Next book release · June 22, 2027

OperationNachthexen

is coming soon!

Drop your details below to learn more about the book, women at war, and the characters’ side stories.

Vintage aircraft fuselage marked 42

Join the Coven

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.

Next book release

June 22, 2027
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faq

Everything you need to know here

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.

Navigator Yekaterina Ryabova of the 46th Guards with her Po-2
Why should I subscribe to The Nachthexen on Substack?

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.

What kind of stories will I find behind the paywall?

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.

Is this just another author newsletter?

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.

Why does this story matter right now?

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.