Darkwater Syndicate | News

Just Released: More Free Books!

7/9/2018

Our collection of free books is growing quickly! We've now got twenty books that are free to read and share with anyone you like. Help yourself to the gift of a great read. And if you like what you've read, please consider supporting us by purchasing our books.

Visit Our Free Books Page Now!

South By Southwest Wales Racks Up Sterling Reviews!

7/3/2018

Published in June of this year, South By Southwest Wales by David Owain Hughes is already racking up some rave reviews! Here are just a few snippets of what people are saying about this hard-boiled detective thriller.

"If you like hard-boiled detective stories, this is for you. It's got lots of action, gunfights, fist fights, knife fights... you get the idea. Author Hughes pulls no punches and delivers a gut-wrenching detective tale. Give it a shot, gumshoe. It's a hell of a ride."

"A fantastic read! I read this in one sitting! The main character Sam is brilliantly crafted. He's a tough guy with a heart, strong but with crippling weaknesses (alcoholism and delusions)... Definitely give it a shot, you won't be disappointed!"

"Not often do I envision a book as film, but SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST WALES is too precious and perfect not to... This engrossing scenario was brought to us by prolific author David Owain Hughes, channeling pulp noir author Dashiell Hammett."

Purchase: South By Southwest Wales

Darkwater Syndicate Teams Up With Bestselling Author Dan Alatorre

7/1/2018

Writers, start your engines! There's a competition to be won, and the prizes will blow your mind.

Bestselling author Dan Alatorre has announced his 2018 July Word Weaver Writing Contest. We at Darkwater Syndicate are sponsoring the first-place prize, which is an author's dream come true:

- A publishing option through Darkwater Syndicate, whereby we will consider a novel or short story by the winner for publication,
- We'll even prioritize the winning story so it gets bumped up to the top of our editors' reading list,
- If we sign the winner author on, we'll give the work our full treatment of: editing, cover art production, publication, audiobook narration, in addition to royalties better than prevailing rates.

How awesome is that?

For more information and how to enter the contest, visit Dan Alatorre's page by clicking the big blue button at the bottom of this post.

About Dan Alatorre
Dan Alatorre is author of numerous best sellers, host of the YouTube video show Writers Off Task With Friends, blogger and father to a hilarious and precocious daughter, "Savvy" of the bestselling book series Savvy Stories. His novels, short stories, illustrated children’s books and cookbooks have been translated into 12 different languages and are enjoyed around the world. Dan and his family live in the Tampa Bay area of Florida.

Visit Dan Alatorre's Page

Now Offering: Free Books & Short Stories

6/30/2018

Do you like free stuff? Of course, you do! That's why we've added a page to our website where we'll offer free book and short story downloads.

Scroll over the text "Store" in our menu header and you'll see the option: "Free Books" in the drop-down that opens. Or if you like, just hit the big blue button at the end of this post. Head to that page to browse all the great free books we have to offer. Be sure to check back often; we intend to add to our library of free reads. A bunch more are on the way right now!

So go ahead, download them all to your heart's content. And please feel free to share these books with anyone you like. They're our gift to you!

Visit Our Free Books Page Now!

Darkwater Syndicate Editor Ramiro Perez Commences Memoir About His Adventures Growing Up In Cuba & Miami

6/8/2018

If you haven't met our chief editor, Ramiro Perez de Pereda, then you really should. He's a heck of a guy, and we're not just saying that because he works for us. Presently, he's 77 years old, and in those eight decades he's lived quite a life. He's begun writing his memoirs, tentatively titled: I Was A Teenage Cuban Arsonist.

With a title like that one, you can expect a fair amount of action, adventure, and tongue-in-cheek humor. His story begins in 1941 with an account of his early family life, growing up with his two older brothers in Havana, Cuba. Young Ramiro gets into trouble with nuns, discovers girls, gets taken for a vicious joyride by his two older cousins, and inadvertently sets fire to his family's farm.

Things only start to heat up after his arrival in Miami. His parents having decided that he should lay low in Miami while Castro's uprising blows over, he leaves Cuba for the United States. Alone, with only a few dollars in his pocket and a decent grasp on English, he struggles to make ends meet. Eventually, Ramiro is recruited into a counterrevolutionary movement formed in Miami to oppose Castro's regime. In a blink, young Ramiro goes from penniless immigrant to soldier of fortune with a bottomless expense account backed clandestinely by the CIA. There's just one problem: he's a staunch pacifist, but he doesn't let this fact keep him from spending the agency's money on living the good life in the Magic City.

