New interview with sci-fi adventure author Olga Werby

Today’s special guest is sci-fi author Olga Werby. She’s chatting with me about her newest novel, Becoming Animals.

During her virtual book tour, Olga will be awarding a $25 Amazon or Barnes and Noble (winner’s choice) gift card. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit her other tour stops and enter there, too!

Bio:

Olga Werby, Ed.D., has a Doctorate from U.C. Berkeley with a focus on designing online learning experiences. She has a Master's degree from U.C. Berkeley in Education of Math, Science, and Technology. She has been creating computer-based projects since 1981 with organizations such as NASA (where she worked on the Pioneer Venus project), Addison-Wesley, and the Princeton Review. Olga has a B.A. degree in Mathematics and Astrophysics from Columbia University. She became an accidental science fiction indie writer about a decade ago, with her first book, "Suddenly Paris," which was based on then fairly novel idea of virtual universes. Her next story, "The FATOFF Conspiracy," was a horror story about fat, government bureaucracy, and body image. She writes about characters that rarely get represented in science fiction stories -- homeless kids, refugees, handicapped, autistic individuals -- the social underdogs of our world. Her stories are based in real science, which is admittedly stretched to the very limit of possible. She has published almost a dozen fiction books to date and has won many awards for her writings. Her short fiction has been featured in several issues of "Alien Dimensions Magazine," "600 second saga," "Graveyard Girls," "Kyanite Press' Fables and Fairy Tales," "The Carmen Online Theater Group's Chronicles of Terror," with many more stories freely available on her blog, Interfaces.com.

Welcome, Olga. Please tell us a little bit about yourself.

I write in the genres of sci-fi and magical realism. My background is in astrophysics and psychology. Granted, it’s not a very likely combination for a career…a regular career. But it is perfect for a writer!

I wrote Becoming Animals with my husband and partner, Christopher Werby. Our book deals with differences between animal and human cognition and emotional states. How are bird thoughts different from our own? How does it feel to be prey? How would a life of a whale be different from a human girl? And what does it feel like when you are dying? We use this setup to discuss not only the various physiological and cognitive differences between various animals and humans, but to also consider the ethics of using animals in research. I hope this book leaves people thinking about it for many years to come.

Please tell us a little bit about Becoming Animals.

Humans have always wanted to know what goes on inside the minds of other animals. But what if humans could become animals? Toby’s father leads a team of neuroscientists who are developing equipment to directly connect the brains of humans with those of animals. Toby is a prodigy at throwing her mind into the animal subjects in her dad’s lab—she’s the best there is.

But Toby suffers from cystic fibrosis and she’s not likely to live to adulthood. Could a radical plan to embed her consciousness into an animal allow Toby to survive? And what does it mean to live without a human body?

Can Toby and her father solve the problem of fully merging two beings before she takes her last breath? Will the government succeed in stopping their efforts before they are done? It’s a race against death and into the minds of animals.

Reviews for Becoming Animals:

"[A] must-read for every science fiction and animal lover." -- a 5 star review from Readers' Favorite 

"[A]s a concept for a novel I found the idea of melding with an animal's mind, in Becoming Animals, to be utterly fascinating and was excited to see how this would develop for young Toby. I became very invested in the characters created by Olga and Christopher Werby and consequently enjoyed this children's/young adult book even more than I thought I would. The amount of honest research that had clearly gone on before penning this novel lent real authenticity to the tale. I had heard much of what was discussed in broad details in various places, but had perhaps not realized the possible implications - this was especially true of the idea of neuroplasticity and our brain's ability to reset and remake neural connections, at will or as required. The book was an incredibly easy read and although the science might be above the understanding of some of the authors' intended audience, it in no way detracted from the understanding of the story. This story is unique, in my opinion, a rare quality in today's book market. I commend the two authors for their ingenuity and creativity and can highly recommend this read. A great job!" -- a 5 star review from Readers' Favorite

