C Gockel Writes

Featured Sci-fi: Escape Velocity (The Quantum War Series Book 1) by Jonathan Paul Isaacs

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99¢ as of June 21, 2024
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A remote colony.
A mysterious threat.
One man is all that stands between destruction and salvation.

In 2271, space is anything but empty. Exoplanet settlements drive a constant demand for new colonists and unending trade. But the dangers of interstellar expansion are many.

With responsibility for everything from pirates to broken spacecraft, Lieutenant Wyatt Wills doesn’t understand his latest orders: perform a covert reconnaissance mission to Juliet, home to twenty million people and humanity’s largest presence beyond Earth. All contact has been lost from the other side of the quantum gate. And what few rumors make it through smack of government conspiracies and an uncontrolled pandemic. Some even mention an alien invasion.

It will be up to Wyatt and a hastily-assembled team of replacements to go to Juliet and uncover the truth.

Once there, they may not make it back alive.

Featured Fantasy: Ishtar’s Blade by Lisa Blackwood

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Featured Fantasy: Ishtar's Blade by Lisa Blackwood

FREE as of June 21, 2024
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The court of the gryphon king has ever been a dangerous and seductive place where Ishtar’s blessing is both the hot breath of passion and the cold kiss of steel.

Yet as the childhood companion of King Ditanu, Iltani never doubted her place in either his kingdom or his heart. Then duty called her away to complete her training.

Now, a woman grown and a sword-maiden to the goddess Ishtar, Iltani returns and takes up her sacred destiny to protect the royal line. But so much has changed.

Ditanu most of all.

The youth she knew is gone. A stoic, untouchable king now sits the throne.

Does anything of their once deep bond survive?

Iltani must swiftly find her place in a court where cunning governors plot treason, trusted advisors orchestrate deceptions, and noblewomen seek to beguile King Ditanu using methods both fair and foul.

But the greatest threat of all is no mortal adversary. Ereshkigal, the Queen of the Underworld, desires to make Ditanu her consort and seize his kingdom for her own.

Ishtar’s Blade is a fantasy romance loosely based on ancient Sumerian and Akkadian mythology. It’s book 1 of the Ishtar’s Legacy series.

Ishtar’s Legacy Reading Order:
Ishtar’s Blade
A Blade’s Beginning (short story)
Blade’s Honor
Blade’s Destiny
The Blade’s Shadow
First Queen of the Gryphons
King of the Anunnaki (Forthcoming)

Featured Fantasy: Soul Mage (Huntress vs Huntsman: Soul Mage Saga Book 1) by Lisa Blackwood

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Featured Fantasy: Soul Mage (Huntress vs Huntsman: Soul Mage Saga Book 1) by Lisa Blackwood

FREE as of June 21, 2024
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A stoic warrior-maiden and a villainous priest-king make the most unlikely alliance in the history of the five kingdoms.

When a rescue attempt to save a clutch of dragon eggs from the soul mages goes terribly wrong, Warrior-Priestess Verdria of High Rock finds herself on the wrong side of a portal, deep in enemy territory.

She soon learns she’s in the heart of the soul mage’s empire and when Honryn, the future priest-king of the mages, takes a liking to Verdria and saves her life, she’s pretty sure she’s facing down a ‘fate worse than death’ scenario.

Just when she thinks things can’t get any worse, Priest-King Honryn introduces her to the Royal Court of the Soul Mages, the most morally corrupt and bloodthirsty court in existence.

Life is cheap.

Souls are currency.

And Verdria has caught the fancy of the young priest-king, and while he doesn’t want to steal her soul, he’s set on winning her heart.

And she’s equally set on having his heart, after she’s carved it out of his chest.

But when she discovers Honryn’s most monstrous secret, a secret he’s even hiding from his fellow soul mages, she’s moved to pity and offers to aid him.

Featured Fantasy: Sorceress Awakening by Lisa Blackwood

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Featured Fantasy: Sorceress Awakening by Lisa Blackwood

FREE as of June 21, 2024
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An untried sorceress teams up with an immortal gargoyle to stop a goddess from enslaving Earth in this epic urban fantasy romance tale.

