I owe a draft to my editor on Monday, so I've been sunk into the mire and amazement of 1966. I'll be tweeting, and on facebook, for brief updates. In the meantime -- here's how I start HANG THE MOON, book two of The Sixties Trilogy:
Oh, my!! Look at the SUIT! And look how composed he is, for a song that's so JOYFUL! Here are a couple more listens (love this one, that is so obviously overdubbed, but so FUN, even though Crispian seems to be at a loss just how to deal with all those screaming girls, not to mention a conga line!) that are a bit more animated, but still -- is it being a Brit, or is it just Crispian St. Peters? No matter, I LOVED this song. And I love being able to FINALLY write about the British Invasion, which had not happened yet in Countdown, in 1962.
Crispian, born Robert Peter Smith, died earlier this year after suffering a stroke. He was 71. In this song, he will always, always be a young, mop-headed Brit of 27 who was totally surprised by the fame that snuck up on him.
I listened to this song, as a 45rpm on my blue record player, over and over, as a 13-year-old kid. My kids in HANG THE MOON are 13. They are listening to not only this song in 1966, but also to The Rolling Stones singing "Satisfaction," and Barry Sadler singing "The Ballad of the Green Berets" -- number ONE in 1966.
WHOA. I have my work cut out for me -- wish me luck.
xoxo
I have no doubt you will meet your deadline. We will follow you because you are the pied piper - with great anticipation of #2.
ReplyDeleteThank you, June. What a lovely thing to say. I am on deadline for book two now -- back to it!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely love Countdown, bought copies for friend's children and for myself. Looking forward to the next two...will be first in line!
ReplyDeleteBUT....please, please convince someone to do a CD of the songs for each of the books in the trilogy! As an adult of more or less the right age, I recognize them all, but the children of today...not so much. Would love to be able to purchase cds to go with the books!
Hey, Susan. What we have right now, and it will have to do for now (le sigh) is an iMix on iTunes of all the songs, speeches, poems, etc. mentioned in Countdown. There are 46 of them. Folks can purchase just one, or several, or the entire mix, at iTunes. You can find the line for this at the front page of the blog: www.deborahwiles1.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteMaybe one day it will be available to all, but that's a very expensive proposition for a publisher, and we've already come a long, long way in permissions with all the material in the book. I feel lucky in that regard! Hope this helps.
Deborah Wiles