About the Authors

The McConnell family-Meg, Dan, Kelly, Brian, Kevin and Matthew-count a love of pets and the Irish gift of storytelling among its favorite traditions. Family dinner with such a large and busy crew is not easily achieved, but when it does happen, word play is often part of the mix. It is from one of these family dinners that The Legend of Barknight was born.

Trying to keep everyone seated while waiting for dinner at a local pizzeria in 2004, each person took turns telling stories about two randomly chosen words that were joined together as one. When the words "bark" and "night" were put into play, it took barely 15 minutes to create The Legend of Barknight's title and storyline.

On November 26, 2004, the first Barknight celebration took place in Huntington, NY, complete with a reading of the story and reminiscing about our pets, past and present. Ever since then, celebrating Barknight has become another McConnell family tradition that fits perfectly into our Thanksgiving season.