Astrid Cartesian, Author

If my work makes one person Google "Night Witches" and fall down the research rabbit hole, I've succeeded.

Pro tip: If you're writing about cold, write in the cold. I'm drafting this winter scene in my unheated garage. Method writing is real and also possibly hypothermia.

Happy to report that my new detective series is really about a forensic auditor!

Series name: THE ADVERSE ANOMALY SERIES
BOOK 1: THE WIDOW’S GOING CONCERN

<squeeee!> Excited!

The smell of aviation fuel mixed with cold air and fear. The sound of canvas flapping in wind. The weight of bombs on a wooden frame. This is what they lived with.

Some nights nobody slept. The missions were back-to-back, the targets urgent, the stakes immediate. Sleep was for after the war. If there was an after.

OPERATION NACHTHEXEN will be published in 2026!

So excited! #nanowrimo (even though I know it’s defunct) has been great for me this year, and I’m in this book deep. I’m confident in its progress!

Quick poll: Do you prefer chapter titles or just numbers? I'm Team Titles but open to persuasion.

The goal: Make you feel the wind in the cockpit, the weight of the bombs, the exhaustion of the 15th sortie. If I can do that, I've done my job.

Someone asked what genre Operation Nachthexen is. Historical thriller? Aviation adventure? War fiction? Yes. All of it. Genre is a suggestion.

Yevdokia Bershanskaya commanded the 588th for the entire war. Not a single night off. Over 23,000 sorties under her watch. Leadership means showing up every single night.

What historical figure do you think deserves their own book but hasn't gotten one yet? I'm making a list.

Every time someone tells me "women in combat is unrealistic," I get to say "let me tell you about 1942." It never gets old.

The Astrid Cartesian catalog will be: Women who did dangerous things. Historical accuracy that reads like thriller fiction. No romance subplots unless earned.