A graduate of the University of California, San Diego, with degrees in psychology and visual arts, she has blended both disciplines in careers as an advertising producer, a corporate marketing strategist, and a writer. She lives in San Diego with her young family and a senior cat. Her debut novel, Reset, was an instant bestseller.

Freeset, the last book in the Four Cities love tryptic, will come out May 21, 2024.

Growing up, I could always be found reading—in dark corners, underneath the stairs, in a nook between a table and a chair, wherever there was peace. I’m convinced most writers’ origins begin in crevices and shadows.

All the stories I’ve loved have been bittersweet. I find comfort in them—in the poignancy of life, in the preciousness of fleeting moments, in the idea that beauty can come from the ugliest of places. My favorites have helped me process some heavy questions in small nuggets.

Before I began writing in earnest, I spent sixteen years in Corporate America wrapped up in numbers and data. Trained to look at people as categories—income, spending habits, return on investment—my job was money. But after the company was acquired and I refused to move to a new state to keep my same job, I decided to use my severance payout to buy what was most precious: time. Specifically, time to write.

Reset came to me late one night in 2017 in the form of a question as I was staring at my blank computer screen after deleting 70,000 words of the novel I had spent months writing. What if we could delete our memories the same way we do documents?

For a year I wrote daily, letting the story and the characters guide me. I followed Aris and Metis, past lovers who lost each other after their memories were wiped in tabula rasa, a process everyone goes through every four years in order to maintain peace in the utopia of the Four Cities. No memories. No attachments. No wars.

By being in discovery mode, writing became exploring—living with the characters, loving with them, understanding them, being afraid for them, and finding hope in love as they do. It was the opposite of how I had approached my corporate job where everything had to be meticulously planned and tracked (much in the way things are run in the Four Cities.) I brought into it Buddhist philosophy from Thailand where I grew up, the lyrics of my favorite song Imagine, and the essence of the books that have shaped me.

I finished Reset in 2018, got an agent the same year, and she sold it in 2019. In 2020, while Covid upended the world, I was assigned my very first editor. Peggy’s love for the book fueled me through the arduous editing process and the uncertainty of life in that time. A month after we wrapped up, she passed away. I had no idea she was sick. There is a line she wrote in the synopsis that rings different after I found out—“Reset will make you consider the haunting reality of love and loss, and the indelible marks they leave behind.” I added her into my dedication and the book came out in May 2021, four years that began with my personal reset and ended with the world’s.

While I waited for Reset to go through the production process, I began writing Preset, its prequel. I hadn’t intended to write a series but I was curious about the two creators of the Four Cities. What had to have happened to them and the world for them to conceive of a place ruled by the fear of loss?

Just as I did with Reset, I let the characters lead me. The story follows a married couple, Eleanor and Eli, as they struggle to save the last of humanity after a catastrophic war has ravaged the world. For him, I took inspiration from another larger-than-life visionary, Steve Jobs. Her, I found in all the intelligent female characters I’ve read about who have ever been overshadowed. The couple guided me through thirty years of their relationship and I projected into their world our own current events, my anxiety about climate change, history, advancement in AI and science. Having seen the world through their eyes, I’ve come to understand their fears.

As I was finishing the book, we lost my father-in-law and our life came to a halt. While my mother-in-law was in the hospital from grief, I made a promise to dedicate Preset to him and her. I thought it would be appropriate—a book about a long marriage dedicated to a couple with a long marriage.

Months after, when my new editor came to me, we relooked at the book and saw all the weak points. Diana helped me to see that the story I had written wasn’t the real story I was trying to tell. I was relieved and terrified in equal measure. I knew I had to rewrite half the book to make it better, but how? Then two things happened while I was in the throes of editing that made everything click. One, I realized I was afraid of Eli like everyone around him. Two, Roe v Wade was overturned in June 2022. I had no choice but to face my fears head on. Preset became my scream about injustice and my hope for a better world. It came out in 2023 and I used the hope I found at the end of writing Preset to fuel Freeset, the third book in the series.

This time, I wanted to center the story around the created-children, Cass and Bastian. But my mind was crowded and I ended up writing a long drawn out story that I could not see an ending to. I was too deep in the tunnel to see the other side. With the help of Diana, I realized why. I was afraid to write the big ensemble story the series needed. Until that point my books tend to be intimate with close perspectives—that was my comfort zone. But everyone’s freedom in the Four Cities hinges on each other’s, and the characters demanded it be about community. So, I rewrote it in entirety.

Freeset isn’t dystopian fiction with one hero. It is a story about people coming together after realizing that no one is free until everyone is free. It’s about love for others being a fuel for change. About letting go of the past to embrace a new beginning. After I finished, I dedicated it to those who serve as bridges. But as the book was being printed, just like Eleanor’s cat had years prior, my cat of twenty years passed. You will find him in my dedication too.

For seven years and multiple lifetimes, I’ve lived in a world that demanded I give up love for comfort. That I trade pieces of myself for safety. Through my characters, I have fought to break free from that world. Our lives have intertwined, our losses intermingled. Writing them has indelibly changed me.

It’s been my honor to have spent the last seven years sharing the lives of those in the Four Cities with you.

The post Sarina Dahlan on Writing The Four Cities Series appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Plus, be sure to to check out Blackstone’s sweepstakes giveaway and enter a chance to win RESET by Sarina Dahlan, along with some cool swag items!

Hi, Sarina! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?

