Dete Meserve Explores the Power of Memory, Time, and Human Connection in Her Most Daring Novel Yet
PHOTO: Author Dete Meserve, bestselling novelist and award-winning producer, brings emotional depth and cinematic flair to every story she tells.
Hope, Mystery, And The Emotional Journey Through Time
Dete Meserve discusses her latest novel The Memory Collectors, shares insights into time travel, her creative process, and adapting books to screen, while offering inspiration to aspiring authors and dreamers alike.
Dete Meserve is a masterful storyteller who seamlessly bridges the worlds of novels, film, and television with heart, intelligence, and imagination. Her ability to blend gripping suspense with emotional depth has captivated millions, whether through the pages of her bestselling books or on screens large and small. With each story she crafts—whether it’s the uplifting mystery of Good Sam, the tension-laced revelations of The Space Between, or the thought-provoking journey through time in her newest novel, The Memory Collectors—Meserve proves again and again that she doesn’t just write stories; she creates experiences that linger long after the final page.
What sets Meserve apart is her rare talent for uncovering humanity at the heart of mystery. The Memory Collectors is a stunning example—a novel that poses a universal question and invites readers on a journey that is as emotionally resonant as it is suspenseful. It’s a story of second chances, aching regrets, and unexpected connections—woven with the precision of a seasoned screenwriter and the soul of a novelist who truly understands the complexities of the human heart.
In this exclusive interview, Meserve opens a door into the dreams, research, and creative drive that fuel her storytelling. She shares the personal spark behind The Memory Collectors, offers a glimpse into the making of the Good Sam film, and speaks candidly about the balancing act between her writing and her work in Hollywood. Her passion is infectious, her insights generous, and her stories—both on and off the page—remind us of the extraordinary power of hope, love, and imagination.
Meserve’s storytelling brilliance lies in her emotional depth, cinematic vision, and unwavering belief in hope, love, and human resilience.
What inspired you to explore the concept of time travel in your latest novel, The Memory Collectors?
I’m someone who vividly remembers my dreams. I write them down, reflect on them, and share them with my husband and kids. One night, I had a dream so real that I rushed to write it down the moment I woke up. In this dream, I turned to see my son, Jake, as he was twenty years ago—four years old, with strawberry blonde hair, and big brown eyes. His cheeks were flushed from the sun, and I leaned in to kiss his hair, inhaling that familiar little-boy scent. In that moment, I was convinced I’d traveled twenty-two years into the past.
The dream lingered with me for days, blurring the lines between reality and imagination, making me wonder: What if we could truly revisit our past?
Traditional theories suggest that traveling to the past would alter the future. Then I found the work of physicist Dr. Fabio Costa at the University of Queensland. His research on closed time-like curves proposed that if someone tried to change the past, the timeline adjusts to prevent any impact on the future.
That became the seeds of The Memory Collectors. You can’t change time. But revisiting the past changes you. Four strangers each spend an hour in their pasts. Each of them has their own struggles—grief, loss, guilt, blinding anger. But when their hour extends beyond sixty minutes, they find themselves stranded in the past. As their paths intertwine unexpectedly, they unearth secrets hidden in the shadows of their shared history: All their lives were shattered the same night on a secluded highway by the beach. As they dig into the hidden truths of that pivotal hour, revelations emerge.
You created an Aeon Expeditions website to accompany the book: www.AeonExpeditions.com How did that come about?
In The Memory Collectors, Aeon Expeditions is the groundbreaking invention of Mark Saunders, whose ex-wife Elizabeth is one of the travelers into the past. As I developed this world, a provocative question took hold:
What if time travel isn’t just fiction, but our next technological frontier?
Consider our very recent history. Just decades ago, the concept of ordinary citizens booking flights to space was absurd. Artificial intelligence was relegated to dystopian novels. Virtual reality and self-driving vehicles were plot devices in pulp fiction. Yet today, these technologies don’t just exist—they’re transforming our daily lives in ways once thought impossible.
