C Gockel Writes

Want to keep reading for free (or close to it)?

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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.

Special Feature: Meet My (Sci-fi) Cover Designer Tom Edwards

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Volka From Admiral Wolf

DESIGNING THE GALAXY

Science fiction lives or dies by imagination, and nowhere is that more visible than on its covers. Before a reader even turns a page, the art has already whispered a promise of adventure, danger, and wonder. Few artists capture that better than Tom Edwards, whose work has become the visual signature of modern space opera and military science fiction.

Over the past decade, Tom has designed hundreds of covers for some of the biggest names in the genre, from vast fleet battles and alien worlds to intimate portraits of lone heroes against the void. His art doesn’t just illustrate; it invites. It’s that rare fusion of painterly realism and cinematic light that makes you feel the hum of engines and the chill of deep space.

To celebrate his contribution to the worlds we write, and you love to read, a group of us, Joshua T. Calvert, C. Gockel, James Rosone and BA Gillies, have come together to showcase some of our favourite covers by Tom and to ask him how he brings galaxies to life.

[Read more…]

Featured Fantasy: Shadowmarch Volume 1 by Tad Williams

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Featured Fantasy: Shadowmarch Volume 1 by Tad Williams

$1.99 as of May 13, 2026
Click for Current Price: Amazon US, Canada, Germany (Full-price: United Kingdom)

Apple, Kobo, B & N, GooglePlay

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR: The first epic fantasy in an “intricate, intriguing” saga set in a conflicted land of humans, elves, and dwarves (Booklist).

The weight of the world rests on the shoulders of twin royal heirs as their enemies, both human and not, threaten the only home they’ve ever known.

For generations the misty Shadowline has marked the boundary between the lands of men and the lost northern lands of their inhuman enemies, the ageless Qar. But now that boundary line is moving outward, threatening to engulf the northernmost land in which humans still live—the kingdom of Southmarch.

For centuries, the Eddon family has ruled Southmarch Castle, guarding the border against the Qar’s return, but now this powerful royal line has been dealt a devastating blow. King Olin is held captive in a distant land, and it falls to his inexperienced heirs to lead their people in a time of growing danger and dread.

It is on the two youngest Eddons that the heaviest burdens fall. As the Qar’s power reaches out across their land, will Southmarch Castle—the only home they’ve ever known—become in fact what it has long been called . . . Shadowmarch?

Featured Sci-fi: Future’s Fall (After the Apocalypse Complete Boxset) by Kevin Partner

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Featured Sci-fi: Future's Fall (After the Apocalypse Complete Boxset) by Kevin Partner

FREE as of May 12, 2026
Click for Current Price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany

The complete series in one thrilling collection.

Thirty-five years after the world ended, a lonely man picks his way across the ashes of America on a final mission.

Reuben Bane spent decades believing he was a force for good, preserving humanity’s gene pool by hunting and eliminating deviants.

Now, he seeks redemption for his evil deeds, and revenge on the cultish Foundation. He must travel across a broken country to find a woman from the past who holds the key to the future.

Set among the ashes of a destroyed world, the series brings to life a possible future world teetering on the brink between endless darkness and an uncertain future.

Featured Sci-fi: Banish the Stars (The Formless Book 1) by Nathan Hystad

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Featured Sci-fi: Banish the Stars (The Formless Book 1) by Nathan Hystad

99¢ as of May 10, 2026
Click for Current Price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany

We have arrived. Descent is in progress.

Ryan Pierce traded military life for a peaceful existence in Napa Valley. Everything was fine until the starships appeared.
As aliens overtake the land and obscure the sun, Ryan quickly grasps that no one’s coming to rescue them. He can’t save the world on his own. Ryan must build a team to confront humanity’s greatest threat.

Who are the invaders, and what did they come for? As people are snatched from the Earth one space elevator at a time, those answers become apparent.

But is Ryan ready to hear them?

From the best-selling author of Ethos, The Event, Lost Contact, First Life, and many more, comes a brand-new epic series, The Formless.

Featured Sci-fi: Starship Bandits Books 1 – 7 by Jonathan Yanez and Ross Buzzell

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99¢ as of May 10, 2026
Click for Current Price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany

When a mild-mannered professor is sentenced to be an Orbital Garbage Reclamation Expert, he doesn’t expect to become a spacefaring outlaw. After his ragtag crew stumbles onto an ancient alien ship, they’re yanked out of Earth’s orbit and dropped into a brutal galaxy where survival favors the bold, the clever… and the slightly unhinged.

Hunted by alien warlords, criminal syndicates, and empires that would rather see them dead than free. The crew of the Junkyard must rely on fast words, faster guns, and each other to stay alive. Every mission pulls them deeper into a galaxy-spanning conflict, where lost civilizations, dangerous alliances, and impossible odds turn scavengers into legends.

[Read more…]

Featured Fantasy: Heaven’s Dark Soldiers by Steve Gillmore

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Featured Fantasy: Heaven's Dark Soldiers by Steve Gillmore

START THE SERIES FOR 99¢—Book 2 only $2.99
Click for Current Price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany

Angels and giants and beasties. Oh my…

In life, Dean Robinson was a soldier. Upon his untimely death at the hand of a fallen angel with serious daddy issues and a snappy wardrobe, he became something else.

From the backstreets of Boston to the nether regions of Heaven and beyond, join the wise cracking, beer swilling misadventures as Dean and his newfound gang of supernatural sidekicks stand between humanity and the things that go bump in the night. And, of course, the Devil’s in the details.

Semi-divine super soldiers, disgruntled fallen angels, supersized bad guys on high protein diets, a Heavenly grudge match played out on an Earthly stage – Just another day at the office, apparently.

Featured Fantasy: The Crescent Chronicles by Alyssa Rose Ivy

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Featured Fantasy: The Crescent Chronicles by Alyssy Rose Ivy

START THE SERIES FREE—Book 2 only $2.99
Click for Current Price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany

Apple, Kobo, B & N, GooglePlay, Everand

Sometimes you just have to take flight. A summer in New Orleans is exactly what Allie needs before starting college. Accepting her dad’s invitation to work at his hotel offers an escape from her ex-boyfriend and the chance to spend the summer with her best friend. Meeting a guy is the last thing on her mind—until she sees Levi. Unable to resist the infuriating yet alluring Levi, Allie finds herself at the center of a supernatural society and forced to decide between following the path she has always trusted or saving a city that might just save her.