Hi! I was born in Thailand into an Indonesian family but grew up in the U.S. A natural leftie who was forced to write with my right hand as a child, I’m ambidextrous and can write backward with my left. Based on several tests, my personality can’t decide whether I’m INTP or INFP. I’m an Aquarius sun, Virgo moon, and Sagittarius rising. All of this makes being inside my head both entertaining and frustrating. Traveling is my lifeline, and prior to Covid-19, I’ve always kept my passport in my purse just in case. After I’m dead, I’d like to become a tree—ideally a Japanese maple. And I prefer tea over coffee.

How is your 2021 going in comparison to that other year?

Ironically last year brought several new people and experiences into my life. Being busy preparing for the publishing of my debut novel, Reset, kept me sane amidst the craziness of 2020. My journey began in May when Megan Wahrenbrock at Blackstone reached out to me with the publishing date and guided me through the process. I spent the early part of summer working with my incredible developmental editor, Peggy Hageman (who I also dedicated this book to), and lost her unexpectedly to cancer at the end. I reread my book four times, combing through it with my line editor, Michael Krohn. I had a wonderful experience with Kurt Jones and the design team on Reset’s beautiful cover. And toward the end of the year, I began talking with Mandy Earles and the marketing team on the plans to bring Reset into reader’s hands. 2021 is a continuation of last year’s busy schedule, but with the ramp-up of marketing and promotion. It’s satisfying to see the book—my labor of love—in physical form. This journey is a dream come true, and I’m grateful to be on this path. I can’t wait to see where it leads.

Quick lightning round! Tell us the first book you ever remember reading, the one that made you want to become an author, and one that you can’t stop thinking about!

A Thai translated copy of Toto-chan by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi about a girl finding her place in an unusual progressive school with railroad cars for classrooms. “One Hundred Years of Solitude” by Gabriel García Márquez. “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood.

When did you first discover your love for writing?

Like most authors, my love for writing stems from my love of reading. When I was a child, I could always be found hiding in quiet corners with my face buried in a book. That transition from loving stories to telling my own was a subtle one. There was no one moment, no epiphany. It was more a slow realization that perhaps one day I could write a book. As soon as I believed it, I fell in love with it.

Your novel, Reset, is out May 25^th 2021! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?

This is hard one. For now, I’m going with “dystopian love in utopian society.”

What can readers expect?

Reset is a story about past lovers who live in a post-apocalyptic utopia where memories are erased every four years in the name of peace. You can expect a heartrending love story, philosophical thoughts about life, what we mean to each other, loss, hope.

Where did the inspiration for Reset come from?

It was around 3 a.m. I was exhausted and frustrated from a terrible writing session, and decided to erase everything I had worked on for months. As I was staring at the blank screen of my laptop, teetering between regret and relief, a question came to me. “What if humans could reset our lives every so often?” Then more questions came. What life would we have? What kind of world would we live in? At its worst, memory loss robs you of the person you love so I knew right away that it had to be a love story. For the setting, I wanted a world we could feel conflicted about rooting for—a utopia where peace is of utmost importance. That led to the lyrics of my favorite song, Imagine, and Buddhist philosophy. I highly recommend staying up late. You never know when the muse will visit.

Can you tell us about any challenges you faced while writing and how you were able to overcome them?

Reset was the first novel I ever completed. It took me a full year and what seemed like a thousand rewrites. Finishing a story is probably the most difficult challenge a writer faces. It takes an incredible amount of focus and discipline to write ninety-thousand words, edit them, and edit them again. There’s value to every new idea, but execution is what will separate a good idea from one that’s worth writing about. To stay on-task, I decided to treat writing as a career and the book as a project with a deadline for each milestone. I dedicated hours each day to writing, which included learning the craft, researching, and long walks to dream up scenes and plotline. Of course, the biggest chunk of the time was spent tapping words on my keyboard and deleting them. There’s no shortcut to writing. This is where my Virgo moon comes in handy.

Were there any favourite moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?

Though Reset is a romantic love story between Aris and Metis, I really enjoyed writing the friendship between Aris and her friend, Benja. They are opposites in many ways and have a unique relationship that’s platonic yet intimate. I have long friendships that began as far back as elementary school. Many of my friends are like family. So, I really connected with that part of the story.

What’s the best and the worst writing advice you have received?

“It’s not supposed to be easy. It’s supposed to be meaningful” is the best advice I’ve ever received. It has helped sustain my passion and persistence in this very difficult business. I think it can also be applied to more than writing. Worst advice is probably anything that would make me stop writing. So far, nothing yet.

What’s next for you?

I’ve been writing a book a year since I became a full-time writer. One, a romantic fantasy about second chances, is on submission. One, a YA fantasy about Thai witches, needs to be completely rewritten. One, a sci-fi, is half-completed. I paused it to work on my current book—a prequel to Reset—which I’ve been writing on and off for about three years. It centers on the two people who created the Four Cities. If Reset is about a marriage coming together, this book is about a marriage coming apart under the weight of the world. Let me tell you, it’s one thing to write about a society already in progress and another to write about a society in the process of being built. This has been a very difficult story to write.

Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for our readers?

One of the best things about being a writer is meeting and becoming friends with other writers. So, I’m going to recommend two wonderful books by my publishing house siblings that I read and loved. “White Trash Warlock” by David R. Slayton is a keep-you-on-your-toes urban fantasy about a gay warlock trying to save his sister-in-law and Denver from being destroyed by a monster. “Block Seventeen” by Kimiko Guthrie is a nuanced multi-genre story set in both a Japanese internment camp during WWII and modern San Francisco. It threads together a mother’s painful past and a daughter’s current heartbreak.

Will you be picking up Reset? Tell us in the comments below!

The post Q&A: Sarina Dahlan, Author of ‘Reset’ appeared first on The Nerd Daily.