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.

Featured Fantasy: Beyond the Grave (Book 1 of the Ghost Detective Series) by R.W. Wallace

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Featured Fantasy: Beyond the Grave (Book 1 of the Ghost Detective Series) by R.W. Wallace

FREE as of July 7, 2026
Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia

Apple, Nook, Kobo, GooglePlay

The forever rebellious Clothilde’s gravestone only mentions her first name and date of death. A small bump in the ground next to her grave marks former police officer Robert’s last resting place.

And in thirty years, no visitors for either of them.

Confined within the cemetery borders and yearning for closure to move on, the two ghosts can’t go after the people who killed them.

Until Clothilde receives her first visitor in thirty years — and along with it, the means to escape the cemetery.

Beyond the Grave is the first novel in the Ghost Detective series, following Robert and Clothilde in their search for justice.

Featured Sci-fi: Eifelheim by Michael Flynn

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Featured Sci-fi: Eifelheim by Michael Flynn

$1.99 as of December 27, 2024
Click for current price: Amazon US, Canada (Paperback and Audiobook available at: United Kingdom, Germany, Australia)

“Carl Sagan meets Umberto Eco. . . . Bursting with pungent historical detail . . . this dense, provocative novel offers big rewards to patient readers.” —Entertainment Weekly

The alien world of medieval Europe lives again, transformed by the physics of the future, by a winner of the Heinlein Award.

Over the centuries, one small town in Germany has disappeared and never been resettled. Tom, a historian, and his theoretical physicist girlfriend Sharon, become interested. By all logic, the town should have survived. What’s so special about Eifelheim?

Father Dietrich is the village priest of Eifelheim, in the year 1348, when the Black Death is gathering strength but is still not nearby. Dietrich is an educated man, and to his astonishment becomes the first contact person between humanity and an alien race from a distant star, when their ship crashes in the nearby forest.

It is a time of wonders, in the shadow of the plague. Tom and Sharon, and Father Deitrich have a strange destiny of tragedy and triumph in Eifelheim, the brilliant science fiction novel by Michael Flynn.

“Heartbreaking. . . . Flynn masterfully achieves an intricate panorama of medieval life, full of fascinatingly realized human and [alien] characters whose fates interconnect with poignant irony.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Meticulously researched, intense, mesmerizing novel . . . for readers seeking thoughtful science fiction of the highest order.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“Eifelheim may turn out to be the best science fiction novel this year.” —Orson Scott Card, Hugo Award–winning author of Ender’s Game

Featured Sci-Fi: Starship Waking by C. Gockel

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FREE as of July 6, 2026 (Also available as an audiobook!)
Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany

Nook, Apple, GooglePlay, Kobo, Smashwords, & Scribd

On an icy, barren world, a starship dreams of doom…


Throughout the galaxy, the reclusive alien race known as The One are incapacitated by terror.


On planet Luddeccea, wolf-human hybrid Volka harbors a terrible secret…a secret that must explain her nightmares.


Trapped on a luxurious asteroid, pleasure ‘bot 6T9 struggles to find purpose–until he receives a message from an Unidentified Caller.


The worlds of The One, Volka, and 6T9 are about to collide.

The galaxy will be shaken to its core.

The starship is waking.


Featured Fantasy: Sorcery & Warlocks: Six Dark Fantasy Novels by Multiple Authors

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Featured Fantasy: Sorcery & Warlocks: Six Dark Fantasy Novels by Multiple Authors

FREE as of June 27, 2026
Click for Current Price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia

Nook, Apple, Kobo, GooglePlay

Six complete dark fantasy novels:

Fire & Ice – Patty Jansen
Darkness Rising – James E. Wisher
Requiem For The Wolf – Tara Saunders
The Prince’s Man – Deborah Jay
The Ring And The Flag – William L. Hahn
Muse – Kylie Quillinan

★★★★★ Epic
You have GOT to read this! It kept me in my seat, saying “Just one more chapter,” (yawn) “Just to be end of this chapter.”  – Amazon Reviewer

★★★★★ Excellent
Exciting and imaginative fantasy that was impossible for me to stop reading. It’s four in the morning and I’ve got to get up at 6:30! – Amazon Reviewer

See all the Box Set List Featured Fantasy | See All Featured Sci-Fi

Featured Sci-fi: Encrypted Starpath (Jupiter’s Eye Book 1) by Peter J. Foote

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Featured Sci-fi: Encrypted Starpath (Jupiter's Eye Book 1) by Peter J. Foote

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

Apple, Nook, Kobo, GooglePlay, & Author’s Store (Get a 15% off with code 15-Off-Encrypted-Starpath)

Liam and Rosario deliver messages across the solar system. It’s simple work—move data, haul cargo, and try not to get caught sabotaging the mega-corporations that rule humanity.

Escorting clients isn’t part of the job.

But when a distress call for rescue hits their scanners, their quiet rebellion threatens to blow up in their faces.

The client, Dr. Santos, has uncovered something tied to the Interstellar Gate orbiting Jupiter—something that could give humanity countless new worlds. But she must escape her corporate overlords or the future won’t belong to anyone but those who can afford it.

Saving her means doing something Liam and Rosario have never done before:

Deliver a passenger instead of a message

Featured Fantasy: Wrighting Old Wrongs (World Wrights Book 1) by Maria Grace

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Featured Fantasy: Wrighting Old Wrongs (World Wrights Book 1) by Maria Grace

Expected to be FREE July 2, 2026
Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia

Controlling Fire, Earth, Water, and Air with a simple touch would have been much more impressive if it paid the bills.

For nearly 200 years, the Wrights have controlled the Elements, shaping them to their will. But, the new era of industrialization threatens their extinction. Journeyman Wright Rebecca Fuller has more important things to worry about, though, like paying bills and keeping a roof over her head. Unfortunately, she inherited her father’s debts along with his shop. With the Guild limiting her prices, even a brisk business barely makes ends meet.

If only the Guild would consider her application for Mastery. But between having the audacity to be female and studying under the most unconventional Master in the Guild, her chances were as thin as Air.

Unfortunately for Guild Undersecretary David Enright, barrister, procedural maven, and all-around rule-follower, the Guild violated its own rules where Rebecca was concerned. With her irascible temper and unorthodox approach to working the Elements, she’s exactly what he wants most to avoid. Unfortunately, he can’t simply ignore her.

Rule-following aside, though, what she knows, what she can do, could be the key to saving the Wrights from extinction.

Audacious barely describes David’s strategy to right old wrongs. If Rebecca agrees, his plan could solve both their problems—or cost them everything.

An exciting new gaslamp fantasy adventure from the author of Jane Austen’s Dragons perfect for fans of Gail Carriger, Charlie Holmberg, AJ Lancaster and V. E. Schwab.