Book Spotlight and Giveaway: Summer of Haight '67 by Diane Sager

Summer of Haight 67

by Diane Sager

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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:

“Thank you.  That’s a great compliment coming from the MC, but what exactly are we discussing?  I do lots of business dealings in the Haight, many different avenues. Which one are you referring to?”

“Drugs Frog. We’re referring to drugs.”

“There’s already lots of drugs in the Haight. Are you speaking of grass, uppers, downers, acid? We have it all.”

Sal and Dave looked at each other and laughed.  “No man, not grass, not pills, and not acid,” Dave said.  “You’re right, there’s lots of that in the Haight. There are too many dealers to contend with and not enough money to be made in those drugs. Hell, half the time, the Diggers are giving that shit away free at gatherings. What we’re proposing is much more than grass, and much more profitable.  The Angels want to eventually control the drugs that are going in and out of the Haight and we want to destroy our competition in the process, but that’s a long way down the road.  Right now, all we want to do is to get our foot in the door.  We want to offer something that isn’t readily available.  What we want to know is would you be interested in a marketing agreement with the MC? The market right now is small, but with a little help it will eventually replace all the other drugs in the Haight. What we’re talking about is heroin.  Black tar heroin from Asia. We happen to have a connection that will never dry up.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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

How did research play a role ?  

Summer of Haight ‘ 67 – By Diane Sager

Summer of Haight ’67 took me 15 months to complete, and research was a way of life during that time. It’s the most intense and yet the most rewarding research I have ever done. I think of it as one huge history lesson. Thank the Gods for Google and YouTube!

It’s a supernatural time-travel book of sorts which involves a 66 year old KATHERINE RHODES getting into a tragic accident that hurls her back in time to 1967. She wakes up back in her 20 year old hippie body in the Haight/Ashbury district of San Francisco. As many of you know, 1967 in the Haight/Ashbury became known around the world as “The Summer of Love”  She gets to re-live this era of hippies, free love, drugs, music, politics and protests, with a wealth of knowledge and the opportunity to right some wrongs. I can’t say more here without giving away some of the story!

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 listened to music from the late 60’s constantly, particularly the psychedelic era. 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, The Charlatans, Country Joe and the Fish,  to name but a few. There are Hells Angels, Black Panthers, political unrest and a horrific war in Vietnam. I wrote and researched constantly during the 15 months it took me to complete it. I wore hippie clothes and I   even found myself saying 60’s words. I stopped at the drug scene though. It’s just not my bag!

I also have some first-hand experience to back up my research. As a very small child my parents drove me through the Haight district to look at the “freaks” as my Dad called them. I saw them dance around adorned with flowers and beads, obviously high as a kite but I didn’t know that at the time!

Janis Joplin is in my book a lot and I watched as much video footage of her and her band as I could find. There is some awesome footage on YouTube of her singing at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. My husband and I even visited the fairgrounds in Monterey to get the feel of the place. I read every book I could find on Janis Joplin. I also read Peter Coyote’s “Sleeping Where I Fall” based on the same period in time. Peter co-founded “The Diggers”, a radical left wing community action group whose vision was a society free from buying and selling. Among other things, they fed and provided free medical care to the homeless hordes of hippie drop-outs in San Francisco in 1967. There’s much more about them in the book.

I’m also lucky enough to still 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 and the Grateful Dead lived. We drank in the Dogpatch saloon near the Hells Angels HQ. On another occasion my daughter and I rode the bus from the top of Haight Street to the Hells Angels house, all in the cause of authenticity. KATIE and her friends FROG and MOONBEAM travel this route in my book to attend a Hells Angels party.

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” 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.

Thank you so much for allowing me to explain my research. I loved it all. So much so that I am planning a second visit back in time to a very monumental piece of 60’s history featuring some of the same characters.

GIVEAWAY:

 $15 Amazon or B/N GC

a Rafflecopter giveaway