The ghouls are back in town! After darkness falls, accomplished local authors take the stage in BARN's Great Room to read their chilling stories as you treat yourself to yummy treats, wine, and dark 'n' stormy cocktails. You can even come in costume — if you dare.

Authors

In addition to the winner of our Dark and Stormy Night Short-Story Contest, we're excited to have these brilliant authors:  

Luciano Marano

Luciano is an award-winning writer, journalist, and photographer, author of the werewolf novella trilogy "The Ambush Moon Cycle" and numerous works of short fiction, which have appeared in anthologies such as Year’s Best Hardcore Horror and The Best New Weird Horror, as well as Nightscript, Pseudopod, and Chilling Tales for Dark Nights. A former staff reporter at both the Bainbridge Review and Port Townsend Leader, he was twice named a Feature Writer of the Year by the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association.  A U.S. Navy veteran originally from Pennsylvania, he now lives on Bainbridge Island.  

Emily Smiley

Emily, a writer from South Carolina who now calls Seattle home, crafts stories that reflect the world back to her readers, inviting them to explore deeper truths within themselves. Her novel, Treading Water, came in first in the horror category of the 2024 Pacific Northwest Writers' Association (PNWA) unpublished competition. She’s the programming coordinator for the Writer’s Studio at BARN. She’s also a member of the PNWA and the Seattle Chapter of the Horror Writers Association. Emily is a co-founder of Content Hospital, a speculative fiction writers marketing collective, and is represented by A.J. Van Belle at the Booker Albert Literary Agency. When she’s not giving her readers nightmares, she’s running, traveling, reading, or playing video games.

Jen Pitts

Jen Pitts Scheiderman is a lifelong mystery reader who turned her obsession into writing cozy mysteries of her own. When she isn’t plotting fictional murder and mayhem, she’s chugging coffee, traveling, reading, and enjoying life with her husband, children, and two cats in the Pacific Northwest.

Pete Mesling

Pete Mesling is also the official Clive Barker proofreader for Gauntlet Press, from Everville onward.

Lynn Brunelle

Lynn (our esteemed emcee) is a four-time Emmy Award-winning writer for "Bill Nye the Science Guy," and a best-selling author of over 60 titles, including 2025 Robert Sibert Medal winner "Life After Whale" and Washington Book Award finalist "Haiku Ew!" She has given TED Talks, spoken at the UN about STEAM education, and written for Sesame Street, National Geographic, The Discovery Channel, Disney, Scholastic, Random House, Penguin, Chronicle, Workman, ABC TV, NBC, NPR, and PBS.