make my job fun and your passion for great stories and characters is infectious. Thanks for always reminding me why I love what I do and for helping me reach a diverse and incredible readership. I owe you one (million).
To all the friends and family I’ve thanked before, I thank you again. To Andy Bauch and my in-laws, the Reids and the Hanes, I have dedicated this book to you because as much as I love Acton, I also love Los Angeles, and it is in no small part because of all of you. Thank you for always supporting me and for making this huge city feel like home.
To mi madre y mi hermano, Mindy and Jake, I love you guys. Mom, thanks for moving us to Acton so I had an exceptional education, an incredible support system, and, eventually, a place to write about. Jake, thanks for moving to LA so I have someone who I can talk to when I miss the Makaha and the Honey Stung Drummies from Roche Bros.
And last but not least, Alex Jenkins Reid. Thank you for reading all of my work as if it were your own—for being thoughtful enough to see what there is to love about it and honest enough to tell me when it sucks. And—on those occasions when it does, in fact, suck—thank you for going to get me an iced tea and a cupcake. Thank you for waiting until I’m ready to try again and then rolling up your sleeves with me and saying, “We’ll figure this out.” You’re always right. We always do.
ONE TRUE LOVES
A Q&A with
TAYLOR JENKINS REID
When you set out to write One True Loves, did you know whether Emma would end up with Jesse or Sam? Did you find yourself rooting for one or the other as you wrote?
That is the question! I spent a lot of time, before I even sat down to write the first word of the book, trying to decide what I believed the truth of the situation would be. I asked myself (and a lot of my friends) what they thought they would do. I decided that there was one answer that simply felt more honest than the other answer. And I went with it. So when I started writing the first draft, I knew the ending.
As for whether I was rooting for either, I swear that I remained entirely neutral—and that I’m still neutral—about who I wanted to win out in the end. I only felt that one was more likely and I told the story I felt was the most real. But I love both Jesse and Sam madly and I worked hard in the hopes that readers would, too.
How have you developed as a writer over the course of crafting your four novels? Are there differences in how you approached writing One True Loves compared with your debut, Forever, Interrupted?
I’m embarrassed to say I don’t have a concrete answer for this! I think my readers might be a better judge of that than I. I’m inclined to turn the question around and ask, of those who have read all of my work thus far, how do they see [my writing] changing?
One of the most obvious evolutions for me to recognize is that once I’ve talked about something in one book, I find myself working double time to avoid talking about it in another. So with One True Loves, I put in a great deal of effort to create challenges that my characters in other books haven’t faced before. The more you write, the more you have to go out of your way not to emulate your past work—and that has led me to some really fun places I might not go [toward] as naturally.
What does “true love” mean to you? What about this concept did you want to explore in One True Loves?
My main goal was to put forth the idea that just because a relationship ends, it doesn’t mean that it has failed. I don’t think that true love means lasting love. If you remove that requirement and you start looking at the people you have loved in the past, you start to ask yourself: Did I love that person with all my heart? Did they change me for the better? Was I good to them? Am I glad it happened? And if that’s the case, I think we should call that relationship a success.
What inspired you to set part of One True Loves in