Inspired by BookEnds’ recent posts on bucket lists, I got to thinking: what’s on your literary bucket list? What are you hoping to do by the time you kick the ole’ bucket and write query letters in the sky? (Just kidding, there are no query letter in heaven. That’s why it’s heaven.)
Here’s my stab:
1. Finish that novel I’ve been trying to write in various forms since college.
2. See someone reading one of my books on the subway.
3. Re-read Moby-Dick on the way to whale watching in New Zealand.
4. I will have many leather bound books and my apartment will smell of rich mahogany.
That’s all I can think of for now. I’m sure I’ll add more.
What about you?
1. Complete my Abraham Frost series (Book 1 went on sale last week – hooray!)
I see this as quite likely, Lord willin' an' the crik don' rise.
2. Get my Second Coming novel finished and out there
Again, quite possible
3. See Abraham Frost in movie form
Well now, we're in lottery win territory now, aren't we?
4. Appear on the Graham Norton show
Yeah, I know. Pipe dream, but gotta have 'em
I have so many books I feel I need to read. I mean, there's just no excuse for me not reading Infinite Jest by now. So, yeah
1. Read Infinite Jest, dammit.
2. Publish at least 5 books.
3. Do an Anne of Green Gables tour of Prince Edward Island.
4. Read at Powell's in Portland and Prairie Lights in my home of Iowa City, IA and Books on First in my childhood hometown of Dixon, IL.
5. Make a research related visit to Norway and Iceland. Yep, research.
6. Drink Mint Juleps some summer day at a fancy hotel in New York City.
7. Visit the Plaza Hotel for high tea and pretend I live there.
8. See Margaret Atwood speak.
9. Explore the Portland forests that inspired Wildwood.
10. Travel to Finland and visit the Moominhouse.
11. Have a reason to hang out with Amy Krause Rosenthal.
Hmmm, let's see if I can make this succinct enough to fit into a comment.
1. Connect with an agent who enjoys my writing.
2. Publish a novel.
3. Finally complete writing novel that I've already technically completed. And completed again. And again.
4. Have a home with a dedicated office/library that I can fill with books.
5. Have enough money to buy as many as I'd like instead of relying so heavily on the library.
C. S. Lewis managed to be best seller for decades without ever seeing anyone reading one of his books in public. He thought it might be a lesson in humility!
Do tell us more about the novel in number (1) some time.
1. Time to write
2. Find a few readers who like my words
3. Rinse and repeat
Write that book about my mother.
Write that book about my scagbag ex.
Do research in Paris. Yes, research! And follow Robert Langdon's footsteps to the Louvre.
Have dinner with Michael Connelly.
I'm worried about what will happen to all my written material: ph research,chapter drafts, research,story drafts, journals, correspondence, research, copies, rewrites journalism, etc.
To be published by Scribner's, or Algonquin Books, which now seems to have the crack editors willing to take risks that Scribner's, under Maxwell Perkins, was known for.
And to have my fiction be widely read, reviewed, and enjoyed.
Best,
Terin