About Camy Tang
Camy Tang writes Christian contemporary romance and romantic suspense novels with Asian characters.
Writing has been a passion since junior high, but she felt convicted by God that her motives weren’t pure—she was more interested in being a published author than in serving God and writing for His honor and glory. So she set her writing aside.
She attended Stanford University, majoring in psychology while taking pre-med classes. She opted out of medical school and spent nine years as a biologist researcher.
In 2003, she felt God giving her permission to write again. When she was working on a contemporary romance novel titled The Ephesians List, she went to a wonderful Christian author, Brandilyn Collins, and asked her to pray over her. During the prayer, Brandilyn felt God encouraging Camy to “write your heritage.”
Camy is a fourth-generation Japanese American married to a third-generation Chinese American, and she grew up in Wahiawa, Hawai’i, a town at the heart of O’ahu. So she changed her heroine in The Ephesians List to an Asian American Christian girl. The book was later sold to Zondervan and retitled Sushi for One?, her debut novel.
Leaving biology in 2005, Camy shifted to full-time writing, achieving publication with Zondervan (Harper Collins), Love Inspired Suspense (Harlequin), and Guideposts Books before transitioning to self-publishing.
After ACL surgeries from volleyball and an ankle injury from running her first and only marathon, she switched to safer hobbies. She now knits antique patterns, forcing her characters to wear all the things she knits. She is also learning to speak Japanese, hoping it’s true that you’re never too old to learn a new language.
She and her husband were staff workers with the youth group at their Asian Christian church for 20 years before they retired in 2017. She wrote true stories about her youth group in Single Sashimi.
The journey through writing, initially uncertain of publication prospects, has evolved into a profound lesson in faith, dependence on God, and surrendering control. This spiritual journey is reflected in the characters and narratives of Camy’s books, underscoring a trust in God’s plan and using Camy’s talents according to divine purpose.
Romance with a kick of wasabi
What does Camy’s tagline mean?
Wasabi is a very hot (sinus-clearing) Japanese radish condiment used to give a clean-tasting little spice or kick when eating sushi or any raw seafood. Wasabi, with its Asian origin, refers to her Asian characters, that “kick” of sass and danger in her contemporary romantic suspense.
Camy’s faith
What do you believe about God, the universe, and everything in between? How strongly do you believe it? Does it impact and influence your life?
I’ve known people who try to shove their faith down my throat. I’m not here to do that. Give me a minute to tell you my experience with Jesus Christ.
In school, I was an outcast and I would have done almost anything to fit in, to be acknowledged as someone worth knowing. I thought I was a Christian but I wanted to do things my own way, and I did some horribly selfish things to other people, making Christians seem like hypocrites.
God didn’t strike me down with lightning. He sent real Christians into my life to make me realize that their faith gave them a confidence and stability I didn’t have. He showed me that if I surrendered control of my life to Christ, I could cast aside my old life—the old me—and gain a new life, a new me, someone I’d like much better.
I always regret that it took me so long to find this kind of freedom. That’s why I worked with teenagers in my church youth group—to help them discover this kind of supernatural love and inner peace while they’re still young, before they make stupid decisions like I did.
God didn’t make me do anything I didn’t want to do. Instead, He opened doors for my greatest dream and desire, my writing. His Spirit guides me and molds me in ways that are too weird and mysterious to describe, but very cool to experience.
It isn’t hard and it isn’t a cosmic killjoy. It can be a little scary, but He loves you so much, the fear melts away. If you earnestly search for God, He has promised that you’ll find Him—undeniably, irrevocably. So don’t take my word for it—look for Him yourself. Find a Bible and start reading the Gospel of John.