We love a local success story!

August has otherwise been a pretty quiet month for me personally, but it’s been huge for some of my friends in the genre writing community. Notably, longtime local author buddy and One More Page Books alum Anna Bright hit the number one spot on the New York Times bestseller list with her latest novel, Wings of Reverie!

Getting to attend Anna’s launch over at OMP was such a treat. I know essentially nothing about the Pixie Hollow fandom or its attached IP novels, but Anna is an eternal delight to listen to, and I couldn’t pass up the excuse to go see her in person. It’s a testament to her intelligence, empathy, and charisma how much fun I had learning about an extended fantasy world I had previously zero understanding of!

Other bookish things to look forward to!

Another success to celebrate: my friend Ayana Gray (whom I first met at mutual author friend Becca Mix’s wedding) just landed a starred review from Publishers Weekly (no small feat) for her upcoming historical fantasy Hawk & Sparrow, which drops on September 1 — just a few days away!

Set during the Gilded Age (!!!), this novel combines high society intrigue with a murder mystery plot, along with some fun fantastical alt-history world-building. It sounds like such a treat, and I’m super excited to dive into both this book and Ayana’s previous smash hit I, Medusa.

What are you guys celebrating lately? What are you looking forward to?

Solid all-around grappler with competitive potential, but got promoted through the ranks way too fast, with way too little mat time under her belt, and keeps losing in the first round at IBJJF majors because of it. This is probably a solvable problem, but whenever you suggest studying tape or working positionals, she’s always mysteriously “too busy.” This might be for actual legitimate life reasons, but damn, lady, if that’s how you feel, maybe you gotta reconsider those IBJJF membership fees.

Daemon Targaryen

Dangerous leg locker who (mostly) respects the tap, but does not understand the concept of catch-and-release. Will heel hook you in the gi just for kicks. Single-handedly responsible for at least three different knee injuries at the gym, and at least seven different inter-team dating scandals. Probably should have been kicked out years ago for being “toxic to the mat culture,” but has a complicated love-hate relationship with the head coach, who keeps making excuses for him.

Criston Cole

Excellent wrestler who somehow never made it onto a collegiate D1 team, and has decided to make this everyone else’s problem. Lives for scrambles and smash passing, but claims that leg locks “lack honor.” Every time he loses a tournament, he posts an extremely long, alarmingly self-flagellating Instagram caption that makes everyone uncomfortable.

Aside from taking Grappling Industry losses way too seriously, he was actually pretty well-liked until he hooked up with your black belt professor’s daughter and started a bunch of crazy gym drama over getting dumped, and now the whole women’s team hates him.

Corlys Velaryon

No-nonsense, old school multiple-time black belt world champion who’s now mostly retired, but occasionally turns up at Masters Worlds to dog-walk some poor normal middle-aged office worker who just got his black belt after training twice a week for a decade. Really good at playing deep half and octopus guard. Probably the best coach at the gym, and definitely the guy you want in your corner when you compete, but tolerates a lot more mat drama than he really should.

Rhaenys Targaryen

Joined the gym back before there were any other women training. Somehow got her black belt years later than her male teammates despite training for the same amount of time and winning multiple IBJJF majors. Hates gym politics, and is extremely done with everyone’s bullshit. Has made several white belt men cry.

Ormund Hightower

Unironically tells everyone that pulling guard is “gay,” but keeps getting taken down by superior wrestlers. Not actually bad at jiu-jitsu, but gets DQ’ed in the first round at his IBJJF debut for crashing out and screaming at the ref for giving him stalling penalties. God have mercy on anyone who agrees to corner this guy.

Also, threw up once after rolling with Stinky Gi Guy, which is probably the most relatable he’s ever been.

Gwayne Hightower

Unapologetic butt scooter. Immediately sits to guard in every match, leading everyone to believe that he can’t wrestle, until he shoots a clean blast double on an opponent in ADCC overtime, and nonchalantly reveals that he in fact wrestled competitively for like ten years, but why would he bother with all that when he can simply sit down and end the match early via triangle armbar?

Ulf White

Is the Stinky Gi Guy. White belt freak athlete who muscles everything. Pure chaos on the mats. King of accidental neck cranks and trying to Americana upper belts from inside their closed guard. Doesn’t actually know any sport jiu-jitsu rules, and is genuinely confused when all the coaches yell at him during comp class.

Daeron Targaryen

Youth competitor who keeps beating adults, and clearly feels kind of bad about it. Actually a very sweet kid off the mats. On the mats, he is terrifying, not because he deliberately wants to hurt anyone, but because he’s one of those juvenile blue belts with the technical skill of an adult black belt, and grown men get weird and butthurt about it.

Oscar Tully

Probably an equally terrifying juvenile competitor, but does not feel even a little bit bad about beating up the adults. Will almost definitely make most of the IBJJF major podiums in his debut black belt year at age 18.

Alicent Hightower

One of your black belt professors started dating her when she was a new white belt, which everyone agreed was weird and kind of predatory! No one ever sees her roll, but she definitely still hangs out on the mats pretty regularly. Unclear how much she actually enjoys jiu-jitsu, and how much she just feels obligated to stay at the gym because she married her professor.

Aemond Targaryen

The upper belt version of Ulf’s white belt chaos. Copies all of Daemon’s leg locking techniques, and cranks them as hard as he can. Insists on going for scissors takedowns, jumping guard without warning, and slamming people out of closed guard even when his training partners ask him not to. Has injured almost everyone he has ever rolled with at some point. Avoid training with him if you value the integrity of your joints!

Aegon Targaryen

A legitimately terrible student who somehow keeps getting promoted for reasons that remain a mystery to everyone. Blames the ref every time he loses a match, and purposefully enters empty IBJJF divisions so he can post his default medals on Instagram with the caption “quad gold, baby.” Avoids rolling with anyone who can actually submit him.

Alyn of Hull

Very competent, dutiful upper belt who always gets stuck on kids’ class duty. Never complains about it, but clearly on his last nerve. Doesn’t invert, play bolos or fancy lapel guards, or enter many leg entanglements, but still wins a lot of matches with the old school classics: arm drags, closed guard submissions, and insane crossface pressure from top position. Forever in his basic bitch knee cut era, and proud of it.

Addam of Hull

Gets out of kids’ class duty by constantly traveling for tournaments. Loves lapel guards and berimbolos. A regular feature on the FloGrappling highlight reels.

Who would you train with? And what other fictional jiu-jitsu thought exercises should we pursue here?

I kept mine fairly low key this year, especially since my actual birthday landed about a week out from my competition date at the IBJJF Virginia Open, but my gifts did include a visit from one of my best friends in the world since our undergrad days (hello, Melody!), a blueberry lemon ricotta pie my partner insisted on baking from scratch for me (I love you, Daniel!), and last but certainly not least, my very first official win in the IBJJF brown belt division.

I took home gold by the skin of my teeth — literally a single advantage on the scoreboard, won in the waning seconds of the match! — but considering that I conversely lost both my previous brown belt matches by a single advantage apiece, this seems a noteworthy improvement! I was also really honored by the chance to face the opponent I drew, who’s previously won double gold at weight and in the absolute (i.e. no weight limit!) divisions at both Pans and Worlds, and is just an all-around stellar jiu-jitsu athlete. Definitely a valuable learning experience on multiple levels.

Writing-wise, as I await the latest round of edits on Ash & Anchor, I’ve pivoted toward quite a bit of content writing, including a very fun profile piece I’m currently working on for Gaidama about a sponsored athlete who’s something of a local legend on the DC area jiu-jitsu scene. Novels will probably always be my favorite chosen medium, but as a freelancer in an arts field, I do find playing with other forms — narrative nonfiction and journalism; storytelling via commercial case study; even good old-fashioned, no-frills copywriting! — genuinely creatively refreshing. Also, you know, gotta love a diversified income stream.

One of these days, I should really do a newsletter here on how the balance in my professional life between penning novels via traditional book contracts and doing snappy, short turnaround content writing for commercial clients has allowed me to build quite a fulfilling “full-time” writing career that wouldn’t otherwise be possible for a humble midlist author of my ilk!

To that end, as I officially enter the second half of my thirties this month, I’ve been thinking a lot about the twists and turns of my adult life. As someone who’s probably always been a creative at heart, but also harbored extremely low risk tolerance, my plan since my early teens was always to get a “normal grown-up office job” that would appropriately impress my academically-inclined parents’ friends — and hopefully, maybe publish a novel or two on the side, just for kicks.

So, I followed my plan! I finished undergrad at twenty-one, grad school at twenty-three (with some time off in between to run off to Busan, South Korea on government dime, a.k.a. the Fulbright grant, but that’s another story), then moved to Washington, DC and proceeded to spend a solid six-ish years masquerading as a passionate international risk consultant in various subfields — all the while eschewing sleep and normal social opportunities to build my creative writing portfolio.

Even after I landed an agent and sold my first novel in 2018, I remained stubbornly convinced that writing as a real job would only ever be a “side hustle” for me. It wasn’t until I stumbled into an extremely fortunate and well-timed in-house opportunity to handle content writing for the risk intelligence firm I worked for at the time that I even considered becoming a “writer” first and foremost.

I remember years of desperately trying to feel as passionate about my nice, respectable DC dinner party-friendly consulting career as I did about writing novels for teenagers about giant robot dragons, or hell, even doing narrative content for corporate case studies, which at least tickled my creative brain in a way other office work never quite did. Then the pandemic hit, everyone was getting laid off, and I was like, “screw it.”

So, I did the scary thing I’d secretly been wanting to do forever: I went full-time freelance, as a writer across multiple mediums, literally anywhere I could get the work, from combat sports journalism gigs to drafting corporate boilerplate. I’ve been in the traditional book publishing game for eight years now, and a “full-time writer” with an honest-to-goodness commercial content portfolio for almost five. I have five traditionally published novels to my name, and a sixth under contract. I am also, despite my deepest anxieties, somehow not yet financially ruined!

