Happy Book Day

Jun

2025

Tomorrow!

Happy Book Birthday Eve! Tomorrow is the day! The Sea Prince releases tomorrow, at long last. My earliest notes on this novel are from 2009. So technically, The Sea Prince is older than Princes of Air. The concept, anyway. It’s really kind of bizarre to think that, after so many false starts, broken plotlines, and rewrites, this novel is finally going to be published. It’s a very different book from when it started, way back in 2009. But in some places, it’s very much the same.

And tomorrow, you get to read it!

One of those things that changed is that in the original manuscript from 2009, Nika had a cat. There were plot points as to why and how the cat was important, but in the latest rewrite, I decided that the cat didn’t make any sense. So there’s no cat in The Sea Prince. However, about halfway through The Coral Throne, someone asks Tarjiaan why the Wave Runner doesn’t have a ship cat, because it’s traditional for Meradonese ships to have one (or more). They take Tarjiaan and Nika to meet their cat’s litter… and one of them bonds immediately with Nika.

(song cue!) And the cat came back! She wouldn’t stay away….

Nika isn’t the only one to come away with a cat, though. Tarjiaan is also adopted/claimed by an opinionated and unique calico cat. For the record, I already adore Tripod:

Tarjiaan heard a yowl, and looked down to see a cat at his feet. This wasn’t a kitten — from its size, it was at least a year old, with a smooth coat of many colors completely unlike the fluffy forest cats. It yowled again, then jumped, and Tarjiaan scrambled to catch the cat before the animal could set its claws into Tarjiaan’s coat and the skin underneath.

“I apologize, Captain,” Mentiras said. “This is Tripod. He was born on the Endurance, and placed with us… well, you see why.”

“I see,” Tarjiaan said. The reason for his name was clear — Tripod was missing his right front leg. “What happened to him?”

“The ship physician said it was a birth injury.” He reached out and scratched Tripod’s ears. “We’re not sure of his bloodline — the Endurance’s queen went missing when they were last in Sualiman, and she came back gravid. Tripod was runt of the litter, and no one thought he was going to survive. He doesn’t seem to have any trouble getting around, but the Endurance’s captain didn’t think that he was suitable to be a ship cat.”

Tarjiaan shifted the cat in his arms and started scratching him behind the ears. “I think Tripod disagrees,” he said. “I think he’s decided he’s not only going to be a ship’s cat, he’s going to be the captain’s cat.” He stopped scratching, and Tripod twisted and reached up with his front paw, catching Tarjiaan’s sleeve and dragging his hand back down. “Oh, I see! You’re already letting me know you’re in charge?”

Tomorrow, you get to meet Tarjiaan and Nika and Daanir, and fall into their world. I can’t wait!

Promotions

Free Books!

For the month of June, come find a selection of free steamy books! Click the graphic and take a look!

Stuff with Fantasy Bookish Solstice!

Coming June 14th is the Stuff With Fantasy Bookish Solstice event, where every book is 99 cents. I’m not sure how many books are included in this sale, but it certainly looks like a lot!

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To end the war with the Empire, all Prince Tarjiaan has to do is deny his heart and marry the Emperor’s granddaughter. Peace is assured…

Or is it?

The Sea Prince sets sail on June 10th!

Preorder Now!

Now Available!

Kidnapped from his home and sold as a slave in Rome, Raven-Prince Lorcan must survive in a world where entertainment is murder, diplomacy is betrayal, and love is a commodity. And where a raven who is only supposed to ever have one mate will somehow find two…

Read it before Raven’s Flight comes out!

Image of a book cover. Cover is red-orange, with an abstract design over which there is a raven in flight. Text reads Book One in the Blood of the Raven series. Raven's Fall. Wings of Blood and Desire. By Blood Betrayed. Elizabeth Schechter

Order Now!

Work in Progress

The Coral Throne
(The Coral Throne, book 2)

52080 / 100000 (52.08%)

Appearances

Meet and Greet for The Sea Prince book release
Spellbound Bookstore
June 15th
12:30PM -2:30PM
Sanford, FL

***

Enchanted Knights: Summer Solstice
June 21st, 2025
Oviedo Mall
Oviedo, FL

***

3rd Annual Summer Artisan Market
June 29th, 2025
Brannon Center
New Smyrna Beach, FL

***

Smut Lovers: The Conference
September 17th – 21st, 2025
Orlando, FL

***

Necronomicon
September 26th – 28th, 2025
Tampa, FL

***

Page and Pen Festival
October 4th, 2025
Oviedo, FL

Feb

2025

What Do You Mean, New Release?

