Zelenka, if it's any consolation, your dad sounds exactly like mine. It took me decades to figure out why my father never praised me and always put down anything I did. He was always of the opinion that women belonged in the kitchen (no doubt barefoot and pregnant, too).
I finally figured out that he had very little in the way of formal education and a huge chip on his shoulder because of it - even though, as a career soldier, he rose to the rank of WO1 and was head of Codification and Classification of the entire SA Defence Force. When I went to university (at my own expense) he said, "Education is wasted on a woman" and refused to come to my graduation. When I went back to university and did a second degree (at the age of 38 and as a single parent) and graduated along with my eldest daughter, he did not have one good word to say about it. Seems the more I educated myself, the more threatened he felt. (If he were alive now, I wonder what he'd say about me getting published. LOL!)
I suspect that your dad's inability to see how talented and special you really are, is not because of you but because of some perceptional limitation within himself. You just hang in there and do your own thing and have a great time doing it!! You dad doesn't define you.
And just for the record, Ellery Queens doesn't publish awful stories. They're fussy that way.
Zelenka
