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: An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson

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Featured Fantasy: An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson

$1.99 as of May 25, 2026
Click for Current Price: Amazon US, Canada (Full-price: United Kingdom, Australia, Germany)

Apple, Kobo, B & N, GooglePlay

An instant New York Times bestseller * A Parents’ Choice Silver Honor Winner

A skilled painter must stand up to the ancient power of the faerie courts—even as she falls in love with a faerie prince—in this “phenomenal” (RT Book Reviews) bestseller that’s “an ideal pick for fans of Holly Black, Maggie Stiefvater, and Laini Taylor” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).

Isobel is an artistic prodigy with a dangerous set of clients: the sinister fair folk, immortal creatures who cannot bake bread or put a pen to paper without crumbling to dust. They crave human Craft with a terrible thirst, and Isobel’s paintings are highly prized. But when she receives her first royal patron—Rook, the autumn prince—she makes a terrible mistake. She paints mortal sorrow in his eyes—a weakness that could cost him his life.

Furious, Rook spirits her away to his kingdom to stand trial for her crime. But something is seriously wrong in his world, and they are attacked from every side. With Isobel and Rook depending on each other for survival, their alliance blossoms into trust, then love—and that love violates the fair folks’ ruthless laws.

Now both of their lives are forfeit, unless Isobel can use her skill as an artist to fight the fairy courts. Because secretly, her Craft represents a threat the fair folk have never faced in all the millennia of their unchanging lives: for the first time, her portraits have the power to make them feel.

Featured Sci-fi: The River Saga (Complete Series) by Nathan Hystad

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Featured Sci-fi: The River Saga (Complete Series) by Nathan Hystad

99¢ as of May 25, 2026
Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia

“First contact, major deception!”

Can there ever be peace by the stars? Colton Beck doesn’t think so. But then again, he has six months to live…

Earth has long been occupied by the Angor, an often brutal and cryptic alien race that somehow convinced humanity to form an unjust alliance.

In a twist of fate, the Angor offer conscription to a colony world, and humans line up to visit the mysterious Dicore. They are even given temporary access to the River, an alien technology that grants passage between worlds.

Colton wants to truly live, if only for a short amount of time, so he finds a way to sneak into the elite army, and emerges on the other side of the River. But what is there to greet him?

Join Colton and his new allies, and see for yourself! This entire series of FOUR novels is over 1700 pages of science fiction adventure.

With over 5000 ratings, you won’t want to miss this epic deal.

From the best-selling author of The Event, The Other Place, Echoes From the Moon, and Lost Contact, comes a saga of redemption, second chances, and survival.

Included Inside:

First Life (The River Saga Book One)
Second Chance (The River Saga Book Two)
Third Party (The River Saga Book Three)
The Realms (The River Saga Book Four)

Featured Fantasy: Accidental Medium Books 1 – 3 by Amy Boyles

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Featured Fantasy: Witch's Block Books 1 - 3 by Amy Boyles

FREE as of May 24, 2026
Click for Current Price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany

The complete trilogy from start to finish.
Read this humorous paranormal series that features a heroine over 40.

A fun cast of characters and an entertaining storyline. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I am a new fan. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I was hooked from the first line to the last! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Read more…]

Featured Sci-fi: The Spiral Wars Collection by Joel Shepherd

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Featured Sci-fi: The Spiral Wars Collection by Joel Shepherd

99¢ as of May 23, 2026
Click for Current Price: Amazon US (Full-price: United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany)

AUREALIS AWARD FINALIST; Best SF Novel of 2015 – (Renegade: The Spiral Wars Book One).

‘It just keeps getting better and better. Buy these books’ Winchell D. Chung, Founder, Atomic Rockets Website

‘He is one of our very best.’ Lou Anders, author of Frostborn and Hugo-award winning editor.

One thousand years ago, Earth was lost.

[Read more…]

Featured Sci-fi: Andy McBean and the War of the Worlds (The Amazing Adventures of Andy McBean Book 1) by Dale Kutzera

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Featured Sci-fi: Andy McBean and the War of the Worlds (The Amazing Adventures of Andy McBean Book 1) by Dale Kutzera

FREE as of May 22, 2026
Click for Current Price: Amazon US, United Kingdom
(99¢ USD: Canada, Australia, Germany)

Kobo, B & N, GooglePlay

What could be worse than middle school? Home work, band class, bullies, a new kid who may be a new friend…Andy McBean is struggling to survive it all in the soggy hills of the Pacific Northwest. Even worse, he spent much of the past year in the hospital battling leukemia.

Then one night a meteor storm devastates the county, cutting off power and phones. One giant rock crashes into Andy’s neighborhood, skids up the street, and stops right on Andy’s front lawn. The towering boulder draws the attention of neighbors, the media, the army, and even the new girl from Andy’s art class. He is thrilled at the notoriety, but everything changes when the meteor opens and a towering machine steps out.

Separated from his family, Andy must fend for himself and rescue his friends. Join the adventure as Andy meets an alien, devises a plan to stop the invasion, and learns how strong he really is.

Featured Fantasy: A Mythical Case of Arson (A Mythical Pet Sitting Mystery) by Melissa Erin Jackson

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Featured Fantasy: A Mythical Case of Arson (A Mythical Pet Sitting Mystery) by Melissa Erin Jackson

FREE as of May 17, 2026
Click for Current Price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany

Apple, Kobo, B & N, GooglePlay

Just when she thinks her day can’t get any weirder, she finds a baby dragon …

Deandra Hendricks works her fingers to the bone at two jobs to keep her Los Angeles apartment. With a rapidly dwindling savings account, the prospects for her future are bleak. So when her cousin invites her to visit Axia—the hidden magical hub their grandparents retired to—she agrees. Deandra doesn’t possess a stitch of magic herself, but a long weekend vacation in a strange new town might be just what she needs.

Her first day in Axia is so bizarre, though, she wonders if her bleak life in Los Angeles hasn’t been so bad after all. And just when she thinks her day can’t get any stranger, she finds a baby dragon trapped in a dumpster. At a loss, she takes a trip to the vet, hoping they can help find the little guy’s owner.

The dragon, it turns out, only appears in its true form to her, while everyone else sees a dire wolf puppy. She and the vet discover that, as long as the dragon wears his bespelled collar, his true identity is hidden. Someone went to great lengths to keep this supposed-to-be-extinct animal a secret.

Then the “dog” is accused of arson and is seized by authorities. Determined to help him, Deandra searches for the real arsonist. She catches wind of a thriving black market that’s populated by those who would stop at nothing to claim an animal this rare. She must work quickly to clear her dragon’s name, because if he falls into the wrong hands, she could lose him forever.