I have a FULL day today. Packed. This morning, as I was getting ready to leave the house, I opened Bluesky. And saw something I wasn’t expecting — a book had released. MY book had released. What do you mean, new release? I wasn’t expecting that until tomorrow!

It’s true! Raven’s Fall is now available wherever your ebooks are sold! Paperbacks are coming, as are HARDCOVERS!!! (I think my New York publisher heard me squeeing from Florida when they told me hardcovers!)

And… since Princes of Air is the prequel to this book and the one after it, it’s going to be getting a relaunch as well. (Yes, I know we just did that. We’re doing it again. It’s like the Time Warp.) This time, though? The relaunch will include a new title — Raven Princes, Prequel to The Blood of the Raven series.

I’m not sure when that’s going to happen, but it is happening.

The more I look at this cover, the more I like it. I just got the final artwork on Saturday while I was at a show, then I was working on a promo thing all day yesterday, so there wasn’t ANY time to show it off. I thought I’d have a day to start getting the word out and letting folks know that it’s out on Netgalley for reviews.

(By the way? It’s out on Netgalley for reviews….)

It is a very good thing that I didn’t schedule myself to write today, because I don’t think there will be a WORD written on either WIP. Between the release, and a class I had at two, and a Smut Lovers Conference Facebook takeover tonight, and then a writing meeting? My head is spinning. In a good way, but WHOOSH.

And now I need to go whooshing off to get something else done. But wow. The book is out!!!!

Now Available!

Work in Progress

Tales from the Arena: King of Swords
(Tales from the Arena, book 4)

14393 / 90000 (15.99%)

The Coral Throne
(The Sea Prince, book 2)

10276 / 90000 (11.42%)

Promotions

6 authors, 8 minutes each – on February 20th, come find your next favorite speculative fiction read by women authors and non-binary authors with us! **FREE* tinyurl.com/m5n37k5n

Stuff with Fantasy is coming February 28th! Over 300 authors, over 300 books, free for the taking! One day only!

Appearances

Enchanted Knights: Myths and Legends
March 8th, 2025
Oviedo Mall
Oviedo, FL

***

ICFA
March 19 – 22nd, 2025
Orlando, FL

***

3rd Annual Spring is in the Air
April 13th, 2025
Venetian Center,
Leesburg, FL

***

6th Annual Mother’s Day Bazaar
May 10th, 2025
Ormond Beach Elks Lodge
Ormond Beach, FL

***

Enchanted Knights: Summer Solstice
June 21st, 2025
Oviedo Mall
Oviedo, FL

***

3rd Annual Summer Artisan Market
June 29th, 2025
Brannon Center
New Smyrna Beach, FL

***

Smut Lovers: The Conference
September 17th – 21st, 2025
Orlando, FL

Jan

2024

Release Week!

The time has come — it’s release week for the final book of the Heir to the Firstborn series. Look at them!

Image of the seven books in the Heir to the Firstborn series. A small, stuffed Highland Cow plush looks over the covers. — (Coo and Boo approved)

And there we have it — the complete Heir to the Firstborn. And when I say complete, I really mean it this time. No more story here. It’s done. REALLY, it’s done.

Which is… a little bizarre, to be honest. I started the series on Patreon in June of 2018 with an outline for four books. Now, five and a half years and seven books later, I just announced on the Patreon that the page will be going dark at the end of February, and will stay dark until I have something new to share there. (Which, I think I do, but right now it’s just an opening scene. It needs more fleshing out.)

Seven years isn’t the longest I’ve spent on one series, I don’t think. I mean, Tales from the Arena isn’t done yet, nor is The Artificer (which started with House of Sable Locks). But neither of those was intended to be a series. Heir to the Firstborn was always planned out as a series, and it just sort of kept going. But it’s the longest I’ve worked on a single creative project continuously, because I was posting a chapter a week every week non-stop for the first six books.

Getting those characters out of my head after all this time? Takes a complete change of subgenre… so I’m currently working The Sea Prince as a palette cleanser (I described it to someone last week as a sort of fantasy-steampunk Master and Commander. Except it’s Age of Sail, so timing-wise that might be candlepunk? I don’t know. If you do, let me know!)

