TBT: Has it only been four years?

      Leave it to Facebook to remind me that just four years ago on this date, Oct. 15,  I was featured at an Author Fair in Joliet, Illinois.I reconnected with friends from the 1980s and sold 24 copies of my first mystery, Great News Town.
     As I prepare for tomorrow night's book signing at The Bookman in Grand Haven, I am astounded that this all began only four years ago. Since then I have released two more books in the Jordan Daily News mystery series -- One Shoe Off and Full Moon Friday. I have received recognition from Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Awards and the Writer's Digest Self-Published Awards.
      And I have attended more book signing events than I care to count in Illinois, Michigan and Florida. The signings often require a lot of preparation and promotion and get in the way of the real work of writing.
       Four years? That's the standard length of a college program, and I can testify that these years have indeed been an education. Self-publishing is a whole career unto itself. But there is no graduation, no degree that says sufficient learning has been completed. Writing is a continuous learning process, ever changing and growing. I'm excited to see what the next four years will bring!