Highs In The Seventies
I started writing this novel in early November of 2025. The character Ray just popped into my head one day and I started writing the story on my iPhone. The whole rough draft was written on my phone over the next four months. Surprisingly to me, the story came to an end on April 6th in the afternoon.
By now the novel has gone through numerous readings – over 25 times by myself, and I’ve received invaluable suggestions from my pre-readers. The process amazed me and now it’s finally done!
The novel is set to publish on July 4th – there is a big Bicentennial chapter at the center of the book – so that’s the tie in.
Here is the blurb for the book:
It’s the summer of 1975, and Ray is a man in need of change, but he doesn’t know what to change, or even where to begin.
Ray Hayward is a fifty-five-year-old grocery store manager and a disillusioned conservative living with his wife Carol in Simi Valley, California. After a bout of pneumonia, Ray is filled with a deep anxiety about his mortality, causing him to struggle with insomnia.
Consequently, life becomes a treadmill of work, home, a night of drinking beer, aimlessly watching TV, then a half night of sleep, only to wake at 3:00 AM and toss and turn with death-filled anxiety until sunrise.
That’s when his best friend Harold suggests he try marijuana for his insomnia – opening him up to the world of rock ‘n’ roll music, sparking a new dream, and initiating a season of change in Ray and Carol’s life…
Now – here’s the first chapter!
Click here to order the Papaerback or Kindle version of the book!