The Sea Prince has been in my queue since 2009 — it’s almost old enough to drive in this state. There have been a lot of false starts and a lot of putting it back on the shelf before I finally figured out where the story was broken. Now? I’m on chapter 23, and starting to pull this book toward a close (and how many of you are gasping in shock because didn’t I just get started on this again less than a month ago? Yes, yes I did. The words have been FLOWING. I’ve written five chapters in three weeks. That’s roughly 15,000 words.) I think there may be between 25K and 50K words left, but I can see the end from here, and I like it.

Then, of course, I need to write the second book in this series…. hopefully, it won’t take me as long as it took to write the first one!

Preorders

Coming TOMORROW to all your favorite bookstores — Valley of Shadows (Heir to the Firstborn, Book 7)

Print preorder is now available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble, which means you should be able to order the paperback at your favorite brick and mortar bookshop.

Works in Progress

The Sea Prince
(The Coral Throne, Book 1)

78426 / 120000 (65.35%)

Mar

2023

Draft/2

Or… half a draft.

The White Raven: Morrigan’s Wrath
(The White Raven Duology, Book 2)

50256 / 90000 (55.84%)

Half a draft, and spring break starts next week. Which means that I need to count up how many days are left in school and figure out what my daily target needs to be to have this done by May 19th.

That’s 74 days (thank you, Google.)

40K words divided by 74 days… actually, call it 65 days because there’s ICFA in there, and there will be days where words just don’t happen, or at least not as many words as I’d like.

That puts me at (pulls out calculator) roughly 620 words a day to finish this on time.

That’s very doable. It does, however, mean putting The Sea Prince back on hold. But I’ve already done that because I noticed something — when I first drafted out this synopsis, I did some very sketchy worldbuilding, just to get the idea of the place. I never went back and filled it out. So in and around finishing Morrigan’s Wrath, I’m going to fill in the worldbuilding for The Sea Prince. I’ve already drawn a map and started sketching out a history and discovered things I didn’t know were in my brain. (I hate it when I don’t tell myself all details…) So The Sea Prince is on hiatus, possibly until the fall. Or it will become the next Patreon project, and I’ll post the worldbuilding as it comes together. I need to decide.

I am very much looking forward to ICFA next week. I’ve gone through the schedule and marked which panels I want to see, and I have my volunteer schedule. I’ll be at Registration for the conference opening Wednesday afternoon, and on Thursday and Friday mornings. If you’re going to be at the conference, say hi!

The Chronicles of John Zebedee releases tomorrow (and is currently on sale at Smashwords!) No one seems to be price matching the preorder, so you can grab it for 25% off at Smashwords only. Once the book goes live, the other venues should price match.

Time to get back to making words! Talk to you all next week!

Nov

2022

Civic Duty or Something.

And today, I’m writing this blog in the jury room of my county courthouse. It’s slowly filling up with people (mostly unmasked people because… well… Florida).

Yes, Dear Reader, I’ve been summoned for jury duty.

I’ve been summoned before in Florida, but the last time, I was a homeschooling mom of a child under ten, so I was excused. No excuses here. So welcome to the jury pool.

The last time I was in a jury pool, I lived in New York, where I had the interesting situation of being chosen for a jury, then having to be excused because the opposing counsel was the husband of my Weight Watchers leader. Which had apparently never been brought up as a reason for excusing a juror before because I clearly remember the looks of abject confusion on the faces of the judge and the lawyers. “Wait, you… what? Does that count? I… okay.”

I’m not sure how long I’m going to be here today. Or how many days this week I’ll have to report. But they have wifi, and I can bring my laptop, so there will be words.

The White Raven: Morrigan’s Wrath
(The White Raven, Book 2)

14424 / 90000 (16.03%)

Visions in Smoke drops tomorrow, and Children of Dreams next week. There’s still time to get those preorders in!

And that’s about all I’ve got today. This room is now packed, and it’s 8AM. Time to go be a responsible member of society.

Sep

2022

I Have An Excite!!!

Why am I excited? Because Friday, this happened:

I had NO idea that the release date was Friday, or I’d have said something sooner!

Now, this new edition contains two bits of new material. The first is old new — I wrote The Ice Raven for the Princes of Air launch ten years ago, and it was serialized on the Circlet Livejournal. It’s never before been available for sale.

