SERENDIPITY – FOR THE ACCIDENTAL WIN

This being Pride Month, I thought I’d share a little story.

I picked my trilogy title – PRIDE’S CHILDREN, some years before I published the first book in the trilogy, Pride’s Children: PURGATORY, in late 2015, after several other possibilities.

My title referred, among other things, to the sin of hubris, the pride in having children and what we do for it, and even to the concept of a pride of lions – and cubs – which worked well for the themes in the books. Many things came together and snapped into place – and I locked it in, thought about how to illustrate and use it, and looked up biblical quotations which had relevance (and which I’ve used as chapter epigraphs and/or titles in both volumes so far).

It took me so long to finish WRITING it that when I went to publish, another book had been published with that TITLE – and I was nonplussed for a little while because I might have already even done a cover reveal of Pride’s Children: PURGATORY by then.

And my investigations showed that, no matter how precious or unique, TITLES cannot be copyrighted, per se.

But then I thought about it

And realized that I was perfectly happy to SHARE. So it wasn’t a race to the finish against other authors, but a way to preserve things like titles so that everyone could use them.

And, of course, that readers are smart, and can handle this, and might even be amused or touched (for example, there are a whole lot of titles that include ‘Children of Pride’ in them – from biblical and religious subjects through families named ‘Pride’ and into gay titles) without, I hope, the similarity being a problem for any of us except maybe some extreme right wing Evangelicals who forget Who made us all (and for whom I pray they be enlightened).

I just checked, and THAT BOOK is still available on Amazon (though Konnor doesn’t seem to have written other books).

That book is Pride’s Children

I also realized it has long been time for ALL of us to take a stand

Privately, for most of us; publicly now whenever NOT saying something indicates to the wrong people that we AGREE with the prejudice that is being shown throughout our nation and the world that gives ANY of us the right to condemn another human being for who they were born and have no control over, or how they choose to worship (or not).

This is mine: Happy Pride Month!

I believe MY readers will be firmly in my camp – you don’t read my kind of fiction, from a very LIBERAL DEMOCRATIC CATHOLIC WOMAN writer if you are not.

Even Bianca I believe would agree – if you’ve read, you’ll know why.

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