C Gockel Writes

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I Bring the Fire Omnibus eBook and The Defiant audiobook

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You can read (and listen to!) most of my books through subscription services:

  • Everand* (formerly Scribd) – ebooks + audiobooks
  • Kobo Plus – ebooks (no Kobo device needed—the app is free)

Both offer 30-day free trials—so if you’re a fast reader, you could get through quite a bit at no cost.

Learn more about KoboPlus and Everand. 

Or Read & Listen Completely Free

You can also find my books at your local library:

  • Libby / OverDrive
  • Hoopla
  • CloudLibrary
  • BorrowBox

If your library carries ebooks or audiobooks, there’s a good chance they have my books—or can request them.

Find Libraries that Offer Libby/Overdrive

If Your Library Doesn’t Loan eBooks or Audiobooks

You may be able to get a library card at a larger library system for a modest fee. Here is a website that lists libraries with non-resident borrowing priveleges.

A quick note

I’m a big library user myself and often enroll in various subscription services (books add up fast—and so do growing kids’ expenses).

However you choose to read—buying, borrowing, or listening—I’m just glad you’re spending your time with my stories.

*Everand isn’t currently featuring Magic After Midnight.

Featured Sci-fi: Farthing (Small Change Book 1) by Jo Walton

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Farthing by Jo Walton

$1.99 Most Vendors
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An influential family’s weekend party is the stage for murder in this alternative history trilogy opener set in a post-WWII England where the Nazis won.

Eight years have passed since the upper-crust “Farthing Set” overthrew Winston Churchill and led Britain into a separate peace with Hitler. Now those families have gathered for a weekend retreat. Among them is estranged scion Lucy Kahn, who can’t understand why she and her husband, David, were so enthusiastically invited. But all becomes clear when the eminent Sir James Thirkie is found murdered—with a yellow Star of David pinned to his chest.

Lucy realizes that her Jewish husband is about to be framed for the crime, an outcome that would be altogether too politically convenient, given the machinations underway in Parliament in the coming week. The Farthing Set are determined to pass laws further restricting the right to vote, and a new outcry against Jews and foreigners would suit them fine.

But whoever’s behind the murder and the frame-up didn’t count on the principal investigator from Scotland Yard being so prone to look beyond the obvious—or his being a man with his own private reasons for sympathizing with outcasts and underdogs . . .

Featured Fantasy: Sword Catcher (Chronicles of Castellane Book 1) by Cassandra Clare

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Sword Catcher by Cassandra Clare

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Two outcasts find themselves caught in a web of dangerous magic and dark secrets that could change the world forever in the start of a riveting epic fantasy series from the author of The Shadowhunter Chronicles.

“Everything I look for in fantasy.”—George R. R. Martin

A POPSUGAR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

In the vibrant city-state of Castellane, the richest of nobles and the most debauched of criminals have one thing in common: the constant search for wealth, power, and the next hedonistic thrill.

Kel is an orphan, stolen from the life he knew to become the Sword Catcher—the body double of a royal heir, Prince Conor Aurelian. He and Conor are as close as brothers, but his destiny is to die for Conor. No other future is possible.

Lin Caster is a physician from a small community whose members still possess magical abilities. But despite her skills, she cannot heal her best friend without access to forbidden knowledge.

After a failed assassination attempt brings Lin and Kel together, they are drawn into the web of the mysterious Ragpicker King, the ruler of Castellane’s criminal underworld. But as long-kept secrets begin to unravel and forbidden attractions arise, they must ask themselves: Is knowledge worth the price of betrayal? And will their discoveries plunge their nation into war—and the world into chaos?

Featured Fantasy: Magic Today (Mathilda Holiday Urban Fantasy Book 1) by Anna McCluskey

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Magic Today by Anna McCluskey

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Magic is real — and it’s a bitch.

Mattie’s life is already unraveling when she learns that her twin sister, Tillie, has vanished. She drops everything and rushes across the country to join her friend Trevor in the search.

What they uncover is bigger than a disappearance.

A hidden room filled with crystal balls and grimoires. Strangers manipulating time. Spells cast in broad daylight. A powerful network of mages operating in the shadows.

Tillie isn’t just missing.

She’s being hunted.

