C Gockel Writes

Featured Sci-fi: Crisis of Command by John Frater

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Featured Sci-fi: Crisis of Command by John Frater

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It’s 2079. The Sleer War is over. Earth lost.

When Lt. Simon Brooks discovered an alien A.I., he made a name for himself as an officer in the Unified Earth Fleet. And while his tech skills are next level, he has a lot to learn about running a combat squadron.

After flubbing a training exercise, Brooks is set to choosing worlds for human colonization, and he thinks he has the perfect candidate: Vega. But rumors and intelligence reports make him think there’s something there which the Sleer missed.

As Brooks and the crew of UES Gauntlet head to Vega to prove his theory, a Sleer science vessel is already working to claim the prize: an armored military base from a long-forgotten war. Acquiring it for the UEF would put humanity back in the fight to reclaim Earth…and Simon Brooks back in control of his career.

But events from neighboring empires threaten to destabilize the UEF, pitting Gauntlet’s crew against secret police, government bureaucracy, interstellar trade negotiations, and Sleer merchant guilds. In the face of encroaching chaos, does victory in battle even matter?

The next action-packed Military Sci-Fi Series from Jon Frater, author of Battle Ring Earth. Perfect for fans of Rick Partlow (Drop Trooper), Jeffery H. Haskell (Grimm’s War), and Joshua Dalzelle (Omega Force). Grab your copy today!

Featured Fantasy: Scale of the Dragon (Marked by the Dragon Book 1) by Richard Fierce

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Featured Fantasy: Scale of the Dragon (Marked by the Dragon Book 1) by Richard Fierce

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Her key to freedom is also her torment.

Mina is an outcast. A childhood accident left her scarred and with a curse that her master exploits to hunt dragons for sport.

She wants freedom, from both her master and the curse, but unless the right dragon is killed, she’ll be a bondservant for the rest of her days. 

With Mina’s uncanny ability and her master’s magical strength, the beast responsible for her misery will fall … even if she has to take matters into her own hands.

Scale of the Dragon is the first episode in the series Marked by the Dragon.

Featured Fantasy: The Bone Mask Cycle by Ashley Capes

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Featured Fantasy: The Bone Mask Cycle by Ashley Capes

Start the Series FREE—Book 2 only 99¢ as of May 6, 2025
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A bitter mercenary. A naïve mask-carver. A city in peril.

Sofia is a failure. The sentient magical mask with the power to compel, the Greatmask, refuses to choose her as its successor. Without it, the mask-carver will never succeed her father or have the power to protect her city. When palace conspiracies place a tyrant on the throne and lead to her father’s disappearance, her only choice is to hide.

Notch wants revenge. After escaping imprisonment for a crime he didn’t commit, the grizzled old mercenary is more determined than ever to kill the king of Anaskar. It might have been impossible, until he stumbles across Sofia with her Greatmask and decides to protect her—his best shot at vengeance.

Taking Anaskar back from the tyrant is no simple task. With an uncooperative Greatmask and royal assassins hunting them down, staying alive is half the battle. Can they survive long enough to save their city, or will Sofia’s shortcomings and Notch’s need for retribution doom them all?

City of Masks is the first thrilling fantasy novel in the Bone Mask Cycle. If you love underdogs, perilous quests, and epic adventures, slip into City of Masks!

Featured Fantasy: Savage Skies (The Fourth Empire Book 1) by Kat Ross

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Featured Fantasy: Savage Skies (The Fourth Empire Book 1) by Kat Ross

FREE as of May 6, 2025
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Winner of the 2024 Readers’ Favorite Bronze Medal for Magic & Wizardry!


When someone dies in Aveline, they don’t always stay that way.Castelio learned this hard lesson when he was a boy.

Now he roams from village to village as a Quietus, banishing restless spirits and keeping the Ducissa Orlaith’s peace—until the day her only son is kidnapped.

Blame falls on the land across the Boundary, where necromancers practice their black arts in eternal darkness.

To get the child back, Castelio recruits the aid of a young stranger named Delilah, along with her peculiar (and possibly demonic) cat Thistle. The pair has a habit of attracting violent thunderstorms, but their wind ship can cross the high mist-cloaked passes of the Boundary.

As the trail leads deeper into the wilds of midnight, Castelio and Delilah discover there are worse things than the risen dead. Yet nothing is quite as it seems in the Moon Courts. Despite the dangers all around, they find allies in unexpected places.

And choosing a side in the brewing war between light and dark magic might be harder than they imagined.

Featured Sci-fi: The Alternien Wars by G J Ogden

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Featured Sci-fi: The Alternien Wars by G J Ogden

FREE Book 1—Books 2 & 3 only 99¢ Each US & UK
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Humanity cast him out. Now he’s their only hope.

Master Commander Carter Rose was engineered to be the ultimate weapon—augmented strength, tactical genius, and command of the deadliest warship ever built.

After crushing the post-human Aternien Empire, his reward was exile… and a century of bitter solitude on a distant moon.

Then Major Carina Larsen finds him with news that shatters his world. The Aterniens have returned, more dangerous than ever.

The Union, soft after a hundred years of peace, has forgotten how to fight. Their weapons are relics. Their tactics, obsolete. Only Rose’s legendary battleship—the Galatine—can stand against the coming storm.

To save the Union, Rose must reunite his scattered Master Officers—augmented heroes betrayed by the very people they once swore to protect—and reclaim his ship.

But in a galaxy where post-humans are feared and hated, both the Union and the Aterniens now vie for Rose’s allegiance.

When the perfect weapon must choose a side, no one is safe.

Winner of the Kindle Storyteller Award 2023!
Forsaken Commander launches the Aternian Wars series, an explosive fusion of military sci-fi and space opera, where engineered warriors battle a reborn empire forged from ancient Egyptian myth.

Begin the saga today.

Featured Fantasy: The Shattered Court (A Novel of the Four Arts) by M.J. Scott

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Featured Fantasy: The Shattered Court (A Novel of the Four Arts) by M.J. Scott

FREE as of May 5, 2025
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Enjoy this romantic historical fantasy series from RITA® Award nominated author M.J. Scott.

For a royal witch, magic always means marriage…whether she likes it or not

Lady Sophia Kendall has always known three things. That she’s thirty-second in line to the throne of Anglion. That when she turns twenty-one, she’ll find out if she’s a royal witch. And that, if she is a witch, she’ll be married off immediately to whichever lord the king chooses. Now she’s about to turn twenty-one and fulfill all the expectations that the Anglion court has for her.

But when the palace is attacked just before her birthday, Sophie is spirited away from the city by Lieutenant Cameron Mackenzie, a royal guard determined to keep her safe. Being alone with a man she hardly knows is dangerous, especially so close to her birthday. And when Sophia discovers she does indeed have magic—strong magic—she and Cameron accidentally forge a bond that breaks every tradition Anglion holds dear. When they return to the palace, the aftermath of the attack has stirred up the worst kind of court politics and their unexpected union and Sophie’s magic brings her to the deadly attention of those seeking to control the court and those who seeking to destroy it…and her. To survive, Sophia will have to see beyond the lies she’s been taught and embrace the power nobody wants her to have…

The Shattered Court is the first book in the Four Arts trilogy, a complete historical fantasy romance series from RITA® Award nominated author M.J. Scott. Perfect if you love fantasies with royal turmoil, witches, gaslamp vibes, marriages of convenience, protective heroes, sexy times and political intrigues. Enjoy!

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