Shadow Lab : A Blackstone Publishing Anthology

Brendan Deneen, a former Scott Rudin Productions, Miramax/Dimension, and Macmillan Publishing exec, joined Blackstone in 2021 as an editor and launched the company’s in-house film/TV division. Deneen has set up Blackstone IP with Amazon Studios, Netflix, Paramount, NBC/Universal, Lionsgate, AMC, Legendary, Amblin, Imagine, and Skydance, among many others. As an author, Deneen has had fifteen books published, including The Island of Misfit Toys, Green Arrow: Stranded, Morbius: Blood Ties, Guardians of the Galaxy: Annihilation, Flash Gordon: The Mercy Wars, Alien: Uncivil War, and Night Night, Groot.

Marie Hoy-Kenny attended the University of Toronto, where she earned her honors bachelor of arts in English and professional writing and communications. Her debut novel, The Girls from Hush Cabin, was published by Blackstone Publishing in 2023, and her debut picture book, This Plant Is Not Boring, will be released by Orca Book Publishers in 2025. She is a mother of two children and an elementary school teacher who enjoys theater.

Ed Cho is the writer and co-creator of Little Guardians, a fantasy adventure graphic novel series published by Scout Comics. In 2002, he graduated from the University of Illinois with a BA in creative writing and a minor in film studies. From 2007 to 2011, Ed worked on a comic strip about his cats called Al and Scout. He is an active member of IWG (Indy Webcomics Group), and his story “Skeletons in the Elevator” was featured in their 2010 anthology entitled Welcome to Indiana. In addition to writing stories, Ed plays guitar in the Shake Ups, the Resounding Maybes, and the Threepios. He is the author of the fiction podcast audio drama Ignore City, which was nominated for six New Jersey Web Fest awards in 2022. He currently resides in Fishers, Indiana, with his wife and two daughters.

Rebecca Webb is a screenwriter and film producer. After graduating with honors from Harvard College, she worked with Adam Gopnik at The New Yorker and then as a producer at Washington Square Films. She is currently writing feature and TV projects; In Her Eyes is her first published piece of narrative fiction. A Bostonian at heart, Rebecca is now based in Brooklyn, New York.

Tom Radford grew up in the New Forest in Southern England and went on to study geography at the University of Glasgow. Moving to London, he developed a comedic YouTube channel called Haddock News featuring satirical puppet sketches, which was short-listed at the Just for Laughs festival in Montreal. Moving to Singapore, Tom became a creative director at a production agency for which he still freelances. He also runs his own social media channel called @EatTheCountry, which has almost 350,000 followers.

Nick Herbert was born in Guam and spent his childhood traveling between there and the continental United States and Australia. While visiting family in Australia, his grandfather got him into creating his own stories, and he hasn’t stopped since. He studied geography and business at the University of Florida and has a master’s in screenwriting from Florida State. He worked as an office drone before becoming a national park ranger. He has since moved to LA to pursue writing full-time and is back to working as an office drone to pay the bills.

Brian Francis Slattery is the author of four novels: Spaceman Blues: A Love Song, Liberation: Being the Adventures of the Slick Six after the Collapse of the United States of America, Lost Everything—which won the Philip K. Dick Award in 2012—and The Family Hightower. He was also on the writing team for Bookburners, a serial fiction project headed by Max Gladstone. He has published short fiction in Glimmer Train, Interfictions, The Revelator, the anthology Welcome to Dystopia, and The Sunday Morning Transport, among others.

Nicholas Sansbury Smith is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than forty novels with two million copies sold. Before his writing career, he served at Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management, a background that inspired many of his story concepts. A two-time Ironman triathlete, he enjoys running, biking, and hiking. Nicholas also loves traveling, especially to his cabin in Northern Minnesota where he weaves his tales. He lives in Iowa with his wonderful wife and their son and daughter. 

Zura Johnson is a classically trained stage actor. She has performed in stages from her childhood home in California to the East coast, and all the way to Singapore. She has now worked in theater and as a voice actor for more than twenty years. She holds an MFA from the Old Globe Theatre and the University of San Diego.

Natalie Naudus is one of the most beloved audiobook narrators working today and now author of her debut novel, Gay the Pray Away.

Soneela Nankani is an award-winning narrator with over three hundred titles in many different genres including Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance, Sci-Fi, and Nonfiction. She has garnered sixteen Earphones Awards, nominations for Audie and SOVAS awards, and was recently awarded AudioFile magazine’s Golden Voice Lifetime Achievement Honor. Her audiobooks have been featured in Best Audiobooks lists by AudioFile magazine and the Washington Post, among others. In her spare time, she loves to read (yes, really), learn languages, try new recipes, and travel. She lives in the DC area with her husband and two mischievous daughters.

January LaVoy, winner of numerous awards for narration, was named a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine in 2019. She is an American actress best known for her character Noelle Ortiz on the ABC daytime drama One Life to Live. In addition to working extensively in narration and television, including roles on Law & Order and All My Children, she has worked on and off Broadway as well as in regional theater.

Kevin Kenerly, an Earphones Award–winning narrator, earned a BA at Olivet College. A longtime member of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, he has acted in more than twenty seasons, playing dozens of roles.

R. C. Bray is an award-winning audiobook narrator with over 180 titles to his credit. Besides winning five AudioFile Earphones Awards, he won the prestigious Audie Award in 2015 for Best Science Fiction Narration and has been an Audie Award finalist seven times. He has been a finalist for the Voice Arts Award, and in 2014, his narration earned a Publishers Weekly Listen-Up Award. He is also an accomplished producer and voice-over artist, and his voice can be heard in countless TV and radio commercials.