Innovation doesn’t follow a linear path—it leaps forward in revolutionary bounds. What if time travel represents our next great technological threshold?
Visit www.AeonExpeditions.com and step into a world where the impossible becomes inevitable.
The future is arriving faster than any of us imagine. I want readers to immerse themselves in a world where your past isn’t just remembered—it’s revisited.
“You can’t change time. But revisiting the past changes you.” — Dete Meserve
How do you balance your roles as a film and television producer with your writing career?
It’s not easy! The demands of running a show are long days, seven days a week. I’m running Weather Hunters now—a series in collaboration with beloved weatherman Al Roker—which will premiere on July 7th on PBS Kids. I work with over 250 people on the forty animated episodes from writing through post-production, and we also are producing mobile games, activities, short form content, marketing materials and public events. It’s fast-paced, creative, collaborative, busy, and non-stop deadlines.
Writing is completely different—before I hand the book into my agent, it’s not a collaborative process. It’s letting the story and the characters unfold in front of me—the only sound being the birds in the morning or the crickets at night. The early drafts of a manuscript don’t have deadlines—that’s important to me—which allows me to take inspiration from everything around me and put it into story. Time feels different when I’m writing—I’ll commit to writing for 90 minutes some nights and it feels like only five minutes have passed!
Can you share some behind-the-scenes insights into the making of Good Sam as a Netflix Original Film?
Working on the book-to-screen adaptation of Good Sam was exhilarating and terrifying. The terrifying part is taking a story you’ve told in 70,000 words and turning it into a 95-page screenplay. What should stay? What can you let go? What do you need to add in to pull it all together?
The exhilarating parts are that you have so many more tools to tell your story than you had when you wrote the book. Actors can embody characters through voice and body language. Camera work and how things are arranged in the frame create layers of meaning. Lighting, sound design, and score makes the characters’ journeys come alive.
“Trust your gut. Follow your heart.” — Dete Meserve
Are there any particular themes or messages you hope readers take away from The Memory Collectors?
The Memory Collectors is a story about grief, loss, forgiveness and second chances. But at the center, it’s a story about hope and love in all its forms— between partners, parents and children, friends, and even the love we struggle to give ourselves.
It’s also about finding hope in our darkest moments. In The Memory Collectors, four people are selected to spend an hour in their past: Elizabeth wants more time with her son who died in a senseless accident. Andy is desperate to find his first love who vanished after a whirlwind romance. Logan yearns to reclaim the freedom he lost after an accident landed him in a wheelchair. Brooke seeks relief from the guilt of an unforgivable mistake. Each of them will find a way forward after spending time in their past.
How does living in Los Angeles influence your storytelling and creative work?
Los Angeles pulses with creative energy. Nearly everyone I know is living a creative life whether that’s art, music, cooking, writing, filmmaking, or acting. Being here is satisfying because people understand the work. There’s a shared understanding of the creative process that’s hard to find elsewhere.
I set The Memory Collectors near Los Angeles—on Faria Beach in Ventura, California—after spending a lot of time there with friends who own a home there. Its sundrenched beaches and serene waves make ordinary moments seem like magic. Anything is possible there. But as day fades, the coastal highways transform into dark arteries winding through shadows. This duality is the perfect backdrop to The Memory Collectors.
“The Memory Collectors is a story about grief, loss, forgiveness, and second chances—but at the center, it’s a story about hope.” — Dete Meserve
What advice would you give to aspiring authors who want to adapt their books into films or television series?
Start by writing the story you want to tell. Not the one you think the market wants, or what the industry is looking for today—but the one only you can write. The story that keeps you up at night and calls to you in the morning.
And one more thing: experts will be wrong. Seasoned professionals told me Good Sam couldn’t work as a film because “there are no life-and-death stakes in someone leaving $100,000 on doorsteps.” But tens of millions around the world connected with Good Sam on Netflix. Trust your gut. Follow your heart.