"[T]he characters, both human and animal, are unforgettable, and the plot is high-tech fantasy at its finest. Becoming Animals is most highly recommended." -- a 5 star review from Readers' Favorite

"[A] very interesting, enjoyable, and thought-provoking read; a brilliant addition to the libraries of science fiction and fantasy fans, as well as anyone who simply enjoys a good story." -- a 5 star review from Readers' Favorite

"[T]his is a great novel for young and older sci-fi fans." -- a 5 star review from Readers' Favorite

"[T]his a very interesting, enjoyable, and thought-provoking read; a brilliant addition to the libraries of science fiction and fantasy fans, as well as anyone who simply enjoys a good story." -- a 5 star review from Readers' Favorite 

What inspired you to write this book?

Becoming Animals allows its readers to get inside the minds of animals. How does it feel to fly? What does craving for dark, tight places and food feels like? Why does the weight of the sun through the cold waters of the Pacific taste so exquisite? When you can let go of feeling human, what experiential vistas open up? Animals might not have the tools we do to communicate their experiences and feelings, but if a human could embody an animal, that person can describe what they sense and the emotions that run through them.

While animals have very similar organs to humans, the way they use them is different. In particular, animal cognition is both familiar and radically dissimilar to ours. Just to give a few simple examples. Humans see in full color spectrum…at least that’s what we think. Dogs see in black in white, while birds see extra colors. Human sense of smell is rather weak, but a rat’s olfactory organs are amazingly well developed. People see the world from a height of several feet above the ground, rats from below an inch, birds from hundreds of feet up in the air. Just this change of perspective is a spectacular mind altering experience. In its essence, “Becoming Animals” is a story of mind-altering experiences and the desire of a child to survive a terminal illness by escaping into a mind of an animal.

What’s the next writing project?

I just finished 100,000 word novel on theme of fate – how far would people go to change their destiny? Are we “hardwired” to live the life we live? If it were possible to make changes, how high of a price would a person be willing to pay to make that change? The main protagonist in this story is a young man who was born with a congenital birth defect that set severe limitation to his life. Hig believed that as a boy he made a bargain with fate – his life for the life of his mother – that liberated him from a fate of a cripple and turned him into a popular, athletic young man, captain of his college soccer team. But a mother’s death is a heavy guilt load to grow up with.

The book is about untangling love from guilt from sacrifice. The book turned out well, I think, sort of a cross between “Something Wicked This Way Comes” and “Cloud Atlas.” I look forward to releasing my literary baby into the world soon.

What is your biggest challenge when writing a new book? (or the biggest challenge with this book)

Stories usually start with just a tiny idea and then grow as I collect research around that topic. A few years down the line, the little clump of thoughts jells into an idea for a book. But I never know if the book will become a full-length novel or a novella or even a longish short story. I’m a “pantser” – I write without an outline, by the seat-of-my-pants. I just have a ton of research and random thoughts written down on little notes in my note-taking software. By the time I actually start writing a new novel, I’ve usually spent a year or so taking notes and doing research. I tend to have a general idea of what the book will be about, but I have to feel my way towards the resolution of a story. I write to find out what happens next! Once I know my characters and understand their predicament, the story is written by them. They decide what they want to do and how to proceed and how to solve problems that I throw at them. I know this sounds crazy, but it works well for me. Still, the more research I do, the better the outcome. But it is always a mystery how it all works out. I’m always surprised by the end of the story—the finished book is nothing like I’ve imaged it…but it does contain all of the elements of my research for the story.

If your novels require research – please talk about the process. Do you do the research first and then write, while you’re writing, after the novel is complete and you need to fill in the gaps?

Becoming Animals was a difficult book to write. It is based on a lot science – all the scientific details described in this story are true, even if they are pushed to the limit of what’s possible. When you read about how a rat responds to danger or how a whale mourns the death of its baby or how a young piglet gets the zoomies, it’s all real. The fictional part is how a human girl responds to experiences that are unique to other animals.

