This is it, folks. All good things must come to an end, and our birthday celebration is no exception. Our contest ends today at exactly 11:59 p.m. (eastern standard time). Better hurry if you want to win that collection of autographed paperbacks.

To enter the drawing, purchase any Darkwater Syndicate ebook from Amazon for one chance to win, or purchase all three ebooks for two chances. Then, email us your name and your Amazon proofs of purchase. To be valid, the purchases must be dated no later than May 31, 2014.

The pictures below link directly to the ebooks' listings on Amazon. Click on them to explore unique literary experiences the likes of which you won't find anywhere else.

Enjoy, and good luck!

This proves lightning doesn't strike twice, but thrice.

First, The Gullwing Odyssey won a Reader's Choice Award, then it was ranked as a finalist in the Royal Palm Literary Award Contest. Today, Indie Book of the Day lauded The Gullwing Odyssey with its medal and certificate (see pictures).

Indie Book of the Day (IBD) recognizes the best among independent authors. The organization honors one excellent book every day with its indie book of the day award. IBD brings the most loved books (by popular vote) and features them for other readers to discover. Above all, IBD honors the person behind the written word and recognizes his or her creativity, contribution, hard work, and passion for writing.

Check out Indie Book of the Day
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The 2014 Royal Palm Literary Award Competition is in full swing. We entered The Gullwing Odyssey back in March, and we've just been informed that it has qualified as a finalist. As a finalist, the novel is in the running to win an award. The contest winners will be announced at the Florida Writers Association annual banquet in October. Needless to say, we're ecstatic.

The RPLA is a premier awards contest, "established to recognize excellence in members’ published and pre-published works while providing objective and constructive written assessments for all entrants".

Thanks to our recent partnership with Google, we're pleased to announce that our entire book catalog is now available through Google Books / Google Play. But don't take our word for it -- come see for yourself! The links below will take you directly to the books' pages.

The Gullwing Odyssey

Transit Dreams

The Many Deaths of Cyan Wraithwate

Back on December 6, 2013, we shipped a copy of The Gullwing Odyssey to President and Mrs. Obama. It wasn't lost on us then that the first family are busy people, and so we weren't expecting a response. So imagine our surprise when their Thank-You note came in the mail last week. Yes, we'll admit it is a form letter -- the president has more important things to do than to write to a small press like us -- but it was a nice gesture either way.

We're upset with Facebook. Since we opened our Facebook page, we've been model citizens of the 'net. We've garnered fans to our Facebook page. We've posted regularly and frequently. We've liked, commented, and shared. Yet despite our efforts, less and less of our content is reaching you, our audience. This really ticks us off.

What's a syndicate of writers and artists like us to do? We alone are too small for Facebook to pay us any attention. But what we can do is educate you, our readers.

To its credit, Facebook does several things well -- not counting how good their service is at swallowing up your workday productivity, as that's beyond the point.

Foremost, Facebook is great at research. This is no surprise. Any advertising agency worth its salt knows its target audience, which is why you don't see teenagers in denture cement ads. The task of getting to know what makes you tick is made easier still when you fill in their user profile information forms. There's a reason they ask for your vital statistics -- age, gender, hometown, occupation, education -- it helps them slot you into a preset demographic so Facebook's clients (the advertisers) know what products to sell you.

Have a look at this screenshot. This Facebook update reached none of our fans. You read that right. This reached a grand total of no people. While our Facebook following is a meager 100 or so, one would expect at least a handful of fans to have seen this in their feed in the thirteen hours between when it was posted to when the screenshot was taken.

Test this yourself. Log in to your Facebook page and see if any of your posts have a reach of zero. If you're fortunate enough to not have a single zero-reach post, try this: count all your posts in the past two weeks. Then have a friend who's already a fan of your page log in and count your posts in his feed. Chances are he'll come up short. But this should come as no surprise because...

Who doesn't want their fifteen minutes of fame? The way Facebook works today is like this: Facebook is happy to give you the first five for free, just to get you hooked. You'll have to pay for the other ten. This business practice may do wonders for their bottom line, but it does us, the users, no favors.

We'll put it this way: All of the content on our website is free to read. You, the interested reader, like our content and want more. It makes sense that you'd also like our Facebook page to keep on top of new content and updates.

Here's the problem: Facebook wants us to pay them to bring you content that we're giving you for free. If we don't pay Facebook, you'll never get our content because it will never pop up in your news feed. Ever hear the expression, "What you see is what you get"? The reverse is true: "You can't get what you don't see", and that's because you can't get what you don't know is there.

"Wait!" you may be thinking. "So why don't you pay to boost your reach?" Good question. From a strictly business perspective, it would only make sense to boost those posts where we're selling you something. This is because we want to maximize our chances that you see and want what we offer. And here's the problem with that: if all you ever saw was advertisements, you wouldn't like our Facebook page. We'd essentially be paying Facebook to spam you.

Before you get into thinking that we're bashing Facebook just because we're angry, read this: According to Advertising Age, an advertising and marketing news magazine, Facebook said:

Source: AdAge.

Sure, that all sounds fine and flowery, but the crux of that statement is at the beginning: "We expect organic distribution... to decline..." And make no mistake, while we're certain that ensuring people have a "meaningful experience" is a swell thing, this does not translate into dollars in Facebook's pocket. But throttling access to your fan base is another matter entirely, according to a Facebook spokesperson:

Source: AdAge.

There you have it. Facebook says: Pay to play, even if you give it away.

We say: Sorry, Facebook, not today.

It's not every day you're invited to a private party. And it is no small honor to be among those invited to Paint And Piano Arts Studio's pre-opening event this Friday, May 2, 2014.

A showcase for both visual and musical arts, Paint And Piano Arts Studio is a collaborative effort by a veritable artist "dream team". On the one hand is classically trained artist Ana Juncadella Barbosa. A graduate of the University of Miami, Mrs. Barbosa's work ranges across the visual arts spectrum -- photography, paint and canvass, and graphic art. The studio is home to Mrs. Barbosa's eclectic body of work, which runs from the sublime to the whimsical, the light and airy to the dark and ominous.

Dr. Jose Ignacio Diaz Gravier oversees the in-house music conservatory. Also an alumni of the University of Miami, Dr. Diaz Gravier is a renown concert pianist and holds a doctorate in musical arts.

It was standing room only at Friday's grand opening. The cozy studio was packed with invitees -- dignitaries, local business people, and art lovers of all sorts.

Nothing short of a proper ribbon-cutting could do the studio justice, but keeping with the studio's eclectic nature, the Barbosa-Gravier duo saw fit to slice up the phone booth cake with the ceremonial giant scissors as well.

Stop in. Sit down. Watch. Listen. Whether you've come to watch the artist at her easel or the musician at his piano, Paint And Piano Arts Studio delivers.

Contact Paint And Piano Arts Studio: