The 10th anniversary of Rare and Precious Things making the New York Times is today. (Thank you Facebook for reminding me about March 5, 2014 and thank you, Katie Ashley for the kind congrats)Making the NYT with a self published title was never easy but much harder to do in 2014 than it had been previously for indies. Between 2012 and 2014 I had four different titles make the Ebook and/or the Combined Print Bestsellers lists in various combos for a few weeks consecutively but I don't really remember that much about the NYT list to be honest. I was honored to be included but much more thrilled that people liked my books and were eagerly wanting to read them....never the list so much. Regardless of sales numbers, the edging-out of indie titles from the heavily curated NYT Bestsellers For the Week Ending __ had already started in March of 2014. It no longer used the sales data from the highest selling books for that week, but rather "curated" the list per their editorial staff's input from traditional publishing's books released that week, and "other considerations" never disclosed to anyone.March 5, 2014 was the final time a book of mine would ever have a spot on the NYT Bestsellers list.But March 5, 2014 is also the 10th anniversary of another event, so very much more precious to me than my book on this list. I can remember exactly where I was and what I was doing on March 5th in 2014.It was during my final days spent with my dad before he passed away just a month later.He was in the hospital on March 5th for renal failure but getting better from the treatment. He was awake and watching me on my phone. He was curious about it and I showed him how I could check my email and go "online" with just my phone. He was always interested in electronic technology. He received cutting edge training for the majority of his WWII service at the Naval Radio School, the first of it's kind in 1943-45. Radar and radio communications was in it's early days of more advanced tech and he was to be training future recruits if the war continued. Thankfully, the war ended and he left the Navy and went to college to became a teacher. Eventually heading up the department of "Technology" at Los Angeles Harbor College . He was a cool dude in his college professor days in the 50's and 60's. Always getting the latest and greatest tech gadget as soon as it came on the market. We chatted about different memories and he told me about his childhood business of repairing radios for his neighbors and how he came to be an in demand radio repairman as an 8th grader. Then, this photo was sent to me from Luna Sol in a message while I was sitting there with my dad. I was busy texting back and forth for a minute and Dad could tell I was preoccupied. "What is it?" he asked.I smiled and explained that my new book I'd released at the end of February had made the NYT Bestsellers list. That my friend had sent me a photo of the list to my phone and I showed him this picture. He put on his glasses and I enlarged the image so he could see my name on there. He looked at it for a minute and then put my phone down and looked at me instead.He smiled at me, his lovely hazel eyes twinkling and said, "I'm really proud of you, daughter."It's one of the most precious memories I have of my dad and it happened exactly ten years ago today. ... See MoreSee Less