One of the easiest ways to learn is through stories. Humans are wired to enjoy and remember them. Science fiction tells stories about the future or alternative history or some other “what if” scenarios that involve real science pushed to the limit. While entertainment is a perfectly valid goal in itself, sometimes a good story can do more than entertain. I hope this story has made a bit of neurology and animal cognition slightly more approachable for our readers.

What’s your writing space like? Do you have a particular spot to write where the muse is more active? Please tell us about it.

I write at my desk, in a spare bedroom that we turned into an office. I’m surrounded by books and the surface of my desk is covered with loose papers and fiddly toys. But my computer monitor and what’s on it is just as important as what’s in a physical space around me. I work in a text editor – it’s simple text, no formatting at all, no distractions. I have a note-taking application running as well – I have years’ worth of research that I do before starting a story, so I need to have that at my fingertips. I have a web browser open on a dictionary page. And I have iTunes with a soundtrack for my book (each book has its own soundtrack).

What authors do you enjoy reading within or outside of your genre?

I read everything…well, not histories or biographies or horror. I usual discover an author I like, and then read everything they’ve ever written! It is so much easier to know that the book will be good than to be disappointed. I know this sounds crazy. But I read a lot. I have thousands of books at home. I have books shelves in my bathrooms, bedrooms, hallways, kitchen, living room… I have books stocked on most flat surfaces and up the stairs. I’m not allowed to buy physical books anymore…unless I really want to. I do most of my “fun” reading on my phone now—Kindle App. I have thousands of books on my phone as well. The good thing about that is that the phone is always in my pocket (I no longer buy clothes that don’t have pockets to accommodate my cell phone.). I can whip out a book while I wait in line, while I sit in a doctor’s office, while I exercise… It’s a perfect delivery mechanism for reading.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers today?

There are hidden jokes in all my books. They are not “ha ha” jokes, just little things that would make someone in the know smile. Mostly, I hide things in the names of characters and places. Little Easter Eggs!

Links:

Website | Amazon | Goodreads | BookBub | Facebook | Twitter | Company/Publisher | YouTube | LinkedIn | Pinterest | Instagram

And I now have a site that allows students and parents to download free educational materials for elementary and secondary school kids to download and do offline. It is still under development, but keep an eye out if you have kids!

Thank you for being here today!

Thanks again!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Interview with novelist Olga Werby

Novelist Olga Werby joins me today and we’re chatting about her new hard sci-fi novel, Harvest.

During her virtual book tour, Olga will awarding 2 books to a randomly drawn commenter (Lizard Girl and Ghost, and Suddenly, Paris. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit her other tour stops and enter there, too!

Bio:

Olga Werby, Ed.D., has a Doctorate from U.C. Berkeley with a focus on designing online learning experiences. She has a Master's degree from U.C. Berkeley in Education of Math, Science, and Technology. She has been creating computer-based projects since 1981 with organizations such as NASA (where she worked on the Pioneer Venus project), Addison-Wesley, and the Princeton Review. Olga has a B.A. degree in Mathematics and Astrophysics from Columbia University. She became an accidental science fiction indie writer about a decade ago, with her first book, "Suddenly Paris," which was based on then fairly novel idea of virtual universes. Her next story, "The FATOFF Conspiracy," was a horror story about fat, government bureaucracy, and body image. She writes about characters that rarely get represented in science fiction stories -- homeless kids, refugees, handicapped, autistic individuals -- the social underdogs of our world. Her stories are based in real science, which is admittedly stretched to the very limit of possible. She has published almost a dozen fiction books to date and has won many awards for her writings. Her short fiction has been featured in several issues of "Alien Dimensions Magazine," "600 second saga," "Graveyard Girls," "Kyanite Press' Fables and Fairy Tales," "The Carmen Online Theater Group's Chronicles of Terror," with many more stories freely available on her blog.

Please share a little bit about your current release.

“Harvest” was published in May, 2019, after almost two years of writing and editing and illustration. It got three 5-star reviews from ReadersFavorite and has been entered into a few completions.

