Sarina Bowen: It’s OK To Try New Things
In this interview, USA Today-bestselling author Sarina Bowen discusses how obsessively checking the location app on her phone helped inspire her new thriller novel, Dying to Meet You.
Sarina Bowen is a 24-time USA Today bestselling author, and a Wall Street Journal bestselling author of contemporary romance novels. Formerly a derivatives trader on Wall Street, she holds a BA in economics from Yale University. She lives in New Hampshire. Follow her on Threads, Facebook, and Instagram.
In this interview, Sarina discusses how obsessively checking the location app on her phone helped inspire her new thriller novel, Dying to Meet You, her experience in shifting genres, and more.
Name: Sarina Bowen
Literary agent: Mollie Glick at CAA
Book title: Dying to Meet You
Publisher: HarperCollins
Release date: May 13, 2025
Genre/category: Domestic suspense
Previous titles: The Five Year Lie
Elevator pitch: After getting dumped, Rowan is obsessed with following her ex’s location around Portland Maine…until he’s murdered, and she becomes the prime suspect.
What prompted you to write this book?
When my teens learned to drive, I became a little too attached to watching their locations in real time. My suspense brain wondered, What’s the worst thing that could happen here?
How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?
This book took years from its idea to its execution. I started thinking hard about location apps when my kid was 16, and now he’s legal to drink.
The techy hook of this book is fun, but it’s only the setup, not a whole story. I needed a plot that worked well with this setup, but had its own depth.
Eventually I realized that my setup melded well with another story idea I had, about a female architect tasked with renovating an old New England mansion. Figuring out how the two stories intersected gave me the central conflict of the book. Meanwhile, I’d read several non-fiction narratives about maternity homes in the late twentieth century, and terrible things that happened there.
All these ideas simmered together until I was ready to lock down the plot of Dying to Meet You.
Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?
This title was book two of a two-book contract, which is always a little scary. The Five Year Lie was well-reviewed, so I had the usual nerves about landing the plane a second time.
Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?
The major twist of the book wasn’t obvious to me until I’d written about 25,000 words. This is typical for me, though: No matter how carefully I try to outline a book, the juiciest moments of drama never reveal themselves until I start raising the walls of the story.
What do you hope readers will get out of your book?
My particular approach to writing suspense is that the main character has to be deeply empathetic even when she’s making bad choices. I hope readers are pulling for Rowan from page one, so her mistakes are all the more terrifying.
To me, the fun of domestic suspense is the idea that the main character is just a regular girl … and anything can happen.
If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?
It’s OK to try new things. After 24 USA Today bestsellers in romance, I wanted to try suspense. The switch has been scary but so rewarding. I’ve learned some new narrative tricks, and I’m having a lot of fun.
Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.
