C Gockel Writes

Featured Fantasy: Unnatural Magic by C.M. Waggoner

by

Featured Fantasy: Unnatural Magic by C.M. Waggoner

$1.99 as of March 31, 2025
Click for current price: Amazon US, Canada, Germany, United Kingdom, Australia

Apple, Nook, Kobo, GooglePlay

A “brilliant and terrifically fun”* debut novel brings an enchanting new voice to fantasy.
 
Onna can write the parameters of a spell faster than any of the young men in her village school. But despite her incredible abilities, she’s denied a place at the nation’s premier arcane academy. Undaunted, she sails to the bustling city-state of Hexos, hoping to find a place at a university where they don’t think there’s anything untoward about providing a woman with a magical education. But as soon as Onna arrives, she’s drawn into the mysterious murder of four trolls.
 
Tsira is a troll who never quite fit into her clan, despite being the leader’s daughter. She decides to strike out on her own and look for work in a human city, but on her way she stumbles upon the body of a half-dead human soldier in the snow. As she slowly nurses him back to health, an unlikely bond forms between them, one that is tested when an unknown mage makes an attempt on Tsira’s life. Soon, unbeknownst to each other, Onna and Tsira both begin devoting their considerable talents to finding out who is targeting trolls, before their homeland is torn apart…

 
*Kat Howard, Alex Award-winning author of An Unkindness of Magicians

Featured Science Fiction: Broken Skies by Theresa Kay

by

Featured Science Fiction: Broken Skies by Theresa Kay

FREE as of March 31, 2025
Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia

Apple, Nook, Kobo, GooglePlay

Jax will do anything to save her twin . . . even team up with a teenage alien left behind by the same ship that took her brother.

She agrees to help the alien get back home, and in return, he agrees to sneak her into the alien city to find her sibling.

Too bad it’s not that simple.

Jax soon finds that she’s drawn to the alien boy with bright green hair and jewel-like scales on his back and he’s equally affected by her, the courageous redhead with haunted eyes. But she doesn’t know the alien’s true motives, and he has no idea that she is much more than she seems. Worse, the connection forming between them has unknown consequences.

The humans and the aliens are both hiding deadly secrets and the forbidden bond linking the two teens threatens to reveal everything. What started as an uneasy alliance and a seemingly straightforward rescue mission could spark an inter-species war.

[Read more…]

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

by

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

by

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

99¢ as of March 30, 2025
Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia

Apple, Nook, Kobo, GooglePlay

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

by

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

by

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

FREE as of March 29, 2025
Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia

Apple, Nook, Kobo, GooglePlay

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.