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: A Fire Upon the Deep (Zones of Thought Series Book 1) by Vernor Vinge

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Featured Sci-fi: A Fire Upon the Deep (Zones of Thought Series Book 1) by Vernor Vinge

$2.99 as of July 11, 2026
Click for current price: Amazon US, Canada (Full-price: United Kingdom, Germany, Australia)

Apple, B&N, Kobo, GooglePlay, & Available from Audible (FREE Trial for new users)

A Hugo Award-winning Novel!

“Vinge is one of the best visionary writers of SF today.”-David Brin

Thousands of years in the future, humanity is no longer alone in a universe where a mind’s potential is determined by its location in space, from superintelligent entities in the Transcend, to the limited minds of the Unthinking Depths, where only simple creatures, and technology, can function. Nobody knows what strange force partitioned space into these “regions of thought,” but when the warring Straumli realm use an ancient Transcendent artifact as a weapon, they unwittingly unleash an awesome power that destroys thousands of worlds and enslaves all natural and artificial intelligence.

Fleeing this galactic threat, Ravna crash lands on a strange world with a ship-hold full of cryogenically frozen children, the only survivors from a destroyed space-lab. They are taken captive by the Tines, an alien race with a harsh medieval culture, and used as pawns in a ruthless power struggle.

Featured Sci-fi: A Hero (Corporation Wars Book 1) Stephen Arseneault

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Featured Sci-fi: A Hero (Corporation Wars Book 1) Stephen Arseneault

FREE as of July 11, 2026
Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia

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Humanity’s survival is under siege. After centuries of peace, our dominion among the stars is shattered by a devastating alien invasion. Our once-proud military, now more political than capable, is powerless to stop the carnage. As the death toll rises and entire worlds fall, defeat seems inevitable.

Rayford Tyvos Jackson dreamed of nothing more than a stable life for his family. But when the invaders destroy everything he loves, grief turns to vengeance. Determined to fight back, he joins the Marines—only to see the government collapse and power handed to a ruthless cabal of corporations. Will their rule turn the tide of war? Or has humanity just traded one enemy for another?

Fans of The Expanse and Old Man’s War will love this gritty, action-packed epic of survival, vengeance, and hope. The fight for humanity’s survival—and its soul—begins now.

[Read more…]

Featured Sci-fi: Lawless (Lawless Saga Book 1) by Tarah Benner

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Featured Sci-fi: Lawless (Lawless Saga Book 1) by Tarah Benner

FREE as of July 8, 2026
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From the author of The Fringe comes an addictive new dystopian saga.
When Lark was sentenced to twenty-five years behind bars, she thought San Judas was her lucky break. The primitive 16,000-acre community in rural New Mexico isn’t like any other prison. There are no cells, there is no warden, and Mother Mercy is the law.

She didn’t realize she’d be fighting for survival on a daily basis — battling hunger, violent inmates, and Mother Mercy’s iron fist. Lark’s only friend is Bernie — an off-the-rails environmental activist doing time for arson — and a mysterious stranger who’s been sending her illicit messages from the men’s colony.

Lark never thought escaping San Judas was possible until a message in a bottle changes everything: The guards outside the walls are disappearing, and the world as they know it is coming to an end.

Featured Fantasy: The Stormborne Vine (Leaf and Scale Book 1) by Tilly Wallace

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FREE as of July 7, 2026
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Determined spinster vs carnivorous wallflower…

In a corner of rural England, Fern Oakby makes a living through her knowledge of botany. An unusual case erupts during a storm when a Boston ivy turns monstrous and…carnivorous.

However, the solution is not as simple as hacking down the exceedingly rare and hungry plant. The storm also gave life to an origami dragon and bound it to the vine. When a lonely woman pleads with Fern to save the tiny dragon, she is forced to confront a profound question—what defines the value of a life?

In a world where ancient magic lingers, every life—no matter how small or strange—holds immeasurable worth. As Fern races against time to unravel dark secrets at the estate, the vine continues to grow. She must find a way to destroy it before it spreads or snatches more lives. Nor, as she discovers, is the little dragon the only life in need of saving…

Featured Sci-fi: Machine A White Space Novel by Elizabeth Bear

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Featured Sci-fi: Machine A White Space Novel by Elizabeth Bear

$1.99 in the U.S. & Canada
Click for current price: Amazon US, Canada (Full-price: United Kingdom, Germany, Australia)

Apple, Nook, Kobo, GooglePlay & Audible (Free trial for new listeners!)

A “spectacularly smart space opera” that follows Ancestral Night in the Hugo Award–winning author’s White Space duology (Publishers Weekly, starred review).

Meet Doctor Jens.

She hasn’t had a decent cup of coffee in fifteen years. Her workday begins when she jumps out of perfectly good space ships and continues with developing treatments for sick alien species she’s never seen before. She loves her life. Even without the coffee.

But Dr. Jens is about to discover an astonishing mystery: two ships, one ancient and one new, locked in a deadly embrace. The crew is suffering from an unknown ailment and the shipmind is trapped in an inadequate body, much of her memory pared away.

Unfortunately, Dr. Jens can’t resist a mystery and she begins doing some digging. She has no idea that she’s about to discover horrifying and life-changing truths.

Written in Elizabeth Bear’s signature “rollicking, suspenseful, and sentimental” (Publishers Weekly) style, Machine is a fresh and electrifying space opera that you won’t be able to put down.

[Read more…]

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
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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.