Part-time author 🪶⚓ Full-time pirate
Hi! I'm Liz. I'm a writer and full-time, off-grid, live-aboard sailor. I’m currently sailing around the world with my partner and my dog, turning my real-life adventures into speculative fiction.
I'm extremely grateful to explore the world as I do, and I love incorporating my travel experiences into my work.
My books also explore themes surrounding mental health, addiction, technology creep, climate change, and the looming collapse of society (but, like...in a fun way.)
When I'm not penning novels about the impending apocalypse, I work as a freelance writer in the tech and off-grid living niches. On the rare occasion I'm not writing, you can find me swimming, complaining about the weather, telling my dog I love her for the bazillionth time today, or watching Taskmaster.
For professional inquiries, please reach out to liz@lizshipton.com, or contact my agent Amy Collins at acollins@talcottnotch.net
Our floating home
We live on a 43ft Morgan Center Cockpit sailboat called Loki. We bought the boat in 2019 after almost 6 years of planning, and set sail in September of 2021.
Our journey began in our hometown of Santa Cruz, CA. From there, we sailed down the Pacific Coast into Baja California. We spent a year in Mexico before continuing south through Guatamala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Hondurus, Costa Rica, and Panama. In March of 2023 we came through the Panama Canal to the Caribbean.
Loki is a wonderful home, albeit a little small at times! We live simply and with minimal expense and waste, procuring our own water and generating our own power from solar.
One of my favorite things about this way of life is the freedom it gives us to explore work we love. We were motivated to pursue this lifestyle partially by a desire to see the world, but partially by the rapidly rising housing costs in our hometown. Boat life keeps expenses low, meaning we have time to focus on creative projects, rather than a mortgage.
Meet the crew
Trevor Hope
Trev is the indispensible captain of this ship, without whom, let's face it, the whole operation really falls apart. He's an excellent sailor, outstanding electrician, and can fix just about anything. We've been together 15 years.
Aloy Bonesnatcher McGee
We rescued Aloy from GEPDA rescue in San Martin, CA in 2017. She came to us with some behavioral issues, including aggression toward strangers. We still have to manage that from time to time, but she's calmed down a lot in her maturing years. She's an amazing guard dog and once she gets to know a person, she is ride-or-die. Readers may recognize her as Malarkey from the Thalassic Series.