Every Tuesday, get to know a bit about the stories behind the books you love, and discover your next favourite novel.

Rachel: How about I just let our featured author describe herself?

Elizabeth: Hello! My name is Elizabeth Schechter, and I write speculative romance that has its own Scoville scale. My work ranges from steamy to scorching, and celebrates love in all forms. My pronouns are she/her, and I am a queer chaos gremlin masking as a suburban mom.

Rachel: You have my attention! Please tell our readers all about your latest spicy concoction!

Elizabeth: My upcoming book is Ravenflight, the final book in my Blood of the Raven series, which follow the demigod children of the Morrigan as they search for their fated mates in a fantastical ancient Ireland, and in Imperial Rome. Have a small taste:

A hero. A son of Eire. A reckoning long overdue.

Leaving behind the splendor of Empire, Lorcan returns to the emerald wilds of Eire, where ancient magic stirs and old loyalties are tested. Beside him stand his mates and his chosen kin—fierce, loyal, and willing to follow him into the heart of danger. But the blood that binds can also betray, and the most dangerous enemy may not be on the battlefield… but seated at his own family’s table.

Ravenflight is the last book in the series, but the first book in this series, Ravenborn, has the distinction of being my first published novel. When it came out, the title was Princes of Air, and I thought it was a standalone. I feel like I should apologize to readers for the end taking sixteen years, but since book two only just came out last February, the wait hasn’t actually been that long.

Rachel: Who is your favourite of the characters you’ve written?

Elizabeth: My favorite character that I have ever written isn’t in this series. His name is Owyn, and he’s in my Heir to the Firstborn series. He comes into the series in the first book, and tries to take over every scene he’s in, even if he isn’t the main character in that scene. He’s snarky and deeply wounded, but he loves with his whole being, and when I wrote him, I could hear his voice clearly (he sounds like Phil Nightingale, who plays Sam Yao in the Zombies, Run! app, for anyone who is curious.)

Rachel: It sounds like you think pretty deeply about your work. How much research do you do?

Elizabeth: The amount of research I do for a book varies. There’s always some, but if I’m creating a world, I might not do as much research as I would if I’m writing something based in the real world. Blood of the Raven was deeply researched, because even though it is fantasy, it has one foot planted in recognizable history. For example, in Ravenfall (book 2) we meet Lorcan, who is training with his mother to be a healer. He ends up as a gladiatorial slave in Rome, and the person tasked to teach him Latin is the daughter of his owner, who is a medicae. A healer. So I need to know the proper medicinal herbs for various things, and what they would be called in Latin AND in Irish!  (There’s a glossary in the back of book 3.) I also researched Roman baths, how gladiators got to the arena (tunnels!), the layout of the now-ruined Temple of Vesta and the House of the Vestals in Rome, how Romans got tattooed, and how long it would take to get from Rome to London by ship in early summer. 

Rachel: I have been known to fall into these research holes myself. Once you dig yourself out, what’s next?

Elizabeth: For my next trick, I’ll be wrapping up another series – my very spicy science fiction romance Tales from the Arena, which is about genetically engineered super-soldiers and the submissives who love them. Books one and two have been out for ages. Book three is ready to be sent  to my editor, and book four is about a third complete. 

Rachel: Where can our readers find you and your work?

Elizabeth: If you want to follow my shenanigans, you can find me pretty much everywhere but Twitter (I refuse to call it X). I also have a newsletter, which comes out once a month. You can find all those links here: https://linktr.ee/schechterelizabeth