BESTSELLING AUTHOR BLAKE J. HARRIS AND TECH INDUSTRY'S JOE CHEN TALK VIRTUAL REALITY AND THE EARLY DAYS AT OCULUS
 February 2019

Blake J. Harris and Joseph Chen

I love attending local events at my library here in Burbank, CA.  The Buena Vista Library Branch often invites top authors and filmmakers to discuss their latest creative projects, sell and sign books, and meet with the community.  Young students attended with their parents, getting school credit and meeting authors face to face. 

Blake J. Harris' new book

Recently Blake J. Harris stopped by to promote his new book The History of the Future: Oculus, Facebook, and the Revolution that Swept Virtual Reality.  He chatted with Joe Chen, one of the first employees at Oculus VR about the early days of that company.  Chen worked on the hardware development as Product Lead and led non-gaming developer relations. Chen brought along early prototypes of the VR hardware to show the audience.

The History of the Future book delves into the real-life story of a  teenager named Palmer Luckey, living and working in a camper trailer parked in his parents’ driveway, and how he created a device that could deliver a high quality immersive and affordable virtual reality experience to fellow gamers.  Luckey’s revolutionary device, the Oculus Rift went on to enormous success. 

Within two years, Facebook bought Luckey's company for over $2 billion dollars.

I was sure to get my signed copy of The History of the Future.  It was great to chat with Harris after.  He lives in my old neighborhood in New York City (Astoria).  Small world.

For more about Blake J. Harris, check out his website at www.blakejharris.com

Q & A

Joe Chen one-on-one

While you're at it, check out your library's monthly calendar of events and support these talks with writers, filmmakers and other storytellers.

It's a win/win.

Until next time...

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