I'm sure we have all met people who have criticised us for not achieving or being what they would have wanted. I for one know that if the critique was negative, it did not make me feel good.

You know what I mean; the critique was directed at being a failure in something, with no attention given to what had gone right or the potential we had to change things. Many people probably met this first when they went to school and couldn't learn something quickly. I hope teachers these days are better. I remember one math teacher who declared to all the class that girls cannot learn math, so why bother. I had all A's till then, but lost interest in mathematics as a result. I would have wanted encouragement, that the teacher would have shown where I was good at. But as I - as a girl - was not of any interest to the teacher, I soon lost interest in what he taught.

Oh well, water under the bridge and I learned math enough to handle everyday life.

But just think about it - if you face a situation where you need to develop your skills, and this is pointed to you in an encouraging way, the challenge becomes a positive task. Someone tells you that you have it in you to succeed. Doesn't that make you want to at least try?

Start doing this yourself. Both to you and to others. Point out where you / they are already good at, and how they could learn more to achieve what needs to be achieved. I bet people like you more for it - and you will notice your thinking shifting towards possibilities instead of impossibilities.

Ok... On my website I promised to give little updates in these emails where I am with my writing.

After sending my yearly assignments to the university I now finally have time to write again. I am writing on alternate days five books  at the moment. 

Sounds crazy, I know, but somehow hopping from one story to the next gives my subconscious time to munch the plots of the books. 

Don't know why it has never been difficult for me to multitask in this way, but I could do writing work for all the stories in one day, and remember where I left off and where I was heading with each individual story. This is probably the result of the jobs I've had for over 30 years. I have never had an office of my own, and never had uninterrupted time to just concentrate on one thing. Constant noise around. (That happens when you are in customer service - phone rings constantly, interrupting other work.) In time I have learned to block off the noise, and quickly return to the interrupted task.

So the books I am working on at the moment are:

Nephilim Quest 4 / The Book of the Dead 

- Just researched the history of Siwa Oasis and how Alexander the Great met the oracle of Amun.

Space Witches 3 / Mirror Witches

- Almost done! Soon I can start the fun part, namely editing (and that was sarcasm there... Sometimes it feels like the actual writing is 5% of the time and editing and other stuff takes 95%...) Much to my surprise I learned the secret of wormholes in space when the story took over and started to write itself. I blame Eddie. (whom you will meet in the book)

Bastet Mysteries 1 (Haven't come up with a name for that one yet)

- From the name of the series you guess there will be cats. But also the Egyptian afterlife mingling with our present time.

Creature Wars 2 (No name yet for this one either)

- Going through book 1 / The Death of a Vampire to make sure I have all the Creatures logically depicted. Creating imaginary creatures - no matter how much they are based in our mythology - sure teaches one to write notes. Lots and lots of notes.

Seven Shabtis 2 / The Pillar of Death

- Yay! I have started writing the book. Kaylee and Luke are searching for shabti number 2 in the distant mountain valley with a connection to Scota, the daughter of an Egyptian pharaoh who escaped to Europe in ancient times

So there. I have plenty of other story ideas brewing but I have to do these first...

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