Contract help?

Hey all - I suspect this is one of those "talk to a lawyer, Liz!" questions, but I'll ask anyway.

I am currently without an agent, but I've just received a contract for a short story. A lot of it seems straightforward, but there's a whole section that seems to be related to producing a film (a "just in case we want to" section, I'm assuming), and some of the terminology is pretty foreign to me. And I've no idea if the terms are typical or not.

My mom's a retired lawyer, so I hate signing something I don't completely understand.

Does anybody have any pointers/resources/web pages with some background on this stuff? Anybody have a lawyer I could email in a panic?

Thank you, both of you.

Old Hack said:

If you're a member of the UK's Society of Authors they give free contract advice to their members. I suspect there are similar author organisations in the US that would do the same.

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I think the closest we have is Writer Beware.

Old Hack said:

I'd probably strike out the clauses relating to film unless they have a record of publishing stories which are later made into fabulous films.

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It's a whole separate contract, which makes me think it may've been included by mistake. I've reached out to the acquiring editor, who's going to check for me.

So just to give you folks some closure on this:

I talked to some knowledgeable folks, and I went back and asked for a few changes, to which they said, "Sure, makes sense, no problem!"

And I signed a few minutes ago. So I guess I sold a thing!

Thanks for all the support, everyone. AW is wonderful.