A drunken sailor and her level-headed friend undertake a deadly voyage in Liz Shipton’s new YA dystopian romance, Salt. When Bird Howsley receives a cryptic message from her dead brother, she and best friend Sargo set off across a world submerged in water to find him.

Liz, welcome to Romance Lives Forever. I’m Kayelle Allen, author and owner of this blog. Happy to have you here! We support all furbabies, real life or fictional. We want to know all about your Fiction Furbaby, but first, please tell us about Salt.

Salt by Liz Shipton

Genre YA Dystopian
Book heat level (based on movie ratings): PG-13

What do you do with a drunken sailor when the world is under water?

Bird Howsley is a drunken sailor with a knack for making bad decisions.

Unfortunately, she lives in a brutal dystopian water world where survival depends on being a strong sailor and making smart choices.

Bird has one lifeline: her level-headed sailing teacher, Sargo Paz. He’s a second-generation immigrant working hard to prove himself, and for reasons Bird can’t fathom, he seems to like her.

But when a cryptic message from her dead brother sets Bird on a mission to find answers about her past, one reckless act puts her and Sargo in the crosshairs of a dangerous underground organization that wants them dead.

Forced to flee their hometown, they sail into the Salt—where they navigate turbulent feelings and harrowing seas, and discover that the organization they’re running from runs deeper than they know…

Meet Malarkey from Salt

Full name: Malarkey
Nickname: Lark, Larkey, Larkabout, Larkaboo, Lark-a-bark
Gender: Female
Species: Doggerel (mutt)
Physical description: 80lb monster with brown and white splotches, blue eyes, and an eyepatch
Relationship to main character: Attack dog
Relationship to the villain/antagonist: Everyone is the villain until this dog decides they are not

Where this furbaby came from: The main characters rescued her from a gods-forsaken climate refugee settlement in the middle of the Turf

What inspired you to create this character?

This story is very much based on my own life and adventures, and Malarkey is no different! She is based on my real-live dog, Aloy, who my boyfriend and I rescued about four years ago. Aloy was extremely fearful and quite aggressive when we first brought her home. But she’s come a long way! Two years ago my boyfriend and I cut ties to the land and moved onto a sailboat, and Aloy came with us! She loves life at sea and is thriving. So far, Aloy has sailed down the Pacific Coast of North America with us and currently resides on the boat with us in the Caribbean, causing trouble for monkeys!

What does the main character think about this furbaby?

When Bird (the main character) first meets Malarkey, she naively tries to rescue her, not realizing that Malarkey is aggressive and quite a handful! At one point, she tries to abandon her again, thinking she is more trouble than she’s worth. But throughout the series, Malarkey learns to trust Bird and becomes her protector, and likewise, Bird learns to care for Malarkey.

How do other characters react to or interact with this furbaby?

Malarkey is ride-or-die: you are either in the pack, or you are an enemy. So pretty much anyone who comes in contact with her can expect to get a face full of teeth – until they prove they can be trusted, then it’s 100% tail wags and tongue baths.

What does this furbaby add to the story?

She is a savage guard dog, and adds some nice comic relief in the form of dog shenanigans. She also acts as a conduit for the main character’s feelings. When Bird cannot look another character in the eye to tell them something hard, she will usually tell Malarkey instead. Malarkey also acts as a way to unify Bird and Sargo (the male main character.) Their shared love of Malarkey brings them together in book one and throughout the series.

What about this furbaby will readers like, and why?

Malarkey’s a legend in the making. She has her own voice and personality, and overall, is just a blast to have around. 100 years from now, people will be saying “Lassie who?”

Describe a humorous incident involving the animal character.

In book two, Bird and Malarkey must sail across an ocean by themselves. The first night they drop anchor, Bird tries to take Malarkey to the beach. Unfortunately, when they try to land the skiff in the surf, Bird falls out and gets mown down. Malarkey, however, remains in the skiff, perfectly dry, and drifts gently to shore with a look on her face that says, “What the hell are you doing in the water, human?”

About Aloy

This post is called Fiction Furbaby, but perhaps your own pet does not have fur. If you have a pet that has fins, wings, scales, or other features, please tell us about them here.

