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Olga Werby's books on Goodreads
Becoming Animals Becoming Animals
reviews: 13
ratings: 15 (avg rating 4.60)

The FATOFF Conspiracy The FATOFF Conspiracy
reviews: 6
ratings: 18 (avg rating 3.50)

Harvest Harvest
reviews: 11
ratings: 18 (avg rating 4.50)

Suddenly, Paris Suddenly, Paris (Many Worlds, One Life #1)
reviews: 6
ratings: 8 (avg rating 4.00)

Twin Time Twin Time
reviews: 4
ratings: 5 (avg rating 4.40)

SciFi Bites: A collection of short stories.

Pipsqueak Articles, sci-fi bites, short story

Time travel, Hitler, and killing babies–a short audio story

by Olga Werby February 27, 2020

Kill Hitler

What if you could go back in time and kill Hitler? This is a premise of many science fiction stories. Here’s my version:

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Cultural Differences, My Books, sci-fi bites, short story

Time Travel Suicide Therapy

by Olga Werby July 14, 2019

Cleopatra's Death

“Can I help you?” Dax stood up and quickly covered the screen with his body. It was five minutes to closing time and he wasn’t interested in helping on yet another bored teenager, or house partner, or grandpa, or history student, or whatever to fulfill their sick time travel dream.…

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sci-fi bites, short story

Shifting Sands

by Olga Werby June 11, 2019

Shifting Sands

The wind howled northward, as normal for this time of the year. The angle of planetary spin resulted in a decreased amount of sunlight in the Northern Hemisphere during this portion of the orbit cycle. The atmosphere precipitated onto the surface as ammonia and water snow, lowering the air pressure,…

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sci-fi bites, short story

Word Magic, narrated by Mariah Avix of 600 Second Saga

by Olga Werby August 2, 2018

cool word

Word Magic is a short story prequel to a larger piece of fiction I’m working on about language and its power to shape the world. I love Mariah’s work — she brings magic to my stories and to those of other writers. Please visit her site and subscribe to her…

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Cultural Bias, Group Decision Errors, My Books, sci-fi bites, short story

600 Second Saga: The Perfect Gene

by Olga Werby January 3, 2018

The Perfect Gene

“The Perfect Gene” — a short story about cultural biases narrated by Mariah Avix, 600 Second Saga Tales of Science Fiction and Fantasy, found at http://insani-x.com/ Read along with the audio story.

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My Books, sci-fi bites, short story

600 Second Saga: The Test

by Olga Werby October 4, 2017

The Test

It was beside me on the bed when I woke up — the little bag to pack my most cherished belongings before leaving to take the test. Our dorm has eight living in one great room and none of us heard anything in the night. No one ever does. This…

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Cultural Differences, My Books, Pipsqueak Articles, sci-fi bites, short story

Another Wave of Refugees

by Olga Werby October 3, 2017

Refugees

“Another wave of refugees is arriving,” the TV news announcer said in a grave voice. George Tiggleson, the news anchor for XWTZ Christian Voice of Americas, has been practicing this voice — deep, resonant, with a slight lamenting quality — for almost twenty years. This voice got him this job.…

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affordances anxiety Apple branding children cognitive scaffolding context contextual actions Crisis Mapping crowd sourcing ebook eBooks education emotional design emotional reaction Facebook fantasy folksy wisdom free games giveaway human rights ICT marketing mental models p-prim problem solving product design reading Science Fiction social gaming social media Social Network social processing social value story Twitter usability user attitude user errors user satisfaction visual comprehension visual processing writing YouTube

facial_recognition

by Olga Werby May 17, 2010

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← Cognitive Blindness: Super-recognizers

My Stories as Presented by 600 Second Saga

Archives

Newsletter, Perception, Pipsqueak Articles

Stress Response

by Olga Werby August 11, 2022

Terri the relentless tortoise

Stress is an actor in all our lives. As we grow up, our stress grows too. We perceive that stress as a sign that we are coping with more than our historical share. Every generation believes that their stress surpasses that of the generation before. So it is probably just…

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book promotion, Cultural Differences, Newsletter, Pipsqueak Articles

Coming-of-age in the Modern World

by Olga Werby June 6, 2022

How we see ourselves

There is a whole genre of coming-of-age stories — stories that describe a transition from childhood to adulthood. The transition could be fast, forced by some external events, or painfully slow. And sometimes, it might not happen at all — we all know people who we charitably describe as having…

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book promotion, My Books, Newsletter, Pipsqueak Articles

Emotion Field

by Olga Werby May 13, 2022

American Mythology: superhero underdogs

I saw a question on Twitter: Can readers become emotionally invested in a story if the main character is interesting but not sympathetic? My answer was that I need characters that I can care about. A superhero that has all kinds of cool and interesting superpowers is ultimately boring unless…

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Errors, Language, Newsletter, Perception, Pipsqueak Articles

The Music of Language

by Olga Werby April 6, 2022

Old World Language Families

The illustration above is created by Minna Sundberg. Unlike pictorial art, music is perceived and processed in time. Complex music — consisting of more than one melody woven together — is even more difficult to process than a single stream. It requires focused attention. It’s more akin to listening to…