Mr. Perez's memoirs will be chock full of anecdotes, some heartbreaking, others laugh-out-loud funny. At the moment, he is about 20,000 words into this project, which will be published through Darkwater Syndicate. No release date has been announced as of yet. Be sure to check back regularly for more information.

Try Before You Buy: Free Book Samples Now Available

6/1/2018

Who says you can't have your cake and eat it too? And what if you're concerned you won't like the chocolate icing as much as the vanilla? Never fear, because commencing today, we're offering free samples of all our print books.

Want to read a few chapters before you take the plunge into any of our fine books? Simply go to our bookstore page, select the title you're interested in, and click the highlighted "free sample" text.

Two Darkwater Authors Score Year's Best Hardcore Horror 2018

5/21/2018

We are pleased to announce that two of our authors will have the distinction of being published in Year's Best Hardcore Horror, Vol. 3, produced by Randy Chandler and Cheryl Mullenax. They are Ramiro Perez de Pereda, author of the short horror tale, Bernadette, and Nathan Robinson, author of Tree Huggers. Both stories were originally published in our award-winning horror anthology Shadows And Teeth, Vol. 3 and will be present in the Year's Best publication coming later this year.

Announcing Our 2018 Summer Sale!

5/9/2018

It's summertime, and that means sandals, seaside picnics, and sunbathing by the pool with a good book. What's that you say? You forgot to pack a good book on your beach getaway? Never fear, for we at Darkwater Syndicate have got you covered.

Announcing our 2018 summer sale! For a limited time, you can save as much as 10% off our entire catalog of books when you order paperbacks directly from our website.

Visit Our Bookstore

Darkwater Syndicate Welcomes New Personnel To Its Staff Roster

5/5/2018

If you've been following along these past few days, you'll notice we've undergone several changes. For starters, we've just celebrated our ten year birthday bash (2008-2018). We've also taken on some new personnel, and invite you to meet them at our brand-new page: Our Staff. There, you'll find professional bio's and portraits for each of our in-house personnel—the Syndicate's inner circle, if you like.

Simon and Perez are still at the helm, and now they've got newcomers Douglas Fairbanks (no, not that Douglas Fairbanks) and Apara Moreiya on board to direct the Syndicate to continued success.

Please visit Our Staff page and help us welcome Doug and Apara to their new posts!

Celebrating A Decade of Darkwater Syndicate

4/30/2018

Darkwater Syndicate turns ten on April 30th. Ten! Can you believe it? We've come a long way since we organized our company back in 2008. In our early years, we were a quirky webzine promising "new stories each week; bad poetry or drawings otherwise." And while we had a good run as a webzine, it was only natural that we would evolve to become a publisher of fine indie books.

Everything changed on August 8, 2013. On that date, we published our first book, The Gullwing Odyssey. That fantasy/comedy paved the way to our future success—it sold extremely well and hit #5 in Amazon's Bestsellers in 2014. It's won several awards and continues to be one of our best-selling titles ever.

Since then, we've branched out to publish sci-fi, thrillers, and horror. We've made a quite a name for ourselves in horror, particularly, with our large selection of horror titles. Want a slasher? You got it in Simon Petersen's Slasher Sam. Want something paranormal? Try Michael Warriner's The Man in the Forest. Fancy a pulpy occult read? Nicholas Paschall's The Father of Flesh and Travails for Teyuna are sure to satisfy. And if you want horror short stories, look no further than our award-winning Shadows and Teeth horror series.

To celebrate our ten years in business and to thank you, dear readers, for your continued support, we're working on something special. That's right—it's our tenth birthday, but you get the presents. It's our great pleasure to introduce you to Postcards from the Void, our most ambitious project yet.

It's an innovative new horror anthology about shunned and abandoned places that do not exist—complete with photographs. Yes, you read that correctly: photographs of shunned places that don't exist. Postcards from the Void will combine some of the best names in contemporary horror—Guy N. Smith, Adam Millard, and Nicholas Paschall to name just three—with vintage photographs to send the fear factor to eleven.