PORTLAND — A Portland author who has long written about and trained with boxers put some of those skills to the test when someone tried to grab her purse as she walked home with a bag of groceries.

Author Katherine Dunn says her purse strap was yanked so hard it spun her around. She found herself face to face with a young woman telling her to let go of the purse. Dunn says the woman kicked her in the shin and slapped her face when she refused, so Dunn started punching her assailant as hard as she could with her right hand. Dunn says she would normally have led with her left hand, but that was all tangled up in the purse strap.

Police soon showed up and booked 25-year-old Brandy Amber Carroll into the Multnomah County Jail for investigation of felony robbery and theft.

Dunn tells The Oregonian she suffered some fingernail scratches and a bloody eye in Tuesday's scuffle and went to the hospital for a tetanus shot.

Dunn is best known for her novel "Geek Love."