My name is Nicola Martin. I was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome at the age of 15, and Hyperacusis about 3 years ago. At the age of 16 I left school having passed all my GCSE’s, which for me was a great achievement having had a hard time at school with bullying. After that I put most of my time into writing my first novel, Harmony’s Big Decision.
The Wonders of Writing
I had never dreamed about getting a novel published. My writing was more about creating a world to escape to when things got tough. In the end after a huge amount of encouragement I decided to look into getting the novel published, hoping other people might enjoy escaping to another world as much as I did. In 2018 my debut novel was published which helped my love for writing grow and now the sequel is being written. It felt great to have a copy of my book arrive in the post and now it sits on my bookcase next to my favourite author Thomas Hardy.
The Future
Last year I joined Talkback as a member of the Reading group and discovered CAMEO meetings on a Wednesday morning where I have met some lovely people and my confidence began to grow. Little did I know when I joined but something amazing would come from being a member of Talkback. I now work for the communications team as well as the training project.
Working with Talkback I hope to write many articles to help people understand more about autism, and to help those with autism be understood as well as have a voice.
Support Nicola 
Buy Harmony’s Big Decision, on Waterstones and Amazon:
Read more about Nicola’s writing in this interview. This interview provides a deeper insight into how she has achieved her goals.
