I have been an amateur writer for a number of years now. Have always enjoyed making up stories and when I got my first PC, I started to use its spell checker to get my stories out of my head and onto the screen.

I have struggled with dyslexia all my life. I took the help when it was offered and worked hard. Got my 'C' grades in English and Maths, that were needed to open doors and continued on in further education as far as my dyslexia would allow me.

I made the right choices, pick the courses that aired to my talents at the time, science and picked the courses that were more course worked based. 

However I came unstuck at the end of my second year of my degree in radiography. Writing long essays in exam conditions, my dyslexic brain just hadn't retained the information in a form I could perform to the higher enough standard to reach the grade.

Up until this point I had always been the under dog who always seemed to succeed, through hard work and the self belief. Now I had hit my brick wall, I was a little lost.

My university days were a good two years, I partied and gained great life skills. Most importantly I met my husband there, we have just celebrated 18 years of marriage. But that was the point I lost my self-belief.

It wasn't until 2014 did I start to find my self belief again and it came in a very unusual place.

2014 I allowed my mum to read the first chapter of one of my stories. When my husband was away due to work and my two daughters were tuck up safe in bed, I would sit at my PC and write.

My mum really liked my story and read the whole book. She saw dyslexic errors within the text and offered to be my editor, to see if I could get it published.

I can't tell you what an uplifting and amazing moment that was, for someone to have belief in something I had written. It relit that spark of self belief in myself and made me wonder, was my talent to write? 

Had I been aspiring for the wrong goal all along and that was the reason I had failed?

I sent my book off to publishers and got the rejection letter. But I didn't let that stop me. I self published my books through Amazon I haven't made a great amount of money from self publishing, but enough to keep me motivated to keep writing and basically I love writing. (click the link)

The past two years I have been working on my fourth novel, which I am planning to try again and approach some publishing houses.  I finished writing it a week back and my mum is at the moment editing it for me.

Back in January I join the Romantic Novelists Association new writers scheme they have 250 places per year. 

I used the money I had earned through self publishing on Amazon to pay the joining fee and plan to send book 4 manuscript off in the next few weeks.

This a big scary step, but something I need to do to progress with my dream. I might hit a wall again, but it might work out and open a new door. We will see.

When I was at school I never imagined I would be considering a career as a writer. The fact I was dyslexic I thought anything to do with English, was a career out of my ability. 

I think my dream of writing became a realistic possibility when I read a book called The Dyslexic Advantages 

The book is a great read and describes the many strengths of the dyslexic brain. It was chapter 15 that really grabbed my attention. N-Strength Narrative Reasoning. 

The chapter started off telling Anne's story. The fact she struggled at school and into her early life with dyslexia, I really related to her story. What really surprised me was at the end of the chapter when her full name was revealed...

 ... Anne Rice, author of Interview With The Vampire.

It highlighted  that dyslexia didn't stop her from reaching her potential and gave me the hope that maybe I could succeed as well. 

Sometimes you have to take a leap and have faith in yourself. You might fall flat on your face, but equally that leap might result in you flying to new heights. 

Finding steemit back in June, has opened up an exciting platform for me to utilise to showcase my writing and get feedback.

 A place to share my many short stories that I have been writing as a hobby. Little stories that came into my head as I was walking the dog or was inspired by something I saw on the TV. 

Stories that I spent a long time writing and now I get share with my followers and make a bit of money.

I have mixed success some of my short stories have made a $100+ others haven't even made a dollar. 

It's how it goes and I won't let the small pay-outs discourage me.

If Book 4 doesn't make it to print, then I know a door in that wall will open and through that door steemit will be where my story will still find wings to fly. 

(Please forgive any dyslexic errors above, my editor (my mum) is a little busy at the moment.)