Monday, a friend forwarded a Feb. 4 New York Times article to me titled “The Upside of Dyslexia,” written by Annie Murphy Paul. He did so because he knows I have dyslexia and thought I would find the article interesting.He was right, to say the least.

Dyslexia appears as a motif in all five of my Jack Austin novels, as protagonist Austin and the teenage boy he takes in, Nash Henley, both struggle with the affliction. And, as many readers have guessed, their struggles are based on my own. However, my books also illustrate what I have long believed, as Austin says in more than one book, “Dyslexia is a blessing.”