And to be quite honest? I still feel mildly insane for choosing this life. What can I say? That neurotically risk-averse fourteen-year-old who is terrified of financial instability still lives inside Grown-Up Me. It might not be an entirely bad thing; Neurotic Teen Andrea probably does keep Adult Andrea in check from time to time.

But the bigger part of me — the part that turned a whopping thirty-six whole years old this month — also just feels really, really lucky to get to live and work the way I do.

Here’s to surviving another trip around the sun on our own terms!

Share The Pen & Sword

Here’s some of the water that’s gone into my well this month.

Books: What I’ve Read & What I’m Reading

Most Memorable Recent Read

Dark Chapter by Winnie M. Li

Semi-autobiographical litfic is very outside my usual genre wheelhouse, but 1) I feel like I’ve been saying that about a lot of books I’ve really enjoyed lately, so maybe I should be more openminded, and 2) I’m not exaggerating when I say that Winnie’s novel had me glued to the pages for basically two days straight. A frankly told yet deeply empathetic examination of sexual assault, class and culture divides, and societal sexism, inspired by the author’s own harrowing experience with stranger rape in Ireland. This one has stuck with me ever since I finished it, and inspired me to finally write this essay about my own encounter with unexpected sexual violence. (Please mind the content warnings and proceed with caution!)

My Current Read

Ebony Gate by Julia Vee and Ken Bebelle

This one was pitched to me as an epic urban fantasy featuring a female, Asian-American John Wick, so in other words: my kryptonite. I’m having a rollicking good time with it so far, and loving the (extremely mat-accurate!) depictions of jiu-jitsu, as well as the delightful infusion of multiple East Asian cultures in the fantasy world-building.

General Reading & Audio Recommendations

The current Pen & Sword subscriber demographic is a really interesting split between:

1) The nerds! People who read my novels and are generally into books, especially genre reads (e.g. fantasy, sci-fi, horror, etc.)

2) The jocks! People who read my martial arts content on athletic apparel blogs or combat sport news outlets because they are themselves martial arts or general fitness enthusiasts, and/or people who take my jiu-jitsu classes IRL.

3) The delightful randos! People who have met me either online or in person & simply decided they enjoy hearing me yap about whatever!

Which is kind of cool, but also means that one of my challenges in publishing this newsletter is cooking up material each month that will hopefully interest readers in each of these categories.

Luckily, being a full-time, multidisciplinary freelance writer with probable undiagnosed ADHD, an overpriced liberal arts education, and a penchant for eclectic hobbies has cultivated in me all kinds of bizarre hyper-fixations on seemingly niche subjects. As a result, I regularly consume a pretty eclectic mix of think pieces, podcast episodes, and video essays. I then delight in foisting these upon my friends, colleagues, and on occasion, newsletter subscribers.

Here are the most recent examples, organized by way of 1) reasons I assume you subscribed to me, and 2) your preferred means of media consumption (a.k.a. listen, watch, or read).

If you’re here mostly as a fellow Professional Book Person (current or aspiring!):

READ

“On the Inside: Acquiring books from a Big 5 Publisher + Small Press Perspective with Jamie Ryu” by Stephanie Moon. This one actually arrived in my inbox as recommended reading from my own agent (shoutout to the wonderful Thao Le!) as useful education on the current trad pub landscape. True to Thao’s recommendation, it’s an eye-opening look at the acquisitions process from agent, to editor, to marketing, finance, and sales — and what that means for authors in various stages of a traditional publishing career.

LISTEN

“Honesty, Hostility, and Misinformation in Trad Publishing” from The Publishing Rodeo. I love the Publishing Rodeo’s general insights into the publishing industry, and this was a particularly strong episode that serves as a really interesting discussion of the divides in self-pub/indie culture versus trad, as well as the role of the all-consuming social media algorithm gods.

If you’re here because you just really like reading, but have no aspirations of “turning pro”:

LISTEN

“How Romance Novels Center Marginalized Joy” from The Culture Study. Anne Helen Petersen does it again! One of the best-known pop culture scholars of the generation dives into why we love what we love in fiction, from the “only one bed” trope to enemies-to-lovers plotlines.

“Have You Heard About Trad Wives with Caro Claire Burke” from the “Have You Heard About...” podcast (yes, that is the complete name of the show!). A very fun interview with Caro Claire Burke, author of Yesteryear, the mega buzz-generating speculative novel about a modern day trad wife social media influencer who’s transported back in time to the real life 1800s.

If you’re here mostly for jiu-jitsu and/or general martial arts and jock life content:

WATCH

“Don’t compete until you watch this” by Beatrice Jin. Beatrice is not only one of my closest friends and favorite jiu-jitsu training partners, she also happens to be a world-class full-time black belt competitor, currently ranked among the top ten jiu-jitsu athletes on the planet in two different weight classes. Her YouTube channel is a delight, and this particular video essay provides some of the best tournament advice I’ve seen in a minute.

LISTEN

“New School Fundamentals, feat. Lachlan Giles” from BJJ Mental Models. I may be biased, as the host of a BJJ Mental Models premium series (check out BJJ Today if you have a premium membership on the BJJMM platform + a general interest in modern grappling news and culture!), but I still think BJJMM produces some of the best and most comprehensive audio content for grappling enthusiasts of all demographics, period. This particular episode dives into some really interesting (and frequently under-discussed!) points on how best to prepare for the current era of high-level competition, as told by one of the most consistently successful coaches and competitors in the business.

READ

“You’d be a better person if you exercised more (but let’s define better)” by Mikala Jamison. Mikala’s Substack “Body Type” regularly produces some of my favorite reads on fitness culture and body image (I continue to foist “The long con of Pilates culture” upon anyone with even a passing interest in exercise science and fitness industry trends!). This particular essay dives into some of the inspiration behind Mikala’s book The Forever Project, which chronicles her personal journey toward finding joy in movement.

If you’re here because you enjoy my Gaidama blogging, and are interested in more fashion writing and/or general fashion & style discussion:

READ

“The Rise of the City Boy” by Lach Thomson. Japanese street fashion has always kind of fascinated me, but a lot of its more famous iterations (the Harajuku district looks of the early-mid 2000s come to mind!) don’t exactly vibe with my own personal style (if I had to choose three style words à la Allison Bornstein, they’d probably be something like “sensible,” “versatile,” and if pressed for a truly aspirational descriptor, maybe “elegant”). Enter the Tokyo city boy! As I get older and more aggressively utilitarian in my daily dressing, I also find myself gravitating toward slightly androgynous, almost tomboyish pieces (though not without some femme edge!), so Japanese city boy culture definitely has its points of appeal.

“An Introduction to the Kibbe Body Types” by Gabrielle Arruda. I’m not sure to what extent I buy into David Kibbe’s famous but notoriously complex 13-type image identity theory, but I do find it to be a really fascinating and sometimes surprisingly helpful way to understand style lines for — and appreciate the unique beauty of! — different body shapes. Gabrielle Arruda also just has such an accessible voice and writing style that it’s hard not to be hooked on whatever she’s talking about!

LISTEN

“Sizes” from Articles of Interest. I could legitimately probably recommend the entire Articles of Interest archive (I’m currently making my way through “Gear,” the miniseries on the influence of the American military on fashion!). This one’s a particularly great listen for anyone who’s ever wondered why every brand seems to have different size standards — and what it takes to be a fit model, i.e. the professional “living mannequins” responsible for determining those sizes.

If you saw that one newsletter I wrote featuring a bunch of my dog’s pictures, and just want more stuff about dogs:

READ

“The Pit Bull: An American Sacrificial Animal” by Sophie Gamand. Substack essay from the originator of Pit Bull Flower Power. Lovely, multi-layered piece on breed perceptions, the shelter system, and general American dog culture.

What’s been refilling your wells lately? I’m always on the lookout for more water for my bucket, so to speak, whether it’s to watch, read, or listen to. ;-)

Maybe it simply speaks to the kid in me who first figured out that there had to be actual adult humans behind the early fantasy novels I loved so much, or maybe I’ve had a secret extrovert behind my bookish, writerly homebody persona all along. Either way, please invite me to your book events; I would love to meet more readers!

Anyway, as such, when the fine folks at One More Page Books, my favorite local indie bookstore, invited me to speak on a special authors’ panel for AANHPI (Asian-American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander) Heritage Month, I couldn’t have been more excited — and as usual for OMP, the event was a blast.

One of the coolest things about working with my amazing fellow panelists was the sheer breadth and depth of genres we covered with our collective body of work: everything from meticulously researched historical novels, to beautifully illustrated food writing, to hard-hitting psychological thrillers.

Usually, when I do book events with other authors, they’re almost always all fellow fantasy and science fiction novelists, or at least all working in the young adult and kidlit space. And while I love love love my fellow speculative genre nerds and writers for young readers, it’s also fascinating hearing about experiences from other segments of our industry!

In this particular case, aside from me and my zany fantasy novels, we were graced by the presence of:

• K.T. Nguyen, our fearless moderator and a former editor at Glamour magazine, whose psychological thriller You Know What You Did received the Anthony Award for “Best First Novel” and the Agatha Award for “Best First Mystery.”

• Pat Tanumihardja, a brilliant food writer (who used to share an agent with me!) with the most delicious-looking book covers, whose latest kid-friendly, food-themed picture book Monkey’s Sweet Surprise: A Lunar New Year Mix-Up looks equal parts mouthwatering and adorable.

• Eric Nguyen, whose debut novel The Things We Lost to the Water, a New Orleans-based Vietnamese-American family saga, made President Obama’s “Favorite Books of 2021” list.

• Sujata Massey, most recently known for The Star from Calcutta, but whose backlist spans a whopping 14 mystery novels, most of which are set in pre-Independence India, and several of which have won the Agatha, Lefty, Macavity and Mary Higgins Clark prizes and been finalists for the Edgar, Anthony, and Harper Lee literary awards.

• Wendy Wan-Long Shang, a fellow kidlit writer who won the Asian/Pacific American Award for Children’s Literature for The Great Wall of Lucy Wu, and most recently released The Best Worst Summer of Esme Sun.

