Staff

Now retired after a long career in the commercial nuclear power industry, Gary Cuba lives in a rural area of South Carolina with his wife and lots of critters, not too far away from the Congaree National Swamp. His fiction has appeared in more than a dozen genre and mainstream publications, including Jim Baen’s Universe, Abyss & Apex (upcoming in 2010), Fictitious Force, Allegory, Lunch Hour Stories, Raving Dove, Atomjack, Dark Recesses, and Drabblecast. He maintains a website at thefoggiestnotion.com—​but only half-assedly so.

Jake Freivald lives in New Jersey in a house teeming with life: a wife, eight kids (yes, all from said wife), two dogs, two cats, and twenty fish.

Lack of qualifications never stopped Jake from taking a job, so when he saw the need for a professional flash-only ‘zine he created Flash Fiction Online. He was astounded when a team of volunteers rallied around the project, and he would like to shut up now so you can read about them.

Mark Freivald has a history as an elementary school teacher, but has passed himself off as a Network Engineer for the last ten years. After eight years of consulting he is currently taking a hiatus to devote to full-time writing and lollygagging. Although he has no credentials for publishing or editing, he can read at least at a sixth grade level. (“Let’s hope so,” says Mark. “It’s the grade I teached.”)

Mark has a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in Spanish with a minor in German and a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education. Additional credentials include multiple expired Cisco Certifications, Zertifikat Deutsch, and a pat on the head from his mother for some high-quality origami—​all of which are highly valued in the publishing industry.

Bill Highsmith is a software engineer in the telecom industry, with extensive technical and corporate writing experience. (Engineers who like to write, write a lot.) He is also a wannabe fiction writer in the SF, humor, mainstream, and NYT bestseller genres.

Deb Hoag has been writing professionally for going on 20 years, starting at a weekly alternative newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, The Metro Times. Her work there included answering phones, editing, writing a column and organizing such events as the Detroit Music Awards and the newspaper’s yearly photography contest and Best Of issues. In the early ’90s, Deb went back to school and was awarded a PhD in clinical psychology at the University of Detroit-Mercy. Since embarking on her new career, Deb’s worked on the White Mountain Apache Indian Reservation in a variety of mental health positions, and is currently the in-patient therapist at the psychiatric hospital in Show Low, Arizona. Her most recent fiction publication is “Meatloaf of the Apocalypse” which appeared in the May 2008 issue of Polluto Magazine.

Karen Smith is semi-retired from technology consulting and educational software design/development while the wee folk are wee. She’s reading, writing, and blogging in her spare time between carpools and playdates. Literally. On her phone. She’s a Flash Fiction Online slush reader, and a mini-van driving, vegetarian, tree-hugging, suburban freak. Her cats want to kill her. Her work hasn’t appeared much of anywhere yet, but just you wait.

Suzanne Vincent, Utah, writes a bit of everything, but strays most often into forays with slipstream fantasy, fairy-tale adaptations, and historical fiction. She is a stay-at-home mom, and will quickly take anyone to task who might suggest that she has wasted her intellect in doing so. Among the many hats she wears, she is most proud of those of wife and mother, teacher (she homeschools her three children), and writer. She is a graduate of Orson Scott Card’s Literary Boot Camp, and a twice-published author—​here at Flash Fiction Online (“I Speak the Master’s Will” from December 2007, before she joined the staff) and at Anotherealm.com (May 2005—​now out of “print”). If you’d like to delve deeper into her sometimes warped mind, you can find her blog at http://nightingalescage.blogspot.com.

R.W. Ware is devoted husband and father of three, and an artist of multiple mediums. With a background in comic and fantasy art, he paints in acrylics, illustrates Flash Fiction Online in a number of mediums, designs t-shirts and logos, and is a Master Tattoo Artist (dermagraphic artist). He’s garnered over 150 awards for tattoos (and broken records at two conventions), painting and poetry, was voted #6 artist on the Preditors & Editors Poll, and shows no signs of slowing down. He can be reached via email at art@flashfictiononline.com.

Sabrina West is a Master’s candidate at the University of Wyoming studying birds, conservation biology, statistics, and advanced procrastination. In the few moments of free time that she gets, her imagination drifts toward fantasy, horror and sci-fi, all with a literary slant. Her work has appeared in the Santa Clara Review, and a flash piece of hers recently received an honorable mention by Allegory magazine.