Time Travel Train Story

 

My husband and co-writer have just come out with a new book this week! We hope you'll take a look. There's 10% free sampling on Amazon and 20% free sampling on Smashwords.

Here's what it's about:

In this time travel tale, two sisters go back to the 1860s to search for their missing parents who had earlier gone on a time travel trip of their own and decided not to return home, much to their daughters' surprise. The sisters have many adventures during their journey and meet several interesting characters along the way. 

There is a lot of history and research that went into this story--not to mention, a lot of heart and soul. The story takes place during the building of the transcontinental railroad and the world of post-Civil War America. Meant to be enjoyed as a standalone story, this book is part of the Travelers in Time series.

It's available at most of the online bookstores. Here are the buy links for each store:

Amazon

https://amzn.to/3o5qqj8

Barnes & Noble

https://bit.ly/3q1JkcB

Apple

https://apple.co/37e8ImL

Kobo

https://bit.ly/33kWrfe

Google

https://bit.ly/37hHtaW

Smashwords

https://bit.ly/3l3Lcy3

Scribd

https://bit.ly/2J6pM6x

The Summer of Love

I was listening to the radio last night and heard the disc jockey say that it's the 50th anniversary of the summer of love.  For those of you who were alive during that period, what do you remember?  For those of you who weren't even born yet, here's a brief overview of that period when thousands of American teenagers flooded San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district in search of free love and an alternate lifestyle. During the spring and summer of 1967, nearly 100,000 artists, outsiders, activists, Viet Nam protesters, and dreamers converged in San Francisco. Some say they changed the world.

I was a gawky 12 year old living in the shadows of a popular older brother and sister when I first heard about the Monterrey Pop Festival. All the bands I liked played there and some of its more memorable moments happened when Jimmi Hendrix set his guitar on fire and newcomer Janice Joplin blew everyone's mind with her talent, especially Mama Cass of the Mamas and the Papas. The following year, many of the great bands who played at Monterrey came down to my neck of the woods, Costa Mesa, California, and performed on a very hot and dusty summer day at the Orange County Fairgrounds. 

My time-travel novel "The Summer of Love: A Trip Back to 1968" is about that magical time in my life where I attended the concert with my friends, sister, and cousins. 

Here's what readers are saying about this 5 Star Book:

"Excellently written this story is an outstanding tale of the 1960’s with such descriptive detail I felt as though I was really there and living it all through the sisters’ eyes. From the festival, the stores, the cars, the house it’s all there. So amazing step into the photo booth take a flashback and relive 1968 once again."

"Great read, especially if were a "child" of the 60's era."

The Summer of Love:

A Trip Back to 1968

by Louise Hathaway 

Available for $1.99 at the following online stores:

Purchase at Amazon

Purchase at iTunes

Purchase at Barnes and Noble

Purchase at Google Play

Purchase at Smashwords

Purchase at Kobo Books

Jane Austen's Sisters

It's an interesting family dynamic to be a middle sister.  It's like the best of both worlds: I get an older sister to mother and protect me and a younger sister that I can try to nurture and influence, as if she were my daughter.  Before my younger sister died, we had a saying:  "There's no friend like a sister." I'd like to add that "there's no friend like a little sister."  She used to put me on a pedestal--no matter what stupid thing that I would ever do, she always believed in me.  Any book, movie or song I ever liked, my sister would run out and purchase for herself, so that we could "relate" to each other.  I have always done the same with my big sister.  I try to impress her with my knowledge of the music from her "Summer of Love" generation.  Not only have I tried to emulate my older sister: I am her biggest fan.

"What's this have to do with Jane Austen?" you might be asking.  My little sister and I loved Sense and Sensibility.  We often said that I was "sensibility" because of my caution and practicality and she was "sense" with her heady ideas of love.  She told me once, "You want to be safe and secure in love, but I like the roller coaster ride."  Doesn't she sound like Marianne in Jane Austen's book?  There is a scene in the book that my sister and I once talked about: Marianne is critically ill, on the brink of death, and Elinor, at her bedside, totally breaks down.  She practically demands that Marianne stay alive: "Would you break mother's heart?  Would you break mine?" I told my sister that I'd react the same way if anything ever happened to her.  Little did we know that a few years later, our lives would mimic this scene.  My sister was in Intensive Care for six months and I often thought of Marianne when I visited the hospital. Austen's fictional character was spared; but my real life one wasn't.  I wrote and dedicated this book to the memory of my little sister:

Nonsense and Sensibility: A Modern Austen Variation

by Louise Hathaway

$1.99

At Amazon, iTunes, Barnes and Noble, Google Play,

Kobo and Smashwords

1968 Newport Pop Festival

Great read, especially if were a "child" of the 60's era.

