THE LOST SYMBOL and THE LOST SISTER - It must be fate!

Yes, you read it right. Both Dan Brown and I have our highly anticipated novels coming out at the same time. His is called THE LOST SYMBOL. My book is THE LOST SISTER. Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Quite the coincidence, is it not? Some may even call it FATE.

But the similarities do not stop there. Dan Brown and I both live in Massachusetts. Another coincidence, he's from Andover, and so is my father in law. One more freaky fact? His last name is Brown. My mother in law's maiden name is Brown. Can it BE more of a coincidence? I think not.

Let's dig deeper, shall we?

Dan Brown writes about secret religious societies that are murderous and evil. I write about secret cliques of girls that are murderous and evil. Dan Brown's movie starred Tom Hanks. I met Tom Hanks when he was on his honeymoon with Rita Wilson. It's almost freaky how much the stars are aligned on this one.

THE LOST SISTER and THE LOST SYMBOL -- they even sound the same. Say it quickly, three times fast. Can't even tell the difference can you? Come on, SAY IT!

Both of our titles have the same exact number of letters. It's really uncanny, if you think about it.

There's a slight, little, teeny, tiny difference. Dan Brown's THE LOST SYMBOL is currently #1 on Amazon.com. THE LOST SISTER is trailing only slightly behind at the current position of #494,878. Not TOO much of a difference in sales. I mean, if you think about it, the amount printed versus sold is probably the same--if you use that whole geomet--algebraic theorum--er solutions. (So sue me, I was an English major, not a math major. Whatever.) What I'm trying to say is that Dan had 5 million books printed. I probably had closer to 5000 printed. So the ratio of books printed to sold is probably in my favor. Take that, Dan Brown!

But, no, I don't want to start any ill will between me and Dan. We're both writers from Massachusetts. We have that Bay State bond. And I'm pretty sure that he would want people to buy THE LOST SISTER (when they are buying THE LOST SYMBOL, of course) for their teenagers. (It's a YA suspense novel, Dan. Don't worry. I'm not tapping into your market share.) I'll even wager that he and I both saved our WIP (**that's work-in-progress, you know, bestselling writing lingo*** not that I'm a best selling writer, but you get the picture) as TLS. That's what me, my editor and agent called the manuscript as it was sent back and forth over the past year. Good old TLS, right Danny? Yup, pretty cool.

Even our covers are the practically, almost, kind of, a little the same. It's spooky! Like some kind of psychic connection. We have that same color palette of orangey black (you were going for that Halloween connection too, weren't you, Dan?) I mean, yes, Dan Brown's name is very visible at the top of his book. But my name has that sort of blendy feel to it. Like, you don't even need to know the name of the author, you're just drawn in by the cover of the book. It's practically the same cover. I mean, if I weren't such good friends with Dan, I'd think he was trying to copy me and ride my coattails on this book.

No, my friend. I think you have to go this one alone. I have a feeling you're gonna do just fine.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure that Dan Brown is still teaching at Andover and if I'm not mistaken, I think that he put SISTERS OF MISERY and THE LOST SISTER on his required summer reading list! I mean, that's what they all tell me, so it must be true. So, um....if you're in his class I think you were supposed to go out and buy my books and read them or else you get an automatic F for the year. That's just what I've heard. I have no facts or anything to back that up, but I'm just--I'm just here to help, that's all. I'm a helper.

So, Dan, if you'd like to reach out to me...maybe do some local signings in Boston, give me a ring-a-ding. I know that you want to draw a bigger crowd. Or--oh wow, this would be embarrassing-- just in case people show up at your signings thinking that it's for THE LOST SISTER and not THE LOST SYMBOL. How embarrassing for you! I would hate for that to happen. You know what? Just for you, I'll make myself available for any and all signings just in case that happens---no worries! I'm just thinking about what's in your best interest. I'm a giver. That's what I do. I give, I help, I care.

Anyhoo, Dan have your people call my people (or you know, me, I'm not really a big people person....I don't have lots of "people" per se, but you know what I mean) and we can look into this whole freaky fate, coincidence thing. I mean, I'm looking at your book description and I feel like I'm reading about my own book. Just look at what has been said about both of our books "nail-biting suspense," "thrilling mystery," a "page-turner," plus we both feature secret societies, ancient rituals and a brutal kidnapping. We were on the same wave-length or what?

And for those of you doing your little *Google* searches for THE LOST SYMBOL. Once you get to THE LOST S---- stop---take a minute--- turn that Y into an I and take a peek at THE LOST SISTER. You might just be pleasantly surprised. And, don't worry about taking sales away from Dan. What are a few hundred sales to him? Not even a blip on his radar. (Okay, maybe not hundreds of sales, but tens of sales would be nice...hello? anyone? Anyone still out there?)

So Dan, call me. We'll do lunch. :)