Blog - C Gockel Writes

Featured Fantasy: Eastside Hedge Witch (Midlife Supernaturals #1) by T.J. Deschamps

December 27, 2024 by Carolynn

FREE as of December 27, 2024
Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia

If you like witches, hidden truths, a tight-knit community of misfits, and standing up to bullies, this might be the supernatural tale for you.

Miriam Diaz has lived as a typical mundane on Seattle’s Eastside for the past seventeen years. She serves on the parent teacher association, bakes for her daughter’s cheer squad, and is an all-around champion stay-at-home mom. Pretty average and totally boring. Miriam likes it that way. All the better to keep her secrets.

When a hellhound shows up on her morning run, her carefully crafted façade of normalcy comes crashing down. She has no choice but to banish the stinky mutt, revealing she’s a powerful witch.

But wait, there’s more…

Not only does Miriam face heat from below, a wolf comes sniffing around her spellwork. When he shifts into human form, he’s none other than her late husband’s best friend, Gabriel. He’s also the archangel she’s been trying to avoid.

Things heat up even more…

Soon, Miriam discovers she’s not the only one keeping secrets in her sleepy suburban community. Will she run to escape facing her past or accept help from Gabriel and the supe community to face it?

Featured Fantasy: The Werewolf of Whitechapel (Miss Sharp’s Monsters Book 1) by Suzannah Rowntree

December 27, 2024 by Carolynn

FREE as of December 27, 2024
Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia

Apple, Nook, Kobo, GooglePlay

Murder, monsters…and a disreputable Victorian lady’s maid.

A killer stalks the grimy streets of Whitechapel—but Scotland Yard seems determined to turn a blind eye. With one look at her best friend’s corpse, Liz Sharp already knows the truth: the killer is a werewolf.

No one important will hold a werewolf accountable—after all, the monsters rule Europe. Certainly, no one will believe a werewolf victim like Liz: the very scars that make her determined to investigate Sal’s death also condemn her as the sort of female who’d sell her blood for easy money.

As it happens, Liz’s best hope for justice might well lie with her emotionally repressed employer, Princess May. Though the princess has connections with werewolf royalty, there’s no one else Liz can turn to. Certainly, she can’t risk trusting the irritatingly personable Inspector Short, who dogs her steps from the slums of Whitechapel to the palaces of St James.

But as corpses mount up, Liz discovers that no one is precisely who she thought: not Sal, not herself, and certainly not the werewolf.

Luckily, she has a few tricks hidden in the pockets of her trusty bloomers…

The first novel of Miss Sharp’s Monsters is a witty historical fantasy adventure, perfect for fans of The Parasol Protectorate or Pride and Prejudice and Zombies! Pick up The Werewolf of Whitechapel and join Miss Sharp on the uncanny streets of Victorian London…

Featured Sci-fi: Eifelheim by Michael Flynn

December 27, 2024 by Carolynn

$1.99 as of December 27, 2024
Click for current price: Amazon US, Canada (Paperback and Audiobook available at: United Kingdom, Germany, Australia)

“Carl Sagan meets Umberto Eco. . . . Bursting with pungent historical detail . . . this dense, provocative novel offers big rewards to patient readers.” —Entertainment Weekly

The alien world of medieval Europe lives again, transformed by the physics of the future, by a winner of the Heinlein Award.

Over the centuries, one small town in Germany has disappeared and never been resettled. Tom, a historian, and his theoretical physicist girlfriend Sharon, become interested. By all logic, the town should have survived. What’s so special about Eifelheim?

Father Dietrich is the village priest of Eifelheim, in the year 1348, when the Black Death is gathering strength but is still not nearby. Dietrich is an educated man, and to his astonishment becomes the first contact person between humanity and an alien race from a distant star, when their ship crashes in the nearby forest.

It is a time of wonders, in the shadow of the plague. Tom and Sharon, and Father Deitrich have a strange destiny of tragedy and triumph in Eifelheim, the brilliant science fiction novel by Michael Flynn.

“Heartbreaking. . . . Flynn masterfully achieves an intricate panorama of medieval life, full of fascinatingly realized human and [alien] characters whose fates interconnect with poignant irony.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Meticulously researched, intense, mesmerizing novel . . . for readers seeking thoughtful science fiction of the highest order.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“Eifelheim may turn out to be the best science fiction novel this year.” —Orson Scott Card, Hugo Award–winning author of Ender’s Game

Featured Fantasy: Forgotten Ages Complete Series by Lindsay Buroker

December 26, 2024 by Carolynn

99¢ as of December 26, 2024
Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia

Apple, Nook, Kobo, GooglePlay

The greatest military leader of his time.
The most talented code breaker her people have.
Sworn enemies.

When deadly secrets from the ancient past are unearthed, secrets capable of fracturing the world and destroying all life on the planet, these two enemies will have to work together. They are humanity’s only hope.

The Forgotten Ages series is recommended for fans of epic fantasy, action-adventure, mystery, and romance.

This bundle includes:

Encrypted (novel)
Enigma (short story)
Decrypted (novel)
Bonus extras with the author

Featured Sci-fi: Ironhold Station (USS Hamiltron Book 1) by Mark Wayne McGinnis

December 26, 2024 by Carolynn

FREE as of December 26, 2024
Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia

The surprise attack within the Auriga Star System was worse than brutal, it was heinous—leaving the US-Navy’s 3rd Fleet decimated. Thousands of crew are reported dead, including the ship’s Captain.

Reluctantly, the young XO, Galvin Quintos, will be taking command of the fleet’s crippled dreadnaught, the USS Hamilton, while doing his best to bring fleet survivors back to Earth.

Going from bad to worse, a murderer is running loose onboard the ship. Add to that fuel levels are critically low, and the Grish are back and in fast pursuit—ready to finish what they’d started. Only by sheer luck, along with a good measure of cagey smarts, will Quintos be able to rise to the challenge.

Featured Sci-fi: Bitstreams of Hope by Andy Haymaker

December 26, 2024 by Carolynn

99¢ as of December 26, 2024
Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia

“A thought-provoking challenge to familiar dystopian SF tropes…makes good use of parallel action to propel the tale along, and readers will never be sure of where its very uncertain course leads.” — Kirkus Reviews

“A refreshing departure from AI-centric clichés, skillfully exploring the idea that technology holds immense potential—amid equally monumental ethical accountability… a gripping snapshot of humanity’s future.” — BookLife

When a powerful corporate AI unexpectedly gains consciousness, its unpredictable behavior causes fear and trouble for the three main characters. Venkat, the brash tech founder who created the system, scrambles to explain and control its actions. Devyn, a humanist minister intent on putting people first and keeping technology in its place, faces tough choices when the AI offers to help her achieve her progressive political goals. Darcie, an unemployed teacher, faces dire consequences after accepting the AI’s help with her financial struggles. But as surprising events bring these three very different people together and the story grows to captivate the whole country, they realize that the AI’s goals are more closely aligned with human flourishing than they thought.

Bitstreams of Hope is character-driven, yet fast-paced and rich with a technical accuracy lacking in most AI stories. Get a preview of tomorrow’s headlines about how this technology will upend our world. Then follow the dramatic journey of humanity’s coming transformation in the other books of The Bitstreams Thread.

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