The second new bit of material is an exciting announcement, because you get a sneak peak at the first chapter of The White Raven: Morrigan’s Heir… coming in 2023 from Riverdale Avenue Books!

Lorcan finally gets his own books! Two of them — I’m starting The White Raven: Morrigan’s Wrath today. (That was the mystery synopsis I was working on a few weeks back.)

The White Raven: Morrigan’s Wrath

0 / 90000 (0.00%)

***

The Sea Prince
(The Sea Prince, book 1)

37782 / 120000 (31.49%)

Yes, I am still going to be working on The Sea Prince.

In other writing news, I finished the rewrite of Children of Dreams, and I’ll be setting up a preorder for that and Visions in Smoke this week. I’ll post links to those on all the social media once they’re up. Bones of Earth went live last week, and is updating everywhere. Not sure what’s happening with the paperbacks — they’re listed as publishing, but Amazon hasn’t updated to the new information, and Barnes and Noble is still listing the old prices. Remember, if you find books with the old covers, it’s the old content.

Not much else to share, and I need to get on getting on to writing.

Have a great week!!!

Mar

2022

Reflections

This past weekend, I did something that I haven’t done in a while. I sat down and reread one of my older works. Not because I was researching anything, or checking details for a sequel. Just… read it.

I re-read House of Sable Locks.

It’s a daunting thing to go back and read the second book you ever wrote, and realize that it’s possibly the best work you’ve ever done. That you’ve written twenty-four books since that one, and that none of them have reached the benchmark that led one outlet to call House of Sable Locks a modern erotic classic. (that outlet no longer exists — it was Cliterati, for the curious.)

Now, that’s not saying that the rest of my work is crap. It definitely isn’t! (House of Sable Locks isn’t my only award winner, after all.) But I think that they all are a step below that level. Well, maybe Hidden Things is closest. Or Written in Water. Or maybe not — House of Sable Locks was something truly special.

And it was my second book. That’s really kind of mind-blowing. You’re not supposed to front-load your writing career!

While I’m pondering this, I’m also working on book 26:

Heir to the Firstborn: The Way Home
(Heir to the Firstborn, book 6)

105627 / 150000 (70.42%)

(If anyone just happens to be looking at my Goodreads or Amazon book list and thinking — hey, there aren’t 25 books here? The Rebel Mage books are being reissued this year — see below. I have one under contract with Circlet/Riverdale, three in the Circlet/Riverdale queue, and three set up for another project.)

Counsel of the Wicked drops tomorrow, and I’m really looking forward to having these books back out in the world. Yes, the Rebel Mage books are dark. No, I’m never going that dark again. But I did it once, and I did it well.

Written in Water is free in a couple of places this week. Smashwords is having their Read an Ebook promotion this week. And I have a Book Cave giveaway for this entire month — sign up for newsletters, get free books!

And the Kickstarter is… well… going backwards. I have to say, it’s very disheartening. I’m trying to put my mind to how to turn this around and go forwards again, and not coming up with much. But there’s still time. And hopefully, my appearance today on the These Mums Write podcast will help!

Not much else to report in. Time for me to go back to trying to exceed my early brilliance and write a new modern erotic classic.

Jan

2022

That was Quick

Tomorrow is February.

How did THAT happen?

Part of it was that last week was a blur — I was sick for a few days of it, and then it was over. It wasn’t anything major, and I’m fine. But time and words both ceased to exist.

Heir to the Firstborn: The Way Home
(Heir to the Firstborn, book 6)

87541 / 150000 (58.36%)

Not quite as many words as I’d have liked, but there was some forward movement. That’s a plus.

Tomorrow, the Swords of Charlemagne box set drops. There’s still time to preorder.

Also tomorrow, the Red Hot giveaway begins — you can sign up for my newsletter, and get a copy of Hidden Things absolutely free! The promotion runs the entire month of February.

And on Wednesday, voting begins for the Paranormal Romance Guild’s Reviewers Choice Awards. I’m nominated in two categories. The Lady and the Sword is nominated for Best LGBT Fantasy Romance, and Swords of Charlemagne is nominated for Best LGBT Fantasy Romance Series.

The Kickstarter is ongoing, and is slowly moving in the upwards direction. The project is 5% funded, with 47 days left, and has been picked up as a Project We Love by Kickstarter itself. I’m updating regularly over there, with things specific to the books, and that I have never shared anywhere else. So check it out, and maybe throw something in the hat!