When Lillian finds herself facing off against demons out of mythology, help comes from an unlikely source—the stone gargoyle who has been sleeping in her garden for the last twelve years.

After the battle, Lillian learns the humans she thought were her family are actually a powerful coven of witches at war with the demonic Riven. Lillian is something more than human, a Sorceress and Avatar to the gods. The gargoyle has been her protector for many lifetimes, but when she was still a child, troubles in their homeland forced him to flee with her to the human world.

But something from her childhood has followed them to this world.

In a heartbeat, her ordinary life becomes far more complicated, and if her overprotective guardian is to be believed, there’s an evil demigoddess just waiting for the chance to enslave them both.

SORCERESS AWAKENING is book one of the popular GARGOYLE AND SORCERESS TALES, an epic contemporary fantasy series with a strong romantic subplot. While each book is a complete adventure, the series does have a continuing story arc and should be read in order:

Dawn of the Sorceress (a prequel story)
Book 1: Sorceress Awakening
Book 2: Sorceress Rising
Book 3: Sorceress Hunting
Book 4: Sorceress at War
Book 5: Sorceress Enraged
Book 6: Legacy of the Sorceress
Book 7: Sorcery and Firedrakes
Book 8: Scion of the Sorceress
Book 9: Sorceress Eternal

What readers are saying.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ “The story is filled with daring rescues and death-defying stunts, cunning, and well-formed characters. The battles tense. The magic breathtaking. Everything you can ask for in one little book.” ~ Mariah O.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ “It has been a very long time since I have read something this good.” ~ A. Ellison

Featured Fantasy: The Snow Queen Books 1 – 3

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Featured Fantasy: The Snow Queen Books 1 - 3

99¢ as of June 16, 2024
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Rakel is a princess who should have been queen.

Instead, as a despised magic user she has spent most of her life exiled on a barren mountain, alone in her ice-castle. But her empty life is shattered when an army of magic users invades her home country, bringing cruelty and darkness in their wake.

Rakel refuses to watch as the people who’ve scorned her are attacked, imprisoned, and even killed by the invading army. Swallowing her fear, she joins forces with her jailers and uses her magic in a way she never anticipated: on the battlefield.

But one of the invading colonels is different.

When enemy Colonel Farrin Graydim meets Rakel he is immediately intrigued by her. Her harsh rejection of an offer to join their cause only deepens his interest. He admires her unflinching strength, but his bloody past makes him utterly unworthy to stand beside the purity of her ice and snow.

Can Rakel defeat the invasion and free not only her people, but Farrin as well? For if her magic cannot defend her homeland, all is lost.

THE SNOW QUEEN series is an Epic Fantasy Romance filled with magic, unexpected friendships, and fights for survival. If you love strong female leads, captivating magic, and humorous stories, you’ll love The Snow Queen series. Buy the complete series today in this special collection!

Featured Fantasy: Magic and Mayhem Three Witchy Paranormal Cozies by Christine Pope

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FREE as of June 15, 2024
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This special-edition boxed set contains three complete first-in-series witchy paranormal cozy mystery novels:

GRAVE MISTAKE

When you pull up stakes, make sure you don’t get stabbed in the back.

Hedgewitch Selena runs to Arizona to escape Lucien, a slimy, celebrity-schmoozing sorcerer. Just as she’s meeting the locals — including hunky Calvin Standingbear — Lucien tracks her down…then disappears. And when one of Lucien’s acolytes is killed, Selena and Calvin race against time before a too-close-for-comfort evil cuts her own life short.

CAFFEINE BEFORE CURSES

When a movie shoot ends in murder, a caffeine fix might be the star’s only hope.

Skye O’Malley’s witch powers are nothing special. But when a film crew comes to town, they’re put to the test when the film’s star — her unrequited crush — is accused of murder. Max Sullivan needs a miracle, but if Skye’s tea leaves are too murky, a killer could get away clean.

SPELLS AND SPANIELS

Something’s got a spaniel familiar’s tongue…and it isn’t a cat.

When an influential witch is found dead and her familiar, a spell-silenced spaniel named Milo, is attacked, Charity Hughes calls on handsome local veterinarian Noah Jenkins — and her familiar-whisperer gift — to race against time to find out why someone wants the spaniel to remain silent as the grave…permanently.