I keep thinking it has to be almost bedtime, but it's not. It's 4:30, so, in addition to being a Monday, today is about 40 years long.

It used to be that when you finished writing an article, you marked it -30-. Thirty meant done. Complete. Finished. Yesterday, I hit Thirty on Have Yourself a Merry Little Witchmas. Ish. Thirty-ish. It came in WAY over my target words. I was told November 1st and 20,000 words. What I ended up with was 29,413 words on November 2nd. Hey, it's still a novella! It's also been sent off, so we'll see what we see. I need to flesh out this world now, which is going to be part of my "I'm not really working until January" break.

These fantasy romances and paranormal romances are all 99c on Oct 30th only. Stuff your ereader (and tell your friends)! And if you'd like to celebrate the holidays with a daily free book throughout a...

It's the end of October, and my brain is starting the process of winding down for the end of the year. Which is a little bit of a problem, because I am two (I think two) chapters from finishing Have Yourself a Merry Little Witchmas, and it's due in on Friday! No winding down! Must make all the words! In a fun instance of "This is Liz's brain on writing..." Witchmas is now set in the same universe as Heart's Master. Which means that if I stay with writing Camber and Merlina (which I might, because they are SO much fun to write!), there's a possibility of a cameo by a certain blind bardic mage.

In the past week, I've put my entire upcoming schedule into a Pop-o-Matic, which has created great jiggery-pokery in my calendar. First and foremost, due to circumstances beyond my control, and which involve not owning a time machine and therefore not getting the books in time, my signing at Spellbound has been postponed until December 20th! So come out and pick up signed copies of the Blood of the Raven books. I'll bring gift wrap. It will be awesome! Second, remember how last week I mentioned that there were three book events on the calendar at Oviedo Mall for 2026, and that I applied for all three?

"I forgot to turn off the subtitles on my inside voice." The line that made me giggle for several minutes. I am enjoying this manuscript. These characters are wonderfully snarky, and I'm just having fun. Now, that's not to say that i don't enjoy all of my writing. I do. But Merlina and Camber are amusing me all out of proportion, and the hard part is going to be keeping this to the required 20,000 words. I keep telling myself that sequels are a thing. Which means I need to make a series plan.

The three week run of shows is now over, and I have a little breathing space before my next outing. Time to rest, to resupply, and to get some writing done! And other writing work -- page proofs came in today for Ravenflight, and I need to turn these around quickly. I also need to get some words done on Have Yourself a Merry Little Witchmas, because that deadline is creeping up on me. Assuming I can keep from having a million little things pop up that keep me from writing and editing, I'll get these done on time.

I’ve been getting so many questions about newsletters — how to start one, how to actually grow it, and how to make it work without burning out. (Spoiler: I’m…

Past Me was insane. That's all there is to it. To schedule three shows in three weeks? Bonkers. Two down, one to go. We got home from Necronomicon Tampa last night, and we have four days to reset before we reload the car for the Page and Pen Festival at the Oviedo Mall. In the meantime, I've spent the day getting my end of quarter admin work done.

Smut Lovers Conference was amazingly fun. How much fun? Enough to say let's do it again! We'll be back for 2026!

It's Monday the 15th. Countdown to Smut Lovers. 3... 2... 1... I'm mostly ready. The books are packed. The scooter is ready to load. I got my hair trimmed today and I'm doing my color tomorrow (my hair will be purple when you see me at Smut Lovers.) I still have to pick an outfit for my headshot appointment and for the signing, and I might stop and see about buying shoes tomorrow, if I have time. Yes, that headshot will soon be going away. I forget who it was who said that if you keep writing long enough, eventually your headshot will be your greatest work of fiction.

Have you heard the phrase "The only constant is change?" It's true, especially in publishing. Trends change, and you have to go with it. And that's why the entire Blood of the Raven series is getting new covers to celebrate the release of book three! Wait, what? Didn't book 2 just come out a few months ago? Yes, yes it did. And yes, I do love that cover. But it appears that the cover art trend is shifting, and that shiny new cover is already dated. So... shiny new covers! AND...

Tap. Taptap. Is this thing on? I'm back. Did you miss me? Honestly, I know that the odds are good that most folks didn't notice I was taking time off. But here we are in September, and it's time for me to get back to work. Sort of. Because it took me much longer than I was planning to get The Coral Throne done, I'm not technically getting back to work yet. Not entirely, anyway. I'm working on edits for Tales from the Arena; Dead Man's Hand. I'm blogging again, starting today, and the newsletter will come out later this week.

We interrupt this interruption to bring you... an interruption? Or something. I'm not back yet. Not exactly. But....

My original plan was for this to be my last blog post before my break started on July 1st. Instead, while this is still going to be my last blog post until September, it's crunch time that starts tomorrow. My break will start August 1st or whenever I finish writing The Coral Throne. I'm currently about two-thirds of the way done with the manuscript, and I will be spending the next month getting it to something approaching a draft. I may not get much writing done today because today is the end of Q2, and there are things that need to be done.

If It's not one thing, it's two things. Or six. Usually, it's six. Last week? It was a doctor appointment every morning, then heading out to the writing retreat after, going right into the Renaissance Faire on Saturday. Which, I suppose, is my way of saying I'm tired today. The retreat was amazing, and there are some exciting things that are coming out of it that I can't really talk about yet. Things are written in warm Jell-O right now, but are solidifying nicely, so I'll tell you more once I can.

QSFer Elizabeth Schechter has a new MMF historical fantasy book out: The Sea Prince. Once, Tarjiaan was the sixth prince of war-tossed Meradon. His dreams were captaining his own ship with the man he ...