Bucket Lists: Guest post by Jo Sparkes, author of The Agben School

Today, I’m happy to welcome Jo Sparkes, author of The Agben School. She’s talking about bucket lists, a fun topic. You can actually find my list here.

Bucket Lists by Jo Sparkes

Now life, for me, is full of mysteries.  Why didn’t the U.S.A. – Germany World Cup Soccer Game end sooner? Or a perfectly clean ten year old boy be sent to his spotless room for twenty minutes and return with grimy hands?

How can a husband expert in making computers stand on their ear not know how to turn on a coffee pot?

But this bucket list concept was a huge mystery. Trying again, I was sharing my latest with Carol. Carol’s the type of friend who’ll laugh at you to your face, and defend you behind your back. A true friend.

She was laughing now. “You’ve got ‘finish your novel’ and ‘repaint the garage’.”

Now I was truly confused. After all, Carol had write a novel on her list. That’s where I got it from. Err – from where I got it. How could it be wrong?

“Because,” Carol told me drily, “I’m an accountant. I dream of escaping the number crunching, of someday creating a whole story that world will fall in love with. For you, that’s your job.”

“If I add, ‘the world will fall in love with?’

“I don’t think so.” Carol sipped her latte. “That’s like me saying I get a Nobel Peace Prize for doing McGravin Hardware Taxes.”

“Is McGravin that screwed up?”

“Don’t change the subject. Your Bucket List isn’t a ‘Honey Do’ thing – it’s dreams, hopes. Didn’t you tell me if you ever hit the NY Times Bestsellers List you’d take a trip to Australia? That’s on your Bucket List.”

“Bestseller?”

Carol rolled her eyes in a perfect slow motion eye roll. I mentally noted the method for use in my next novel.

“Australia!” She leaned forward, really wanting to help.

“Look at my list. There’s seeing a Shakespearean play in England, and here is climbing Mount Etna.”

“Thought you wanted to climb Everest.”

“As I got older, I got wiser. It’s not a list of tasks – it’s a list of dreams. Experiences that you want simply to experience. Solely, completely for your own happiness.”

I’ll confess, her words opened my eyes. A list of good things, things I’d enjoy not having done, but actually doing. Experiencing for the pure pleasure of experiencing. The next week I furiously scribed many delightful ideas.

Try it, I urge you. Make your Bucket List of all the delightful experiences you wish to have. You deserve them.

The next week Carol perused my new Bucket List. Her eyes rolled that roll again, but I refused to be daunted. “That’s a great Bucket List,” I told her proudly.

“The Arizona Cardinals win the Super Bowl?”

“Oh yeah,” I said dreamily.

About The Agben School:

Agben had stood for a thousand years. A mysterious school housing more than students, it was the seat of the powerful Women of Agben, and the center for harnessing the potency of herbs. Few knew all that transpired within the walls.

And now Marra stood at its gate. Friends and support stripped from her, the fragile life she’d built for herself now lay in tatters. And the source of this evil hunted her like a deer culled from the herd.

The gateway before her was her only hope.

For as the city itself crumbled, all depended not on a prince trying to save his people, nor the valiant men who’d brought them this far.

Everything depended on finding a magic powder in the vaults of Agben itself.

Everything depended on her.

For More Information

• The Agben School is available at Amazon.
• Discuss this book at PUYB Virtual Book Club at Goodreads.
• Read Chapter One here.

About the Author

A well-known Century City Producer once said that Jo Sparkes “…writes some of the best dialogue I’ve read.”  Her  body of work includes scripts for Children’s live-action and animated television programs, a direct to video Children’s DVD, commercial work for corporate clients. She won the 2012 Kay Snow award for her screenplay, Frank Retrieval.

She’s written numerous articles for internet sites. As a member of the Pro Football Writer’s Association, she was a contributing writer for the Arizona Sports Fans Network, where she was known for her humorous articles, player interviews and game coverage. Jo was unofficially the first to interview Emmitt Smith when he arrived in Arizona to play for the Cardinals.

She served as an adjunct teacher at the Film School at Scottsdale Community College, and wrote “Feedback  How to Give It  How to Get It” for writers, actors, and other artists.

Her latest book is the fantasy, The Agben School.

For More Information

• Visit Jo Sparkes’ website.
• Connect with Jo on Twitter and Facebook.
• Become Jo’s friend at Goodreads.
• Visit Jo’s blog.
• More books by Jo Sparkes.
• Contact Jo Sparkes.