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Becoming Animals

reviews: 13
ratings: 15 (avg rating 4.60)

The FATOFF Conspiracy

reviews: 6
ratings: 18 (avg rating 3.50)

Harvest

reviews: 11
ratings: 18 (avg rating 4.50)

Suddenly, Paris (Many Worlds, One Life #1)

reviews: 6
ratings: 8 (avg rating 4.00)

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

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

Time Travel Suicide Therapy

by Olga Werby July 14, 2019

“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.…

Shifting Sands

by Olga Werby June 11, 2019

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,…

Word Magic, narrated by Mariah Avix of 600 Second Saga

by Olga Werby August 2, 2018

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…

600 Second Saga: The Perfect Gene

by Olga Werby January 3, 2018

“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.

600 Second Saga: The Test

by Olga Werby October 4, 2017

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…

Another Wave of Refugees

by Olga Werby October 3, 2017

“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.…

Conceptual Design, Cultural Bias, Cultural Differences, Pipsqueak Articles

Cultural Differences in Advertising

by Olga Werby April 12, 2013

How does one design a successful ad? That depends on the culture at which the ad is aimed. Here are a few example of ketchup ads. Spot the one NOT aimed at an American audience!

Tags:ad ad design branding emotional design emotional reaction marketing mental models product design social processing user satisfaction visual comprehension

← Daniel Kahneman, Customer Service, and Perception of Quality

How Do You Know When Contractors are Lying to You? →

My Stories as Presented by 600 Second Saga

book promotion, Newsletter, Pipsqueak Articles

Vaguely Familiar

by Olga Werby April 14, 2020

The oddness of invisible threat is very unsettling but oddly familiar. If we think back on our lives, we all had periods of time when we were forced into isolation. I can personally think of several. I will list them chronologically. I was five years old when I noticed a…

Living with Anxiety

by Olga Werby March 25, 2020

We are week two into isolation, living in a social distancing dystopia. Everything is strange. Our eating and sleeping habits, our daily routines, our physical workouts, and our work and school schedules and setups are all completely disrupted. It feels like we are living in wartime, and yet it’s Spring…

Stories in the Age of Pandemic

by Olga Werby March 11, 2020

I moved from New York to California in 1989, the year the Bay Bridge collapsed due to a powerful earthquake, the year all those people died, the year I was run over by a car while crossing the street, the year I was supposed to have gotten married but learned…

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

by Olga Werby February 27, 2020

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

Love in the Virtual Worlds

by Olga Werby February 13, 2020

Happy Valentine’s Day! In honor of this special holiday, I wanted to say something about love and women’s power. My first novel was “Suddenly, Paris” — a story of true love in many worlds. I wanted to write a science fiction romance. But not a gooey mush of a thing, but…

Cool books, peril loops, tech talk, and other sci-fi reading traps

by Olga Werby January 10, 2020

Rock? Or classical? Sometimes, good content is difficult to classify. But once you find someone good, it almost always works out (well, except for the last chord–what happened there?). I’ve mentioned before–when I find an author I like, I read everything they’ve ever written. This works for music, too. It’s…

Ice Music

by Olga Werby December 15, 2019

I wish I had heard of Siberian Ice Drummers or the use of Lake Baikal ice as a musical instrument when I wrote the second book in the “Many Worlds, One Life” series: “Coding Peter”! If I had, it would have been featured prominently in my story. Alas, some discoveries…

Fantastical Halloween

by Olga Werby October 16, 2019

We are quickly falling into Fall. Warm sweaters, blankets, and books. But why bother with books when there is so much other entertainment around? Netflicks, HBOs, Amazons of the world are eager to grab hold of our eyeballs and never let go. It’s great for their bottom line. In 2017,…

Protagonist Speaks, a Police Interview with Alex Orlov

by Olga Werby September 18, 2019

Sometimes, when we finish reading or writing a story, the story is not done with us. Some characters linger in our thoughts and speak up and give rise to some other content and revelations. Mostly, such content remains private — I have tons of illustration, pages of story, and folders…

Strange, Slightly Creepy, Mystery SciFi: My New Book is Out Today!

by Olga Werby September 15, 2019

The paperback version of “God of Small Affairs” is out everywhere (well, mostly in online stores) today! Here’s a link to “God of Small Affairs” on Amazon. In about two weeks, the ebook version will come out as well. The story already earned three 5-star reviews from Readers’ Favorite! You…

Summer Writing and Reading and Editing

by Olga Werby August 15, 2019

Writing In July, I finally finished editing my latest book: God of Small Affairs (first three chapters are available here). It will be a while before it gets published, but it is nice to move into the next stage of this story’s life. I have a cover that I like…I…

Jew-ish Sci-Fi

by Olga Werby July 15, 2019

This month, I’ve jumped in head first into dark and cold waters of book marketing. I’ve learned a lot that was new to me but was probably obvious to any salesperson — other people (unlike me) like to read very specific genres of books. For example, if you are into…

Forty Years of Cultural Dissonance

by Olga Werby June 10, 2019

This May was the fortieth anniversary of my family’s arrival in America. We came as refugees. My husband and I celebrated this momentous event (this marks over two-thirds of my life here) by visiting the Tenement Museum in downtown New York City. The biggest takeaway was the strong sense of…

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