Sarina Dahlan was born into an Indonesian family in Thailand and immigrated to the California desert at the age of twelve. While children in the West grew up on fairy tales, she learned parables through ghost stories, mythologies, and Japanese manga.

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.