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Ethnographic & User Data, Newsletter, Pipsqueak Articles

Epigenetic Consequences of War

by Olga Werby March 10, 2022

Mitosis

World War Z is upon us, and it behooves us to consider its consequences carefully. We all understand that deprivations and stresses of war leave scars on the survivors, physical and psychological. Bullet wounds, starvation and malnutrition, exposure and lack of sleep, physical exhaustion and lack of hygiene are but…

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My Books, Newsletter, Pipsqueak Articles

Evolution of Empathy

by Olga Werby February 14, 2022

Cows in Moonlight by Ohara Koson 1927

It’s Valentine’s Week and I thought to remark on empathy. First, a bit of a definition. Sympathy is when you relate to the emotional states of others. Usually, we sympathize with someone’s pain and suffering. It’s common to express (or invoke) our sympathies when someone is in a hospital or…

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book promotion, Newsletter, Pipsqueak Articles

Memory Strings

by Olga Werby January 11, 2022

strings

Our lives are filled with objects and memories we collect on our journeys. It is almost like there are strings of emotions that tie us to our lives’ cabinet of curiosities. It is almost uncanny how stepping into someone’s house and seeing their possessions and their arrangement to each other…

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Background Knowledge, Background Knowledge Errors, book promotion, My Books, Pipsqueak Articles

Holiday Thread

by Olga Werby December 8, 2021

2021_Happy_Winter_Topper

I follow an Iranian woman on Instagram that demonstrates in short videos her embroidery techniques. She does beautiful work — intricate flowers, leaves, curlycues, snowflakes. Her pigment choices are amazing and she does very detailed art in that multicolored thread. I know how to sew and I had a vague…

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Book, book promotion, My Books, Newsletter, Pipsqueak Articles

2021 Self-Published Science Fiction Competition

by Olga Werby November 8, 2021

Writing is a very solitary activity. You sit alone for hours, lost in your own thoughts, hopefully putting some words down on a page. And at some point, if you are lucky, you will finish a story you set out to write or, more accurately, you will finish a story…

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Conceptual Design, Newsletter, Pipsqueak Articles, Product Design Strategy, Scaffolding

The Dance

by Olga Werby October 12, 2021

The Russian Bride’s Attire by Konstantin Makovsky

From Russia With Love This month, I’ve teamed up with a few other indie writers who wrote stories set in Russia. There are just the seven of us, and I hope you check out our stories. I, of course, have a novel Twin Time that is set in Old Pre-Revolutionary…

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My Books, Newsletter, Pipsqueak Articles

Mothers on The Hero’s Journey

by Olga Werby September 11, 2021

Hero's Journey Illustration

A Common YA Fantasy Novel Plots: A bunch of kids lead perfectly ordinary lives. One day they learn that the universe is full of magic (or strange science) and if they don’t put down their homework right now (like right now!), everyone they know and love will suffer horribly (or…

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Book, book promotion, Ethnographic & User Data, My Books, Newsletter, Pipsqueak Articles, Product Design Strategy

Women, Sex, and Plotlines

by Olga Werby August 11, 2021

Epic header

I had this idea for writing a post about mothers and their children, but then I’ve decided that I’m too close to that subject at the moment and moved on to writing about sex. Sex sells, right? So here it goes: women, sex, and plotlines. Per statistica.com, 84% of romance…

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My Books, Newsletter, Pipsqueak Articles

Stories, Books, and How and Where We Get Them

by Olga Werby July 13, 2021

The Shifting Sands Sands of Mars Cover for Kindle Novella

The world has accepted independent filmmakers. These auteurs — def: “auteur is a filmmaker whose personal influence and artistic control over a movie are so great that the filmmaker is regarded as the author of the movie” — are strongly preferred over the “boring” regular movie directors and producers. Auteurs…

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Personal Sites

  • D.R.I.P.S. Project
  • Educational Evaluation
  • Pipsqueak Productions LLC
  • The Company Therapist
  • The Cost of Chicken

ICC Forum: Legal Debate

UCLA Human Rights and International Criminal Law Forum Logo

The International Criminal Court's Office of the Prosecutor and UCLA School of Law partnered together to create ICC Forum—a place to discuss international criminal law issues. My company, Pipsqueak Productions, designed and developed the site. Please join the debate! ICCforum.com.

DRIPS Project

Tim and Nick Werby with DRIPS Prototypes

DRIPS project — stands for Deep Root Irrigation and Precipitation System — is a simple device that collects atmospheric water and delivers it to the roots of plants below the evaporation layer. My sons, Tim and Nick Werby, designed and developed the idea and the site. DRIPSproject.

Cost of Chicken

Cost of Chicken Project is a crowdmapping project that tracks the true costs of food around the world. Most data points are contributed by kids. My sons, Tim and Nick Werby, designed and developed the idea and the site. Please visit their site and contribute the data points from your area. Cost of Chicken.

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