The Speculative Fiction Cantina with William J. Jackson and Olga Werby

Today on the Speculative Fiction Cantina we are pleased to welcome writers William J. Jackson and Olga Werby.

William J. Jackson

William J. Jackson

William J. Jackson lives in yesterday and tomorrow. He has only the vaguest awareness of the present, and when he does, he writes. As fan of history, nature, comics and science fiction, Jackson merges these hobbies into the Legacy Universe, his fictitious saga of the denizens of Railroad City, Missouri. When not writing, he travels through time, stares at birds, and works and lives in historic Salem, New Jersey with his darling wife and family.

William's Books:

Down Jersey Drive-shaft (in progress at Wattpad)

An Unsubstantiated Chamber (free ebook here)

Cerulean Rust (free preview here)

Other free ebooks here and here.

William's Links:

Website
Blog
Facebook
Twitter

Olga Werby

I came to United States as a refugee. Science fiction stories, in particular, have always been my preferred escapism. I wrote my first story in elementary school. But being dyslexic, I chose art as a passion to follow…until college, when I switched to math and astrophysics. After graduating from Columbia University, I started a company that developed educational software. Along the way, I earned my masters in Education of Math, Science, and Technology from UC Berkeley and then a doctorate in cognitive science and human computer interaction design. I work with my husband of many decades solving complex product design problems. We work International Criminal Court and an Irish music pub in San Francisco—we have a wide range. In 1995, we developed, produced, and run a collaborative creative hyper-fiction writing project, The Company Therapist (TheTherapist.com). In 2009, we wrote the first version of our science fiction novel about the possibility that we live in a virtual reality world—a novel idea at the time. Since then, we published five novels, three of which we co-wrote together. When I was growing up, I wanted to go into space. Writing science fiction is the next best thing.


I'm interested in humanistic science fiction. What makes us human? How do we learn empathy for others who are very different from us? How do we explore ideas of social justice and human rights in an inspiring and emotionally powerful way? How can science and science fiction about the near and far future inform our decisions today? How can we use stories to help us understand cognitive differences -- autism, schizophrenia, genius, sensory impairment, body differences, social and psychological isolation?

Olga's Books:

Twin Time

Coding Peter; Many Words, One Life Book 2

The FATOFF Conspiracy  (Free here for a limited time)

Olga's Links:

Website/Blog

Facebook

Twitter

Goodreads

LinkedIn

Amazon

B&N

Professional Website

From today's program: White Dwarf Pulsar Discovered.

Listen to today's program at 6:00 PM ET / 3:00 PM PT or in archive here.