My Book Bucket List

Has anyone seen the movie The Bucket List? It sounds like a really great premise for movie. Two terminally ill men travel the globe with a list of things to do before they kick the bucket. The movie has gotten mixed reviews from critics. But, how bad can it be with Morgan Freeman, who I've adored since he was Easy Reader on the Electric Company, and the always fab, if a little over the top, Jack Nicholson. If you've seen it, let me know what you thought. My own Bucket List is still a work in progress. But I do have a Book Bucket List, books I've always meant to read and hope to read one day before I kick. So without further adieu, and in no particular order, here is my (partial) Book Bucket List. I say partial because it's growing everyday!


Love in the Time of Cholera
The Hobbit
The Coldest Winter Ever
What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day
Push
Invisible Man
Memoirs of a Geisha
Eat, Pray, Love
The Other Boleyn Girl
The Emperor of Ocean Park
Nowhere is a Place
The Darkest Child
The Neon Rain
Angels and Demons
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
1984
Going Down
Mixed: my life in black and white
Naked Lunch
Addicted

Enjoy!
Angela

Your signature here?

I received my second contract from my publisher this weekend. At a preliminary glance, it looks fine. But I'll give it a much more thorough review before signing it and sending it back.

I have an agent, and she's great. She's already resolved one concern we had about the contract. My publisher wanted to expand its option - or first right of refusal - clause. My agent and I weren't comfortable with the addition and she got the publisher to remove it.

Although I have a great - and obviously very thorough - agent, it's still imperative I carefully read the contract myself. After all, it's my signature on the document. It's my career that will be affected by whatever I sign.

It's important every author read their contracts carefully themselves. Don't depend on other people to interprete it for you. Listen to the little voices that may be whispering warnings in your ear. Put your sensors on high alert for unclear wording. Question anything and everything you don't completely understand. Above all, remember there are no stupid questions when it comes to your career and your money.

I always find it somewhat dismaying when an author says she didn't understand a particular contract clause but signed the contract anyway. Or when an author says she signed a contract without reading it herself. It doesn't matter if it's your first contract or your 21st. We didn't work this hard to get this far in our writing careers only to sign it away.

Patricia