33]Can I ask how you met your husband?
[9:34]It's not even remotely related to this book.
[9:36]Yeah, absolutely.
[9:38]So we met on coffee in its bagel, which is a dating app.
[9:42]But what was really funny is I saw his picture.
[9:44]And I was like, he looks really familiar.
[9:46]And again, like, I was 36 years old.
[9:49]I was like, I asked him.
[9:51]I said, have we been out before?
[9:54]And he said, no, we haven't.
[9:57]And so I was like, OK, well, what's your last name?
[9:59]Because it gives you a first.
[10:00]He told me his last name and I taped it into my email and we had actually met we hadn't met. Excuse me
[10:05]We had emailed six years before that that that when the app had reduced us and we had emails back and forth to each other
[10:12]I was out in Los Angeles making famous in love my television show and
[10:18]But I was still really living in New York. I was sort of just like moonlighting as somebody who was sometimes in
[10:22]And so we had emailed back and forth and he was like we should get together
[10:26]And I just never responded to his last email because I think I went back to New York and you know
[10:31]He lived in LA and so he always says to me, you know, you go said me and and you know
[10:36]Like he said to me before you know, we missed those six years
[10:39]We could have had them and love the truth is we really couldn't have because he had just broken up with somebody
[10:46]Who was in New York and he never wanted to leave New York and I at the time was was like I was never going to leave New York
[10:52]That was the only place to live on the planet
[10:55]And he was crazy and so you know you think about these moments where you come together in the universe
[11:01]Speaking of it's like not quite now like not
[11:04]And what I say to him when he sort of like bomones the fact that we we quote-unquote lost that time together
[11:10]What I say is like but isn't it beautiful to know that the things that are meant to be become like they become
[11:15]Anyway, you know like it wasn't six years ago
[11:18]It was now but isn't it incredible to know that it's now they still the things that are meant to be
[11:24]They they just they are they find a way. So yeah, that's it. I guess like give me goosebumps. I love that
[11:31]Look at that turning it all into great coffee
[11:36]Everything is coffee. I know my poor husband. I was talking to him about something. I'm currently working on
[11:42]And I was like hey, I just wanted to tell you like, you know
[11:46]Happy marriages are just like not really interesting and fiction. You know that right and he was like uh-huh
[11:51]And I was like so like you know the things that I'm gonna write about
[11:55]It's not how I feel about us
[11:57]Or anything that like I would do it's just the reality is a fiction
[12:00]He's like uh-huh, but it is true. You know you start to the work changes a little bit my my books
[12:06]It's no secret
[12:07]You and I have talked about it that my books are very personal to my life and so
[12:12]And they've also been sort of I hesitate to use the term semi out about biographical because it's that's not true
[12:17]But but they're mirroring in some way the life stage that I'm in and like the core relationships
[12:22]I have so like in five years was really about a time in my life where the women in my life
[12:26]My friends were my primary partnership and then you know one time somewhere is about my love story with my mom and and and that sort of
[12:34]Familiar love and so I now am I'm starting to write about what it means to be with somebody and you know
[12:41]It's a different process because you you want to be truthful
[12:46]To the world and to your art that is important that is like the reason that I'm on this planet
[12:51]I have to be but also I have this this man who I love so much and who is such a sweet and tender person and I
[12:58]It starts to become kind of interesting where the lines blur when you're inventing things about a relationship that is
[13:04]true in your own
[13:06]But of course the relationship in the book is going to have elements of your own because you're writing it honest and and part of that is
[13:13]The you know like we were talking about as all of the details of what makeup
[13:17]Amere so I'm finding that that that process to be interesting. I mean he's
[13:22]Wonderful and he's like, you know right whatever you want like you write novels not not memoirs
[13:26]But it's a different process. It's interesting. Yeah, I guess cling to the idea that whatever you write the most important thing is
[13:34]Protecting your marriage. It's more important than any book
[13:40]Yeah, I don't know. I feel like sometimes I'm like, I'm just gonna put this in
[13:43]But it's really like you know
[13:45]I don't know some sort of secret about that. Yeah, we'll know it's who it's really that
[13:49]I know who it is
[13:50]But then it's like well the person who reads it will know that I've betrayed the secret
[13:54]So isn't that just as bad even if nobody else? Yeah, I don't know. I'm telling the line
[13:59]What is going on with all of the film project? Like what is what's
[14:04]Going on in that part of the world for you?
[14:07]Well, these things are just starting to come back up because we were in you know
[14:10]There was a halt there was a strike
[14:12]Yeah, Hollywood was on strike for anyone who doesn't know the writers were on strike the actors were on strike
[14:16]It was resolved last month maybe a few weeks ago
[14:19]And so things are just kind of starting to come back into the fold and we're in process on both in five years
[14:25]And one Italian suburb, you know, hopefully hopefully they they start they start to move forward
[14:30]I think that they're both films. They're both really interesting projects with really wonderful producers attached
[14:36]So hopefully those begin to move forward and then I'm just I'm just endlessly an ever in a
[14:42]In like a battle with the dinner list script like it was a movie and then it was a show
[14:47]And then it was a movie and I'm writing it and I'm constantly trying to like figure out what this thing is
[14:53]It really is my my like white whale that that particular script. So we'll see
[14:58]Do you have any time to read or do anything none?
[15:02]You know work related. That's fun. Yeah, I'm like, yeah, what do I do? That's fun
[15:08]Well, I just got married so that was fun
[15:10]And I was like planning that wedding and then the house rental
[15:13]But I have been reading my husband actually likes to read right before bed
[15:17]So I've gotten in the routine of doing that with him and I also started a book club this year
[15:23]Which I absolutely love
[15:25]Cannot recommend it enough to all of your listeners
[15:28]If you're thinking about starting a book club do you will be one of the best things you do this year
[15:32]I love it
[15:33]I just pull people from totally different areas of my life and
[15:37]We're not all writers by any stretch and which is great because I just want the point of the book club to be
[15:43]Let's just talk about whether we liked it or not. That's it. You know, so
[15:48]It's really fun and we read this month. Actually, we meet tonight
[15:52]We read it ends with us calling Hoover's book
[15:55]And then we're reading like a lot of popular affection
[15:58]Last month we read happiness falls by Angie Kim
[16:02]So yeah, I've noticed that the book club is making me read a lot more
[16:07]Because there's that set book. I finished it pretty early on into the month and then I'm like, oh right reading is great
[16:13]You know, is it online or in person in person?
[16:17]We're very strict in person only book club so much stuff happens online. It's wonderful. Like it's great
[16:22]That you can be a you know, like you can do this, but it's nice in person
[16:25]Are you do are you in a book club? I mean, I know you do 7,000 things related to book
[16:29]But are you know, I'm only in the only book club
[16:33]I'm in is my own book club and I picked the book
[16:35]So I've already read them when I pick them
[16:37]But then we do get together, but it's on zoom and then we talk
[16:41]Yeah, yeah, that's great. We talk for 30 minutes and then the author comes for 30 minutes
[16:46]That's really nice. I I love it. I love it. Does anyone welcome in your book club?
[16:51]Yeah, but you have to leave here
[16:52]So you have to be able to you know, you gotta give people who who are listening and live in LA
[16:56]They can just be a part of your book club
[17:01]Pretty small group. Here's what we'll say we are looking for okay
[17:04]This is what I'll say
[17:06]Members we're looking for other members
[17:08]But it's we're very serious like you have to be you can't miss two in a row
[17:11]Otherwise you get a case out of the book club that there's a lot of we rotate hosts
[17:16]So every month we go to like somebody different and they they host tonight
[17:19]I'm hosting and it's ugly sweater a book club because it's December
[17:22]So we are pretty strict like you have to because the truth is sorry. We're totally getting off time
[17:27]I know that's right. This is what I'll say the truth is you have you really have to be able to commit to
[17:33]Extra curricular things you want to do otherwise. It's not worth it like having a book club where people like come
[17:39]Once every six months and have a glass of wine and no one's read the book like I don't want to do that
[17:43]Let's come let's have read the book. Let's come together. Let's commit to like one night
[17:48]Once a month, but you'd be surprised how hard that is for people. It's hard
[17:52]No, well, I mean everybody has their own obligations on it exactly totally, but I'm like so yeah
[17:57]So if you're serious and you really want to be part of our book club
[18:00]DME we are looking for numbers, but you got to be serious. Well, okay. He did advice. He did it or whatever
[18:07]So and you're also in this like secret writing club too, right?
