Ann Stanley is the author of a variety of short stories and flash fiction, ranging from mainstream to fantasy, science fiction, and speculative (what if) stories. Her favorite topic is women finding fulfillment through creative and scientific careers, despite obstacles which might be thrown in their path. She also writes about difficult relationships with parents and spouses, ways to deal with apocalyptic scenarios without killing each other, and the dangers of future technologies, along with fantasy adventure stories. Even her mainstream fiction occasionally contains an element of magic.

Ann often blogs about her life as a female scientist, and those years inform her fiction in many ways. She has a Ph. D. in applied mathematics from California Institute of Technology. After graduate school, she spent six years Los Alamos National Laboratory, then went to the mathematics department at Iowa State University. A variety of events led her to become depressed, disillusioned and ill. She resigned and returned to New Mexico, where she worked as a consultant for LANL for a number of years before eventually realizing she was no longer happy in the world of science and becoming a full-time massage therapist. During those years in research, she studied the spread of infectious diseases as well as game theory.

Before Ann left the University, she began asking ‘what’s next?” It took her a long time to stumble upon fiction as the answer. Raised in a world full of music, she expected to become a world-class musician, but she discovered that, although composing pieces and playing in bands can be fun, her heart is really grabbed by stories. She attempted a nonfiction book on people leaving the world of research science, but eventually shelved it, after failing to find a common thread in the people she interviewed, and discovering that making up stories is a lot more fun than writing nonfiction.

Ann lives in Central Oregon, where she hikes, bikes, skis, plays music, and lives with her two corgis and her partner. She is a part-time massage therapist.