The time it was about Three Day Summer

I had just finished reading Three Day Summer when I got the invitation to be part of the blog tour.  I’m a huge music fan and love Woodstock, so I was all over this book.

Before we get to Sarvenaz’s interview, let’s check out the book!

Michael is unsure about most things. Go to college? Enlist in the military? Break up with his girlfriend? All big question marks. He is living for the moment and all he wants is a few days at the biggest concert of the summer.

Cora lives in the town hosting the music festival. She’s volunteering in the medical tent. She’s like that, always the good girl. But there is something in the air at this concert and suddenly Cora finds herself wanting to push her own boundaries.

When Michael and Cora meet, sparks fly, hearts race, and all the things songs are written about come true. And all the while, three days of the most epic summer await them…

Sounds good, right?

1. Where did the idea for Three Day Summer come from?

I’ve honestly been obsessed with the ‘60s since I was about 8-years-old when I discovered the Beatles. The summer I was 12 was the 25^th anniversary of the Woodstock Music Festival and I remember both MTV and VH1 had a lot of programming surrounding it—including a lot of documentaries and specials about the original festival. Something about it really sparked my imagination and never left.

Fifteen years later, I found myself in the neighborhood of Bethel, New York—the site of the original festival—just in time for the 40^th anniversary. There is a wonderful Woodstock museum there full of artifacts and information and I was totally enchanted once again. That same summer, I happened to attend the All Points West Music Festival . . . where it poured rain for three days straight and mud ruled supreme. It made me think a lot about what it must have been like to attend Woodstock.

It only took me a few years to realize that—barring owning a Time Turner or a TARDIS—there was only one way I knew of to make my dream of attending Woodstock a reality . . . and that was to write a story that takes place there.

2. Why do you love Cora and Michael and why should we root for them?

Like most of my characters, Cora and Michael feel very real to me—after all, their voices were constantly in my head for a couple of years! I love Cora for her quiet determination, her self-assuredness, and her sense of responsibility. And I love Michael for his sense of adventure and his passion. I think they are both flawed characters who complement each other’s weaknesses . . . which is what I often look for in a romance (both in fiction and in real life!).

3. What sort of research did you do for this book? There are some things that took place in the book {the army delivering food when it ran out, etc} that made me wonder if it really happened at Woodstock.

I’m not too ashamed to say that the impetus for me writing this book was the research (I know: #nerd). But, seriously, it was some of the most fun I had writing and thinking about a book. I read a ton of books, including a wonderful book of first-person accounts called Woodstock Revisited. I watched movies like Michael Wadleigh’s 1970 documentary Woodstock and Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock. I listened to a lot of music, including as many of the actual setlists as I could find. I visited the Woodstock museum at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts about three or four times (the director of the museum actually helped me vet the manuscript for accuracy too). And I read a ton of articles and watched performances on YouTube. So to answer your question: yes, the U.S. Army really did deliver food via helicopter! (And, yes, the organizers were seriously ill-prepared for the half-million people who showed up to the festival. They had planned for about 50,000 people).

All that being said, what was interesting to me is that despite the fact that this was a fairly recent historical event and that it was very well documented, there were still lots of discrepancies to be found. I sometimes had trouble finding out something even as simple as the order of the artists or their precise setlists. I also know that, inevitably, there will be inaccuracies in the book despite my best efforts. But it was very important to me to try and make it as historically accurate as possible!

4. Describe Three Day Summer in 5 words.

Boy meets girl at Woodstock.

Speed [ish] round:

1. You get the call/email/letter that says you’re being published for the first time. Describe the next 5 minutes.

Honestly, it was a surreal, elated haze. I was at work and ducked into a conference call to take the call from my agent, and then I remember just sitting at my cubicle and feeling lightheaded with giddiness. This was, of course, something I had dreamed about my entire life and it felt entirely unreal that it was really happening. And then I couldn’t figure out who to call or text first!

2. You can only read one book for the rest of your life. What is it?

Oh, gosh. That is brutal. If I’m being held at gunpoint, I think I’d pick Pride and Prejudice. Unless you’d let me get away with picking the Harry Potter series as one book!

3. Who are your favorite swoony boys/girls?

Well, if you’d let me count Mr. Darcy as a boy, he’s get first pick. Also Jamie Fraser (Outlander). Other boys for me would be Noah Shaw (The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer), Logan Echolls (Veronica Mars), and Micah Foster (The Art of Lainey). {Excellent choices.  Noah and Micah are mine, I have proof.}

4. What is the one thing about publishing you wish someone would have told you?

There isn’t too much of a difference between being unpublished and being published. On the “other side,” so to speak, there are still tons of rejections to be had and self-doubt to wade through and the three things that can continue to get you through it are the same in my opinion: passion, determination, and—above all—perseverance.

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Sarvenaz Tash was born in Tehran, Iran and grew up on Long Island, NY. She received her BFA in Film and Television from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. This means she got to spend most of college running around and making movies (it was a lot of fun).

She has dabbled in all sorts of writing including screenwriting, copywriting, and professional tweeting. She currently lives in her favorite borough of her favorite city.

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Huge thanks to Barbara at Blue Slip Media for the invite and to Sarvenaz for taking the time.  Make sure you’re checking out her blog, following her on Twitter, liking her Facebook page and adding all of her books to your Goodreads TBR shelf.

Now.  Haven’t had a chance to get your greedy hands on this book? One winner will get a copy! US only and please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery.  Additional giveaway rules are here.  And be sure to follow the rest of the blog tour for extra goodies {listed below the Rafflecopter}.

**Good Luck!!**

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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May 13th: Mother Daughter Book Club

May 14th: Curling Up with a Good Book

May 15th: The Compulsive Reader

May 18th: The Hiding Spot

May 19th: Adventures of a Book Junkie

May 20th: Proseandkahn

May 21st: The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia

May 22nd: Word Spelunker