A 12-YEAR-OLD Newport schoolgirl with dyslexia is dreaming of stardom after signing a publishing contract for her first book.

St Julian’s School pupil Megan Slocombe wrote the short story A Trip to Italy a year ago, a mysterious tale of a teacher named Tom, who takes a school trip to the continent and unearths a number of secrets along the way.

With encouragement from mum Sharon, dad Philip and siblings Lewis and Bethan, Megan has just signed a contract with United PC Publishers.

The book will now be sold all over the world and as an e-book online.

The former Glan Usk Primary School pupil only started writing two years ago and was encouraged by her mum to see if she could get it published.

“I knew she was writing and encouraged her to send it to the publishers,” said Mrs Slocombe.

“Confidence is what she needed, everything like this helps with confidence.

“The first and second time she submitted the book they said it was too short, so they asked if she wanted to write more or include some pictures.

“Megan doesn’t like drawing so she wrote more, and the third time she was absolutely amazed when it got accepted.

Mrs Slocombe added: “She didn’t give up - I don’t know where she got the idea from, she’s just very creative.”

Megan said: “I told my mum I had a contract and she burst out crying from happiness.

“Because I’m dyslexic my family are even more proud of me.

“The publishers sent the contract out and said (the book) was really good, especially for my age,” said Megan, who posted the story online as she was writing and had to explain to web users about her spelling.

“Now I’ve done this I plan to write more books,” she said. “I’m thinking of doing books of fairytales for the under tens. I want to keep on writing books and my dream is to be an actor.”

Mrs Slocombe said the family were “over the moon” for their daughter, who is a big fan of BBC drama Casualty and stood in the rain with her mum to watch it being filmed last month.

“She really loves writing and didn’t write the book for money, that never ever came out of her mouth,” said Mrs Slocombe.

“She’s done fantastically well, I think quietly the siblings are proud of her too and we are over the moon for her.

“This is all her own achievement.”