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 Fantasy: Mage’s Apprentice (The Mages of New York Book 1) by Sean Fletcher

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Featured Fantasy: Mage's Apprentice (The Mages of New York Book 1) by Sean Fletcher

FREE as of June 21, 2026
Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany

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A human thief with no magic thrown into a Mage’s war. What could possibly go wrong…

Aspen is a Norm. A human. Something that could get her killed—or worse—in this supernatural New York City.

She didn’t plan on becoming apprenticed to one of the most powerful Mages on the Council.

She really didn’t plan on taking part in a deadly magical competition against Isak, her handsome, aggravating, dangerous opponent.

Yet as much as Aspen hates it, something sinister is going down in the magical boroughs and she’ll have to work with both of them if she wants to uncover its source. She’s been the underdog her entire life, yet nothing’s prepared her for being this outmatched and outmagicked.

But she also might be the only thing standing between those she loves and an ancient evil trying to destroy them all.

Mage’s Apprentice is the first book in the completed YA fantasy Mage’s Apprentice series. If you like snarky, fast-paced fantasies full of magical underdogs, mystery, and a slow burn enemies-to-lovers romance, this series is for you!

Featured Sci-fi: Flash Point (A Project RIFT Novel) by Jake Darst

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Featured Sci-fi: Flash Point (A Project RIFT Novel) by Jake Darst

New Release
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DARPA proved the impossible.

The experiment succeeded. That was the problem.

Former Tier 1 operator Grayson Maddox now leads a classified physics project at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

His team has breached the known boundaries of physics.

They call it RIFT.

It’s a breakthrough as dangerous as splitting the atom. Project RIFT could transform civilization—or destroy it.

Then the sabotage begins.

A mysterious outage cripples his lab. An armed intruder targets his assistant, Mari. A bomb detonates outside a DARPA briefing he just left. Someone knows exactly what Maddox has unlocked, and they’re moving with lethal precision to stop it.

On the run, Maddox turns to the only people he trusts: his former Unit teammates. But even CIA safe houses aren’t safe. Somewhere, there’s a leak, and two rival factions are closing in. One wants to harness RIFT. The other wants it erased—and Maddox along with it.

To stay alive, Maddox must become the operator he thought he’d left behind.

Because if RIFT falls into the wrong hands, the next battlefield won’t be a country.

It will be reality itself.

[Read more…]

Featured Fantasy: Between Ink and Shadows by Melissa Wright

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Featured Fantasy: Between Ink and Shadows by Melissa Wright

FREE as of June 21, 2026
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She’ll win back her freedom, even if she has to steal it.

Nimona Weston has a debt to pay. Her father’s dealings with the dark society known as the Trust cost Nim her freedom. There’s one way out of the contract on her life and that’s to bide her time and pay the tithes. But when the Trust assigns Nim to a task in the king’s own castle, her freedom is not the only thing she’ll risk.

Warrick Spenser has a secret. As king’s seneschal, he should be the last soul in Inara to risk association with dark magic, but long-hidden ties to the Trust are harder to shed than simply cutting the threads. When the Trust sends a thief to his rooms, Warrick thinks he’s finally found a way to be rid of them for good. But Nimona Weston is hiding secrets of her own.

Magical contracts, blood-debt accountants, and a deadly game. An epic fantasy with regency flair, an improper and slightly stabby heroine with a penchant for trouble, clean slow burn romance, and a dark and twisty plot that pits magic against kings, love against power, and a gothic underworld against a kingdom desperate to survive. Perfect for fans of Sorcery of Thorns and The Shadows Between Us.

Featured Sci-fi : Fortune Chronicles by Kathleen McClure

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Featured Sci-fi : Soldier of Fortune (Fortune Chronicles Book 1) by Kathleen McClure

START THE SERIES FREE
Plus free short story and Book 2 only 99¢
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Gideon Quinn has a handful of starbucks, a draco named Elvis, and a target on his back.

Wrongly convicted of treason, Colonel Gideon Quinn is serving a life sentence under the killing suns of the Morton Barrens. But after six years of hard labor, a general of the Colonial Corps arrives with an offer of freedom, and the chance to clear his name.

Gideon (not being an idiot), seizes the opportunity and, with his pet draco Elvis, boards an airship bound for Nike City in search of revenge. And justice. But mostly revenge.

What he finds is a daring street-thief in need of a champion, a city steeped in corruption, and a mysterious enemy hell-bent on safeguarding their deadly secrets.

Now Gideon is engaged in an entirely different kind of war—one that plays out in the shadows—and if he loses this battle, Fortune’s new and fragile peace will certainly shatter.

Welcome to the planet Fortune, where tech is low, heroes unlikely, and the odds ridiculous. If you like low-tech science fiction, found families, and feel-good adventures, you’ll love Soldier of Fortune.

This is the second, newly-edited edition of Soldier of Fortune.

Books in the Series:
Soldier of Fortune
Outrageous Fortune
Change of Fortune
Fortune’s Fool

Featured Fantasy: Stolen Time (The Witches of Mingus Mountain Book 1) by Christine Pope

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Featured Fantasy: Stolen Time (The Witches of Mingus Mountain Book 1) by Christine Pope

FREE as of June 20, 2026
Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia

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When the past steals her future, only one man can help her reclaim it.

Devynn Rowe never asked for her unpredictable gift of time travel. But when a fall in an abandoned mine shaft hurls her back to Jerome, Arizona, in 1926, she finds herself trapped in a world where her own witch clan — the Wilcoxes — are the mortal enemy of the McAllisters of Jerome.

Rescued by the handsome and kind warlock Seth McAllister, Devynn weaves a web of lies to protect her true identity. As she struggles to adapt to life a century before her time, she can’t ignore the growing attraction between them. But pursuing a relationship could unravel everything she’s fought to keep hidden.

Seth is drawn to the mysterious woman he found unconscious in the mine, even as his duties to his clan pull him in another direction. When family obligations thrust him into a dangerous world of bootlegging and deceit, he finds himself torn between loyalty and love.

As Devynn and Seth dance around their feelings and their secrets, the truth threatens to burn away all their illusions. But time is running out. A moment of violence changes everything…catapulting them into a situation more perilous than either could have imagined.

Featured Fantasy: A Dragon Rider’s Guide to Retirement (Dragons of Safe Haven) by Julia Huni

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Expected to be 99¢ on June 30, 2026
Click for Current Price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Austaralia, Germany

They survived the war. Now they just have to survive retirement.

When dragon rider William Ordell is grounded by a battlefield injury, he trades conflict for peace and purchases an abandoned lighthouse on the island of Safe Haven. But quiet doesn’t suit a man used to action. After a series of mysterious fires, William finds himself launching the island’s first fire brigade—with help from the local sea dragons.

Calantha Stormbringer has left war behind, along with the last sparks of her fading magic. She retreats to Safe Haven to rebuild her late aunt’s dusty bookshop—and maybe herself. Restoring the shop will require patience, intelligence, and gold. Calantha figures two out of three isn’t bad.

What neither of them wants? To run into each other. Again.

Old grudges, magical dragons, and one cozy, nosy village—what could possibly go right?