You may think that you’ll never find lasting love if you’ve been part of one failed relationship after another but Linda Yellin, author of The Last Blind Date, is here to tell you that there is hope for a happily ever after. In her new book, she chronicles with wit and hilarious detail, the lead-up to her current marriage to Randy Arthur and her subsequent move to New York City. She lets it be known that although there are no steadfast rules to a lasting relationship there are things you can do to keep a healthy and happy outlook on life with your partner.
We had a chance to interview Linda Yellin about her book, and this is what she had to say:
What inspired you to write a book about your experience with love?
Now that’s a good question. I’d written a book eons ago called Such A Lovely Couple. That book was about my first marriage. Interestingly, all my husbands get books written about them, whether they need one or not. (This might be the appropriate time to note that there have only been two husbands and two books. And that I’m currently not planning any sequels.)
I loved my first book, but it was totally unread. (Second note: I said unread. Not unreadable.) By the time anyone in the bookstore got to the “Y” section, they’d already bought two other books and gone home. So I figured if I wrote a new book, maybe people would like it enough to go read the first book…which Mr. Simon and Mr. Schuster have thoughtfully just re-released.
Of course, I still have that end-of-the-alphabet problem, which just goes to show I’m an idiot, since I’m now married to Randy Arthur and could have moved up to the A’s.
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How would you explain the book’s title, The Last Blind Date?
I went through 8,000 titles. If I’d strung them all together, they would have added up to another book. But my Editor-in-Chief picked The Last Blind Date out of the “short list.” I think the short list only had 500 titles on it. Randy’s the last blind date. At least I thought he was, until I moved to New York from Chicago to marry him and found myself “dating” for friends. That was one thing I hadn’t considered before moving — that I’d be starting all over without any girlfriends. So really, Randy’s my last guy blind date.
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Many reviews focus on the way in which you use humor to tell your story. Was this a conscious decision during the writing process?
No. I’m not that self-aware. If I could make a conscious decision to add things into my writing process, I’d be Aristotle or Plato. Or at least Jim Patterson.
What advice would you give our readers when it comes to finding lasting love?
Well, you won’t know if something was lasting love until you’re at your own funeral. And if Randy outlives me (and boy do I hope he does; it scares me silly to imagine myself as The Widow Linda, without him — to say nothing of having to come up with all those corned beef platters for his relatives) — even if yes indeed, we’ve had as great of a relationship as I think we’re having, there’s no doubt that before my casket’s halfway into the ground, women will be throwing tuna casseroles at him and offering him tickets for a night out at the theater.
So assuming everything is hunky dory until then, one of the most romantic things Randy ever said to me was that he didn’t want to change me, and that if he tried, he’d just mess it up. (I’m wondering… maybe that wasn’t romantic… maybe that was seduction; but it worked at the time.) Regardless, I make a point to remind myself that I’m his lover, not his mother. If I was his mom, by now he’d know to put the toilet seat down. So we don’t pick at each other, which is a little thing, but maybe a big thing, too. And we’re always saying, I love you. Sometimes I’m saying it to a black and white cookie, but most of the time I’m saying it to Randy, and he’s saying it to me.
When I first told him that I loved him (yes, I said it first — so sue me!) he gave me this whole big speech about how he didn’t like saying all that love stuff because if one person says it then the other person feels obligated to say it, and then the first person… blah, blah blah… Basically, it was the biggest dodge in the history of romance. So I stopped saying I love you until he started saying I love you (took another two months), but now we tell each other I love you all the time, which I like. Plus, it fills in the gaps when we run out of conversation.
So there you have it! For more information about Linda Yellin and her book, visit LindaYellin.com. To purchase your own copy of the book, check out Amazon.