What inspired you to write this book?
I’m a scientist. I’m very interested in the development of life, consciousness, and civilization. Over the past several decades, we’ve learned a lot about human biology not only on the molecular level (DNA) but also the chemistry and physics of biology. We can see the range of possibilities for behavior and emotion programmed into us by our evolutionary development. We’ve also learned about other human species that didn’t survive to the present day but whose echoes we carry in our very genes—Heanderthals, Homo floresiensis, Homo denisovans, and the newly discovered Homo luzonesis. There are many more, of course, but it takes time and luck to find evidence.

Only the Homo sapiens are alive on our world today. And only a small percentage of those developed the capacity or desire to take over the world and impose their culture on the rest of the peoples. Why? Why did some Hominids made it and some didn’t? Why did some civilizations flourished and others fell? We can answer some of these questions with psychology, sociology, paleontology, anthropology, biology, and simple luck.

Luck seems to have played a huge role in human evolution and survival on our planet. Those who were lucky enough to live in fertile environments with species of plants and animals that were easy to domesticate won the life lottery, so to speak. The unlucky ones didn’t make it to the present day or ended up colonized…

We have some ideas about what it takes to survive and thrive on Earth. But what does it take to survive in the galaxy? Can we use the same principles and apply them on a larger scale? “Harvest” is a book that focuses on galaxy-wide civilizations and what it takes to become one.

Excerpt from Harvest:

(Please note this book is fully illustrated.)

Chapter Two

Vars slept on the plane…or tried to. She was too confused, too keyed up to really sleep. That coffee might have been a mistake. Ian said that he couldn’t tell her anything until they arrived at his EPSA office in Seattle, which was conveniently her own hometown where she lived with her dad. The man just smiled a lot and talked about how much he had enjoyed reading Vars’s new book.

There was a strange edge to their interaction. If Vars hadn’t believed Ian’s credentials, she would have bailed on him a long time ago. Even so, she felt like she was being kidnapped. And, in a way, she was. She’d had to cancel the last two lectures of her book tour and apologize to her agent over and over again. Ian had promised that EPSA would send an official excuse letter, but Vars still felt like she let her agent and publisher down.

They landed at a general aviation airport, and another black car whisked them to EPSA’s headquarters, just outside of Seattle’s city limits. She was taken to a conference room on the top floor of the EPSA science building, which Ian called the “tree house.” She immediately understood why—it was surrounded on all sides by a balcony planted with a row of trees and some shrubbery. It was quite nice, but Vars couldn’t enjoy it; she was simultaneously exhausted and adrenalized. It was just a matter of time before she crashed.

She must have looked it, too, because someone handed her a very big, very steamy cup of coffee. She sipped it gratefully, completely oblivious to how she came to be holding it. It was still very early in the morning, way before Vars even liked to get up, much less attend a meeting.

About a dozen EPSA people joined her and Ian around the conference table. Vars noticed that several paper copies of her book were laid out; some even looked read, with cracked spines and dog-eared pages.

“So,” she said to Ian. “Is now a good time and place for you to tell me what this is all about?”

“Now is perfect,” Ian said with a big smile. “We are very grateful to have you with us today, Dr. Volhard. This is my exobiology team.” He pointed one by one to the people on one side of the table. “Dr. Alice Bear. Dr. Greg Tungsten. Dr. Bob Shapiro. Dr. Saydi Obara. Dr. Evelyn Shar. And Dr. Izzy Rubka.”

Vars had heard of some of these people by reputation, of course, but never met any of them personally. EPSA people were a reclusive bunch, tending to mix with their own to the exclusion of others, even with the same research interests. It was one of the reasons Vars always wanted to join the organization—to get access to the best and the brightest minds and a chance to discuss the origins of life over coffee... But the introductions were happening so fast, there was no chance that she would remember how any of these names linked up with faces. Vars doubted she would even recognize these people walking down the street.

