C Gockel Writes

Featured Sci-fi: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Illustrated Edition by Douglas Adams, Illustrated by Chris Riddell

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The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: The Illustrated Edition by Douglas Adams, illustrated by Chris Riddell

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“Extremely funny . . . inspired lunacy . . . [and] over much too soon.”—The Washington Post Book World

Seconds before the Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy who, for the last fifteen years, has been posing as an out-of-work actor.

Together this dynamic pair begin a journey through space aided by quotes from The Hitchhiker’s Guide (“A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have”) and a galaxy-full of fellow travelers: Zaphod Beeblebrox—the two-headed, three-armed ex-hippie and totally out-to-lunch president of the galaxy; Trillian, Zaphod’s girlfriend (formerly Tricia McMillan), whom Arthur tried to pick up at a cocktail party once upon a time zone; Marvin, a paranoid, brilliant, and chronically depressed robot; Veet Voojagig, a former graduate student who is obsessed with the disappearance of all the ballpoint pens he bought over the years.

Where are these pens? Why are we born? Why do we die? Why do we spend so much time wearing digital watches? For all the answers stick your thumb to the stars. And don’t forget to bring a towel!

Praise for The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

“A whimsical odyssey . . . Characters frolic through the galaxy with infectious joy.”—Publishers Weekly

“Irresistible!”—The Boston Globe

Featured Fantasy: A Time of Gladiators and Fate (Last Road to Rome Book 1) by Susan Illene

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A Time of Gladiators and Fate by Susan Illene

New Release on Amazon
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Time travel to ancient Rome. Become a gladiator. Try not to die.

And DO NOT be tempted by any morally questionable hot men.

Grace King grew up on a farm in Kansas, so nothing prepared her for landing in the Roman Colosseum while it’s still intact. A heart-pounding chase in her rental car follows with spear-throwing legionnaires, armed gladiators, and a couple of wild animals. Grace is eventually forced to surrender in a floral sundress meant for vacation, not blood sport.

The emperor offers her two choices: execution or gladiator school. While she isn’t afraid of hard work, the ludus where she’ll train with other men and women is brutal. Most doubt her right to be there, adding pressure to an already difficult situation. Every aspect of her new life, down to the clothes she wears and how she’s treated, is vastly different and horrifying.

Her fate will rest in the hands of two dangerous, conflicting men.

In the training arena, the first is a formidable lead instructor with icy good looks. He will push her body to its absolute limits and test her willpower to survive while trading heated banter with her. The second is a wealthy, enigmatic sponsor who shields her against Rome’s darkest exploits for a price, but his own time-travel secrets weave a dangerous web. The handsome man knows far more about how she ended up in ancient Rome than he’s willing to tell her.

A Time of Gladiators and Fate follows the gripping journey of a modern woman who must become a force that ancient Rome will fear and admire if she ever hopes to earn her freedom and find a way home. Perfect for fans of Outlander and Spartacus, with a genre blend of romantasy and time-travel historical fiction.

Featured Fantasy: Maggie MacKay Magical Tracker by Kate Danley

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Start the Series FREE … Book 2 only $2.99
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She just wanted to pay her rent, but the vampires came after her family. This magical tracker is about to tear the world a new portal.

When monsters show up in Los Angeles, Maggie MacKay is is the one you call to haul them back to the dimension where they belong.

But when a mysterious elf saves her from a vampire attack, a whole new world is about to be opened to her. The scope of her tracking business is about to expand interdimensionally…

Come along with Maggie, her elfin sidekick Killian, and her crazy family in this USA Today bestseller for a snarky urban fantasy adventure.

WARNING: This book contains cussing, brawling, and unladylike behavior. Proceed with caution.

Featured Sci-fi: Rogue Stars 7 Novels of Space Exploration and Adventure by Multiple Authors

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Featured Sci-fi : Rogue Stars 7 Novels of Space Exploration and Adventure

FREE as of October 31, 2026
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Sometimes you have to go Rogue …

Jump into seven full-length novels exploring the last great frontier. Rogue Stars has alien invasions, artificial intelligence, galactic intrigue, and heroes that will defy orders to do what is right.

Blast off to new worlds. Download this collection today.

About the Books:

Archangel Down – C. Gockel
Commander Noa Sato doesn’t believe in aliens. She’s wrong. In the face of genocide she must hatch a daring plan with a ragtag crew to save the lives of millions—and her own. Every step of the way she is haunted by the final words of a secret transmission: The archangel is down.

Betrayal – Pippa DaCosta
She is programmed to kill. He’ll do anything to survive.
In a world where only one thousand synthetics were built, synthetic #1001 should not exist. She is no ordinary synth and the memories locked inside her code could bring the entire Nine systems, an ex-con Captain Caleb Shepperd, to their knees.

Quantum Tangle – Chris Reher
A deep cover agent fights to keep the enemy as well as his own people from taking control of a strange alien that has invaded his ship, his mind and his life. It’s high adventure in deep space where the voices inside your head are all too real.

Starshine – G. S. Jennsen
Space is vast and untamed, and it holds many secrets. Now two individuals from opposite ends of settled space are on a collision course with the darkest of those secrets, even as the world threatens to explode around them.

Hard Duty – Mark E. Cooper
In the far future, nanotechnology will be all that keeps us alive in a brutal war with the Merkiaari. Into this war-torn galaxy a courageous Marine, an alien geneticist, and a broken hero will unite in common cause to oppose the coming onslaught.

Ambassador 1 – Patty Jansen
In Coldi society, you can get killed for looking a superior in the eye. Never mind accusing him of murder.

Lunar Discovery – Salvador Mercer
Alien technology has been discovered on the moon, and NASA scientist, Richard “Rock” Crandon must lead a desperate race to get there before America’s rivals. But it isn’t just the fate of Earth that is at stake in this exciting adventure.

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

Featured Sci-fi: The Martian by Andy Weir

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Featured Sci-fi: The Martian by Andy Weir

$2.99 as of October 31, 2026
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A survival story for the 21st century and the international bestseller behind the major film from Ridley Scott, starring Matt Damon and Jessica Chastain.

I’m stranded on Mars.

I have no way to communicate with Earth.

I’m in a habitat designed to last 31 days.

If the oxygenator breaks down, I’ll suffocate. If the water reclaimer breaks down, I’ll die of thirst. If the hab breaches, I’ll just kind of explode. If none of those things happen, I’ll eventually run out of food and starve to death.

So yeah. I’m screwed.

Featured Fantasy: Cobweb Bride (Cobweb Bride Trilogy Book 1) by Vera Nazarian

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Cobweb Bride by Vera Nazarian

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Many are called… She alone can save the world and become Death’s bride.

COBWEB BRIDE (Cobweb Bride Trilogy, Book One) is a history-flavored fantasy novel with romantic elements of the Persephone myth, about Death’s ultimatum to the world.

What if you killed someone and then fell in love with them?

In an alternate Renaissance world, somewhere in an imaginary “pocket” of Europe called the Kingdom of Lethe, Death comes, in the form of a grim Spaniard, to claim his Bride. Until she is found, in a single time-stopping moment all dying stops. There is no relief for the mortally wounded and the terminally ill….

Covered in white cobwebs of a thousand snow spiders she lies in the darkness… Her skin is cold as snow… Her eyes frozen… Her gaze, fiercely alive…

While kings and emperors send expeditions to search for a suitable Bride for Death, armies of the undead wage an endless war… A black knight roams the forest at the command of his undead father… Spies and political treacheries abound at the imperial Silver Court…. Murdered lovers find themselves locked in the realm of the living…

Look closer–through the cobweb filaments of her hair and along each strand shine stars…

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