Behind the Echoes
Pendant of Echoes has been nearly twenty years in the making—though for most of that time, I didn’t know I was writing it.
For years, my life was centered on medicine, military service, raising a family, and building the career I had worked hard to create. Storytelling lived quietly in the background: in the books I loved, the worlds I imagined, and the ideas that never completely left me.
Then, during a season when I began thinking differently about what I wanted the next chapter of my life to hold, I started writing.
What began as a creative outlet quickly became something much bigger. I discovered a passion I hadn’t realized I was missing. Characters became a world. A world became a history. And before long, Asemi had become a place with its own memories, people, wounds, and stories waiting to be told.
At its heart, Pendant of Echoes is about belonging, memory, family, identity, and the connections that shape us. It is also about recognizing that the things that make us different- the way we think, notice, feel, and move through the world- may be the very things that make us powerful.
This series marks a new chapter for me as a storyteller, but in many ways, it also feels like returning to something that has been waiting for me all along.
From Medicine to Myth-Making
The discipline of medicine and the rigor of military service might seem worlds away from epic fantasy, but they are the bedrock of my world-building. Understanding the fragility of the human body and the strength of the human spirit allows me to craft characters who bleed, ache, and persevere. My background isn't just a former career; it's the lens through which I view the stakes of every conflict in Asemi.
The Echoes of Asemi
Writing this series has been a journey of discovery. Every ritual, every landscape, and every 'echo' within the pendant relates back to the fundamental questions of identity. I spend hours mapping the histories of fallen empires and the genealogies of those who survive them, ensuring that the magic of the world feels as lived-in and consequential as the blood in our veins.
"Fantasy is not an escape from reality; it is a way to look at reality through a mirror that reveals the magic we often overlook in our own struggle for belonging."
— Rasheda Sadler
Meet the Author
Rasheda Sadler is a writer, mother, U.S. Navy officer, physician assistant, entrepreneur, and lifelong believer in doing the thing that keeps calling you—even when the timing isn't perfect.
Originally from New Jersey and raised in Georgia, Rasheda has built a life that has taken her far beyond either place. Her career in Navy medicine has carried her around the world, while motherhood, military service, graduate education, and entrepreneurship have shaped the way she sees people, resilience, leadership, and belonging.
She holds a Master of Physician Assistant Studies from Penn State and is currently pursuing her MBA at Howard University. When she isn't caring for patients, studying, raising her children, or disappearing into Asemi, she's usually dreaming up whatever comes next.
Pendant of Echoes is her debut novel-but she already knows it won't be her last.
Beyond the Page
What She Writes
Rasheda is a mother of two, lifelong reader, gamer, and traveler who would happily choose a great movie or an immersive fictional world over cooking dinner. Her imagination has always been crowded with stories, and when she isn't writing, she's probably planning her next adventure—or adding another project to an already full plate.
Her stories center Black characters whose identities are part of them without being the limits of their stories. She is drawn to fantasy, romance, family, memory, complicated relationships, and the question of what it really means to belong.
“Echoes are the emotional imprint living things leave on the world.”
— Rasheda Sadler, Pendant of Echoes