What exciting story are you working on next?
I’m currently finishing up “God of Small Affairs.” In some ways, this is the opposite story from “Harvest.” While “Harvest” focused on real science and extrapolated it as far as possible, “God of Small Affairs” is about mythology, about gods who walk the earth and help shape the human race into what it has become. It is a more intimate story. It focuses on a small town in Wisconsin and it’s aging population that is in the process of becoming irrelevant due the pressures of civilization and progress. During a murder investigation, a god tries to find the best path into the future for this community. It’s human drama with a mythical twist.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

I wrote my first full-sized fiction book in 2009, “Suddenly, Paris.” I wanted to write about a strong, smart girl who was up to the task of saving the world by herself, if necessary. In some way, it was a rebellion to “Twilight.” As a teacher, I saw lots of middle school girls reading that book. When asked, they tended to reply that what attracted them the most to “Twilight” was the idea of someone loving a girl like that and providing for her and protecting her. From the psychological standpoint, the relationship described in “Twilight” is not a healthy one. No girl/woman should feel like she is going to do die if her current romance doesn’t work out. I wanted to write a character that showed another example. In my story, the heroine is very much in love, but she is willing to fight and to save the world. She is willing to do what’s right. She doesn’t sulk…well, not much.

So that was my first book. Since then, I’ve focused on developing strong characters, interesting plots, and ideas that are heavily influenced by real science and current events. Humans learn best when information is wrapped in a compelling story. I also wanted to write about people that are not the usual heroes of books—homeless kids, misfits, grandmothers, mobility-impaired, autistic, the underclass of our society, the forgotten. Fiction is great at developing empathy. I wanted to turn the full power of fiction into empathy engine! Sounds a bit preachy, I know, but I think my stories are good and fun read in addition to being meaningful.


Do you write full-time? If so, what's your workday like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
I would love to write full-time. But I do have other work to do.

But even those lucky to devote their lives to creating fictional universes and amazing characters to populate them have to do more than just write. A modern writer has to do more. She has to promote and market her books. She has to talk about herself and hopefully inspire readers to pick up her book next. She has to be on social media and post and tweet and talk, talk, talk, talk… For a shy individual, this is a very hard thing to do. I try…

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
Here’s something that blew me away. The fictional characters in stories I write have a lot more power over their fate than I thought they would (or should). I always knew that stories changed when they were written down in a tangible form. That’s true for paintings too. What’s in my head is not necessarily going to be what’s on paper. But it surprised me the extent to which characters take on a life of their own. Oh I can try to push them in the direction I thought I wanted them to evolve, but it never works out. When I push, the characters rebel. When a hero of the book is well-drawn, she doesn’t allow the writer to pull strings for her. And so the story tends to change…sometimes drastically. Is that just my writing quirk? I don’t know. Perhaps other writers fight with their characters too. Somehow I think it is a very common phenomenon.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I first thought I was going to be a children’s book illustrator. Then I was “taught” a thing or two. I freaked out and double majored in math and astrophysics, working at NASA while still in college. I decided that I wanted to be an astronaut. But I was a girl, and soon after graduation I was runover by a car and now have to use a cane to walk. I don’t think these should have been showstoppers. I still wanted to go into space. But then I get to do that by writing about it. I go farther in my books than I can in any of the latest rockets. So I’m living my dream, right?

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
Read more. Review more books. As readers, we have an incredible power to shape the societal discourse. By shining light on ideas and characters, we can change the direction of the world. There are books that changed my life…again and again. It is incredible that a story can make such an impact. I feel grateful every time I find another amazing book. And as soon as I do, I tell everyone about it. Perhaps they will be just as taken and fall just as much in love with it as I did. It is an incredible power.

Thank you for being a guest on my blog!

Thank you! This was a very thoughtful interview. I loved your questions. I am grateful for the ability to talk about my stories. I hope my answers have been interesting enough to read some of my stories!

Links:

Author’s Site | Facebook | Twitter | Amazon Author | Amazon book

Thanks for being here today!

a Rafflecopter giveaway