Summer of Haight 67

Summer of Haight 67

by Diane Sager

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BLURB:

KATHERINE RHODES has a tragic accident which sends her back in time. She wakes up as the 20 year old hippie she was back in 1967 in the Haight/Ashbury district of San Francisco. This was the period known globally as the “Summer of Love”. It’s all here, Hippies, Hells Angels, Black Panthers and the abhorrent war in Vietnam. “KATIE gets the chance to re-live this era with her friends FROG and MOONBEAM. This time she knows what to expect and tries to change things……….. Can she ?

EXCERPT:

Feeling dizzy, she shut her eyes and rubbed her temples for several minutes, running through the accident in her mind.  She remembered going down the embankment and hitting the tree.  She knew she had been in an ambulance and she remembered a slew of doctors surrounding her. Yet here she was sitting on a couch…somewhere familiar, a place she knew but couldn’t recall.

A brown chenille bedspread covered the couch.  There was a basic wooden coffee table, several antique lamps, one in the corner and another on an old table by a beveled window. The hardwood floor of the room was covered by an imitation Persian carpet.

The walls and even the ceilings were filled with posters; old bands like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Big Brother and the Holding Company, the Yardbirds, and even the Monkees.  Some were drug related, promoting marijuana, mushrooms and LSD.  Others were political, protesting the Vietnam War, even including a caricature of Lyndon B. Johnson dressed as John Wayne. 

On the ceiling directly above her was a poster of Clint Eastwood draped in a poncho, cigar resting on his lip. A pose from For a Few Dollars More.  She knew the film well.  Beside it were several blacklight posters, psychedelic peace symbols, a hookah smoking caterpillar, and an assortment of twirling colorful designs.

The television, an old tube model from yesteryear, was in a wooden cabinet covered by stickers: STP; two local radio stations, KLIV and KFRC; Champion spark plugs; bare feet and peace symbols of various colors. Beside that was a flower painted guitar case that leaned against the wall. Everything in the room was familiar. She knew this house. She had been here many, many times, so why couldn’t she remember whose house she was in?

A WORD FROM THE AUTHOR;

1.What's the best and worst part of being an author?

Like any job, there are high points and low points. I was a high school teacher of emotionally disturbed and high risk children so I’ve shared some ups and downs with my students. But now, I am lucky enough to create my own little world on paper, making up people and places and things. I can go anywhere I want and let my imagination run free. I bond with my characters, and there are ones I will always have close to me. It’s hard when they have to die if I’m writing a nice gory zombie story!

When I’m not writing fiction and I need facts, I find that my research is very rewarding. I can learn stuff every day and share it with my readers. I LOVE that.

But the greatest reward of all is holding that finished book in my hand. It feels surreal and hard to describe. And when I know people are reading it and enjoying it and even writing a complementary review about it, it’s a very special feeling.

On the other side of the coin, it can be a lonely life. Oh, I have my dogs and cats around me every day as I write and I look forward to my husband coming home, but I have to have that self-discipline to make myself write that next chapter or create that next character. I can never get off the clock, characters and storylines are always in my head and I make notes all the time.

I hold myself to a high standard and when I don’t accomplish as much as I should I am critical of myself. I’m guess I’m just a crazy writer!

2.Which book of yours is your favorite? Why

My favorite book so far is my SUMMER OF HAIGHT ’67.  In a nutshell, a tragic accident in 2014 sends an unhappy lady back in time to 1967. She wakes up back in her 20 year old hippie body in the Haight/Ashbury district of San Francisco. She gets to re-live this era of hippies, free love, drugs, music, politics and protests, with the opportunity to right some wrongs.  See, I said it was a nutshell !

It’s all fiction but I wanted the setting to be 100% authentic. I immersed myself in the 60’s hippie culture and spent hours and hours on research. The book is factually correct. I even bought a record player (remember those?) I got my old LP’s out and bought even more from eBay…….. Grateful Dead, Big Brother & the Holding Company, Jimi Hendrix, to name but a few. There are Hells Angels, Black Panthers and a horrific war in Vietnam. I wrote and researched for 15 months. I listened to the music and wore hippie clothes. I even found myself saying 60’s words. I stopped at the drug scene though. It’s just not my bag!

I’m lucky enough to live less than an hour away from San Francisco so my husband and I would go there and see where Janis Joplin or Jerry Garcia lived. We drank in the Dogpatch saloon near the Hells Angels HQ. My daughter and I rode the bus from the top of Haight Street to the Hells Angels house, all in the cause of authenticity. I wanted to take my readers back nearly 50 years and be sure it was authentic, especially those that are too young to have been there. Even the weather is accurate in the book – I checked.

There’s a saying, “if you can remember the 60’s you weren’t really there” I think it was quoted by Paul Kantner of Jefferson Airplane.  I take my readers back to the real deal so they WILL remember it.

Soooooooooo, it was fun to research, fun to write and so far it’s fun seeing people enjoy it and tell me about it.

3.What are your favorite authors in the genre that you write?

I write horror/zombie/apocalyptic stories as D.S. Sager and I am fortunate enough to have my EVIL VEIN series published. Volume one is EVIL VEIN – Dark Beginnings and the sequel is EVIL VEIN – Divide & Multiply. I have promised to make this a trilogy but number 3 is not started yet. In this genre I really love Rhiannon Frater and David Moody. They have both written epic zombie thrillers and I hope to be up there with them one day. But the queen of horror in my opinion has to be Anne Rice. Her Vampire Chronicles and Mayfair Witches books are just great.

4.Which of your characters is most like you?

None of them, all of them….I don’t really know. There is no character that I have created that I can point to and say “that’s me”. Any metaphysical character I create has some of me in them because I know so much about the subject. I studied Wicca so I know spells and witchcraft and Tarot and I have used that knowledge in my books.

I guess there are little pieces of me in lots of them. Some of my people have a stubborn side, a reclusive side and an unruly side. I can be opinionated and offer advice where I think it’s needed…….just ask my husband.

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Author Diane Sager was raised and resides in the San Francisco Bay Area with her awesome husband Russ, three dogs, two cats and an African grey parrot named Storm. She holds a fascination for all things macabre and has developed a deep knowledge of serial killers, vampires, zombies, the Tarot, world religions, witchcraft, horror and the occult.

However, her latest indie release, SUMMER OF HAIGHT ‘67 is none of the above albeit a little supernatural……..This story is nestled between her zombie series “EVIL VEIN” published by Permuted Press and penned under her “apocalyptic” name of D.S.Sager

A former high school teacher of emotionally disturbed and high-risk youth, Diane is now dedicated to full time writing.

Contact her at celticdi@gmail.com, @celticdi on Twitter, www.evilvein.com, Author – Diane Sager on Facebook.

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Summer-Haight-67-Diane-Sager/dp/0692298215

The author is giving away a $15 Amazon/BN gift certificate to one randomly drawn winner. Use the rafflecopter link below to enter. You can find her schedule at http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2015/01/vbt-summer-of-haight-67-by-diane-sager.html

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