The Summer of Love:

A Trip Back to 1968

by

Louise Hathaway

Before Coachella; before Woodstock; there was the 1968 Newport Pop Festival. Join two sisters as they travel back in time to an outdoor rock festival in Costa Mesa, California. Once again, they hear bands such as The Byrds, The Grateful Dead, and The Jefferson Airplane. They hitch-hike back to their childhood home, see and talk to relatives who died years ago, and even run into younger versions of their husbands. Will they ever get back to the present time?  Will they want to?  Find out in this groovy time travel story.

Five Star and Four Star Reviews. Only $1.99.  Available at Amazon, iBooks, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Smashwords, Kobo, and Scribd.

Here's what readers are saying about this book:

"This story is so amazing I didn’t want to put it down afterall who wouldn’t want to go back in time and see loved ones that have passed on. Excellently written this story is an outstanding tale of the 1960’s with such descriptive detail I felt as though I was really there and living it all through the sisters’ eyes. From the festival, the stores, the cars, the house it’s all there. So amazing step into the photo booth take a flashback and relive 1968 once again."

"Great read, especially if were a "child" of the 60's era."

Here's a flyer from the festival (both sides):  

(I was there)

Jane Austen-Inspired Books for only 99 cents

Are you a Jane Austen fan?  She is one of my favorites.  I'm an English Literature Major and, believe it or not, didn't read my first Jane Austen novel until the semester before I received my Master's Degree.  When I announced to my class that I was writing my term paper on Pride and Prejudice, I was surprised by the reactions of my fellow students.  One man dismissively said, "Oh, that's just about a bunch of silly girls who want to get married." A lady in the class said, "I read that in elementary school."  I'm a late bloomer, I guess.

I loved Pride and Prejudice and the 5 sister who inhabit the story.  I'm a middle sister and paid close attention to Mary Bennet, "The Forgotten Sister", as I like to call her.  I don't think Jane Austen was very kind to her and poor Mary was more or less a foil for her beautiful older sisters and silly, boy-crazy younger ones.  There was a lot of room for a writer such as myself to pick up the story of Mary Bennet where Pride and Prejudice left off and show how she develops through the years.  Taking up the challenge, I came up with this novel, "The Forgotten Sister: A Sequel to Pride and Prejudice."  It costs only 99 cents today, exclusively at my publisher, Smashwords.  Just use code RAE50 at checkout to receive it for 50% off.  It's available at Amazon, iTunes, Google Play, Barnes and Noble, and Kobo at its usual price of $1.99.

Click here to purchase at Smashwords for 99 cents.

I've written another book inspired by Jane Austen.  It's entitled "Nonsense and Sensibility: A Modern Austen Variation."  It is a romantic comedy that takes place in modern times.  I've changed the locale from Regency England to Southern California.  I love how Jane writes about the relationship between Marianne and Elinor and Sense and Sensibility was a particular favorite of my younger sister, who recently passed away.  The scene in which Marianne almost dies and her older sister tries to give her the forbearance to keep fighting and not leave her loved ones behind is especially heartbreaking to me.  In my book, I use my experiences of watching my sister pass away, as I noticed the different foibles of her friends who came to visit her at the hospital.  One of her friends set up a "Care Page" so that there would be a central place for friends and family to talk about their visits and provide updates. It was quite the fodder for me to add some social commentary to my book:  the lady who created my sister's care page was very much like Jane Austen's Lucy in Sense and Sensibility and I definitely had her in mind while I was writing my book. I hope you enjoy it.  This book received a very unfair and hurtful review on Amazon, which resulted in my unpublishing it for a few months. I've corrected all the typos that were such a "travesty" to this reviewer and I hope readers will give it another chance.  It is available today at Smashwords for half off.  That's only 99 cents.  Use code RAE50 upon checkout.  It is also available at Amazon, iTunes, Barnes and Noble, Google Play for $1.99.

