The truth is that The Truth About Parallel Lines was not always the title. Just between us, I am still madly in love with my original title – Love is Like the Color Blue – even though I knew from early on that there were some problems with it. Among other things, including the word “love” might be audience-limiting, and it was too similar to “Blue is the Warmest Colour”, which is the title of a French coming-of-age novel and film from a few years ago.
As I was getting toward the end of the book, once I (finally) had an idea of how I was going to make my way to the finish line, I had to come up with a title for a story within the story,. And there it was, The Truth About Parallel Lines. I mentioned to my sister (my faithful first reader, literally one chapter at a time) that I was actually kind of bummed because I had come up with this great title, but that I’d “given it” to Jenna. Yeah, that’s right. I was jealous of a character in my book because she was going to use my title, and that meant that I couldn’t.
In fact, I could. And I did. We both did. So there.
Here’s the weird thing. Jenna’s book, The Truth About Parallel Lines, is a very different story from my book with the same title. I happen to think it works perfectly for both. But then again, I think that love is like the color blue.
I would love to hear what you think.
