Blog - C Gockel Writes

Featured Fantasy: The Dragoneer Trilogy (Books 1 – 3) by Vickie and Danny Knestaut

January 10, 2025 by Carolynn

99¢ as of January 10, 2025 (Sale ending soon!)
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Start the adventure. Own the sky.

As the only child of the dragoneer, Trysten has a strong connection to the dragons of the village weyr. When her father is injured and can no longer lead the dragons into battle, he must choose his successor. Winter is waning, and the mountain passes will soon open to an enemy older than memory. Trysten wants the job, but tradition forbids women from holding the title.

When Trysten’s father chooses her childhood friend as the new dragoneer, Trysten sets aside her own ambitions in order to save the village. But the alpha dragon is not bound by tradition and has ideas of her own. Change is in the air. As old enemies develop new tactics, even older enemies once relegated to myth are beginning to stir.

It will take an equally mythical hero and her dragon to face enemy hordes in the sky, armies in the mountains, and dragon riders who become something new in death. All pale in comparison to the woman who stands against the traditions of men.

This box set contains the first three full-length novels in The Dragoneer series, and is a great place to start for those who have not yet visited the dragons of Cadwaller.

Featured Science Fiction: Negation Force by Anthony James

January 10, 2025 by Carolynn

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Negation Force. A planet without power, locked down by an alien war fleet.

The human Confederation has known an unprecedented time of peace, unheard of in a universe where every other species is not only technologically advanced, but also incredibly hostile.

The good times are about to end.

Out on the fringes, the planet Atlantis is attacked by an alien foe remembered only by the oldest members of the Space Corps. These aliens – known as Vraxar – are abominations of flesh and metal, driven to exterminate every other life form in the universe. Now it’s humanity’s turn.

In the ruins of the Tillos military installation, Sergeant Eric McKinney is determined to fight back and find out why the Vraxar have come. Meanwhile, a response fleet is mustered with the intention of facing the enemy head-on. It’s a mission with no hope of success.

As events unfold, it becomes apparent the Vraxar have secrets which give clues to their purpose. The answers are more shocking than anyone could have imagined.

The lives of strangers are intertwined and together they must try and salvage something from this first exchange in a war that will not end until one side is utterly defeated. Luckily, the Tillos base holds secrets of its own…a warship with an exceptionally powerful Obsidiar core is contained within an underground bunker. It is the only hope for Atlantis…

Negation Force is a science fiction action and adventure book which begins The Obsidiar Fleet series.

Author’s Note: this book is set forty years after events in the Survival Wars series. There is no necessity to read the earlier books to enjoy this one.

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

Featured Fantasy: The Golden Spider (Elemental Web Chronicles Book 1) by Anne Renwick

January 9, 2025 by Carolynn

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On the foggy streets of Victorian London, secrets and spies hide in a world of gaslamp fantasy.

Lady Amanda blackmailed her way into a prestigious London medical school…

Not the preferred method of entrance, of course, but necessary, for it’s the only way to force Lord Thornton, a professor at the school, to help her perfect her invention: a clockwork spider capable of spinning artificial nerves.

And Lord Thornton is interested… but is he interested in Amanda, or simply the invention that could cure his own debilitating injury? Neither one can trust the other, but both know this: any attraction is a danger, any romance forbidden.

But when a foreign spy steals the spider and uses it to perform grisly experiments on human subjects, they must set aside both their differences and their growing attraction to capture the killer terrorizing the streets of London.

STEP INTO THE ELEMENTAL WEB!

Enjoy this romance by USA Today Bestselling historical fantasy author Anne Renwick where you’ll unravel mysteries and defy conventions in a world where danger lurks around every corner…
The Golden Spider is the first story in the Elemental Web Chronicles, although all books in the Elemental Web (Chronicles, Tales & Stories) can be read as standalones. For fans of steampunk and gaslamp fantasy romance, this is a STEAMY romance with a guaranteed happily ever after for women in STEM and the men who are their match.

Featured Fantasy: A Killer Welcome (Haunting Avery Winters Book 1) by Dionne Lister

January 9, 2025 by Carolynn

99¢ as of January 9, 2024
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Avery Winters was overjoyed to be brought back to life… unfortunately, the dead were waiting for her.

