Research assistance required!

Chapter 7 is done – and (cue frantic touching of wood) without the usual crisis.  That may be because I have been writing this book in clumps of two or three chapters at a time in between other projects and still haven’t got any momentum going yet, in spite of feeling sick about looming and colliding deadlines.

But I’m liking my hero, an uptight economist, and especially my heroine, Clara, whose quirk is an unlikely obsession with old musicals.  To get myself in the mood, I downloaded 100 Greatest Musicals from iTunes (my first successful download!) and have been listening as I write.  It’s amazed me how many of the songs I recognise and can sing along with.

I am practically word perfect on The Sound of Music, which I first saw in 1968 at a drive-in in Papua New Guinea.  It was the first and only time I’ve ever been to a drive-in, and the words and the pictures weren’t quite aligned, so it wasn’t the best of introductions, but at nine, I wasn’t that bothered. I must have seen it on the television a few times since then, but I don’t remember it particularly, and yet now I’m singing songs which aren’t even on the download.  I have confidence … I am sixteen going on seventeen … How do you solve a problem like Maria? … You name it, I can warble along with it.  Just call me Julie.

Worryingly, I can also singalonga to My Fair Lady, The Jungle Book, Gigi, Oklahoma! and even The King and I, which I am certain I have never seen. I am finding it all a little disturbing, as if I have let loose a hidden Julie Andrews.  Quite apart from anything else, it is SO uncool.  It might be endearing in my heroine, but I can’t tell any of my friends.

My lack of sophistication aside, I’m also concerned that no one else will get the references to The Sound of Music.  I’ve assumed that the reason I know the tunes is that this is an iconic film whose songs have somehow permeated general consciousness, but am I right?

If I’m wrong, I’m going to have to rethink the entire story, or at least bring myself up to date with some more modern musicals.  I suppose Clara could be a fan of Mamma Mia! but I feel a bit ho-hum about that.  Somehow The Sound of Music is right for her, but there’s no point if no reader is going to get it.

So come on, ‘fess up.  If I started singing Climb every mountain, would you be able to join in?  Does a Captain and seven children mean anything to you?  I’d particularly like to know if you are in your twenties/thirties! 

Up for grabs

In return for your research assistance, I’ll feed the names of anyone who posts into my computer and run a highly advanced random identification programme (otherwise known as eeny-meeny-miny-mo) to select a winner, who can have a choice of any of my spare books here (an assortment of past titles) or the first copy of Ordinary Girl in a Tiara when it arrives.

Thanks!  I’ll just off to slip back into my dirndl skirt and run over a few mountains … ‘So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodby-ye …’