And finally, preorders are now open for the Counsel of the Wicked re-release, which happens on March 8th. The ebook will be available as part of Kindle Unlimited, which means it will NOT be for sale anywhere but Amazon. The paperback, however, will be available everywhere.

And I think that’s all the news I’ve got this week! Busy, busy, busy!

Nov

2021

I Want a Do-Over!

Last week was supposed to be a week off. Right?

Last week, I had two conventions back to back. Several professional obligations. Thanksgiving….

Clearly, I’m doing this whole week off thing wrong. I think I was more busy last week than I was in the previous MONTH.

And there were words in there, too.

Heir to the Firstborn: The Way Home
(Heir to the Firstborn, book 6)

55808 / 150000 (37.21%)

So… yeah, I need a week off from my week off. And I’m not even done yet.

Heir to the Firstborn: The Crossroads releases TOMORROW!!!

KeiserSupercon is next week!

Cookiepocalypse is nigh! And I still don’t know what I’m baking! (other than three color cookies, because there must always be three color cookies. Always.)

And then?

Once the last cookie sheet comes out of the oven, I’m taking the rest of the year off.

….

…sigh….

You can stop laughing now. I know. I know!

I don’t do time off right, either.

This time for sure!

Sep

2021

Home Again, Home Again.

This weekend was NecronomiCon, and we had an exceptionally good time. It was our first time back at a science fiction convention since 2019, and… well, okay, it was a little weird. I would not have expected quite so many people to be so… cavalier with regards to the convention’s mask requirement. I mean… we’re FEN! We’re smarter than that!

At least, I thought we were.

Definitely had a good time, though. Friday night was the return of the Writing the Naughty Bits panel, which I hosted, and which this year was a wonderful craft discussion on writing sexual tension and sex, and how one doesn’t necessarily have to lead to the other. My Saturday panel was unfortunately cancelled due to technical difficulties. Sunday was a really great discussion on the Hero’s Journey and the Heroine’s Journey, and how the names of those don’t necessarily have to match the gender identity of your protagonist — I proposed that they be renamed to the External Journey vs. the Internal Journey, which seems to be the major difference between them. Following that panel, I had a delightful conversation with an independent filmmaker who came up to me and said, “I know NOTHING of the romance genre! Teach me your ways!” Not because he’s interested in writing romance — he wants to be sure that if he picks up a romance project, he gets it right! So we spent a good half an hour with me explaining and him taking notes.

Came home. Crashed HARD (tired Liz was TIRED!) and woke up to an invitation to be a guest at a new-to-me convention in February! I’ll be a virtual guest at Boskone from February 18th to the 20th And yay for virtual guests, because I don’t really fancy the idea of going to Boston in February!

Today also marked the arrival of the author proof of my first hardcover, and me posting my first Tiktok — an unboxing video of the hardcover. As I said in the video, it’s PRETTY, but I need to fix the cover art, which is in process now. I also need to remember to turn off the notifications on my phone when I record a Tiktok — Beaker makes an unexpected cameo.

@easchechter

#booktok #newbooktoker #unboxing

♬ original sound – Elizabeth_Schechter

Never had a book before that I could click my nails on. That’s pretty neat! Those hardcovers should be available soon-ish.

Edits are now underway for Heir to the Firstborn: The Crossroads, and I’m almost done with the synopsis for Heir to the Firstborn: The Way Home. I want to finish the edits before I start writing the final book, so that I have all the details fresh in my mind. We’ll see how the timing goes, though — I have until November 19th, which is when the last chapter of Crossroads goes live on Patreon. So I need to have at least a chapter or two of The Way Home ready to go by then. I don’t want to break my never-missed-a-week streak in the home stretch!

And I think that’s about all in my neck of the woods! See you all next week!

Happy Book Day

Tomorrow!

Promotions

Free Books!

Stuff with Fantasy Bookish Solstice!

Preorder Now!

Now Available!

Work in Progress

Appearances

What Do You Mean, New Release?

Now Available!

Work in Progress

Promotions

Appearances

Release Week!

Preorders

Works in Progress

Draft/2

Civic Duty or Something.

I Have An Excite!!!

Reflections

That was Quick

I Want a Do-Over!

Home Again, Home Again.

Works in Progress

Appearances

Find My Books!

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