Aussie journalist Avery Winters was content—she had a caring boyfriend, great job, and supportive… okay, so her parents weren’t actually supportive, but she’d accepted she could never be the son they’d wanted seeing as how she was born a girl. Avoiding them seemed to work well, and, she reasoned, no one’s life was perfect. And that was fine, except whilst covering a news story in a storm, Avery’s cosy life disappeared in a flash. Lightning struck, stopping her heart and blowing her favourite black boots to smithereens. It was pure luck that an off-duty nurse was walking nearby.

When Avery came to in the ambulance en route to hospital, she’d thought the worst was over. She was wrong. Her lightning-induced hallucinations—there was no way they were ghosts—were impossible to hide. Her boyfriend soon left, and her boss suggested she take extended leave. Unable to cover her rent, she moved back in with her parents. And that’s when the fun really began.

Unable to cope with their insistence she was crazy, and desperate for an escape, she responded to a journalist-wanted ad… in the UK, because getting mega far away from her parents could only be a good thing. Armed with a new fear of storms, companions others couldn’t see, and the hope that leaving the stress behind would improve her mental state, she boarded a plane for London. What she didn’t count on was not being able to leave her ghosts behind… literally. Oh, and that the quaint English village she’d be living in had more skeletons in its closet than the Natural History Museum. When she stumbles upon a dead body in her rented apartment on her first day, she’s tempted to get back on the plane. But whilst it’s not a good omen, returning to her parents would be worse, so she decides to stay. Only, she’s not sure if it’s the best decision she’s ever made, or the worst.

She’s about to find out.

Featured Fantasy: City of Stairs (The Divine Cities Book 1) by Robert Jackson Bennet

January 9, 2025 by Carolynn

$1.99 as of January 9, 2024
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An atmospheric and intrigue-filled novel of dead gods, buried histories, and a mysterious, protean city–from one of America’s most acclaimed young fantasy writers.

The city of Bulikov once wielded the powers of the gods to conquer the world, enslaving and brutalizing millions—until its divine protectors were killed. Now Bulikov has become just another colonial outpost of the world’s new geopolitical power, but the surreal landscape of the city itself—first shaped, now shattered, by the thousands of miracles its guardians once worked upon it—stands as a constant, haunting reminder of its former supremacy.

Into this broken city steps Shara Thivani. Officially, the unassuming young woman is just another junior diplomat sent by Bulikov’s oppressors. Unofficially, she is one of her country’s most accomplished spies, dispatched to catch a murderer. But as Shara pursues the killer, she starts to suspect that the beings who ruled this terrible place may not be as dead as they seem—and that Bulikov’s cruel reign may not yet be over.

Book Review: Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber

January 8, 2025 by Carolynn

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Oh, boy, do I have feelings for this book. Errr … and thoughts. One thought is that the data, “38-40% of jobs are bullshit” is inaccurate. When I looked up the stats, the number is one in twenty—much lower.

That said, I’ve had bullshit jobs before, and I’ve known people who have bullshit jobs. Which brings me to another problem with the book. Dr. Graeber believes that bullshit jobs (which he describes as a job where you feel like you do nothing, or you feel what you do is “pernicious”) corrode your soul and your health. I agree with this … sort of … I knew a lot of people who loved their bullshit jobs.

Still, I found it interesting, and it was written from a perspective I don’t normally hear, that of an anarcho-socialist.

Anyway, here’s the blurb:

From David Graeber, the bestselling author of The Dawn of Everything and Debt—“a master of opening up thought and stimulating debate” (Slate)—a powerful argument against the rise of meaningless, unfulfilling jobs…and their consequences.

Does your job make a meaningful contribution to the world? In the spring of 2013, David Graeber asked this question in a playful, provocative essay titled “On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs.” It went viral. After one million online views in seventeen different languages, people all over the world are still debating the answer.

There are hordes of people—HR consultants, communication coordinators, telemarketing researchers, corporate lawyers—whose jobs are useless, and, tragically, they know it. These people are caught in bullshit jobs.

Graeber explores one of society’s most vexing and deeply felt concerns, indicting among other villains a particular strain of finance capitalism that betrays ideals shared by thinkers ranging from Keynes to Lincoln. “Clever and charismatic” (The New Yorker), Bullshit Jobs gives individuals, corporations, and societies permission to undergo a shift in values, placing creative and caring work at the center of our culture. This book is for everyone who wants to turn their vocation back into an avocation and “a thought-provoking examination of our working lives” (Financial Times).

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