My greatest critic is...

...my mother! Yesterday, she received her copy of The Power of Persuasion and sat down and read it from cover to cover TWICE!

That has to be a first! She said, "You know the part I liked the best?" LIKED THE BEST! She actually liked something I wrote!!!!! This is my mom (and me!)

Ah Shelagh, your mum is lovely! And clearly brilliant. After all, we are our own harshest critics, so it's nice when mum can take a different role. Woohoo!!

I think you should change the title of the thread...to your biggest fans! I think Power of Persuasion is brilliant and would highly recommend it.

Shelagh,
what a lovely picture. I think all of us are most appreciative of praise coming from our parents. I no longer have that privilege but I have fond memories.

Your mom has the same, kind smile you do, Shelagh.

One of my favorite pictures is of me and my mom at a book signing. I know it is one I shall treasure always.

Rhett is right, you both have that winning smile!

Thanks Pam, Jenny, Abe, Rhett and Zada! You've got to laugh haven't you?

Just wanted to share a picture of my mom and me goofing off around the holidays.

Thanks, Shelagh, for the instructions!

What a fun person your mom is Rhett! I bet you had a great time growing up!

What a wonderful photo, Rhett!

Rhett,
now I know where you got your mischeviousness. It shows in your mother's eyes. She must be a fun person.

You betcha.

Plus, she's really a blast now that a bit of age has set in and her filters are "off".

I have to admit that I mostly enjoy my filter free parents, too. Mostly.

I'm afraid my mother was not thrilled. Touchy subject matter, and possibly a generational problem with 'airing dirty linen'. But the rest of my family and friends who have read it were overflowing with praise. My English Aunt told me my 'mother must be so proud', but I didn't have the heart to tell her that Mom was less than ecstatic.

I think perhaps I am my toughest critic.

I find it interesting that our closest relatives are often less than enthusiastic about our success/accomplishments. That excludes parents for the most part.

My parents have both passed away but I still have some very close writing friends who join me in the "honesty is the best policy" theory relative to discussing each others' writing projects. Still, as a couple of you have said, I maintain that I tend to be the most critical of my own work - which certainly keeps me on my toes!

I do wish that my parents could be here to enjoy the successes I've had in my writing career though. And of course there's nothing like a Mom's hug when things don't quite go as well as we'd hoped!

Why is that you suppose, that our closest relatives can be so unenthused for us? When I finished my Ph.D. I kind of thought I had made it but for my entire family it was a real non-event. Silly me I thought they'd be happy to see me with my head out of the books and away from the computer.

LOL! Pam! I remember my mother-in-law saying to my husband about someone she'd met, "He's a Professor!" I know this is no big deal in North America because all university staff are professors (it isn't a title conferred on an academic the way it is in the UK, where it's the pinnacle of success). I suppose you've guessed by now that my husband is also a Professor -- but then again, he's also her son. Funny the way you can't get round that.

Funny on the Professor thing too Shelagh - in Canada it's the same as the UK. Not everyone teaching at a University is a Professor, and even a Professor who teaches at a University part-time and a college part-time gets demoted to "instructor" when on the college campus.
When I finished my Ph.D. someone called me a professor, and so it really took some doing on my part to sort them out. Now that I think about it, I wonder if my family's flat reaction to my PhD is related to them being mostly British and thinking that one without the other is daft on my part, because I chose not to teach at university. Funny thing all of that.
What does your husband profess about?

I suppose the best way to answer that question is to introduce you:

http://www.swan.ac.uk/staff/academic/HumanSciences/watkinsjames/

I think you are right about your family Pam. In North America professors (teachers) are referred to as "Dr", which gives the title a certain prestige that your British relatives wouldn't understand. To refer to my husband as "Dr. Watkins" would be to demote his title in the UK whereas it would promote him to a higher status in the US!

UK academics are not as stuffy as they may seem. My husband is generally referred to as "Prof Watkins", as are most Professors in the UK.

Shelagh I hope you've really taken advantage of him and learned how to execute a perfect dive given his areas of expertise! I do get referred to as Dr., and the first time it happened was shortly after my PhD defense and it took me a couple of long moments to figure out they were talking about me, really! My kids like to take the mickey out of it, and mostly I don't care what I get called as long as I'm not called late to dinner.

Good thing I do all the cooking around here!

Pam, I know very little about biomechanics but if you sat next to me watching football on television, (yes, we are sport addicts!) you would think that I'm an expert! I know nothing but I say a great deal! Isn't it always the case?

... forgot to mention that there's a lot of sport in The Power of Persuasion! Strewth mate, all Sheilas are good sports.

How funny, my son has his doctorate in Clinical Psychology and landed a fellowship at the Univ. of Cal. in San Francisco. I think of him as Dr.

Your husband sure has a lot of initials after his name. I don't know what they mean, but it sure shows a wealth of education and hard work studying.

I recently saw an ad on TV about the different style of knee replacement for each gender. Quite interesting. Vive la difference!!

It seems you and your husband are well matched, Shelagh!

We certainly are Zada! He's the clever one. He thinks the world of me and I think he's the best thing since sliced bread! He shares none of my faults and I share none of his! We couldn't be more perfectly matched!

Seems like you passed on your intelligence to your son.

FPEA -- Fellow of the Physical Education Association (UK)
FBASES -- Fellow of the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences
FHEA -- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy