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KG:It’s actually a movie that I identify more with my parents. My mom had the VHS, so it was just something I grew up with. But I would watch it with her and think: Oh, this is dating. This is what it’s going to be like when I’m an adult and I live in New York City. So I wouldn’t say it was a touchstone for me, but it was always something that was in my head, because it was so quotable. But it wasn’t until much later in my life, when I got into Reylo fan-fiction, and decided to try writingWhen Harry Met Sallyfanfic that I read the script and watched it a bunch of times. Then I started to appreciate it as a quintessential romcom and understand how brilliant Nora Ephron was, because she was able to weave specific anxieties into this timeless story that rings true thirty years later. What about you? In reading your book, it reminded me a bit ofSliding Doorsbut a completely original take on that idea and the multiverse romcom. WasSliding Doorspart of the original inspiration?
KR:No, actually. The idea for this novel came from the night that I met my husband. I had been planning to go to a bar with friends, but then another friend invited me to a charity ball at the last minute. I decided, why not? I’ll get dressed up and go to this thing. It seemed like a very inconsequential decision at the time. I didn’t even think about it, not like I had thought about other questions like:Where am I going to go to school?OrWhat am I going to do with my life?It was justWhat are my Friday-night plans?I was faced with two sets of plans, and I chose one over the other. But from that choice, I ended up meeting him and eventually we got married, and we have a family now. And it definitely spiraled my life in a completely different directionthan if I’d chosen the other set of plans. I don’t know if we would have met if those hadn’t been the circumstances. Perfect time. Perfect place. I think the stars just aligned. And so that was sort of the idea that this grew from: What if you had a chance to go back and do something different with your life? If you took a slightly different path, would you end up in the same spot? Or would you just be a completely different person in a completely different place? And what are the consequences of that? When I started telling people about the book,Sliding Doorswas an easy example from pop culture to describe the idea of “different path, different life,” but the book is definitely a separate vibe from that movie.
KG:What does your husband think of the book? Has he read it yet? Is he allowed to?
KR:I will let him eventually. It’s me being weird, but it’s hard! You put yourself on a page and you’re wondering: Is someone going to judge me? Or are they going read into this? Will they think it’s terrible and then not want to tell me? There’s so much vulnerability.
KG:It’s definitely weird. I remember the exact moment when I let my primary partner read my book. I was just so hyped-up and nervous. We’ve been together for more than ten years. We’ve shared everything. But there was something so raw and vulnerable about letting him read it. So I completely get that and I’m very, very careful about who I’ve let read it. Ijustlet my parents read it because I wanted their help with the proofreading. But I was looking at their notes after, and I thought “Oh my God, my parents have read all of this.” They probably have so many questions. They’re probably wondering, like,what parts of this came from my life? I was a little mortified. But I think it’s almost the hardest to let the people who are closest to you read the story, not knowing what they’re going to take away from it. There’s so many things you can learn about a person from what they’ve written, far more than what they’ll probably say to you in a normal conversation.
KR:Yeah, for sure. I think I’m nervous for my sister to read it, because my book has a sister relationship in it. It’s very different from our relationship, but I think you take tiny little tidbits from your life, even if the characters are not based on anyone or real events or anything that’s happened to you. There are always little pieces that kind of find their way in. How much of your book is based on your life?
KG:I think a lot of it is based on moments in my life with my primary partner. We had a bit of a false start ourselves. We went out on two dates, and then I kinda ghosted him. I just didn’t think I could handle anything at that time in my life. So we did not see each other for more than a year. We finally reconnected when I wanted to return a DVD of his, and we had what we call our “second first date.” That’s when we start our anniversary from. We’ve always had a little bit of that second chance. A lot of the banter in the book is basically me imagining how we talk to each other. A lot of the locations are just places from my life. And a lot of the anecdotes are mine. Little moments of what it was like to be a single person and some of the bad, bad dating stories I had.
KR:I wish I had written more in my twenties and included my terrible dating stories.
KG:Same.
KR:I used to write emails to my sister and my mom about my terrible dates, and I wish they still existed because, like, I could just write a whole short-story anthology about hilariously bad dates. But now they weave their way into my romances.
KG:Yeah, totally. It pays off later.
KR:In reading your book, it felt like you spent a lot of time in New York City, like it was a place you knew very well.
KG:Yeah, I spent most of my twenties in New York City. It’s definitely where I became an adult. Not that I really feel like a total adult, but it was many years of trying to date, moving from apartment to apartment, always trying to find a better deal and never having enough money, despite working seven days a week, because I mostly worked in museums and nonprofits. So much of this book is based on those memories. Speaking of which, as someone who wants to be Canadian and wishes she lived in Canada, I loved the setting in your book of Hamilton, Ontario, as well as Toronto, and the details you brought to life. As an American reader, it was all so delightful. As a Canadian author, did you ever feel pressure to set the book in America rather than Canada?
