C Gockel Writes

Featured Sci-fi: Darklanding Omnibus (Books 1 – 3) by Scott Moon & Craig Martelle

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Featured Sci-fi: Darklanding Omnibus (Books 1 - 3) by Scott Moon & Craig Martelle

FREE as of March 30, 2025
Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia

A frontier world. One Sheriff. And all the action one Spaceport can’t hold.

Darklanding is the wild, wild west of known space. Sheriff Thaddeus Fry will never completely leave the battlefields of Centauri Prime. His assignment as the Sheriff of Darklanding, could be a do-nothing job, or it could get him killed.

Book 01 – Faced with a dangerous collapse that could kill hundreds of workers, the new sheriff leaps into action and gets the story of Darklanding started.

Book 02 – There’s unrest among the miners. Desperation sets in for the Company Man. One wrong decision will destroy her career. The sheriff doesn’t care about any of that. There are strangers in town. One or all of them may be enemies. And how does a mysterious runaway fit into the picture?

Book 03 – Unrefined ore is moved by a state of the art mono-rail from the mines to the spaceport. It’s never gone off the tracks. Until now. What kind of crew is crazy enough to mess with SagCon’s investments?

Fans of Firefly, Bonanza, and Tombstone will love this new series. Pick up this first of four Darklanding Omnibuses today.

Featured Fantasy: Only Mostly Dead (Afterlife Incorporated Book 1) by Alli Temple

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Featured Fantasy: Only Mostly Dead (Afterlife Incorporated Book 1) by Alli Temple

99¢ as of March 30, 2025
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No one tells you how much paperwork there is after you die.

I expected to wake up on a cloud where angels played harps and fed me grapes. Instead, I’m a ghost stuck in suburban Toronto. The only one who can see me is an unemployed grim reaper who’d rather play video games.

Turns out the business of dying is a train wreck. But if there was ever a girl boss who could get it back on track, it’s me. All I need is a little help from my new undead roommate, whether they want to be involved or not.

Nothing at Afterlife Incorporated moves quickly and if I don’t find a way out soon there won’t be anything left of me to cross over. They say death can be easy, but being only mostly dead sucks.

Only Mostly Dead is the first installment in the Afterlife Incorporated urban fantasy trilogy. It features a slow—so slow—burn romance that may take several books to resolve. Be patient. Death is coming…eventually.

Featured Fantasy: Soul Court Ascension the Complete Trilogy by Mel Harding-Shaw

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Featured Fantasy: Soul Court Ascension the Complete Trilogy by Mel Harding-Shaw

99¢ as of March 29, 2025
Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom (full price: Canada, Germany, Australia)

Bounty hunter Hel’s life depends on staying below the radar and passing as human. But when the infuriating Lord of the City of Souls discovers her hidden power is the key to solving his problems, he reclaims her bond-debt and drags her into the spotlight. He’ll protect her secrets on one condition—that she does everything he asks.

Winged necromancer Bastion would do anything to save the city he rules from the strange magic menacing their world. Even blackmail the angry, intriguing bounty hunter who despises him. As the rulers of the elemental courts converge to face the threat, he’s not sure who hates him more—them or Hel. The only way to keep her close is to make her pretend she’s his.

With dark magic tearing at the fabric of reality and betrayal lurking behind every corner, Hel and Bastion’s fake relationship becomes the only thing either of them can rely on. But Bastion’s past might just come back to kill him.

And Hel’s might kill them all.

This ebook omnibus collection includes books one, two and three of the Soul Court Ascension series—a fake relationship, enemies to lovers urban fantasy romance. The trilogy is the complete story of the Soul Court and Bastion and Helaine, but the Melded Earths world continues on with other characters after these books.

Featured Sci-fi: Genesis Earth Book 1 by Joe Vasicek

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Featured Sci-fi: Genesis Earth Book 1 by Joe Vasicek

FREE as of March 29, 2025
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The ultimate voyage of discovery ends with the truth about yourself.

Michael Anderson never thought he would set foot on an Earthlike world. Born on the farthest edge of the solar system, he studies planets from afar. But when his parents open a wormhole and discover signs of intelligent life on the other side, Michael is the only planetologist young enough to voyage to the alien star.

He is not alone, but Terra, his sole mission partner, is no more of an adult than he is. Soon after their arrival, she begins keeping secrets from him. But she doesn’t realize that her darkest secret is one that he already knows.

Twenty light-years away from humanity, what they discover on the alien world forces them to question their deepest beliefs about the universe—and about what it means to be human.

Featured Sci-fi: The Uplift Storm Trilogy: Brightness Reef, Infinity’s Shore, Heaven’s Reach (The Uplift Saga) by David Brin

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$2.99 as of March 28, 2025
Click for current price: Amazon US, Canada

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The award-winning author’s complete second trilogy of the Uplift Saga, featuring a planet of refugees, a fugitive Earthling ship, and her dolphin/human crew.

Brightness Reef

Six outcast races hunker down on the off-limits planet Jijo when a mysterious starship lands. However, it doesn’t bring the “law” they feared, but something worse—a dark secret the invaders will do anything to keep . . .

Infinity’s Shore

Earthship Streaker, with its dolphin and human crew, has been on the run for three years after discovering a derelict armada whose mere existence seems to drive the Five Galaxies mad. With Earth under siege and nowhere to turn, Streaker has come to far-off, isolated Jijo in search of sanctuary amid its population of secret refugees. Unfortunately, they’ve been followed . . .

Heaven’s Reach

With the arrival of deadly enemies, the peaceful isolation of Jijo’s six exile races has ended. While the races join forces to fight invaders, the Earthship Streaker must lure other foes into weird layers of the unknown. Meanwhile, a dire prophecy may put the entire universe at risk . . .

[Read more…]

Featured Fantasy: Harleigh Sinclair and the Raiders of the Lost Ankh by Tamara Grantham

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Featured Fantasy: Harleigh Sinclair and the Raiders of the Lost Ankh by Tamara Grantham

FREE as of March 28, 2025
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Getting confessions from notorious serial killers? Easy.

Stealing priceless Egyptian artifacts? No problem.

Doing it with a cocky, too-handsome-for-his-own-good bad boy? Impossible.

My name is Harleigh Sinclair, and I’m a Neotact. That’s a fancy word for a person who has special powers using touch. My special power? I can touch a person, see into their mind, and find any object they’ve physically contacted. Comes in handy when you’re employed by San Antonio’s wealthiest entrepreneur who’s in the business of finding lost relics. However, my job description does come with a few hitches.

My most recent client is a man named Jagg Ransom. He’s arrogant and too attractive for his own good. My mission is to purchase an ancient Egyptian ankh from him and deliver it to my boss. Sounds easy, right?

But Ransom refuses to cooperate, so I have no choice but to break into his apartment and steal the location of the amulet from his mind. Bad idea. Like, really bad idea.
I find out that this relic happens to be the relic that gave five percent of Earth’s population Neotact powers. I also learn that Ransom isn’t who he says he is, and I’m forced onto a path that will take me from my home in Texas to a hidden dungeon of a Scottish castle, and then into the heart of a deadly Egyptian desert. Finding the ankh is hard enough. Fighting my feelings for Jagg Ransom is worse.

If I can’t find the ankh in time, not only will I be out of a job, but I’ll lose everything I value—including my own life.