Can Mattie and Trevor outmaneuver a secret society before they become targets in a deadly magical conspiracy?

Magic Today is the first book in the Mathilda Holiday series — a fast-paced contemporary urban fantasy with LGBTQ+ characters, neurodivergent representation, found family, supernatural suspense, and sharp humor woven through escalating danger.

Perfect for readers who love queer urban fantasy, paranormal thrillers, secret societies, strong female leads, and character-driven contemporary fantasy.

If you enjoy fantasy by Nicholas Woode-Smith, Emma Shelford, Kim Richardson, or Lisa Edmonds, you’ll love this free series starter.

Featured Sci-fi: Steel for Hire (Galactic Mercenaries Book 1) by Richard Fierce

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Steel for Hire by Richard Fierce

FREE Most Vendors as of Posting
Available on Most Vendors

Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia

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Some jobs turn you into a zombie. Literally.

Captain Jayde Thrin of the cargo ship Determination has one goal: make enough money to retire in style. Her small mercenary crew travels the universe taking on odd jobs, but when a botched gig lands them in hot water, it’s up to Jayde to figure out their escape – and their survival.

The nearby mining planet M44 provides an opportunity to refuel and make a quick buck, but there’s more going on in the mines than anyone realizes. What Jayde expects to be an easy job turns out to be one of the hardest yet, especially with the outpost overrun with the undead.

Steel for Hire is the first episode of Galactic Mercenaries, a space opera series about zombies, space battles, alien invasion, and a misfit crew trying to survive in a dangerous universe.

Featured Sci-fi: Ambush (Flight of the Intrepid Book 1) by Kevin McLaughlin

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Featured Sci-fi: Ambush (Flight of the Intrepid Book 1) by Kevin McLaughlin

99¢ New Release—Amazon Exclusive
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For fifty years, humanity has stood its ground against the Drechnai. Tyrants of the first order, these beings have wiped out over a dozen spacefaring races, and they’ve done everything in their power to make humanity the next.

But for those fifty years, humans have scraped out a desperate battle for survival, relying on determination, tenacity, and raw courage to overcome our foe’s impossible technological advantage. Fifty years of constant war has honed our species into a deadly blade.

Without warning, the enemy sued for peace. But Captain George Oliver doesn’t trust them at their word, believing that this is some new deceit. Despite his misgivings, Earth’s fleet goes to sign a peace accord with the Drechnai.

It’s a trap! The human fleet is attacked, leaving Oliver’s vessel the sole Star Carrier still intact and able to defend Earth against the strike Oliver knows is coming.

He’s not wrong. The Drechnai intend to finish humans off once and for all time, their master stroke dealing death blows to both the fleet and Earth itself.

But they failed to factor in the men and women of the Star Carrier Intrepid, who will pay whatever price is required for the human race to survive!

Featured Fantasy: The Witches of Scotland the Edinburgh Files Books 1 – 4 by Steven P Aitchison

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Featured Fantasy: The Witches of Scotland the Edinburgh Files Books 1 - 4 by Steven P Aitchison

99¢ for a Limited Time
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🔥 Four Witches. One City. Zero Room for Error.
The Edinburgh Files: The Complete Collection (Books 1–4)

Welcome to Edinburgh—where ancient magick meets modern conspiracy, and the fate of the world hangs by a silken thread of spellcraft.

When witches Jessica Campbell and David Hunter are pulled into a chilling investigation involving an all-knowing AI, they uncover far more than a rogue algorithm. What begins with code soon spirals into time travel, political mind control, and the awakening of magick long buried beneath Scotland’s capital.

From 17th-century witch trials to a modern enchantress rewriting reality with her voice, Jessica and David face enemies who blur the lines between prophecy and power, faith and fear. Alongside unlikely allies—like Isla Douglas, a historian whose blood unlocks ancient secrets—they must race to stop a plan centuries in the making, orchestrated by a man willing to destroy the world to save it.

Four explosive books. One relentless arc.
Packed with twists, haunted cathedrals, ancestral witches, time rifts, secret societies, and a pulse-pounding battle for humanity’s soul.

Perfect for fans of dark urban fantasy, political thrillers with a supernatural twist, and anyone who believes magick never truly dies.