KR:I grew up in Hamilton, and it’s so nostalgic for me, so I wanted to honor that. It’s a place I love, and it felt like the right setting for the book. But it’s funny. I hang out with a lot of Canadian romance authors. And I think, for a while, there was pressure not to set books in Canada. But lately, that’s beenchanging. Like I have heard from some readers that it’s the reason they liked the book so much. Because it was Canadian but not a stereotypical portrayal of Canada with…I don’t know. Maple syrup.
KG:They’re not running a maple syrup farm.
KR:Exactly. Hamilton is a very urban city with amazing restaurants and antiques shops and record shops and occult shops, and all the cool clothing stores. I wanted to capture all of that. And the “Canadiana” is just kind of sprinkled in.
KG:Like curling! Is curling a typical recreational activity for you or…?
KR:Okay. There are hard-core curlers up here like my grandparents. I did not grow up curling regularly, but it’s one of those things that, you know, you do in high school, as a unit in phys ed, like you go to the curling club, you tie a plastic bag around your shoe, and you learn how to curl for two weeks. Then you do it as a corporate team-building thing when you get your first job. It’s definitely part of our Canadian culture, but we’re not curling-obsessed, I would say, except for a small niche group.
KG:I kind of wanted to do it too. Honestly. Like, it seems kind of fun like bocce but on ice and like with a broom.
KR:That’s exactly it. There is a ton of local beer leagues you can join to curl. A lot of people go to bonspiels on the weekends where it’s just like an excuse to drink all day and get together and play a really fun sport. I have friends that do that! So Iknew enough about curling. I know how to play. I had to look up a few terms, mostly so I could just make them kind of sexual puns for one scene….
KG:Very important.
KR:It’s my favorite scene. Now, one of the main characters in your book is an improv comedian. Did you do a lot of improv yourself?
KG:I have dated a lot of comedians, and I’ve always been really interested in the women who are able to hang with it. I think it’s gotten better in the past few years, but it’s a really hard place for a woman to thrive. When deciding what Ari’s job should be, I felt like I wanted her to do something that was going to be really difficult, which requires somebody who can just totally roll with the punches, who’s very spontaneous and really funny.
KR:And there is so much humor in the book, but it’s also an emotional roller coaster. Both up and down. Where did you get the inspiration for the breakup in the book?
KG:I think part of that roller coaster is because this story started as fanfic. You post chapter by chapter, and you grow this built-in audience, and you have to take them up and take them down, leave them on a cliffhanger. But as I got into writing this book, I think I often felt I was arguing with myself, because I see both of the characters as aspects of myself, even though they’re so different. They’re arguing about things I feel that are deeply personal to me. Do you want to be in a committed relationship? How stable do you want to be versus how much freedomdo you want to have? Just a lot of the internal struggles that I’ve had with myself over the course of my adulthood and often feeling like there are no right answers.
KR:How else do you think writing fan-fiction affected how you approach telling a story?
KG:I come from the film world. I had written some plays and tried to write a romcom screenplay. So all of my knowledge about how you build a story comes from screenwriting books and screenplays. But being in the fan-fiction community really helped me understand how to craft a longer narrative, because I had never tried to do that before. And I don’t think I would have written as much as I did if I didn’t feel like I had an audience. I had people who wanted to see what was going to happen next, and that was so encouraging. I don’t know if I would have ever been able to write this book if I hadn’t started that way. Was this your first book or had you written other books before? It doesn’t really seem like a debut to me. It seems like somebody who knows what they’re doing, and I’d love to know how you go about it.
KR:This was my third attempt at a book. The first book is so bad. I will save it. So one day, I can give it to people and make them laugh and show them that you can get better at things if you try. I saw a clip of Ed Sheeran on some talk show where he says how talent isn’t something you’re born with, it’s something you need to develop. They played a clip of him playing guitar and singing earlier in his career, and he’s genuinely terrible. It was the same for me. I get better with every book. My first book is like that clip: genuinely terrible. And then I loved the next book I wrote, but it wasn’t the right time for it. But itwas a good learning experience for me. And then with this one, I had an idea. I knew how it ended before I even sat down to write it. I had the plot in my head. And it just flew out pretty quickly.
KG:Was there any time you had to kill a particular darling? Where you had to get rid of an entire character or scene you really loved?
KR:So…I really hate owls. And there was this rant about owls in one scene, how they’re the absolute worst, and our editor eventually had to say…I just don’t think this rant really fits here? But other than that, no. I’m definitely an underwriter. I had to build out things a bit more, like the sister relationship, to make the story fuller. So I think I’m not one to kill darlings but add additional ones. What about you?