Subscribe now

They are all such brilliant, lovely people, and I feel so fortunate to have gotten to meet and chat with them all for over an hour.

Interested in any of these amazing authors and their fabulous reads? Order any of our featured books directly from One More Page to get your hands on signed author copies!

At the time, I was a newly minted purple belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Half-asleep and terrified, I was operating on nothing but muscle memory and animal instinct when I put two-on-one grips on the hand he’d used to muffle me (I will never complain about hand-fighting drills at wrestling practice ever again), shrimped out from under him, and threw my knee between us to keep his weight off me.

All the while, I kept screaming at the top of my lungs: a thing I was only able to do because my sloppy, basic hand-fighting kept him from smothering me. The whole exchange took maybe two or three minutes, before he gave up and fled the bedroom.

I, still groggy and frightened, but increasingly furious, stumbled out of bed and stomped around my apartment in an adrenaline-fueled rage, yelling for my assailant to show his face, just in case he was still lurking somewhere in my home. When he didn’t appear, I finally came to my senses and called 911.

The police showed up and asked me what happened. I burst into tears and blubbered about “making frames” to keep my attacker at bay, which seemed to confuse them until I explained that I was a jiu-jitsu athlete.

“I didn’t think I’d have to use it like this,” I sobbed.

“On the contrary,” said one of the officers, very gently, “I think this was exactly the right way to use it.”

They caught the guy shortly afterward, which was how I found out that my attacker had already invaded the homes of multiple women and raped at least one of them in her bedroom before he found me.

I’ve spent the last couple years of my life showing up at the local courthouse to give testimony and explain, over and over again, what that man tried to do to me, and what I did to him in return.

“Happy ‘I Fought Off a Serial Rapist With Half-Guard Knee Shield & All I Got Were These 50 Million Court Summons’ anniversary to me,” I dryly joke, grim-humored, when people ask.

It’s not a terribly exciting or impressive story, all things considered. I didn’t choke the guy out, or rip his ligaments in half. I didn’t even physically hurt him, not really. There were no fancy highlight reel moves involved in my survival. The jiu-jitsu technique that potentially saved my life was the exact same deeply unsexy yet fundamentally practical technique that every beginner white belt learns in the first month of a half-decent grappling program.

But I did, apparently, scare my attacker. Scared him badly enough to save myself, and help get him caught, while I got to walk away angry and shaken, but alive and somehow largely unscathed.

That’s not how most of these stories end. I was so goddamn lucky. A serial rapist breaking into your home and climbing on top of you is the stuff of nightmares, no matter what, but I’m haunted constantly by all the ways in which it could have been so, so much worse:

He could have threatened me with a weapon to force my compliance.

He could have brought friends to help hold me down.

He could have simply been much bigger, stronger, and harder to frighten than he was.

But because none of those things happened, here’s how my story went:

I testified in a court of law, before a jury, against the scumbag who’d been breaking into women’s homes and assaulting us in our beds. Our attacker was found guilty, and will go to prison.

I, the young female jiu-jitsu instructor who fought off the serial rapist, went on to win a national championship and two IBJJF Grand Slam tournaments that very same year. As a bonus alongside all my shiny gold medals, I got a grim little Aesop to share with my students about why, contrary to popular belief, guard retention skills from the bottom position of a grappling match do actually work for “real life self-defense.”

Justice was served, and life went on. Happy ending all around, right?

The thing is, there’s a world where this story ended differently. There’s a story where I was never trained to compete in a full-contact combat sport, where I would have had no instincts or tools with which to defend myself. And there’s yet another story where, even with all the physical training in the world, I still would have been overpowered by the threat of a knife, a gun, a partner or two in crime.

I think about that all the time. I think about women who, through absolutely no fault of their own, have suffered far worse fates than I did, simply because a man decided he was entitled to their bodies. Women violently raped and beaten and hospitalized. And mind you, plenty of those women still show up — in courts of law, in public arenas, through social media and op-eds and podcasts — to speak out against their attackers. To try, as best they can, to protect other women.

What are the odds, that a grown man who deliberately targets women alone in our homes late at night, hoping to find us asleep, vulnerable, helpless — the most cowardly, despicable kind of man — accidentally targets the woman who happens to be an internationally ranked Brazilian jiu-jitsu competitor, the woman who now forever thinks about her sport of choice in a different light?

Because I still remember her: the girl I once was, before I fought that man. The girl eagerly gearing up to compete at American Nationals, at the Pan-Americans, at Euros, who fell asleep that night thinking about jiu-jitsu in terms of earning two points for the takedown, three for the guard pass, four for taking full mount.

The very different girl who woke the morning after the attack, thinking about jiu-jitsu in terms of, “My god, if I hadn’t known how to fight from that stupid, basic-ass half-guard knee shield position — literally in my sleep! — that man would have held me down and raped me.”

After all, he’d done precisely that to other women. What was the difference between me and them, really, except a few years of training and the competition-honed desensitization to an adrenaline dump?

I feel all kinds of ways about this. On one hand, yes, my jiu-jitsu practice — my lifelong love affair with martial arts in general, really — may have saved my life that night. For that, I am deeply, endlessly grateful. And when folks approach me asking for advice on how to defend themselves from the same kind of harm, I will always, always try to share as much of my knowledge as I reasonably can.

Yet, I also feel compelled to say:

A woman should not have to train a full-contact martial art five to six days a week, spend three to four days a week in the weight room, and compete in major tournaments multiple times a year, all because she’s like, “Well, better have the muscle memory and physicality in place to buy myself some chance of survival when a man inevitably tries to attack and brutally rape me.”

A woman should get to train for the same reasons men do: because dedicating time and energy to a physical activity you love, and strengthening your muscles, and competing against likeminded people, is fucking fun.

For what it’s worth, I got into martial arts because I’ve always enjoyed the physical expression of it. I love the way sparring wakes up something joyful inside of me. Self-defense applications may have lurked somewhere in the back of my mind — I suspect it does for most modern martial artists — but that’s not why I started training, or at least, it’s not the primary reason.

There’s nothing wrong, of course, with training because you want to protect yourself from a dangerous world. Having now used jiu-jitsu skills to successfully defend myself from horrific harm, I can’t pretend I don’t find that ability empowering on some level.

Yet, I can’t help but wish we lived in a world where more women could get into martial arts and combat sports for the pure joy of the activity, the same way I once did, rather than this ominous sense of obligation, this terrifying notion that the onus is on us to protect ourselves from predators who see women as easy targets instead of people.

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking back on my late night conversation with the gentle-voiced police officer who took my statement.

“I didn’t want to use it like this,” I’d sobbed at him, when he asked about my jiu-jitsu training. Because I truly didn’t. Jiu-jitsu is one of the great joys of my life. I never wanted to end up in a situation where sheer, terrifying necessity would turn my joy into my only lifeline.

Don’t get it twisted: I will always be grateful for that lifeline. And I will always share that lifeline with anyone else who believes they need it.

But I also simply wish the world were a kinder place for women. Maybe one day, it will be.

Might I have a door stopper of a book in me after all? Time will tell.

Anyway, less than 24 hours after I turned the latest version of my book in to my editor, I hopped into my jiu-jitsu coach’s truck with some training partners at the cheery hour of 5 AM. Off we went on a whopping ten-hour drive to Chicago, where I competed in my first IBJJF brown belt division since my debut at Worlds.

I went the distance with my fellow brown belts (it’s still weird to think of the IBJJF division only one step below black belt as my competitive peers, but I suppose that’s what they are!) for three matches, and while I didn’t win — losing one match on points, and the other two by the narrowest of margins, a.k.a. a single advantage apiece — I learned an awful lot about myself, my game, and the expectations of grappling skill at this level.

So, I suppose writing and grappling continue to walk hand in hand for me! Ever since I celebrated my publishing debut (’sup, Rebelwing!) back in 2020 by competing in my first ever jiu-jitsu tournament the weekend of its release (it was a tiny local competition; I was a six-month white belt who got predictably demolished, and I loved every minute of it, which ultimately sealed my fate as a grappling fanatic), I seem to have made a habit of double fisting publishing deadlines and jiu-jitsu competition dates.

In some ways, it’s the ultimate form of mutual stress relief: you don’t have time to anxiety spiral over competition prep when you’ve got a deadline to hit; and you equally don’t have time to anxiety spiral over your deadline when you’re busy in training camp for an IBJJF major.

I like to think I’m simultaneously getting better at both skills too! It feels fitting that the process of writing my first professionally contracted adult novel coincides with my rookie year at one of the most advanced competitive divisions in my martial art of choice. Challenges abound on all fronts, but that’s also what keeps life interesting.

What’s been challenging you to level up lately — and how have you chosen to tackle it?

1) the fact that I have now drained the same cauliflower ear no less than five times, on account of how:

2) my damaged ear kept refilling during my training in the lead-up to the IBJJF Chicago Open this past weekend, where I got to compete in 3 full matches that went the distance (yay!), predictably resulting in still further ear abuse (boo!). This has since led to a recovery protocol of:

3) catching up on Daredevil: Born Again while grumpily icing my mildly hideous ear.

One day — one day! — I shall write an action-adventure novel that features gratuitously realistic cauliflower draining scenes, and no one will stop me.

What the Hell is Cauliflower Ear Anyway?

For those of you who don’t grapple or train MMA, and therefore have not been exposed to the wonderful world of vegetable ears, cauliflower ear is a pretty common condition in full contact martial arts — perhaps most famously for athletes in grappling disciplines (e.g. wrestlers, MMA fighters, and Brazilian jiu-jitsu competitors), but also sometimes for athletes in striking-focused disciplines like boxing.

“Cauliflower” forms when your ear is repeatedly exposed to friction that separates the skin from the cartilage, which causes the tissue to fill with blood and become a squishy lil’ hematoma. The only way to treat it once you have it is to repeatedly drain your ear with syringes. These days, most of us also wear magnets to discourage it from refilling with blood quite as rapidly or frequently.

If you don’t drain your cauliflower ear, it hardens and becomes a permanent deformity that can only be removed with surgery, so that’s fun! Even if you do drain it diligently (as I have), you typically end up rocking at least a little bit of subtle cauliflower, for better or worse (as I do).

