Sarah Strohmeyer

Sarah Strohmeyer is a bestselling and award-winning novelist whose books include the new thriller A Mother Always Knows, We Love to Entertain, Do I Know You?, the wildly popular Bubbles Yablonsky mystery series, The Cinderella Pact (which became the Lifetime Original Movie Lying to Be Perfect), along with many stand-alone novels for adults and young adults including Smart Girls Get What They Want and This Is My Brain on Boys. A former newspaper reporter, her writing has appeared in numerous publications, including the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Boston Globe. She lives with her cat and husband in Middlesex, Vermont, where she is the elected Town Clerk. Adult children come and go.

My Q&A with Strohmeyer:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

A Mother Always Knows relates to the beginning of the novel – in which the mother is murdered in front of her daughter while trying to flee a Vermont cult – and throughout the rest of the book, all the way to the end. Do mothers always know? Can a mother beyond the grave know? (There’s a supernatural element to the book since it involves a cult of “spiritual dowsers.”) Or, does a mother think she knows, when she really doesn’t? In the end, A Mother Always Knows is about mother/daughter relationships and how a mother’s poor decision(s) can affect her child’s future years later.

What's in a name?

This is a great question for A Mother Always Knows. For example, the protagonist’s common name is Stella, which means star. However, when Stella was living in a cult as a little girl with her mother, she was called Astraea, or “star maiden,” a goddess of justice. As a grown woman, Stella is pursuing justice for her mother whose murder has gone unsolved for twenty years.

How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your new novel?

My teenage self would be thrilled and, also, pushing me to go further. I pledged at age ten – the same age as my protagonist when she witnessed her mother’s demise – to become an author. And so I have. But what I’ve learned is that it’s barely enough to become a writer and be published by a major publisher. There are so many talented voices out there elevating this genre into forms not seen when I was in my teens that you have to be on your toes! So, the real fun has been the challenge of contributing to this evolution in some small way. I’m in such awe of my fellow mystery/thriller authors. They surprise me at every turn.

Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?

Both! (Is that a cop out?) Like my friend and fellow mystery writer Nancy Martin says, the only way to start a book knowing you’re going to rewrite the beginning to death is by lying to yourself that this time you’ll get it right from the get go. I never do. But endings are key. They’re what the readers will remember (if they get that far) and you want them to be surprised and satisfied and hopefully not pissed. It’s a tall order! I change them constantly….

Do you see much of yourself in your characters? Do they have any connection to your personality, or are they a world apart?

When I write a character in the first person, I can’t help incorporating some of my flaws and failings, my humor and observations. But that’s about it. I’m always amused when people accuse me of putting them in my books or mistakenly assume I’m writing about myself. As any writer will attest, sitting and writing for X # of hours in a day does not make for an adventurous personal life. We have to make it up – because we’re so boring!

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

The book I’m working on now, Worst. Wife. Ever, was sparked by an article I read in the New York Times about a certain movement among conservative families. Do I Know You? was inspired by my experience on the terrorist watch list (still on there, by the way) when, detained by Scotland Yard at Heathrow, they chatted to me about “super recognizers.” We Love to Entertain was the product of my own house rehab. So I guess I’m very triggered by the crazy world around us!

Visit Sarah Strohmeyer's website.

The Page 69 Test: This Is My Brain on Boys.

My Book, The Movie: This Is My Brain on Boys.

My Book, The Movie: We Love to Entertain.

Writers Read: Sarah Strohmeyer (April 2023).

The Page 69 Test: We Love to Entertain.

--Marshal Zeringue