Your Baristas
Jason Brick
Jason is the Editorial Consultant to the Anthology Barista at the Fictional Café, helping select and publish works that have appeared in our virtual ‘zine in print book form. A professional writer, martial artist, travel addict, and dad whose work has been published across multiple genres and formats, he was co-editor on two previous anthologies, Baby Shoes and Flash!, each of which featured 100 original flash-fiction short stories written by 100 different authors. He lives in Oregon.
Ruby Fink
Ruby Fink was born in California, the eldest of three. She has been the Audio Arts Barista for Fictional Cafe for a number of years now and loves interacting with the audio community. Her favorite activity as a barista is finding new audio productions to share with listeners. She is author of the award-winning book series, Mickie McKinney:Boy Detective, and is currently finishing up the newest installment of the Mickie McKinney series as well as Chipsa, her first YA Romance. Ruby has also ghostwritten over a dozen books over the last two years, and is not planning to stop writing any time soon – unless she runs out of caffeine.
Jennifer Green
Jennifer is our Managing Editor, Content. A retired high school English teacher, she currently works as a freelance editor and co-owner of the family screen-printing shop. In addition to completing the editing certificate program through the University of Chicago Graham School, Jennifer holds degrees in psychology and English from North Carolina State University, Meredith College, and the University of Nottingham (UK). When she’s not deep into an edit, she can be found enjoying a cup of coffee and a good book on the porch, playing games—tabletop and Xbox, or traveling the world. She lives in North Carolina with her family and two Boxers.
Caitlin M. Park
Caitlin is the co-founder of the Fictional Café. She is a graduate of California State University at Sonoma, where she majored in English and has a Master’s degree in Creative Writing in progress. When she isn’t working on her novel, she’s taking care of her toddler son, Damian. She says Dalton Trumbo, Margaret Atwood, and Paolo Bacigalupi are among her favorite authors.
Caitlin and Jack co-founded the Fictional Café April 15, 2013. It launched a month later.
Victoria Orifice
Victoria our new Submissions Barista. A student at Emerson College, Victoria is majoring in Interdisciplinary Studies, combining Nonprofit Communications with Social Activism – with a Creative Writing minor on the side. When they’re not studying, Victoria is hard at work in a variety of areas, including audiobook and podcast editing, their job as a Student Ambassador for Emerson College, and their perpetually in-progress novels. Having previously served on the editorial board for Freshwater Literary Journal at Asnuntuck Community College, Victoria is passionate about the importance of literary journals and is delighted to continue that journey with the Fictional Café.
Mike Mavilia Rochester
Mike is the Managing Editor, Operations, Marketing Barista and Editor of the Fictional Café Anthology. He is also a Vice President of the Independent Publishers of New England (IPNE.org). In his work as a freelance writer, he provides ghostwriting, editing, publishing and web design services for both fiction and nonfiction authors as well as businesses, helping them create a unique and marketable brand. Mike also serves on the board of directors for Independent Publishers of New England.
He also brings his management and networking skills from his many years of working in the nonprofit sector to the many tasks of coordinating FC’s online presence and social media.
Mike graduated from Bowdoin College and when he’s not buried in a book, he’s writing fiction, playing his guitar, or traveling. Contact him at mike@fictionalcafe.com or check out his Linktree.
Yong Takahashi
Yong Takahashi is the author of four books of fiction and poetry. She was a finalist in The Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing, Southern Fried Karma Novel Contest, Gemini Magazine Short Story Contest, The Writers’ Mastermind Short Story Contest, and The Sexton Prize for Poetry.
Yong’s YA dystopian novel, Camp Detroit, will be published in 2023. She is currently working on a fantasy trilogy.
To learn more about Yong, visit: https://linktr.ee/yongversation
Jack B. Rochester
Jack is the Founding Barista and Editor-in-Chief at the Fictional Café. His career in publishing began as a book acquisitions editor; he published over 65 authors. His writing career was launched with the publication of the bestselling The Naked Computer, which he co-authored with John Gantz. A dozen books and twenty years later, he and John co-authored another hit book, Pirates of the Digital Millennium.
With 15 nonfiction books to his credit, Jack began his fiction-writing career in 2011 with Wild Blue Yonder, the first Nathaniel Hawthorne Flowers novel, followed by Madrone and Anarchy. His most recent novel is Bridge Across the Ocean (https://bridgeacrosstheocean.com/). The fourth Nate Flowers novel, Thick of It, is underway.
Jack took his Master’s degree from Sonoma State College (now California State University at Sonoma). Of all the jobs he’s held in publishing over the years, he says working at the Fictional Café is the most gratifying. Contact him at Jack@fictionalcafe.com or on LinkedIn.