James Preller has broken my heart!

So my daughter and I were talking with a friend last night.  We were telling her how I was going to read one of my stories in my daughter's class the following day.  "What's it called?"  She asks.  My daughter answers "Hiccuping Hubert" then describes my story to her.  "Oh!"  She says, "my daughter has a book like that, called Hiccups for Elephant!  It's a story about an elephant with the hiccups and all his animal friends try to help cure him of them!"  My heart sank with her words...the story line was so similar to mine I thought I was going to be sick.

Imagine pouring yourself into a story, revising it countless times, revisiting characters and dialogue and finally coming to a place where you feel it's almost ready, only to discover someone else has already written it!  I mean who does this guy think he is???  Obviously the man's a genius, otherwise he wouldn't have come up with such a brilliant idea of a hiccuping animal...I guess I should be a bit pleased.  At least now I have some affirmation that I am indeed thinking like a children's writer...but it still hurts.

So what's a gal to do?  Being that I know nothing about just about anything, I have no idea if I'm supposed to cease and desist my own story - which if I do say so myself is astoundingly brilliant, or if all's fair in love and literature and I go for it?

First things first, I looked up James Preller's blog to size up the enemy competition...turns out he's pretty funny and I think I may like him...note to self...must read Preller's stuff...I'm thinking of e-mailing him personally and seeing what he has to say for himself, then again, maybe not.  Next I will hunt down this illicit Hiccups for Elephant and see how Hiccuping Hubert stands up to it... Oh this game is on!