Great minds think alike?

I stumbled upon a blurb in today’s Chicago Sun-Times that best-selling author Sue Miller (whose Inventing the Abbotts became a major motion picture) will be making an appearance in Chicago on Sunday to tape a radio show for WFMT-FM (98.7) that’s called “Writers on the Record.” But that’s not what grabbed my eye. What captured my attention is the title of Miller’s latest novel, Lost in the Forest. Sounds strikingly, if not hauntingly, familiar, doesn’t it?

As my limited number of faithful readers know, a little over three years ago I embarked on a journey to try and get my first novel, some four years in the making, published. That novel, of course, is titled Lost in the Ivy. The road to publishing was a decidedly bumpy one with many twists and turns along the way.

And now, with Lost in the Ivy on the verge of being released by an independent publisher, I have encountered another fork in the road. There’s another novel with a nearly identical title from a major publishing powerhouse and big-name author.

So, I’m left to wonder, is this latest twist of fate in my long trip through the publishing foliage a positive one or a negative one. I guess I can only hope that even a few of those who find their way out of Miller’s Forest will take a side excursion into my Ivy.