It is, in short, a giant pain in the butt, and dealing with fresh cauliflower is approximately as gross as it sounds! That said, rocking permanently hardened cauliflower ear is also seen as a badge of honor among some folks in combat sports, so your mileage may vary!

Which Superheroes Qualify for Cauliflower Ear?

For the purposes of this thought exercise, we’re leaving out superheroes with obvious invulnerability and/or healing factor superpowers (e.g. Luke Cage), which presumably also extends to their ear cartilage. We’re also sticking to superheroes who engage in some degree of hand-to-hand combat that might result in actual friction against the head and ears (e.g. mostly badass normals, AKA no one who relies primarily on magic/psychic/etc powers).

1. Matt Murdock / Daredevil

I am perhaps most incensed of all that this man does not have the classically gnarled ears of a stereotypical D1 wrestler. Yes, his current superhero outfit includes what looks like the equivalent of protective headgear, but his little black ninja outfit from season one 100% did nothing to protect tender ear cartilage.

Vigilantism aside, you’re telling me this dude literally grew up in a rough-and-tumble Hell’s Kitchen boxing gym, training with his rough-and-tumble Irish-American boxer dad, and doesn’t have at least slightly thickened ears? Get outta here! Yes, cauliflower ear is arguably more common among grapplers than boxers, but I have watched this man throw himself headfirst at his opponents far too many times to believe those ears aren’t taking hella blunt force trauma.

The only feasible explanation is that Matt’s one of those dudes who has insane cauliflower-proof genetics. Considering how terrible he is about resting his other injuries, I simply cannot see him meticulously draining his ear every time it refills.

2. Frank Castle / The Punisher

Frank is arguably more of an antihero than a traditional street superhero, but this dude has big cauliflower ear energy. A US Marine turned gun-toting, criminal-assassinating vigilante seems ike the sort of guy who’d rock cauliflower ear as a badge of honor — at least much more so than Ivy-educated, white shoe law firm hobnobbing Matt.

Brazilian jiu-jitsu is also one of several core disciplines in the MCMAP (Marine Corps Martial Arts Program) curriculum, so he’d have had ample opportunity to destroy his ear cartilage well before he became the Punisher. Truly, if there were any justice in the world, Frank would proudly bear the ears of an orc. Who knows? Maybe he shares the pretty ear gene with Matt. Along with, you know, Catholicism and trauma.

3. Danny Rand / Iron Fist

HAHAHAHA. Guys, the MCU version of Danny Rand does not have cauliflower ear. He has never even come close to having cauliflower ear. He would not know what to do with himself if it happened. I have seen the fight choreography on his show and firmly believe that no vegetable-shaped ear hematoma would touch this rendition of Danny with a ten-foot pole. No.

4. Colleen Wing / Daughter of the Dragon

Now, a martial arts instructor is a prime candidate for cauliflower ear (ask me how I know!), but IIRC, Colleen’s martial arts style doesn’t include a ton of close quarters grappling, and when she does grapple in her fights, she doesn’t seem to lead with her head much. That said, she did do that whole unsanctioned cage fighting thing (lol) for a while, so it wouldn’t surprise me if her ears puffed up from time to time. If they did, she seems like the sort of person who’d drain them pretty meticulously and stoically.

5. Kate Bishop / Hawkeye

We’re told on the first episode of the Hawkeye show that Kate’s won trophies from a bunch of martial arts tournaments, but I don’t think they ever specify ruleset or discipline. Given that she’s primarily a marksman by specialty, she probably doesn’t engage in a ton of close quarters fighting on a regular basis, but it’s entirely possible that one of her various martial arts tournament wins was in something like jiu-jitsu.

If she got clubbed hard enough in a tournament to develop cauliflower ear, she does seem like someone who’d drain it immediately. I suspect she’d be too stubborn to wear headgear in training, though, and she almost definitely forgets her ear magnets from time to time while the hematoma is still healing, so I wouldn’t be shocked if she’s developed some mild cauliflower that’s too subtle for most people to notice. Besides, her family and their friends probably find the entire concept of cauliflower ear horrifying, which might honestly be more incentive to let the vegetable ears ride!

Anyway, who wants my hot take on which dragon riders from that war college in Fourth Wing have cauliflower ear? I can do this all day.

Nico is a three-year-old white German shepherd, and despite being commonly mistaken for a husky, he hates being snowed or rained on. He does, however, love long walks, food of almost any kind, and this stuffed hedgehog his human grandma (a.k.a. my mom) got him, pictured below.

His other hobbies include guarding my virtue at the bathroom door, sniff games, and dropping slobbery tennis balls in my lap while I’m writing. I love him a stupid amount, and I’m excited to continue adventuring with him — filthy tennis balls, occasional butthead behavior, and all.

Subscribe now

What I’m Writing Right Now

I am newly armed with a big beautiful edit letter for my first draft of Ash & Anchor, which means I’m officially diving into draft number two! The second draft is often my personal favorite in the traditional publication process for two reasons.

One, for me, they’re a lot less daunting than first drafts. When I’m writing a first draft, I’m constantly confronted with the writer’s age-old terror of the blank page, and the anxiety of figuring out how to produce 80,000+ words from scratch by a certain deadline is real! In contrast, when I dive into a second draft, I’m typically working off the guardrails of that first draft. I don’t have to create something out of nothing. It’s still a lot of work — first drafts are usually pretty messy; we often them “zero drafts” for a reason — but it’s work that feels a lot less daunting than confronting a Word document with zero actual words in it.

Two, the second draft is still juuuuust undercooked enough to let me be a little zanier than a third or fourth draft typically allows. By the time I’m working on those later iterations of the book, I’m basically just cleaning up a few dangling plot threads, working on line edits, and tightening up what’s already there. Think making slight alterations to an existing garment, versus sewing something entirely new.

But in my second draft, I retain that first draft-esque high of playing with character journeys and world-building details in a bigger way. I’m still figuring out what makes the story tick, which means I have more space to experiment than I do in later revision rounds; I just also happen to have more substance to work with than I would during the writeup of my very first (and usually very rough!) draft.

In my second draft of Ash & Anchor, I’m working on:

• Fleshing out certain world-building details, including the social and political makeup of a loosely post-apocalyptic, largely seafaring society.

• Better showcasing some of the world-building work that’s already happened in the first draft, so that it blends more seamlessly with the actual plot, instead of simply being info-dumped or over-told to the reader.

• Playing around with pacing, mostly so that I don’t have the major action beats all crammed into the back half of the story (oops!).

• Building more backstory for our primary romance to create better-earned tension, and hence, more yearning! We love some well-deserved yearning!

• Amping up some of our horror and suspense elements to play with that sliding scale of horror-romance mashup.

See you on the other side! ;-)

Share The Pen & Sword

Martial Arts & Combat Sport Writing: This Month’s Story

As most folks here know, in addition to my novels, I also do quite a bit of combat sports reporting and content writing for martial arts businesses. One of my favorite clients is Gaidama, a female-owned and female-founded sportswear brand that specializes in designing amazing gear for my favorite martial art, Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

In addition to producing beautiful yet functional BJJ fits, they also sponsor some of the top athletes competing in submission grappling and MMA today. As one of their on-call content writers, I get the privilege of frequently interviewing and writing about Gaidama’s amazing ambassadors for my work.

Gaidama’s roster currently includes the likes of teen prodigy Joslyn Molina, who at the age of thirteen, became the youngest athlete ever to medal at ADCC Trials (for non-BJJ folks out there, that’s basically our version of the Olympic Trials); ADCC vet Mo Black, who famously defeated the near-undefeated Helena Crevar; and crowd-pleasing jiu-jitsu star turned aspiring MMA rookie JJ Bowers, who’s currently looking to make his mark over at the Professional Grappling Federation (“PGF”), advertised as the world’s first professional team-based jiu-jitsu league.

Working with these athletes is by far the coolest part of the job, and I’m always honored by the opportunity to not only pick the brains of some of the most accomplished competitive martial artists on the planet, but to help share their stories with the world.

This month, in honor of Cerebral Palsy Awareness Month, I got to write about adaptive athlete and disability advocate RJ Nealon, who’s made a name for himself in both the competitive adaptive athletics space and on the mainstream IBJJF circuit. While I’ve previously met RJ at various tournaments and jiu-jitsu events, this was the first time we really got to go into a deep dive on his journey as an adaptive grappler.

You can check out RJ’s story here on the official Gaidama blog.

The Usual Roundup of Recommended Internet Reading

I’ve been remiss in providing my usual link roundup for the past couple of months, so I’m hoping to rectify that in this newsletter drop!

This month, we’ve got a big spotlight on modern-day athletic and physical culture thinkpieces (which, given the general focus of my non-fictional writing interests, I have an obvious personal stake in!), plus a bunch of style and fashion blogs (which I admittedly take renewed and vigorous interest in every time I do my own seasonal closet edits). The fact that these days, I write regularly for what is technically a fashion brand (Gaidama!) has probably contributed to my general growing fascination with the industry.

In no particular order, and with no specific organizational categories, here’s some online reading that’s tickled by brain:

• Embracing the Wide Legged Trouser by Ethan Wong via A Little Bit of Rest. Look, I have always low key loved wide pants for all genders, even back during the height of the skinny jean era, but I’m also picky with silhouette and styling. The very stylish Ethan Wong breaks down the art of pulling off wide trousers for men, with bonus stunning vintage fashion photography! If you’re a fan of menswear, definitely check out the rest of his blog content too.

• It’s not ‘heroin chic.’ It’s ‘luxe lean.’ by Mikala Jamison via Body Type. One of my favorite Substack writers tackles the topic of the so-called Ozempic era and alleged return of “2000s skinny” with some talking points I haven’t previously seen in most body image thinkpieces.

• ‘Love Lies Bleeding’ and the History of Female Bodybuilding Reveal Society’s Fear of ‘Monstrous’ Women by Stef Rubino via Autostraddle. A super detailed look at the history of female bodybuilding culture, loosely through the lens of 2024 queer thriller ‘Love Lies Bleeding.’

