The irony is that S.E. Hinton's would-have-been DS novel was rejected for many of the same reasons a lot of DS fans don't like the Lara Parker DS novel--- Multiple and in some cases, objectionable sexual and body function references, interference of the the outside world in some pure "Brigadoon" of the DS-verse (though this doesn't bother ME particularly), strong lauguage, behavior unbecoming to DS characters according to what we have been accustomed on the older program, drug usage....
The difference being that this "Mary Sue",-- or Sue (S.E.'s real given name), thanks to her previous repute as a writer, was able to "file off the serial numbers" as they say (though with uneven results) and submitted it as HAWKES HARBOR, which, apparently, was a modest bestseller in spite of mixed reviews--- not bad for a formerly prominent writer who was out of the business for over a decade.
I didn't care for some of the obvious mistakes or changes Ms. Parker made to canon which should have been very quick and easy to correct--- just ask a fan!--- thus freeing up more time for her historical research, which appears to have been accurate enough. However, in addtion to DS, I have read much from Ira Levin, the late Tom Tryon, and earlier in his career, Stephen King, all of whom have mixed modern-day dilemmas with tradtional horror / suspense themes, and whose characters move between these worlds. There is some genuinely decent, genuinely fan-written DS fan-fiction, both online and for sale, that does the same.
Perhaps with more stringent editing (all that leaf activity) and more input from DS fans who seem to have a FAQ database in their brains, this could have been a better book. But it's not that horrible--- I'll probably read it again to pick up anything I missed the first time..