Which, if any of the pets in your writing are modeled after your own pets? In what way?

Malarkey is 100% my dog. In the prequel novella to the series (Scourge) there is also an orange cat named Zig Zag who is somewhat modeled after the cat I had as a child. He has unfortunately passed away now, but I’m glad I got to immortalize him in writing.

What do your pets do when you are writing?

Literally anything she can to try and stop me from writing and get me to take her for a walk.

What’s the most unusual pet you ever had?

When I was a kid I had a lot of mice, hamsters, bunnies, etc. At one point I had a rat. I named him Pantalaimon after the daemon in Golden Compass. He was black and white, cute and very smart.

Where did you find your pet?

We rescued Aloy from a dog rescue in California called GEPDA – I’ve included a link to their Facebook page at the end of this article.

What do you feed your pet?

Dog chow and (don’t tell my boyfriend) table scraps.

Where to buy Salt

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Salt-Thalassic-Book-Liz-Shipton-ebook/dp/B0BRHK64P7

Liz Shipton Social Media

Part-time author Full-time pirate
Hi! I’m Liz. I’m a freelance writer, indie author, and full-time, off-grid, live-aboard sailor. I’m currently sailing around the world with my boyfriend and my dog, turning my real-life adventures into YA Sci-Fi and Fantasy books.
My debut fiction series, Thalassic, is based on my own experience sailing from California to Panama. It’s about two friends who are forced to sail across a dangerous ocean in a post-apocalyptic, high-tech dystopia. Along the way, they fight pirates, rescue a dog, run from a shadow government, and (of course) fall in love ❤️
I love incorporating the incredible experiences, beautiful places, and fascinating people I encounter on my travels into my work. Many parts of the world are underrepresented in fiction, particularly speculative fiction, and I feel grateful to be able to explore them, both physically and in writing. In addition to exploring the world, I like to explore themes surrounding mental health, addiction, technology and climate change in my books.
When I’m not penning YA novels about the impending apocalypse, I work as a freelance content writer specializing in articles about code (I used to be a software engineer), music theory (I also used to be a musician), and off-grid living/digital nomading. On the rare occasion I’m not writing, you can find me swimming, hiking, telling my dog I love her for the bazillionth time today, or watching Taskmaster.
Website https://lizshipton.com
Facebook https://facebook.com/lizshiptonauthor
Instagram https://instagram.com/lizshiptonauthor
Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/23026308.Liz_Shipton
BookBub https://www.bookbub.com/profile/liz-shipton
Amazon Author Page https://www.amazon.com/stores/Liz-Shipton/author/B0BN4YHLXF
Tik Tok https://tiktok.com/@lizshiptonauthor

Shout out to Rob’s Rescues – founded by a 9-year-old animal activist

Rob’s Rescues is a non-profit organization in Georgia helping people in need care for and feed their pets. It was founded in 2014 by a then nine-year-old boy. Rob’s Rescues is dedicated to collecting pet food for people in need to reduce shelter surrenders, and to advocating for the adoption of shelter pets. Rob writes monthly articles advocating for shelter animals in the Around About Local Media magazine publications. His column was first published in 2014. He also has pet food collection sites for people in need in the community and interviews amazing people. His interviews appear online once they are published in his column.
Rob volunteers for Pet Buddies Food Pantry, the Cherokee County Animal Shelter and Cobb County Animal Control and collects pet food for these organizations and the communities they serve. He also wants to bring attention to smaller, rural shelters. Mostly he wants to get kids to be Rob’s Rangers to teach kids that they can help shelter animals. Rob has also talked to kids in a classroom setting.
Rob’s Rescues is a Non-Profit Corporation and all donations are tax deductible.
Website http://www.robsrescues.com/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/robsrescues/
Twitter https://twitter.com/RobsRescues

Shout out to GEPDA

We rescued our dog Aloy from GEPDA, a big dog non-profit rescue group in San Martin, California. They do great work rehabilitating dogs from around California and Mexico. You can find them on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/GepdaRescueUS/