• Standing Tall: On the Value and Importance of Women Who Take Up Space by Jane Smiley and Susan Swan via Literary Hub. In which two women writers, who both stand notably taller than average at over six feet, engage in a conversation on the role physical size plays in women’s lives.

• Balletcore: A Look Back at How Designers Have Been Inspired by Dance by Laird Borrelli-Persson via Vogue. Look, having been a very lazy teen ballet student who regularly threw jeans on over my leotard between the dance studio and the academic classroom way back in the ye olde 2000s (because Teen Me sometimes simply Couldn’t Be Bothered with real clothes), I don’t know if I’ll ever fully decouple my personal style — even as an adult — from low key, often semi-accidental balletcore influence. “Semi-accidental balletcore” is also, admittedly, quite a functional way to dress for a full-time writer with a very physical part-time job! That said, I’ll probably always be a little amused at how my terrible devil-may-care childhood dressing habits somehow came into vogue a whopping decade and change later.

That’s all for now, folks! Here, have one more dog picture for the road.

February 10 saw the official release of my fifth novel To the Death, a YA romantic fantasy thriller, which I was lucky enough to celebrate with some amazing people over at my local indie, One More Page Books. The fine folks of OMP have been gracious enough to host almost every book launch I’ve had since my debut dropped back in early 2020, and I truly couldn’t ask for better book birthday party hosts.

It was especially cool being in conversation with fellow thriller author Alex Travis, who’s written bangers like The Payback Girls and the upcoming Black Girls Don’t Cry (now available for preorder!). Alex, who in addition to being a professional writer, is also a school psychologist by trade, is an absolute treat to chat with, and I loved getting the chance to do a live book event with her.

Subscribe now

On “writing firsts” and industry reception.

Since its release, To the Death has been lucky enough to be named a Kobo Best Young Adult Book of February, in addition to earning both my first ever starred review from Publishers Weekly and some absolutely lovely words from the notoriously choosy Kirkus, making book number five arguably my most well-reviewed release — at least according to industry critics — to date!

Will readers agree with the trade reviews? I can only hope so! To the Death represents a lot of firsts for me: my first time writing dual narration POVs, my first time explicitly centering a queer romance, and arguably, my first time writing a front-and-center romantic plotline (versus a romantic subplot, as has been the case in my previous novels) period. That’s scary for a writer! But also undeniably exciting.

So, what’s next, Andrea?

Why, I’m so glad you asked, dearest gentle reader.

Of course, as is typical for those of us working in tradpub (shop talk lingo for “traditional publishing,” AKA going through a literary agent to work with a traditional industry publisher instead of taking the self-publishing route), by the time To the Death dropped, I was already nearly 80,000 words deep into my first draft of book number six: Ash & Anchor, a dystopian horror-romance for adults, currently slated to hit shelves in 2027!

Ash & Anchor will, of course, also represent a lot of firsts for me: my first time writing for an adult market, my first time writing some good old-fashioned traditional horror elements into a genre mashup, and my first time writing what will almost certainly be my longest published novel to date (though that remains to be seen in a final word count, likely several drafts from now!).

Honestly, the more books I write professionally, the more thoroughly I conclude that each novel is sort of like debuting anew over and over again. While nothing — at least in my own personal experience — can fully match the sheer chaos of getting that first novel published, no two books are ever entirely the same, and the process of creating each new story is going to feel importantly different from the process of creating its predecessor.

As storytellers, we are (hopefully!) continually challenging ourselves by tackling stuff we haven’t tried before — whether it’s a new POV structure, a different genre from our usual fare, or even writing for different target audience age groups. It’s scary, and occasionally (okay, frequently!) frustrating, but it also keeps the process feeling fresh and exciting every time I put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard.

And honestly? I wouldn’t have it any other way. ;-)

Buy To the Death in hardcover, ebook, or audiobook formats anywhere books are sold, or order signed and personalized editions from One More Page Books.

I’m currently a brown belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu who teaches, competes, and trains out of an MMA gym. While I’ve been grappling for just over six years, I’ve been thinking about, studying, and generally being a weird nerd about martial arts as a whole for, well, notably longer than that.

That, combined with the fact that I’ve earned a good chunk of my overall writing income covering combat sports and creating athlete-focused content for martial arts brands, made my decision to write To the Death more or less inevitable. Here’s the official back cover blurb from Penguin Teen:

Two teens are pitted against each other in a magical duel for revenge, but they’ll have to fight their growing attraction first, in this YA fantasy thriller from the author of These Deadly Prophecies.

Eighteen-year-old Samantha Chan wants only one thing: revenge for her brother’s death in an illegal magical duel. Ever since that terrible day, she’s been quietly working with legitimate dueling champion Lysander Rook and biding her time until she can take down her brother’s killer: Mateus Blackwood.

Tamsin Blackwood is trapped. She wants to make a name for herself in the magical dueling circuit, but she can’t get away from the legacy of her father—and coach—Mateus Blackwood. When she receives a challenge from the undefeated Lysander and his assistant Sam, she jumps at the chance to earn enough fame and glory to finally escape her father’s influence.

Tamsin has no idea about Sam’s scheming, and Sam plans to keep it that way. Despite herself, though, she can’t help liking Tamsin, and the two girls quickly grow closer to each other than anyone else in their lives. But Sam won’t let anything get in the way of her revenge—not even her heart.

So, while To the Death isn’t, strictly speaking, a pure martial arts novel — after all, per that summary, it’s still got magicians and curses and hexes in it! — to date, it’s my most heavily martial arts-influenced book. Here are a few reasons why.

Subscribe now

1. The magic system

My friend and fellow Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner Alex Darwin, author of speculative martial arts adventure epic The Combat Codes, once noted that “The reason I love BJJ, as a nerdy kid who grew up playing D&D and reading fantasy books, is because it’s the closest thing to real magic I’ve ever encountered. When I walked into my first gym and the smaller instructor controlled me like a marionette, I said to myself: ‘This is it. Whatever it takes, I need to learn this magic.’”

That’s the magic system of To the Death in a nutshell. I basically looked at my life in martial arts — especially my jiu-jitsu practice, and went, “okay, but what if magic was a combat sport?”

And hence, the premise of the novel was born.

2. Reckoning with physical limitations of the human body

Real-world martial arts don’t just inform the culture around magic in To the Death — they also inform its limitations. More specifically, I based the limitations of the novel’s magic system on the same limitations that everyday hand-to-hand combat practitioners run into. Yes, in a world where magic exists, you might be able to summon fire, or perform minor feats of telekinesis — but it still needs to come at some kind of cost, in order to set the stage for an interesting story with real stakes!

So, in the same sense that your gas tank and strength levels limit your ability to strike and grapple in real life, in the world of To the Death, physical energy limits an individual magician’s ability to cast spells. Gas out in the middle of a magical duel, and you’ll likely lose. As such, in this novel, good magicians engage in strength and conditioning to improve their capacity to use their fancy elemental powers.

3. The weirdly specific intimacy between opponents

In the now famously sexy tennis movie Challengers, Zendaya says of a recently defeated opponent, “For about fifteen seconds there, we were actually playing tennis. And we understood each other completely. So did everyone watching. It’s like we were in love.”

Meanwhile, my longtime friend and jiu-jitsu training partner Beatrice Jin wryly observes of the average jiu-jitsu tournament experience, “The person across the mat from you probably has more in common with you than anyone else in the world. You have been thinking about each other for hours, days, sometimes weeks. You paid for the experience of this person to study you, to come at you as hard as they can and try to do something terrible to you.”

There’s something about a competitive 1v1 sport — particularly a combat sport like jiu-jitsu — that can often lead to this odd mutual obsession between opponents who can read and predict and respond to each other so well. Simultaneously, you have to reckon with the fact that this person whom, for this one moment in time, you know better than anybody else on the planet, is also the primary obstacle to the thing you want most in the whole world.

It’s for sure the stuff of classic action thrillers — but in an imaginative storyteller’s hands, it’s also an excellent building block for romantic conflict. (See also: the wild popularity of franchises like Heated Rivalry!)

4. Problematic power dynamics, sporting scandals, and gym drama

As a jiu-jitsu practitioner, I participate in a full-contact martial art and combat sport that’s been pretty famously co-opted by its fair share of bad actors. Abusive gym owners, black belt professors turned wannabe cult leaders, and generally predatory behavior on the mat are, unfortunately, not as rare as any of us would like.

Among other things, To the Death explores the potential for problematic power dynamics, abuse, and other forms of toxic behavior between people who regularly entrust one another with limbs, joints, and carotid arteries in day-to-day training. What new levels of vulnerability arise in a see-sawing power dynamic where mutual physical vulnerability is baked into everyday interactions?

5. Love of the game

Anyone who’s ever fallen in love with a physically demanding niche sport or art form — whether it’s mixed martial arts, competitive figure skating, aerial circus acrobatics, or what-have-you — probably knows the struggle of spending hours on a thing that beats up your body and drives you regularly insane, but also offers essentially zero guarantee of safety or long term stability in life.

The characters of To the Death practice magic for a multitude of reasons — some out of ambition, some out of spite, some because they frankly don’t know what else they’re any good at — but without spoiling anything, most of them do at some point have to ask: “do I actually love this thing enough to become a chronically injured, perpetually exhausted, mildly crazy person for the rest of my days?”

There’s no right answer here, and everyone in the novel who asks the question comes up with a slightly different response — just as in life.

To the Death drops on February 10, 2026, and is available for preorder everywhere books are sold in hardcover, audiobook, and ebook formats. Signed and personalized editions are exclusively available for preorder through One More Page Books. Buy your copy today!

Curious about what to expect? Happily, the fabulous folks over at The Nerd Daily have published an exclusive free excerpt of the opening chapter. You can check it out here right now, no purchase or sign-ups necessary!