[18:12]I don't know that sounds fancy. I mean what I will say is that I
[18:19]Lived in your for a very long time, but all of my writer friends were in New York like that's where we all lived
[18:25]It's where we all met and then I moved in 2019 a few of my author friends moved with me and then COVID just brought everyone out
[18:33]So we do have a really nice circle and a really nice group and dynamic out here
[18:39]And it's really really really nice to have other authors that I can see on a weekly basis here
[18:44]So that's special. It's funny like it was our whole group in New York and now it's our whole group back here
[18:50]It's wonderful how that worked out. That's great
[18:53]So how long do books usually take you like a year like how long how long is the first draft take you?
[18:58]The first draft is quick, but I but I turn on a concept for a really long time
[19:03]So I think I had the idea for this book maybe in like late 2020 around the time that I
[19:10]Was finishing one of time in summer and I you know, I said to my agent who I absolutely adore
[19:16]I told her the idea and she's like, I don't know like how exactly would that work and I'm not sure
[19:21]And I was like, yeah, maybe it's garbage. I don't know and I thought about it and thought about it
[19:25]And then I wrote expiration dates and then oh, sorry, excuse me
[19:30]I wrote one of time somewhere. This is expiration dates and then I came back to it in 2021
[19:35]And I sort of figured out that all of my books
[19:37]And I don't think like this is not I'm not trying to make this a hallmark of what I do because my goal is to keep evolving and changing
[19:44]Like I don't know if I'll always write magical rails. I don't know if because I would hope that my books keep
[19:50]A whole thing as I do and as I as I grow as a person and as a writer
[19:53]So who knows but my last four novels have had some kind of midway twist and
[19:58]And that
[20:00]Twist is really like the why.
[20:02]It's what the book is really about with a capital A,
[20:05]like to say, like, why this story?
[20:07]So once I realized what that twist was,
[20:11]then I started writing,
[20:12]and then the writing process is really quick.
[20:13]I would say probably like three or four months.
[20:16]Wow, that's great.
[20:17]But it takes a long time to get to that place.
[20:19]Like it takes a long time of turning to be like,
[20:21]what's interesting about this story?
[20:23]Why this woman, what's going on with her?
[20:25]And then once I figure it out,
[20:27]then it's a pretty quick process.
[20:29]I'm writing a book right now,
[20:30]actually, that is taking longer.
[20:32]And it's much, I find it much harder,
[20:34]because you take like some time off
[20:37]and then getting back into it is really challenging,
[20:39]because you're like, where was I?
[20:41]And have I said that before?
[20:42]And what's his relationship with her?
[20:43]And so do you tend to draft pretty quickly when you write?
[20:46]Do you like to stay in step or it just depends?
[20:49]It's really hard.
[20:51]I, if I had nothing else to do,
[20:53]it could be much better to just like,
[20:56]a month or two, and that's all you do, but no,
[21:00]I'm like, I go and then I come back
[21:02]and I have to reread from the beginning
[21:03]and I'm like, oh, I don't have time to reread.
[21:05]And then I, like with my last, like I kept notes.
[21:08]I was like, what did I say about this person?
[21:10]Like, but it's just, you know, I fell in the time
[21:13]that you reread, you're like, okay,
[21:14]now am I writing time's up for the day?
[21:16]Right, exactly.
[21:17]Now I gotta leave my computer.
[21:18]So that's why I'm like,
[21:20]that's been my process now, because you know, life.
[21:24]Yeah.
[21:24]And it's harder.
[21:25]Yeah.
[21:26]Yeah.
[21:27]Yeah.
[21:28]That's why people are like, get in the document every day.
[21:29]And then I think about that advice.
[21:31]And I'm like, I don't know, like what am I gonna do?
[21:33]I know.
[21:34]Like I don't remember.
[21:35]I need to go back and fix this.
[21:36]But I know.
[21:37]I'm not get in.
[21:38]I'm like, this is a mess.
[21:39]And then I get out.
[21:40]I know like, oh, no, no, no, wrong term.
[21:45]I'm like, okay, so what is your advice
[21:48]for aspiring authors aside for me to maybe being better
[21:53]better than we are getting in the duck regularly?
