As an e-book author I'd like to take the opportunity to thank the Smashwords Team. I have been with them now for approximately 18 months and my books are slowly and steadily selling. I am thankful that I discovered Smashwords before uploading my books elsewhere, as the wide distribution network they provide gives great coverage. Anyone thinking about self-publishing an e-book can do no better than uploading it with them.

During the research for my latest e-book, at this late stage in my life I am discovering so many things about the condition (or I should say conditions) I have was born with. I was finally diagnosed as being dyslexic in my forties but was never tested for dyspraxia or for that matter O.C.D. I tick so many boxes for dyspraxia that even it the age in which I was born someone should have noticed. The O.C. D. tendencies are not life-restricting, merely irritating both to myself and those around me. I am finding the research fascinating, particularly when I discovered that dyspraxia is linked to the autism spectrum. My father was never diagnosed as aspergers but since his death it has become clear to all who knew him, that he difinately suffered (and boy, so did we!) from something very similar if not exactly the same. Is he my hereditary link? I'm not totally sure because there were, and are, instances of 'mild' dyslexia on my materal side too. It probably came down both lines and I didn't stand much of a chance of missing it - ah well,

Until I joined Twitter I was not aware of how many organisations and individuals there were worldwide interested in Dyslexia. To me it was just something I suffered from as a child and which can on occasion still bother me. I began to take a closer look at the disability and discovered some interesting facts; like 50% of dyslexics are also dyspraxic and many have O.C.D. I never realised before that some of my early miseries could also be put down to dyspraxia. I already knew that I showed some symptons of O.C.D., not the  life disturbing kind; more irritating ones as far as those around me are concerned. Like having to straighten pictures and photographs (even those in public places) when I notice them - I drive my husband mad with this one. Like sorting things into specific colours and numbers all the time.

I was an only child born to older parents and was thought of as some kind of child prodigy upto the age of four when dyslexia reared its head. I had to wait another forty years before it was officially confirmed. School days were a humiliating Hell. It didn't help that I was born into an academic family where a university degree was not just expected but taken as the norm. What a let down I must have been to my doting parents. It didn't help that they took great pains to hide 'my disgrace' from family and friends, making all sorts of excuses for my lack of achievements.

How I overcame the problem eventually to become not only a published author, but also (I hope) a well adjusted wife, mother and grandmother is the essence of my present endeavour. Working on it has brought back some painful memories but also reinforced my sense of personal achievement.