About this site
Who are you?
Hi! I’m Isabel Yap. You can also call me Isa. I’m a Filipino writer and poet. Most of my stories involve girls being bad and monsters being sad. I grew up in Manila, and am currently based in the US. I’m a long-time fandom person, and have sporadically written fanfic since 1998, when I decided I wanted to write an alternative ending to Mulan. I’m also an MBA graduate and product manager; I've been working in tech since 2013, so I have a lot of lived experience being a writer with a day job.
My debut short story collection was published by Small Beer Press in 2021. My website is yonder. I'm not active much on social media, but you can also find me @visyap on Instagram, BlueSky, and Twitter.
Why should I sign up?
I’ve been told by a handful of people that they like my writing advice. I think and read a lot about craft, storytelling, publishing, and author careers. I want to share worthwhile things I’ve encountered in all my years of trying to make a writing life work, in case it helps you too.
I've been writing short fiction since the mid-2000s, and I just went through a five-year-process of learning how to write a novel. Picking up the skill of novel-writing was excruciating and fascinating, and I took a lot of notes with the intention of eventually sharing what I learned. I'm also constantly working through how to build a sustainable writing practice while keeping a full-time job. If these are things you’re struggling with, maybe something in my experience will help.
Lastly, if you enjoy my writing, I’ll sometimes discuss how I think about them or what went into them. I’ll also share things I find inspiring, since this is always something I’m curious about when it comes to my favorite creators. In other words, I’ll be sharing a lot about things I like, whether it’s a book or manga, a movie or a videogame, a chill song, a particular kind of Trader Joe’s snack, etc.
I know everyone’s got inbox fatigue. I’d like to build a real community, so do only sign up if you’re genuinely interested! By subscribing you get every new newsletter automatically.
Anything else I should know?
My goal is to send out at least two newsletters a month. I tend to work well with accountability, so I’m going to try that cadence and see how it goes.
This isn’t exactly an advice column, but if you have a writing/craft/publishing-related question that you’d like my perspective on, you can submit it here—I’d love to try and answer it!
I’m keeping this newsletter totally free at least for the next few months, while I stick to a regular schedule. If I do decide on a subscription version eventually, I’ll be sure to clarify how that’s different. For now, I hope you just enjoy the content!
Why hot yuzu tea?
Have you tried it? It’s delicious! There’s this cafe in San Francisco that I used to buy hot yuzu tea from. Then I found out you can buy Citron Tea with Honey from Hmart, and it tastes exactly the same. In general I’m a big tea fiend and I wanted to pick a name that was kinda comforting, so this is what I settled on.