Click here to purchase at Smashwords for 99 cents

Free Time Travel eBook About the 1968 Newport Pop Festival

Have you ever wished you'd been at Woodstock?  Do you like classic rock from the 60s?  If so, I hope you'll like this humorous time travel fantasy about two sisters who are magically transported back to the 1968 Newport Pop Festival in Costa Mesa, California--an outdoor concert later described as “Orange County’s Woodstock.”  It's received Five Star and several Four Star Reviews.

I'm offering it FREE on Smashwords if you use coupon code MK64C upon checkout.  Offer expires November 4, 2015.  Reviews are greatly appreciated!

The Summer of Love: A Trip Back to 1968

by Louise Hathaway

Purchase at Smashwords

If you don't want purchase it at Smashwords, it is also available at its regular price of $1.99 at Amazon, iTunes, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Kobo, Scribd, and Oyster.  Also available in paperback at Amazon and Createspace.

What is your favorite Jane Austen novel?

I had never read Jane Austen until the semester before I received my Master's Degree in English. Isn't that odd?  What took so long?  I think Jane was a bit looked down upon in the "serious" literature department: I remember how my classmates dismissed Pride and Prejudice as "a story about a bunch of girls wanting to get married."  That's what they said to me when I announced that I wanted to write my research paper on it.

Needless to say, I loved Jane from the very first page of Pride and Prejudice.  I'm from a family of a lot of girls, so the characters and their concerns seem very real to me.  Add to that attraction, I loved everything British:"Masterpiece Theatre," The Rollings Stones, Twiggy, Yardley lipstick--I could go on and on.

Looking back, from where I am in my life right now, I would choose "Sense and Sensibility" as my favorite Jane Austen novel.  To me, it echoed my relationship with my sisters; especially between my younger sister and myself.  She and I would often say about the novel that she was the "Sense" to my "Sensibility": she was the one who went for the bad boys; for the roller coaster ride; while I played it safe in my world of prudence and sensibility.

My younger sister died six years ago.  I often think about Jane Austen's novel as it pertains to her: I remember discussing it with my sister and saying that the scene in the novel where Marianne almost dies is how I would feel towards her if anything ever happened to her.

Unfortunately, my fears came true when my sister, like Marianne in the novel, had a life-threatening illness.  Marianne survived; but my sister did not.  I loved her with my heart and soul and I dedicate my book to her:

Nonsense and Sensibility: 

A Modern Austen Variation

By Louise Hathaway

Available for $1.99 at iTunes, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Kobo Books, Smashword, and Oyster.

Monterey Pop Festival and Woodstock

Back in 1968, many of the musicians who played at the Monterey Pop Festival made their way down to my home town of Costa Mesa, California and performed at "The Newport Pop Festival"--which was later known as "Orange County's version of Woodstock."  I went with my sister and my cousins. I was only 13.  We saw The Byrds, The Grateful Dead, The Jefferson Airplane, Steppenwolf, and Eric Burdon and The Animals, and many more bands.

Drawing upon that experience, I wrote this time-travel fantasy about two sisters from the present time who go to the county fair where the concert had taken place, and are magically transported back to 1968 when they are inside a photo booth.  Their younger selves join the other young hippies who attended the concert, listen to the bands, go back to the house they grew up in, and talk to deceased loved ones again.  They even encounter younger versions of their future husbands. But--will they be able to get back to the 21st century?

The Summer of Love: A Trip Back to 1968

By Louise Hathaway

eBook Available for $1.99 at Your Favorite Online Bookstore

The Summer of Love: A Trip Back to 1968

We've just published a new book:

This hilarious time-travel fantasy is about two sisters who are magically transported back to the 1968 Newport Pop Festival in Costa Mesa, California--an outdoor concert later described as “Orange County’s Woodstock.” Both sisters had attended the festival when they were teenagers. In this book, they once again hear bands such as The Byrds, The Grateful Dead, and The Jefferson Airplane. They hitch-hike back to their childhood home, see and talk to relatives who died years ago, and even run into younger versions of their husbands. In spite of all the fun they’re having, they’re plagued with the question, “How are we going to get back to 2014?”  

It is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple, and most other eBookstores.

It costs only $1.99

It is also available in paper at Amazon.com