[21:55]I don't know.
[21:56]Not forgetting.
[21:57]Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely putting your life on hold
[21:58]or something.
[21:59]So writing part is important.
[22:01]I mean, my advice would be read as much as you can.
[22:05]I always find that when I'm actively reading,
[22:07]I'm more inspired to get into a book
[22:09]and that I actually tend to read more
[22:12]when I'm actively writing than when I'm not.
[22:13]Because I feel like I'm just,
[22:14]I'm in the universe of words.
[22:16]And so I think that's really helpful.
[22:19]And then yes, consistency is important.
[22:21]But setting, oh, here's what I will say.
[22:24]This is what I do.
[22:25]This is what I have done previously when I'm drafting.
[22:28]So listen to my advice on that,
[22:30]not on what I'm currently doing.
[22:32]Okay.
[22:33]But I used to you on my previous novels
[22:35]right 2,000 words a day,
[22:36]which for this current moment of my life is too many,
[22:38]but let's say 500.
[22:39]Okay, let's say 500 words a day.
[22:41]Make it 500.
[22:42]Don't make it 4.99 and don't make it 5.02.
[22:45]Make it 500.
[22:47]Because what happens is when you end the days
[22:50]work in the middle of a thought,
[22:51]it's much easier to come back to the page the next day.
[22:54]Actually, you ended,
[22:55]you can like most of the time you end up
[22:57]ending in the middle of a sentence.
[22:58]So like when you come back to the page the next day,
[23:01]it's a lot easier to complete a sentence
[23:03]that it is to start a new paragraph
[23:05]or to start a new chapter to start a new scene.
[23:07]So my advice really is to leave off the day's work midway
[23:12]because the next day it's easier to pick up.
[23:14]That's my number one piece of advice
[23:16]for people who are looking for drafting advice.
[23:18]Okay, good to know.
[23:19]I feel like you need to teach one of our ZB classes
[23:21]about fiction writing.
[23:22]What do you think?
[23:23]Yeah, that trick is really, really helpful.
[23:27]Yeah, I should do it more right now.
[23:33]Well Rebecca, it's been so fun.
[23:34]I mean, we met so long ago, not so long.
[23:37]I mean, when we were in LA and watched like all these
[23:40]books of years come out, it's been so exciting.
[23:42]I'm so grateful, Sarah.
[23:44]I'm gonna ask you have originally connected us.
[23:46]And yeah, I'm just like so rooting for you.
[23:48]It's so exciting.
[23:49]Thank you so much.
[23:50]Thank you for all your support.
[23:51]I love seeing you.
[23:52]Yeah, I mean, I remember our in five years chat,
[23:55]which was March 10th of 2020.
[23:58]Oh my God.
[23:59]Yeah, because you were here.
[24:00]That's right with Ariel.
[24:01]I was here at Ariel and we were all sort of,
[24:05]I mean, I was like going on a 14 city book tour.
[24:06]We were all just staring at each other like,
[24:08]is this what's happening?
[24:10]And of course, we all know what happened next.
[24:12]But I literally left.
[24:13]I left town that night.
[24:15]Yeah, afternoon is when we were like,
[24:18]we're pulling, pulling, yeah, you were like, we're leaving.
[24:21]And I was like, me too to go to Boston
[24:23]and talk to 200 people.
[24:24]Like I was like, what's happening?
[24:26]It was just, it was crazy and wild.
[24:28]But I always think about that, that little little touchstone
[24:31]in such an odd time and so it's really amazing.
[24:34]Oh my gosh.
[24:35]All right, hopefully nothing bad will happen.
[24:37]No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
[24:39]All good things are here out.
[24:41]All right, all right, bye, bye, bye, bye.
[24:43]Bye.
[24:45]Thanks for listening to this episode
[24:46]of Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books.
[24:48]Don't forget to follow me on Instagram,
[24:51]at Zebioans and at Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books.
[24:54]Also sign up for my newsletter at zebioans.com
[24:56]and sign up for my virtual book club
[24:58]and meet lots of authors on Zoom every other week.
[25:00]Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan,
[25:02]in fact, Texture Sound for the Sound Editing.
[25:04]And thank you to Morning Moon Productions
[25:06]for providing this fantastic intro and now trim music.