If you enjoyed that snippet and want more, it’s not too late to preorder your copy. For signed or personalized editions (and for generally amazing small business support!), you can preorder from my fantastic local indie One More Page Books at this link. (And yes, even if you’re not local to DC or Northern Virginia, delivery is available!)

More soon! ;-)

The Holiday Gift Guide to Andrea Tang Books: Extended Edition

Who should you gift Rebelwing to?

Rebelwing, my debut, tells the tale of a teen book smuggler who unwittingly bonds with a sentient mechanical dragon, catapulting her into the center of a political crisis in a futuristic North America ravaged by unchecked technology and draconian censorship laws. This is the perfect gift for:

• Your friend who makes a lot of jokes about the current global climate and sends you “grim dystopian present” memes

• Anyone who grew up watching a lot of anime about giant robots and/or watched Pacific Rim more than once

• Fans of high fantasy dragon books (à la ASOIAF or the Fourth Wing series) who want to try dipping their toes into accessible, character-driven sci-fi

Who should you gift Renegade Flight to?

Renegade Flight, a standalone companion to Rebelwing set 12-15ish years after the events of the first novel, is a futuristic boarding school story about an overachieving nepo kid who’s on her own personal redemption arc after bending the rules of a mecha piloting test. This is the perfect gift for:

• Burnt out gifted kids seeking validation

• Traditional campus novel fans who also enjoy cyberpunk vibes

• Anyone who already enjoys Rebelwing ;-)

Who should you gift Kingdom of Without to?

Kingdom of Without is my first fully non-western-set novel with an all-Chinese cast, and follows a wily young thief on a high stakes heist plot in an alternate history-informed Beijing, where she finds herself entangled in the revolutionary schemes of a mysterious masked man. This is the perfect gift for:

• That friend who watched V for Vendetta at a formative age

• Romance fans who sometimes prefer a bittersweet edge to their love stories rather than the customary HEA

• 20th century Chinese history geeks

Who should you gift These Deadly Prophecies to?

My beloved magical whodunnit These Deadly Prophecies is my first true fantasy novel, as well a contemporary murder mystery, featuring a sorcerer’s apprentice trying to get to the bottom of her old mentor’s grisly death. This is the perfect gift for:

• Mystery novel readers who want to try reading fantasy for the first time, or traditional fantasy fans who want to try out a whodunnit!

• Readers who enjoy romance as a (still significant!) subplot rather than full-on A-plot

• Rian Johnson movie fans, and more specifically, people who were really, really into the chemistry between Ransom and Marta in Knives Out, but also felt kind of bad about it

As always, your best bet for signed and/or personalized copies of my books is my local indie, One More Page Books! Order yours here.

To the Death earns a star from Publishers Weekly!

As trade reviews continue to drop for To the Death, I’m delighted to announce that I’ve earned my first starred review from Publishers Weekly! Our PW reviewer writes:

Tang (These Deadly Prophecies) explores cycles of corruption, emotional abuse, and grief in this complex and high-stakes sapphic romantasy.

Tamsin Blackwood, 18, seeks to escape from the shadow of her father, Mateus, a retired magical duelist who views Tamsin only as an extension of his legacy. When 18-year-old Samantha Chan—the training partner of Tamsin’s rival, Lysander Rook—challenges her to a duel with a hefty cash prize, Tamsin immediately accepts, intending to use the reward money to strike out on her own. Unbeknownst to Tamsin, however, the duel is part of Sam’s plan to avenge her late older brother, who was killed by Mateus. But Sam’s strategy to befriend Tamsin and exploit her weaknesses in preparation for the duel goes awry as she starts developing feelings for her competitor. Similarly, loner Tamsin’s single-minded focus begins to falter when faced with her and Sam’s seemingly genuine connection as well as the discovery of her father’s secret history.

Quickly paced dual POVs rendered via confident prose deftly unpack both teens’ individual challenges alongside their steadily growing attraction, ensuring a satisfying action-adventure narrative that’s enriched by heart-fluttering romance.

To the Death hits shelves on February 10! If you’d like to support my work, preorder your copy through the bookstore of your choice today, or get a signed and/or personalized edition by ordering at this link through my local indie, One More Page Books!

Books & movies ahoy!

You didn’t think I’d put out a monthly newsletter without hawking at least some of my current media fixations, did you? ;-)

What I’ve read and loved:

Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan

Okay, technically this is cheating, since I finished reading this one well before December, but I’m still thinking about it, so surely that counts! Sarah Rees Brennan is one of my favorite young adult novelists of all time, and the writer I credit most with inspiring me to write fantasy and science fiction for teens specifically. So, when her adult debut was announced, it was an auto-read for me.

Long Live Evil is a lot of fun, in classic SRB fashion, but it’s also very clearly written from the heart. On the outside, it’s a tongue-in-cheek portal fantasy with some great insider metacommentary on high fantasy tropes; beneath the surface, it reads as a deeply personal novel on living through horrific illness, the trauma of reckoning with one’s own mortality, and the quiet power of a well-told story. You’ll laugh! You’ll cry! And hopefully, you’ll fall as hard for these characters as I did.

What I’m currently reading:

Such Pretty Flowers by K.L. Cerra

Okay, I can no longer deny that I’m fully in my thriller/horror reading era, for better or worse. I haven’t gotten far enough along in this one yet to give a final verdict, but I’m totally here for the ride. Solid, whodunnit-adjacent hook? Check. Messy women? Check. Creepy gothic vibes? Absolutely check. Let’s do this thing.

Favorite movie of the month:

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery.

Friends, I don’t know what it says about me that I was not remotely attracted to Josh O’Connor until seeing him as an ex-boxer Catholic priest with a troubled past. But I love Father Jud so much more than I expected to. I’ve (very obviously, given the most recent novel I released) enjoyed all the Knives Out movies so far, but I can sincerely say that this one is the first in the franchise that legitimately made me cry at one point. It’s such a thoughtful, well-crafted exploration of often thorny subject matter, and handled with a lot of empathy without feeling saccharine. Well played, Rian Johnson, you old scamp.

• Revisit my 2023 alt-history heist novel, Kingdom of Without, which is available as a free read via its publisher Simon Teen through the end of November!

• Take a sneak peek at our first couple of trade reviews for my upcoming magic-infused sapphic thriller To the Death, which hits shelves February 2026.

• Engage in some fun navel-gazing over my double life as a martial arts instructor and writer, thanks to a surprise mid-competition-season promotion from my MMA gym.

• Check out what I’ve read, watched, and listened to lately – and what you might enjoy too.

  Thanks for reading The Pen & Sword! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Welcome back to the Kingdom of Without

This month, one of my publishers, Simon Teen, is offering free full reads of Kingdom of Without, my 2023 release: a cyberpunk heist novel set in a futuristic, alternate history-driven version of Beijing. If you’re into heist stories, found family group dynamics, and a lot of authorial geek-outs on modern Chinese history and revolutionary theory, head over to the Simon Teen website before the end of November to make good on this very cool, limited time offer!

The verdict is in: To the Death is “a rewarding page-turner that’s filled with deception and intrigue,” according to Kirkus!

Every time my editor emails me with the first trade review for a new title, my adrenaline spikes in a manner comparable only to my reaction when my jiu-jitsu competition bracket is announced for an IBJJF major (for our non-wrasslin’ folk, that’s BJJ-speak for annual Grand Slam tournaments run by our submission grappling overlord organization).

So, when Kirkus described my new fantasy thriller as “a rewarding page-turner that’s filled with deception and intrigue,” I couldn’t be more delighted. Our Kirkus reviewer additionally writes:

“Tang presents a high-stakes thriller told through the two highly driven protagonists’ perspectives that explores themes of family, revenge, and internal and external expectations. Fast-paced duels and dynamic depictions of arcane magic flesh out the world, while the complicated relationships bring drama and tension.”

There are few feelings more satisfying than hearing that I’ve hit the exact notes I was going for in my storytelling. Heck yeah!

Booklist also had some very kind things to say about To the Death, describing the story as “a fast-paced, heart-racing contemporary fantasy” and “a solid option for fans of revenge plots and complicated female characters.”

We do love us some messy, vicious ladies under this roof, and I’m so pleased that the fine folks at Booklist share my taste.

Want to learn more about To the Death? Check out my character playlists for the main trio!

The part about my love for recreational limb-mangling (and how it might secretly just be a metaphor for my writing career).

I recently observed that I started training and competing in Brazilian jiu-jitsu the same year I got my first book deal. In the same sense that I’d scribbled stories recreationally for years before I landed an agent and sold my first novel, I’d also dabbled in various martial arts for most of my life, prior to falling hard for the noble art of pajama wrasslin’. I’ve been riding the competitive jiu-jitsu train for six years now, during which it’s always been a curious counterpoint to my professional writing career.

So, this past weekend, when my coach awarded me my brown belt (that’s one rank below black, a terrifying notion!), it definitely sparked a lot of introspection. I’ve competed at purple – generally considered the midway belt and the first of the “advanced” ranks in Brazilian jiu-jitsu – since 2023, and picked up a handful of cool wins, including IBJJF Pan-American, European, and American National no-gi masters’ titles during my rookie season, plus a Pan-American silver medal this past year, along with a few fun local tourney victories. I’ve competed successfully in both masters’ and adult divisions, under various rulesets, in a lot of different venues, and I’ve had a genuinely lovely time growing my skillset through it all.

Wins and losses on the mat have obviously given me a lot of great material in my second job teaching (and not to mention writing about!) martial arts. But they’ve also unexpectedly shaped my storytelling skills. As my fellow martially-inclined scribblers can confirm, writing and grappling have more in common than devotees of either activity alone usually realize. We’re all dealing with extreme emotional highs and lows, wild adrenaline dumps, weird time management constraints, and of course, the lingering reminder that we pour so much of ourselves into this bizarre, exhausting, sometimes heartbreaking activity because, at the end of the day, we love it so damn much.

Of course, getting promoted to a new (scarier, more advanced!) jiu-jitsu rank right before IBJJF No-Gi Worlds means I’ll be making my brown belt division debut on arguably the biggest stage possible. I have no idea what this indicates for the fate of my upcoming novels – I’ve got one manuscript due to an editor exactly one month after Worlds, and another book coming out the month after that – but as I said when I switched my Worlds registration from the purple belt division to brown:

“Fuck it, we ball.”

