How did I get here?

I had always just browsed in the good Atlanta and Chattanooga bookstores for my next good book. I only discovered Goodreads when someone brought to my attention that there was a short story there someone had written that sounded very similar to a story I had lived through and was trying to write about.
I had pretty much given the story away to any true-crime documentaries, podcasts and articles in national publications that came asking, so I shouldn't have been surprised. I guess it was the fact that the title that I had chosen, and one that I had suggested to New Line Cinema when they optioned my true story, was used by that writer, and that set me off.
I'm embarrassed now to think about how I reacted. There's no copyright in titles, and the writer changed our names, and it was only a short story. I have since apologized for my initial reaction, and wished that writer well. Live and learn.
The happy ending of the story is that the sensation of something very close to me being taken away inspired me to sit down and write. My first book, "Zenith Man: Death, Love, and Redemption in a Georgia Courtroom," will be published in February, 2024 as a lead title by Citadel (Kensington Publishing). As I wrote in Goodreads, I'm taking my story back!