A nasty shock at the bookshop

G.P Taylor's new book gave me a nasty shock

Sometimes when happily perusing the children's sections of a bookshop or mooching at latest releases on Amazon I'll see a new novel that makes my heart stop and a horrible feeling spreads over me.

Once it was when I spotted a new children's book set in Madagascar and the second time was today when I saw G.P Taylor's new paperback. I'm sure it happens to lots of other writers - and not just unpublished ones - when you think someone's beaten to your idea, plot or title. There are also a lot of pirate books out there (again I nervously read the blurb on the back) and I sometimes wish I hadn't begun with such a popular, competitive, genre - it wasn't when I started writing mine! (It's all Johnny Depp's fault) Of course I know my book is different from the rest and it could be worse I could have written Dr Midas and the Philosopher's Stone or Dr Midas and the Northern Lights.
G.P Taylor's new book is called Mariah Mundi (The Midas Box) and as you may imagine the first word that jumped out at me was Midas. At three hundred miles per hour the following went through my head - please don't let incredibly successful author G.P Taylor have called his new hero Midas.
I scanned the synopsis with even more speed - and could feel the relief wash over me - it seems The Midas Box is a magician's item.
Of course if someone did beat me to success with a main character called Midas I would be prepared to change my hero's name, but it would be a sad day and I have invested a lot in that name including a website and publicity, not to mention the fact that in my head he is Dr Midas not any other moniker - and imagine all the 'find and replace' work I'd have to do to my manuscripts.

Children love G.P Taylor's stories

* G.P Taylor is a real hero himself to a lot of struggling writers and his latest book (the first in a series of seven) sounds great fun involving magicians, slimy, green dripping walls, an Egyptian sarcophagus and sea-creatures - I'm going to have to buy a copy. He has had incredible success with his childrens books beginning with 'Shadowmancer' which he self-published after receiving lots of rejections. News spread of his talent and Faber reprinted the book which soon hit the bestsellers list.

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