Feed the soul: books, movies, and podcasts!

In which I try to improve on my ability to track the media I’ve been consuming lately.

Taking obligatory stock of books I’ve read over the past few months.

• Jade City by Fonda Lee

  My favorite new read in recent memory, and it’s not even close. This is one of those books that caters so perfectly to my tastes, I’d be mad that I didn’t write it first, except that then I wouldn’t have been able to treat myself to it as a reader. I bow down, Queen Fonda, and I want to be you when I grow up.

• The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz

  I finished this one in the course of a single weekend at the beach, which really is an ideal way to consume a fun, spooky thriller. Not necessarily my usual fare, but I’m a sucker for both publishing industry insider meta (see also: my affection for R.F. Kuang’s Yellowface) and creepy gothic vibes, so maybe I need to expand my definition of usual fare. Genuine kudos to the author for keeping me and my wandering attention span hooked for far longer chunks of time than most novels have managed lately!

• The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix

  Okay, maybe The Writing Retreat put me in the mood for thriller/horror hybrids, which feels apropos, given both my love of spooky season, and my own recent work. I’ve been told by traditional horror aficionados in my life that this one isn’t necessarily the easiest gateway into Hendrix, and I can see why, but once I got past the first few chapters, this one kept me pretty well-entertained!

On the movie that swallowed my brain whole & my new identity crisis over being (maybe??) a secret horror fan.

Surprise, surprise, it’s Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein (2025). Guys, I’m only human, and this thing is del Toro being peak del Toro. Getting to see it in theaters with my friends was an absolute gift. Between my love for this adaptation and my lingering obsession with Sinners this past summer, I do wonder if I’ve been a stealth horror fan for a lot longer than I assumed. Until reluctantly becoming a Jordan Peele fan, I was one of those people who “doesn’t do scary movies” because I hate jump scares, but in the past year alone, my horror-loving partner has convinced me to watch:

• The Babadook

• Bring Her Back

• Weapons

• Doctor Sleep

• The Devil’s Backbone

• literally all the Conjuring movies, plus some of the spinoffs (guys, I still can’t believe that the Conjuring cinematic universe is an actual thing, what a world we live in)

• a ton of slasher movies, including the latest installments in the Scream and Halloween franchises.

And you know what, I’ve genuinely enjoyed – or at least grudgingly appreciated – most of them! Plus, I’ve always had a general fondness for spookiness, and have absolutely been a lifelong fan of all things gothic, which is certainly horror-adjacent. Food for thought!

A handful of fun podcast episodes I’ve listened to in recent memory.

On writing & publishing:

• A Very Smart Conversation About Fantasy (and Romance) with Leigh Bardugo from The Culture Study

• Perfect Does Not Exist: An Interview with Sarah Rees Brennan from No Write Way

• Ava Reid: Crafting Chaos, Grimdark Worlds, Retellings, and the Art of Organic Readership from On the Write Track

• How to Excel at Writing IP with Tess Sharpe from The Author Burnout Cure

On fashion & style:

• April Clemmer on Style Clarity and the Old Hollywood Star System from Style POV

• The Outdoor Gearification of the American Wardrobe from The Culture Study

• Archiving as an Act of Resistance from The Wardrobe Archive

• The Time We Interviewed David Kibbe from Style Rebellion Podcast

On jock stuff:

• On Lifting: Corinne Fay from Keep Calm and Cook On

• How to Start Strength Training, ft. Mikala Jamison from How To!

• The Future of Fitness: Mind Over Muscle, ft. Scott Dance from The StrongAF Club (featuring my strength & conditioning coach chatting with my jiu-jitsu coach!)

• Jiu-Jitsu Fitness Myths, feat. Dr. Kristi Charish & Dr. Christle Guevarra from BJJ Mental Models

Here’s the official Publishers Marketplace announcement!

I’m excited about this one for a lot of reasons. Horror-meets-romance is one of my favorite genre mashup categories, and I can’t wait to put my own spin on it. And while I still love writing for teenagers – and don’t plan to stop anytime soon! – I’m looking forward to expanding my range as a storyteller. There’s something really appealing to me about writing for an older audience, especially when it comes to a premise that essentially amounts to “how to fall in love at the end of the world.”

Plus, zombies! The real horror behind a well-told zombie story is so often deeply human. It makes for such a bleak, violent, borderline nihilistic backdrop on which to set the earnest passion and optimism of a traditional romance plot. The combination feels inherently contradictory, and I love playing with that kind of contrast.

You can also look forward to a generous helping of self-indulgent Andrea trademarks that have gleefully peppered my earlier work, including:

• The power of friendship / found families

• A slow burn rivals-to-lovers romance

• All’s fair in love and (class) war(fare)

• Character development by way of lovingly choreographed fight scenes (with bonus Easter eggs for anyone who’s trained in MMA or jiu-jitsu and wrestling)

I can’t wait to share the final product with readers, and I hope you come along for the adventure with me! :-)

My newest upcoming release To the Death – as not only a revenge thriller, but also a love story of sorts – features quite the tangled trio at its center: my two heroines, Sam and Tamsin, plus their deuteragonist, Rook. Are they in a love triangle? Kind of yes, kind of no! Without spoiling plot details, I think the love triangle is a fair reading, but it’s also not the only valid reading of their dynamic. Suffice to say that all three characters have some Big Feelings concerning each other, and Big Feelings are a hallmark of both a traditional romance plot and a revenge thriller.

My hot take is that a lot of revenge thrillers and traditional romances actually follow a pretty similar plot map: we meet the mark-slash-love interest, we develop a tension-ridden rapport through necessitated proximity, we have an explosive third act where various miscommunications and/or wrongdoings come to light, and then our pair either get over themselves and fall gamely in love, or willfully destroy each other’s lives, depending on the genre! Good times, all around.

Since my book technically mashes up both genres – against a modern fantasy backdrop, no less – I get to play with audience expectations on both fronts. What makes this otherwise unhinged level of melodrama work is that everyone’s Big Feelings are rooted, first and foremost, in their own complicated, occasionally contradictory wants and needs. The plot is what happens when those individual wants and needs start colliding and/or intersecting with each other – and that’s where things get interesting for me, as the storyteller.

It also makes for some very fun character playlists! Below, I’ve included examples for all three members of To the Death’s main trio: the vengefully manipulative Sam, sweet yet steely Tamsin, and tormented pretty boy prodigy Rook.

Samantha Chan

I’ve never been naive, not even before my world fell apart four years ago. If you want to ensure access to the glittering world of the magical elite, you can’t simply be good at magic, like I am. You need talent, sure, but you also need charisma, looks, the building blocks of a sellable brand.

Sam, the Edmond Dantès of this particular revenge plot, is one of our two narrators. Like any good vengeance seeker, she’s calculating, self-aware, and ruthless. However, despite a tendency to play her cards close to her chest, she’s also deeply, quietly heartbroken underneath her hardened exterior – and determined to collect on the cost of that broken heart, no matter how high.

My playlist for Sam is, predictably, a mix of angry murdery songs and classically chilling revenge ballads à la The Decemberists’ “Mariner’s Revenge Song.” That said, it’s also interspersed with sweeter, more wistful sad girl anthems like “Samson” by Regina Spektor, which hints at those Big Feelings our girl keeps so tightly under wraps while busy with her her day-to-day scheming.

“Comin’ Up From Behind” – Marcy’s Playground

It’s a long shot / She’s got the truths and a tongue for a slingshot / But she’s takin’ steady aim at the big shot

“Kill of the Night” – Gin Wigmore

The street’s a liar / I’m gonna lure you into the dark / My cold desire / To hear the boom, boom, boom of your heart

“Hurt” – Johnny Cash

And you could have it all / My empire of dirt / I will let you down / I will make you hurt

“You Should See Me In a Crown” – Billie Eilish

Count my cards, watch them fall / Blood on a marble wall / I like the way that they all / Scream

“The Mariner’s Revenge Song” – The Decemberists

It gives my heart great joy / To see your eyes fill with fear / So lean in close and I will whisper / The last words you’ll ever hear

“Samson” – Regina Spektor

You are my sweetest downfall / I loved you first, I loved you first / Beneath the sheets of paper lies my truth / I have to go, I have to go

Tamsin Blackwood

Better magicians than me have eaten nasty curses that knocked them out cold in the last thirty seconds of allotted duel time. Undefeated phenoms suddenly rendered mortal. Beatable. Laughable, even.

I refuse to be the duelist who loses because she assumes she can’t.

Tamsin, our co-narrator, is a bit of a foil to Sam. An affection-starved nepo baby with deep-seated daddy issues, poor Tamsin tends to wear her heart on her sleeve, and wants desperately to prove that she’s worth more than her father’s surname. That said, like Sam, Tamsin’s got a well-concealed vicious streak, and more than her fair share of ambition – and she’s not above playing the long game when it comes to getting what she wants.

Of course, if Tamsin decides that what she wants is Sam, well, that’s going to get real messy real fast, and for so many reasons. Buckle up, folks!

My playlist for Tamsin has slightly gentler energy than Sam’s, and accordingly, includes a lot more soft sad girl songs, but there’s still a bit of an edge there. My personal favorite song picks on Tamsin’s list are probably Halsey’s “The Tradition” and Vienna Teng’s “Whatever You Want”: two decidedly different vibes, but both very, very Tamsin.

