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Playback
Witty, touching, and insightful, Playback revisits the 17-year-old Mari Caldwell of Shine Until Tomorrow, now 34, to tell the story of a woman obsessed with the past who must risk the future to learn to live in the present
“Once upon a time there was a summer.”
That’s the way the bedtime story starts, the one Mari Caldwell tells her little girl. It’s also her secret story of waking up one day in San Francisco, 1967, having time-traveled to the tie-dyed Summer of Love.
But she was seventeen then. Now, at 34, where Mari once saw 60’s idealism, she now sees only disillusionment. Newly divorced and stuck in a settled-for career, Mari’s failed at giving her child the perfect family she’d envisioned. That weird weekend in the sixties— the rock band she crashed with, the musician she loved, the hit song he wrote for her— lives in the way-back of her mind. Did it even happen? She’s not so sure… Until it happens again.
Playback rewinds Mari’s life as she makes a second visit to Haight-Ashbury in 1967, now autumn. The band, Mari’s rival, and her first love all see the 17-year-old girl they met in June. But inside, adult Mari faces both tender and devastating choices. What if, regardless of how the times have a-changed, love changes everything after all? What if it even changes her?
“Once upon a time there was a summer.”
That’s the way the bedtime story starts, the one Mari Caldwell tells her little girl. It’s also her secret story of waking up one day in San Francisco, 1967, having time-traveled to the tie-dyed Summer of Love.
But she was seventeen then. Now, at 34, where Mari once saw 60’s idealism, she now sees only disillusionment. Newly divorced and stuck in a settled-for career, Mari’s failed at giving her child the perfect family she’d envisioned. That weird weekend in the sixties— the rock band she crashed with, the musician she loved, the hit song he wrote for her— lives in the way-back of her mind. Did it even happen? She’s not so sure… Until it happens again.
Playback rewinds Mari’s life as she makes a second visit to Haight-Ashbury in 1967, now autumn. The band, Mari’s rival, and her first love all see the 17-year-old girl they met in June. But inside, adult Mari faces both tender and devastating choices. What if, regardless of how the times have a-changed, love changes everything after all? What if it even changes her?
216 pages, Hardcover
Published August 12, 2025
2 people are currently reading
13 people want to read
About the author
Carla Malden
8 books12 followersCarla Malden grew up in Los Angeles, California. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from U.C.L.A. with a Bachelor of Arts in English and was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Society for her academic achievement. She worked extensively in the film business, both in production and development.
With her husband, filmmaker Laurence Starkman, she wrote twelve feature screenplays; they also served as rewrite guns-for-hire. The team of Malden & Starkman wrote and produced the short romantic comedy Whit & Charm, which screened at eight major film festivals, including The Hamptons, and won several awards. They also wrote and created a series of Cine Golden Eagle Award-winning Art History films produced in association with The Detroit Institute of Art and The National Gallery.
Along with her father, Academy Award-winning actor Karl Malden, Carla co-authored his critically acclaimed memoir, When Do I Start?, published by Simon & Schuster. "
With her husband, filmmaker Laurence Starkman, she wrote twelve feature screenplays; they also served as rewrite guns-for-hire. The team of Malden & Starkman wrote and produced the short romantic comedy Whit & Charm, which screened at eight major film festivals, including The Hamptons, and won several awards. They also wrote and created a series of Cine Golden Eagle Award-winning Art History films produced in association with The Detroit Institute of Art and The National Gallery.
Along with her father, Academy Award-winning actor Karl Malden, Carla co-authored his critically acclaimed memoir, When Do I Start?, published by Simon & Schuster. "
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 12, 2025
PLAYBACK by Carla Malden is an adult, time travel romance set in the author’s SHINE UNTIL TOMORROW world focusing on thirty-four year old, single mother and photographer Mari Caldwell. PLAYBACK can be read as a stand alone but for back story and cohesion I recommend first reading SHINE UNTIL TOMORROW where Mari’s story of time travel begins.
Told from first person perspective (Mari Caldwell) following dual timelines, PLAYBACK follows newly divorced Mari Caldwell as she ventures back in time to 1967’s Haight-Ashbury where her appearance and actions have changed the course of music history. In 1967, having met and fallen in love with singer/song writer Jimmy Westwood, and his band known as the Neon Dream, a seventeen year old Mari Caldwell influenced a young man, whose life would be forever changed. Struggling wit her own life in the present, Mari discovers that sometimes changing the little things about the past, have a butterfly affect that will change your own life in the future. A few more days with the man she once loved ended when the reality of what was, never was, and Mari returns to her own timeline in an effort to recover some of what she lost. The past will come full circle when the frailty of life ends for one, but the start of a new relationship continues to keep the past alive.
PLAYBACK is the story of one woman’s journey into the past during the ‘Summer of Love’ in the Haight-Ashbury District of San Francisco, a journey that will change the lives of everyone she met. Our heroine will once again meet the family she never knew, as the people and places hold a special spot in her heart and her soul. The richly layered premise is entertaining, enchanting and intriguing story of reflection and introspection; the characters are sassy, spirited yet flawed.
copy supplied for review
Told from first person perspective (Mari Caldwell) following dual timelines, PLAYBACK follows newly divorced Mari Caldwell as she ventures back in time to 1967’s Haight-Ashbury where her appearance and actions have changed the course of music history. In 1967, having met and fallen in love with singer/song writer Jimmy Westwood, and his band known as the Neon Dream, a seventeen year old Mari Caldwell influenced a young man, whose life would be forever changed. Struggling wit her own life in the present, Mari discovers that sometimes changing the little things about the past, have a butterfly affect that will change your own life in the future. A few more days with the man she once loved ended when the reality of what was, never was, and Mari returns to her own timeline in an effort to recover some of what she lost. The past will come full circle when the frailty of life ends for one, but the start of a new relationship continues to keep the past alive.
PLAYBACK is the story of one woman’s journey into the past during the ‘Summer of Love’ in the Haight-Ashbury District of San Francisco, a journey that will change the lives of everyone she met. Our heroine will once again meet the family she never knew, as the people and places hold a special spot in her heart and her soul. The richly layered premise is entertaining, enchanting and intriguing story of reflection and introspection; the characters are sassy, spirited yet flawed.
copy supplied for review
August 23, 2025
"Playback," Carla Malden's marvelous and entertaining follow up to "Shine Until Tomorrow," reunites us with Mari Caldwell, now 34, at a crossroads in her life, aching to return to the "Make Love, Not War" Haight-Ashbury spirit of 1967. Get ready for unexpected twists and turns, romance and suspense, as Mari navigates back in time to revisit the musician she loved at 17, and has never gotten over. The fact the Mari is 34 yet appears 17 in 1967 presents hilarious and heartfelt challenges for this gifted photographer who longs to take pictures of rock stars, not mansions in Marin County. As the magic and music play out in Malden's beautifully written, insightful novel, Mari must decide how to reconcile her past dreams with her present life as a divorced mother. And then there's the question of whether she'll find a way back to her little girl Joni, or get stuck in 1967. A highly relatable story of love and loss, escape and reinvention, as we travel back and forth between memories with Mari Caldwell.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews