Blog - C Gockel Writes

Featured Fantasy: The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley

August 23, 2024 by Carolynn

$1.99 as of August 23, 2024
Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia

An outcast princess must earn her birthright as a hero of the realm—in this “utterly engrossing” Newbery Medal–winning fantasy (The New York Times).

Aerin is an outcast in her own father’s court, daughter of the foreign woman who, it was rumored, was a witch, and enchanted the king to marry her.

She makes friends with her father’s lame, retired warhorse, Talat, and discovers an old, overlooked, and dangerously imprecise recipe for dragon-fire-proof ointment in a dusty corner of her father’s library. Two years, many canter circles to the left to strengthen Talat’s weak leg, and many burnt twigs (and a few fingers) secretly experimenting with the ointment recipe later, Aerin is present when someone comes from an outlying village to report a marauding dragon to the king. Aerin slips off alone to fetch her horse, her sword, and her fireproof ointment . . .

But modern dragons, while formidable opponents fully capable of killing a human being, are small and accounted vermin. There is no honor in killing dragons. The great dragons are a tale out of ancient history.

That is, until the day that the king is riding out at the head of an army. A weary man on an exhausted horse staggers into the courtyard where the king’s troop is assembled: “The Black Dragon has come . . . Maur, who has not been seen for generations, the last of the great dragons, great as a mountain. Maur has awakened.”

Featured Science Fiction: Milijun by Clayton Graham

August 14, 2024 by Carolynn

99¢ as of August 14, 2024
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Full price at: Apple, Kobo

First Contact is imminent, but it comes with conditions…

Laura and Jason are on vacation when their lives are turned upside down by otherworldly creatures that fall to Earth in the dead of night.

Frightened and bewildered, they become trapped in a dark and mysterious conflict between clandestine Earth forces and the alien wave—and Laura’s world starts to unravel.

But everything may not be as it appears. Could the aliens have an ulterior motive? And do they have a mission for Jason?

The world may not be ready for alien communication, but it may have little choice in the matter.

If you like Close Encounters, Contact, and Arrival, then you’ll love Milijun, the first novel of a gripping new alien interaction series from Clayton Graham.

“Captured my interest from the very beginning, and never once let go.” Jenna – Indie Book Reviewers

“If you love the genre, read this gem.” Julius Zon – Self Publishing Review

“This is a must-read for science fiction fans who appreciate a hard scientific foundation, in the tradition of Asimov, Niven, or Heinlein.” Patrick Dent

Featured Sci-fi: The Curse of Sotkari – A Romantic Space Opera Book 1 by Maria A. Perez

August 13, 2024 by Carolynn

Expected 99¢ Sale August 18, 2024
Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia

Stolen from Earth…only to learn she’s not entirely human.

Mina, a wife and mother, is snatched from her family and forced to serve the ruthless Lostai on a distant science station. The DNA of an evolved race known as Sotkari Ta lies dormant in her genes. The Lostai, determined to harness her latent telekinetic and telepathic abilities, push Mina through a brutal boot camp. Despite the hardships and abuse, Mina completes her training and is assigned her first mission, one that goes against her most basic principles. A mission she will not accept.

If Mina is to escape the Lostai, she must trust an arrogant and unpleasant soldier whose morals seem questionable, at best. The strong attraction between them both annoys and unnerves her.

Even if she gets away, she will need to survive in this alien environment while evading the Lostai. Will she ever make it back to Earth, or have her actions already changed her destiny and the fate of those who assist her?Content Disclosure. This series is a space opera with strong romantic elements and heat. It features infidelity, violence, consensual sexual scenes, attempted rape, and sexual and physical abuse. Think Outlander meets Star Wars.

Featured Sci-fi: Song of the Caged Warrior (The Curse of Sotkari Ta) by Maria A. Perez

August 13, 2024 by Carolynn

New Release
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An orphan with amazing powers forced to serve his enemies.

Montor is a child, happily growing up on the planet of Aranda—until the Lostai, an imperialist alien race, invade his planet, then attack his seaside village. Soon, Montor loses his whole family to injuries, sickness, and punishment.

With his aggressive temperament fueling dreams of revenge, Montor seems destined to follow the same fate as his family and succumb to the cruelty of Lostai enslavement. Then the Lostai military discovers that Montor is no ordinary child; he possesses dormant telekinetic and telepathic abilities. Montor is transferred to a military science station where a devious commander intends to turn him into a Lostai super soldier.

Can Montor survive the brutal and humiliating bootcamp? How will he manage the anger, depression, and self-loathing that comes from serving in the very same military that decimated his people? Or will he refuse to be a pawn in Losta’s war and risk everything to take on the mantle of an Arandan warrior?

This space opera features non-human spacefaring civilizations, galactic war, and people with special abilities. It is a prequel to the romantic space opera trilogy, The Curse of Sotkari Ta, that can be enjoyed before or after reading the trilogy.

Featured Fantasy: The Deluding of Gylfi (The Ragnarok Prophecy Book 1) by Matt Larkin

August 13, 2024 by Carolynn

New Release
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Apple, Nook, Kobo

Dive into this epic Norse mythology series starter in the Eschaton Cycle historical fantasy universe.

He was a god. He was a king. A necromancer, a shaman. A prophet …

From out of the Mist he came, his name whispered in awe and dread, for Odin cast himself as a god of Man. But behind the illusion and the lies, Odin too was once a man, in an age of ice and an era of Mist.

With his blood brother Loki by his side, Odin wanted only to protect his people from the soul-stealing Mist and its denizens. But when a vision of Ragnarök shows him the end of the world, he is forced to accept a terrible truth. In the face of the extinction of Mankind, any action, any deception, no matter how vile, is needful if it might avert the end.

So Odin will kill, will lie, will use Men in his ceaseless schemes. Because the price of his failure is unthinkable …

The Ragnarök Prophecy recombines material previously published as Gods of the Ragnarok Era, Runeblade Saga, and Legends of the Ragnarok Era, along with new material, to produce a definitive edition of this retelling of Norse myth. Mythology, horror, and dark fantasy meld together in an ice age. For fans of Rob J. Hayes, Ryan Cahill, and Zamil Akhtar, this is a dark mythological retelling filled with gods and monsters from the Viking Age and beyond. The Eschaton Cycle begins.

Featured Science Fiction: The Rise of the River-Man (Chimera Chronicles Book 1) by L. S. O’Dea

August 13, 2024 by Carolynn

FREE on August 13, 2024
Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia

Apple, Nook, Kobo, GooglePlay

Imagine a world filled with human-animal hybrids.
They’re stronger than us. Faster. More deadly and hungry. Always hungry.

Now, step inside the laboratory and witness their creation.
Created as weapons. Designed to obey.
No one expected them to want revenge.

This is Mutter’s story.

For the first time in his life he’s afraid.
Afraid of the shots his new master is giving him.
Afraid that if he doesn’t escape, he’ll become food for one of the creatures in the nearby cages or worse…
He’ll become one of them.

First Contact is imminent, but it comes with conditions…

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