“The Tradition” – Halsey

Oh, the loneliest girl in town / Was bought for plenty a price / Well, they dress her up in golden crowns / Her smile hides a lie

“Crucify” – Tori Amos

I crucify myself, and nothing I do is good enough for you / I crucify myself, every day

“Brutal” – Olivia Rodrigo

I don’t stick up for myself / I’m anxious, and nothing can help / And I wish I’d done this before / And I wish people liked me more

“Casual” – Chappell Roan

I thought you thought of me better / Someone you couldn’t lose / You said, “We’re not together” / So now when we kiss, I have anger issues

“Whatever You Want” – Vienna Teng

And in the night he takes the main accounts and pulls the files, detailing every treason / I am the last one you’d ever suspect of setting the fire, of setting the fire

“A Little Wicked” – Valerie Broussard

Beware the patient woman, ‘cause this much I know / No one calls you honey, when you’re sitting on a throne

Lysander Rook

“After I saw the way you fight, I knew you were just like me. Once you tasted magic, you knew nothing else would ever matter the same way again. Once you tasted magic, it meant everything to you.”

Oh, Rook. I fondly describe him as the YA love interest of another story: intoxicatingly beautiful, brilliantly dangerous, and of course, deeply troubled and secretly quite lonely.

While Rook doesn’t get his own POV in To the Death, he’s a deuteragonist with a hefty role in both Sam and Tamsin’s stories. For Sam, he’s her most powerful yet unwieldy ally in a quest for vengeance: a charismatic loose cannon with the star power to open doors she can’t – but only if she can keep him under control. For Tamsin, he’s her most dangerous rival: an undefeated prodigy with a talent for violence and a knack for exposing her weaknesses.

But who’s Rook himself? That’s something he’s trying to figure out too.

Rook’s playlist was quite possibly the one I had the most fun with: an eclectic mix of angsty rock-and-roll vibes and quieter, more contemplative folk songs centering on that peculiar mix of stardom and loneliness that defines so much of who Rook is.

“Young Man in America” – Anais Mitchell

I come out like a cannonball / Come of age of alcohol / Raven in a field of rye / With a black and roving eye

“Come Undone” – Robbie Williams

They’re selling razor blades and mirrors in the street / I pray that when I’m coming down, you’ll be asleep / If I ever hurt you, your revenge will be so sweet

“Achilles Come Down” – Gang of Youths

So self-indulgent and self-referential / No audience could ever want you / You crave the applause yet hate the attention / Then miss it, your act is a ruse

“Death by Rock and Roll” – The Pretty Reckless

I wanna go with a shotgun blast / I wanna go with a woman on her back / I wanna go with the sickness in my throat / I wanna go, killed by rock and roll

“Vienna” – Billy Joel

Slow down, you crazy child / You’re so ambitious for a juvenile / But then if you’re so smart, / Tell me why are you still so afraid?

“Diamonds and Rust” – Joan Baez

Well, you burst on the scene already a legend / The unwashed phenomenon, the original vagabond / You strayed into my arms

Do you write to music? If so, what are your playlist picks, and do those songs inform what you’re writing about?

While this sale is technically only open to Barnes & Noble members, the good news is that B&N offers a free membership option — all you’ve got to do is sign up here with your email, and you get access to the sale for no extra fees. Once you sign up, just add To the Death to your cart, and use the code PREORDER25 at checkout, easy peasy.

Premium-tier B&N memberships are also a thing, and those come with an extra 10% off your purchase at checkout!

Other upcoming titles I’m excited for that are available for 25% off at Barnes & Noble until Friday, September 5

I Killed the King by Rebecca Mix and Andrea Hannah

Guys, I’m so excited that fantasy whodunnits are becoming more of a thing! I had so much fun writing my own Knives Out-inspired contemporary fantasy murder mystery These Deadly Prophecies, and I can’t wait to check out a high fantasy, secondary world take on this genre mashup — especially from my girl Becca, who’s got such a hilarious, snappy voice in everything she writes. If you’re into traditional high fantasy, and want to dip your toes into Becca’s fun, zany, yet deeply heartfelt style of storytelling, definitely check out her debut The Ones We Burn!

The Dead of Summer by Ryan La Sala

I won’t lie: this one caught my eye entirely because of Ryan’s hilarious Instagram reels about it. (Hey, who says social media doesn’t win over new readers from time to time?) I love a good spooky seaside story, I love queer horror, and I have high hopes for this one!

I, Medusa: A Novel by Ayana Gray

I’m a sucker for a good Greek myth retelling, and I’m super excited for Ayana’s own unique take on the Medusa legend. Villain origin stories fascinate me, and I’m sure Ayana’s gonna knock this one out of the park. (Plus, have you seen her preorder swag? 10/10 would kill for one of those snake charm necklaces.)

What I’ve Been Reading Lately: Substack Edition!

I wish I could tell you guys that I’m one of those authors who still reads novels just as voraciously now as I did before I started writing them professionally (I may share more thoughts on this later down the line!) Alas, between time constraints, occasional bouts of executive dysfunction, and shifts in various life demands, these days, I’m a slower long form reader than I used to be, and certainly slower than I’d ideally like to be.

That said, one of my small pleasures – and favorite uses of writing break time – is reading fun, quickly digestible think pieces that tickle my brain in various ways. A lot of pieces I’ve enjoyed in recent memory are conveniently right here on Substack, and linked below for your pleasure and convenience.

On writing & publishing:

• How using an Id list changed the way I write by Rebecca Mix at Mix’d Thoughts

• Three things I would NOT have wanted to hear as a new writer by Jodi Meadows at Jodi Spins Stories

• Do I really want to publish my books? by Jodi Meadows at Jodi Spins Stories

• Culture Study Goes Full ACOTAR by Anne Helen Petersen at Culture Study

• From Purple Eyeliner to Pull-On Pants: How Being a Writer Affects Personal Style by Heidi Fiedler at Unflattering

On physical recreation & fitness culture:

• The long con of Pilates culture by Mikala Jamison at Body Type

• The Quiet Glory of (Continued) Aging into Athleticism by Anne Helen Petersen at Culture Study

• You Need to Be More Durable by Chris Wojcik at The Grappler’s Diary

On miscellaneous other stuff I’ve enjoyed thinking about:

• How Millennials Grew Up and Got Old by Anne Helen Petersen at Culture Study

• This Is How We Fall Out of Love With the World by Anne Helen Petersen at Culture Study

• When the Collective Taste Doesn’t Include You by Corinne Fay at Big Undies

  • An addendum, also by Corinne Fay: Size Inclusivity on Substack

• A Unified Theory of Glen Powell by Anne Helen Petersen at Culture Study

• ‘The Substance’ is a Fairytale (But So Is Beauty) by Jessica DeFino at Flesh World

• The era of beauty standard brain rot by Mikala Jamison at Body Type

What bits of casual Internet reading have tickled your brains lately? What are you excited to read in the future, short form, long form, or otherwise? Has anything caught your eye over at the Barnes & Noble preorder sale? Sound off in the comments!

Hello! I’m Andrea Tang, author of science fiction and fantasy novels such as Barnes & Noble YA book club pick These Deadly Prophecies and Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection Rebelwing, as well as a bunch of other titles. I also earn part of my living writing about and teaching martial arts – specifically, the noble pajama-wrasslin’, people-hugging art of Brazilian jiu-jitsu – at my local MMA gym.

After failing to launch an actual newsletter for the past *checks notes* wow, six-ish years of my professional writing career, I’ve finally decided that my time has come. Also, Instagram captions presumably have a character limit, so I am forced to reckon with the fact that my agent and publicist are probably right, and I cannot simply “link people to a Squarespace website whenever I have a new book coming out and just let it rip.” (Reminder to self: also, remember to update Squarespace more diligently.)

Truth be told, I love reading Substack essays – noteworthy favorites on this platform include my friends and author colleagues Victoria Lee, Amanda Quain, and Rebecca Mix, as well as culture writers like the great Anne Helen Petersen and fellow heavy lifting enthusiast Mikala Jamison – so, Substack seemed like the most promising spot to get started!

Without further ado, a quick overview of what’s in store for y’all here at the newly christened Pen & Sword:

• The obvious author stuff: Book news! I’ll be announcing release dates, cover reveals, forthcoming titles, and more. I’m hoping this will be a place where I can go into a little more detail than I would in the limited space most social media allows, so I can share extra nerdy goodies like sources of inspiration, the path to publication, and creative process thoughts. Down the line, I might even include stuff like excerpts, deleted scenes, and sneak peeks of future work! Time shall tell.

• Media recommendations galore: I get a lot of questions about what I’m reading – and to a lesser extent, what I’m watching and listening to, media-wise. I love sharing the stuff I love, so I’m looking forward to hawking my favorite books, think pieces, podcasts, and binge-worthy TV shows at an unsuspecting public.

• Cross-medium, genre-mixing, generally delicious storytelling craft talk: Left to my own devices, I can geek out for hours on storytelling, and unlike at awkward dinner parties, in my own newsletter blog, no one can stop me! I’m especially interested in what storytellers in different mediums and genres can learn from each other. What can novelists learn from studying film? What can scriptwriters pick up from talking to illustrators? A lot, methinks.

• A personally beloved subcategory of craft talk that deserves its own bullet point: The craft of action writing. Honestly, could you expect anything less of a newsletter named The Pen & Sword? ;-) While fiction is my first love, I’ve also spent a lot of my writing career covering combat sports news and penning commerical content for martial arts brands, so this particular intersection was clearly inevitable. Most hours that I don’t spend in front of a keyboard, I spend on an MMA gym mat. This translates to a lot of time specifically thinking about how we, as authors, write physical action into stories. Physicality – and especially physical conflict, a.k.a. fight scenes – can tell us loads about characters and their relationships, and I wanna talk about it all!

• General mind-and-body thoughts for writers & fellow creatives: Probably zero people who know Adult Me will be surprised to hear that Teen Me imprinted big time on Fullmetal Alchemist’s Izumi Curtis. I haven’t always loved movement the way I do now, but I did (at times, very reluctantly!) grow up on movement – initially in traditional martial arts, later in classical dance, and eventually in modern combat sports. That said, as a kid, I identified first and foremost as a big ol’ nerd, so Izumi’s “train the body, train the mind” adage has always rung true to me. These days, I love chatting with fellow nerds about how to get comfier living in their meatsuits – and how that can enhance creative process work. It’s one of the most rewarding aspects of teaching martial arts for me, and one that’s absolutely made me a more thoughtful and resilient writer.

I hope you join me for the ride! :-)