By Matthew Abrey
Megan Edwards and Janet Reynolds planned to go on the television show, First Dates Canada, fall in love with the men of their dreams and live happily ever after.
That plan didn’t work.
Instead of meeting the men of their dreams, Megan and Janet traded TV romance for real-life friendship, bonding in the audition room over their epically bad dates.
Deciding these stories were too entertaining to keep to themselves, Megan and Janet began collecting and compiling outrageous dating stories. Dozens of stories later, The Und8ables, as they call themselves, released their debut book, Girl It’s Not You (it’s definitely him).
Now, the pair are bringing their stories to Kelowna, with a book signing at Chapters in Orchard Park Shopping Centre on July 3.
We got the opportunity to sit down with the duo earlier this week, leading up to the signing.
1. How did you two meet?
Megan: We met while we were in the audition room for First Dates Canada. The room was like 35 degrees and Janet’s friend who had come to support her at the audition, couldn’t stand it anymore and left to get a drink across the road. Janet came and sat next to me and we started chatting. After that, we found each other on social media and eventually became super tight. The summer of 2016 was amazing and we had such a blast partying, going to the lake and just going crazy.
Janet: It was a totally new experience for me. I’d never been at an audition, let alone for a blind date. We had to fill out a contract and I had no idea what it meant, so I randomly picked Megan as the person I sat beside to ask. We started chatting and voila! The rest is history.
2. Tell us a little more about your experiences on the TV show.
Megan: I had never been on a blind date before, let alone a blind date on TV so I was super nervous. To be honest, my date came across as a little bit douchey on camera, but in real life, I thought that he was easy to talk to and joke around with and banter with. He made me relax. We hung out the next night too at a friends BBQ but when we were there, I found him to be clingy and a bit too much. I told him I didn’t see a future and I don’t think he was happy about that but we’ve stayed friends. Sort of.
Janet: It was such a fun experience. After a while you forget that there’s a ton of cameras on you. My date was super funny, but not really my type, plus we were looking for different things. He made me feel at ease and comfortable, which is all I could ask for when filming a reality TV show. We’ve kept in touch through social media and he’s still as funny as ever.
3. What inspired you two to write a book based on bad first dates?
Megan: I had been in a long term relationship for three and a half years, and when I got out of that, I started dating. Oh my god I was in for a rude awakening. It was one terrible date after another. After a while, it was just kind of funny. I would say to my friends “Want to hear about my recent date disaster?” and they would be pumped because it was what nightmares were made of. Eventually, I started doing voice recordings of dates so I would remember all the details and then I decided to type them out on my computer. That was the summer of 2016 and at the beginning of 2017, I asked Janet if she wanted to join me. I knew she had had horrible dating stories and since we had so much fun together on a regular basis, she would make this writing process that much better, and she likes wine just as much as I do so that was a plus as well!
Janet: I’ve been on so many bad dates over the last 15 years, it was beginning to become entertainment for my friends. After each date a few friends would ask if anything crazy had happened, and I never seemed to leave them disappointed. They said over and over, “you need to write this stuff down” or “you should start a blog.” It was just becoming ridiculous So it was kind of random luck when Megan and I became friends. She had already started the process, and I had a lot of ammunition to add, and I was more than willing to share my adventures.
4. Now, the book was initially crowdfunded. What did it mean to you two, to have so many people eager to support your endeavours?
Megan: Yes. Since we self-published Girl It’s Not You (it’s definitely him), all expenses came out of our pockets, so we just had to reach out to people and ask for help. Everyone that knows me knows that I’m a person with huge goals and aspirations in life and sometimes I think that people don’t believe me when I say I’m going to do something. But this was different. We had an immense amount of support and people truly believed in us and the book.
Janet: The outpouring of support we received was incredible. We truly couldn’t have done it without our friends, family, and even complete strangers backing us up! It really helped to push us to work even harder to finish the book. We knew we wanted to show everyone that supported us that we’d follow through with it.
5. Are any of your own bad date stories in the book?
Megan: Oh heck yes. We planned to only have our horrendous stories in the book but even though we’ve been on a lot of bad dates, we haven’t been on enough to fill a book, thank god. So we then had to ask friends and family. Now we have so many people coming to us and telling us their bad date stories so hopefully we can do a second book.
Janet: Oh trust me, there’s definitely some of our stories in there. But you’ll never know which ones …sssshhhh!
6. What is the worst bad date you’ve ever had?
Megan: I went to Seattle with a guy and he threw a water glass and then a wine glass at the wall beside my head when we were at a restaurant because he was intoxicated and we had been arguing. He ran out of the restaurant and the employees there were amazing and they helped me book another hotel room and a waitress even drove me back to the hotel. I thought it couldn’t get any worse, but when I went up to the hotel room to get my stuff, including my passport, he had bolted the door shut. No matter how loud I yelled or how many times I called, he wouldn’t answer the door. I was actually afraid for his safety so I called the fire department and they came and knocked down the door with an axe and a crowbar. He was in the room just snoring away and hadn’t heard a thing. Ugh! Worst date ever.
Janet: Probably one of the worst dates I went on was with a guy who was completely different to what his online profile had said. He kept asking me to go up to his place after we’d finished a very painful dinner date, and I kept refusing. I finally got into my car, and he opened my door, reached in, and rolled my window down so he could continue to ask me out on a second date. I kindly declined, started my car, and backed out of the spot. The guy kept walking alongside my car, talking to me through the window. I put it in drive, starting to pull away, and the next thing I know he was holding onto my car door and jogging beside my car! He just wouldn’t give up. I admire his dedication though. (laughs)
7. What’s the next project for the Und8ables?
Megan: World domination! You think I’m kidding? Nope. We know that women everywhere and even some men can relate to this book and would love to have a good laugh. We want this book to be translated in different languages and to have it be as successful as possible.
Janet: Well, I’d say visiting a winery while we’re here in Kelowna, but that isn’t as epic as Megan’s answer. How about winery domination?
The Und8ables will be at Chapters at Orchard Park Shopping Centre in Kelowna on Tuesday, July 3rd at 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
For more information, you can find the duo on Instagram or Twitter at @TheUnd8ables, or on Facebook.
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