about
about - astrid cartesian
about astrid
astrid cartesian2026
Meet Astrid Cartesian — historical fiction author, late-night researcher, and the person who will absolutely derail a dinner party talking about World War II. She writes for the readers who want history that hits hard and stays with them long after the last page.
Her debut novel Operation Nachthexen was born from a single, staggering discovery: an all-female Soviet bomber regiment that flew night raids in plywood biplanes, earned a monster’s nickname from the German army, and somehow never made it into the history most of us were taught. Senior Lieutenant Nadezhda Kozlova is her answer to that silence — fierce, complicated, and impossible to forget.
books about
Read more about the brave women who contributed to the war and scared the living daylights (sometimes literally) out of grown men.
Relish in stories of one of our favorite things to do to harmful men who seek to destroy us: terrorizing them.
Contemplations and musings about the history of women in war, seeking adventure, vengeance, and protecting the communities they worked so hard to build.
Not out of choice, but out of necessity.
This is the novel that fills the gap on your shelf you didn’t know was there. Complex and capable women and utterly impossible to put down. A story rooted in real testimony and fascinating history, dire stakes—because anything less would be an insult to the women who lived it.
the women
Throughout history, brave women have shown up—on battlefields, in boardrooms, in cockpits over enemy territory at 3 a.m.—and changed everything while the world insisted it couldn’t be done. They were dismissed, written out, and forgotten on purpose, because what they accomplished was too powerful to be allowed into the official story. From the Night Witches of the 588th Regiment to every woman who ever refused to stand down when standing down would have been so much easier, their courage didn’t just make history—it is history. And it is long past time we said so out loud.
faq
The Nachthexen is where Astrid’s obsession exists—weekly deep-dives into the history, the research, and the women whose stories the world almost lost forever. This is not your average author newsletter; it’s a front-row seat to the making of Operation Nachthexen, from archive discoveries to exclusive character side stories told in Nadezhda’s own voice. Every Thursday, Astrid goes somewhere most history books fail to reveal: the stories of women. Subscribe and step inside the world that history lessons often do not promote.
read the substackThe Nachthexen
Because the novel only tells part of the story. The Nachthexen is where Nadezhda’s world comes fully alive—the moments that didn’t make the final cut, the memories she carries, the version of events only she can tell. Subscribers get exclusive access to character side stories written in her voice, plus the deep-dive history and behind-the-scenes research that makes every page of Operation Nachthexen hit harder. This is the inner circle.
The ones that change how you read the novel. We’re talking Nadezhda before the crash—who she was, what she feared, what she refused to admit out loud. The relationships between women in the 588th that never make it into official history. The moments of dark humor, fierce loyalty, and quiet devastation that happen between the missions. Fiction rooted so deep in real testimony it feels like memory. If you thought you knew this story, wait until you read it from the inside.
Absolutely not. The Nachthexen is part history deep-dive, part craft journal, part literary experience you can’t get anywhere else. Every Thursday you get something real—a dispatch from someone genuinely obsessed with getting this history right, written for readers who are done with surface-level content. The free tier gives you plenty. The paid tier gives you Nadezhda herself. The difference is immediate and it is worth every penny.
Because the women of the 588th were written out of history once already—and we’re living in a moment that makes that erasure feel less like the past and more like a warning. Reading their story, understanding what they fought through and what they refused to accept, paints a different picture than the typical WW2 battle stories. Subscribers to The Nachthexen are part of a community that believes highlighting women’s history is urgent, necessary work, deserving of ink. Come be part of that. The world needs this story told.
The Night Witches flew without engines, without radar, without anyone believing they could do it. The least I can do is send you a good email. Join the list—history, craft, and dispatches from the archive.
