Liz Shipton

Hey book lovers! I'm Liz Shipton, and I write dark romance that explores what happens when civilization crumbles and all we're left with is our most primal instincts. (Spoiler alert: it gets messy, intense, and yeah... pretty savage.)

I never expected my first book to be about a post-apocalyptic poet-turned-survivor, but here we are. Life has a way of surprising you like that, right? Growing up, I was that weird kid who carried around notebooks filled with angsty poetry and apocalypse stories. My teachers probably should've been concerned, but instead they just kept feeding me more books. Thanks, Mrs. Peterson, for introducing me to The Road when I was probably too young to read it!

After getting my degree in Creative Writing (and working approximately 47 different jobs to pay for it), I spent years trying to write "proper" literary fiction. You know the type - lots of meaningful stares out windows while contemplating the human condition. But my heart wasn't in it. My characters kept wanting to do very improper things, usually involving knives and questionable consent. Who was I to stop them?

When the pandemic hit in 2020, something clicked. All those years of reading about societal collapse suddenly felt a lot more relevant. I started writing Savage during those early lockdown days, pouring all my fears and fascinations about human nature onto the page. Jameson Briggs, my broken poet with blood on his hands, practically wrote himself. (Though he'd probably stab me for saying that.)

Here's the thing about my books - they're not for everyone, and I'm totally okay with that. I write about the darkness in human nature, about what happens when the rules break down and we're forced to confront our own savagery. But I also write about hope, about finding connection in the most unlikely places, and yes, about love. The kind of love that's messy and complicated and sometimes involves questionable life choices. But isn't that the most interesting kind?

When I'm not writing about the end of the world, you can find me hiking in the Pacific Northwest (gotta research those survival skills!), reading everything I can get my hands on (current obsession: obscure apocalypse fiction from the 1970s), or attempting to convince my rescue cat that she doesn't actually want to eat me. She remains unconvinced.

To my readers: thank you for trusting me with your dark side. For understanding that sometimes the most beautiful stories come from the ugliest places. And for falling in love with Jameson despite (or because of?) his savage heart. You're my kind of weird, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

What can you expect from my books? Raw emotion. Morally grey characters who definitely shouldn't be attractive but somehow are. Poetry mixed with violence. Love stories that would make your grandmother faint. And always, always, a deep dive into what makes us human - especially when humanity itself is hanging by a thread.

I'm currently working on my next book (no spoilers, but let's just say it involves a librarian with a very particular set of skills and a world that's even more broken than before). If you want to join me on this journey into the dark, you can find me on Instagram where I post way too many pictures of my cat and share snippets of works in progress. Fair warning: both the cat and the snippets tend to bite.

Remember - sometimes the only way to stay civilized is to embrace your inner savage. At least, that's what I keep telling myself.

Welcome to my world. It's a little dark in here, but don't worry - we've got poetry and questionable coping mechanisms to light the way.