Liz Shipton's Headshot

Hi, I'm Liz. Speculative fiction author & boat hermit.

I started writing when my partner and I set sail from California in 2021. My first book, Salt, was written on my phone while I was in the cockpit on night watch along the Pacific Coast.

As a writer, I try to balance dark humor and bonkers action with world-building and characters rooted in my lived experience. While I consider my books more satire than romance, they are romantic with explicit content, because I like to lure you in with sex and magic before I beat you over the head with stuff like AI, immigration, feminism, climate change, mental health, queerness, and Donald Trump.

I also write bits and bobs about the attention economy on Substack, and squishy MM sports romance under the pen name Hailey Reaves.

On the rare occasion I'm not writing, you can find me at yoga or karaoke, complaining about the weather, telling my dog I love her for the bazillionth time today, or watching 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown.

Liz's boat Loki

Author 🪶⚓ Pirate

My partner, dog, and I live on a 43ft Morgan 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 2023 we came through the Panama Canal to the Caribbean, where we now liveaboard.

Loki is a great home, albeit small. We live simply, with minimal expense and waste, procuring our own water and generating power from solar.

We were motivated to do this by a desire to see the world, but boat life is also an amazing way to keep expenses low. One of my favorite parts of this lifestyle is that it allows us the freedom to pursue work we love, rather than worry about paying off a mortgage.

Trev and Aloy

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. He's a licensed captain, and works seasonally in the Caribbean and Alaska. We've been together 16 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.

©2026 Liz Shipton ☠️ Tyrannosaurus Yes Media