60 DATES IN 6 MONTHS
’60 DATES IN 6 MONTHS’
An interview with Maureen Annne Meehan
If you want to meet a true “Force de Nature”, I suggest, you cross path with the multi-talented and maverick Maureen Anne Meehan (www.MaureenMeehanbooks.com ). Early in life, Maureen was a lawyer and a judge. And she wrote several legal thrillers. She went through a dramatic experience with the passing of her husband which led to the writing of ’60 dates in 6 months’ with a broken neck’. Recently this was turned into a movie that is been released widely in the U.S in April. When you meet Maureen, you are blown away by her spiritual force and beauty which shines through her work. This month, on the eve of the Oscars awards, Maureen was signing book at the iconic DPA lounge at the Luxe hotel (https://dpagroup.org ). We were lucky to catch her during a break in her busy schedule.
Q: What was the motivation and inspiration for this book and film: ’60 dates in 60 days with a broken neck’?
Maureen: 10 years ago, my husband passed away, and I felt after all these years, it was time to go out and date again. I went through all the modern dating apps available. For the most part it was miserable, and I even gave every guy a nickname such as “don’t tell me what to do, you’re not my cat”! In the middle of this I fell in my kitchen and broke my neck. I went on to the ICU on a Wednesday and back on a date on a Friday! I was on a book fair promoting my other legal thriller and as I was going home I felt it could be funny writing a book about modern dating in your mid-life. I took it to L.A book festival last year and it sold out in 45 minutes! I even did a QR code asking people to tell me what their worse date was. Because of all the feedback I got, I even wrote two sequels as a result. And then last year we did the movie which was picked up by Freestyle Releasing and coming out next month on multiple platforms.
Q: Best and worse things about dating?
Maureen: The best thing was meeting nice people and lots of these men I met are still friends. They were not a match for me, but we manage to stay friends. The worst thing is when they show up, and they don’t look like anything like their picture on the site. Or they are not who they say they were! I didn’t appreciate the number of “charlatans” out there. What a waste of time. I’m a very honest and transparent person and I expect the same from people I’m meeting.
Q: Did you end up meeting Mister Perfect?
Maureen: I sure did! I met somebody great. So, there is a happy ending in my case.
Q: What is a good relationship for you?
Maureen: For me it’s five essentials: Faith, Family, Friendship, Respect and Financial responsibility. The first one is Faith, and I need to be with someone who share the idea of a faith about a higher being. It’s also important for me to be with someone who treat their family and friends with kindness and love and respect.
Q: What comes next?
Maureen: I have a prequel to ’60 dates’ in the work. It’s called ‘Single mom, no manual included’. It’s pretty funny and we are going to film it soon, probably in the Fall. And we are using the same crew that did ’60 Dates’. It’s really about this woman grieving her loss and going to meetings and sharing her pain and everyone sharing parenting stories. It’s a really funny family movie. And it should be out in 2027!
By Emmanuel ITIER.
