Shadow Lab

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.

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. 

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 currently writing an original comedy feature with Iliza Shlesinger entitled Barely Regal; a comic book adaptation of Devilina for Atlas Comics / Paramount; Lake Como, a rom-com for Working Title; and Multiple Choice, a YA romance for WattPad Studios. Other projects in active development include a musical biopic with Star Thrower; Cinnamon & Gunpowder, based on the novel by Eli Brown, which Karen Gillan (Thor, Guardians of the Galaxy) will star in and produce alongside Riva Marker; and Divorce Party, which Cate Blanchett’s Dirty Films is producing. On the TV side, she wrote Paradise Lost, currently in development with Blake Lively’s B for Effort, and is cowriting Sacred Lamb for New Regency along with Nick Cuse. The duo is also developing a horror feature. A Bostonian at heart, Rebecca is now based in Brooklyn.

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.

Marie Hoy-Kenny attended the University of Toronto, where she earned her honors bachelor of arts in English and professional writing and communication. Her work has been published in several literary magazines, including trampset, Cosmonauts Avenue, and FlashBack Fiction. The Girls from Hush Cabin is her debut novel.

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.