Aug 22 2025

A Break in won’t Break me

Less than 4 days after I moved the last of my stuff into my storage unit, it was broken into and ransacked.

They were looking for jewellery, so it was just my personal stuff that was trashed, and they took some niknaks and my charms and findings from my jewellery making kit. None of it will net them much, most of the charms were not even silver plated. Nothing in the storage was of any great resale value, just sentimental.

The shock of it all was a lot at first, and having to move everything again, only a week after sighing in relief that I wouldn’t have to move it all for a while, was merely an inconvenience, and actually, with help, I got it all sorted very quickly.

The icky feeling that a group of men rifled through and trashed my personal stuff though, lingers. They emptied out boxes of old love notes from exes, and threw my sewing machines on the floor, and created enough mess that I was sweeping up my belongings with a dustpan and brush.

There was much to be grateful for though. There was much they left untouched, and they could have destroyed more than they did, but their singular focus on jewellery meant that they ripped through quickly then moved onto the next unfortunate victim.

The crazy thing is, they would have got more money working a couple of hours min wage, than they got from my unit. But in a way, I’m glad they targeted storage and not houses. Having someone break into your home is much worse, especially if you are asleep upstairs, but I can’t help wonder if it’s really worth it. Did they get enough silver to melt down to pay for their beers? Was it all just for a laugh? Something to do in the evening? Do they work regular jobs and do this as a side hustle? Have they considered the consequences should they get caught?

Anyway, though at the time it was traumatic, causing a few sleepless nights, it only took a few days to sort out, and though I feel a bit anxious when I go to my unit now, I have mostly recovered from the experience. I just hope it is one that I never have to go through again!

The jumbled mess that days earlier was neatly sorted into boxes

If you want to gain insight into the mind and life of a thief, do check out Burglar to Buddha by Simon Paul Sutton. A funny and fascinating read!

Jul 4 2025

A Fragmented Nomad

This week I have been moving the contents of my print studio into a storage unit. In doing so, I realised that I have not had all my belongings in one place since 2008.

That was when I moved to New York. I got rid of much, putting only the stuff I couldn’t sell or bear to part with in my mums loft. Since then I have moved dozens (yes, dozens) of times, with my belongings spread through homes, storage units, studios and lofts.

For a while, I managed to keep my stuff to a minimum. Once, I even moved to Cornwall in just my tiny Micra! But once I started knitting again (thank you, Outlander!) And then handsewing, and then printing, well, the stuff kind of exploded.

I would say it is near impossible to be a multi-hyphenated creative and be a minimalist.

I’ve had many dreams in my life, many of which I have realised (see previous post) but I think my biggest dream now is to live in a place where I belong, with all my belongings.

Maybe then I could sort them properly, get rid of what I don’t need, appreciate the things I love, and use the materials I have (I know, ridiculous idea).

It’s only in the last few years that I’ve realised the link between ADHD and hoarding, and I genuinely don’t want to end up in a hovel filled to the brim with junk*, but I also don’t want to live in this fragmented nomadic way either.

Crossing everything and hoping that the next time I move, I will be able to reunite all my stuff, and live a more wholesome existence.

The rather stunning view on the way to my storage unit

*I honestly don’t want to end up like the old lady in The Magical Dragon Mirror, but if I ended up with a portal to the dragon world in my hallway, that would be pretty cool!

Jul 2 2025

Dreams come true…

… but they don’t seem to last. I’m beginning to wonder if they are meant to?

I have been most fortunate to have had several of my dreams come true, from seeing my name on a book spine, having my books sold in bookshops, living in America, having a twin flame relationship, and having a studio in one of my favourite places.

But they have all been relatively short-lived, and thus relatively unsuccessful beyond the initial realisation.

My books are in print, but my sales are low and I don’t receive much income from them. I only lived in America for 10 months, and now I see very little hope of even visiting there again, let alone living there. My twin flame relationship… well, went up in flames. And now after a year of having my studio, I am in the process of packing and moving, again.

Which got me thinking, were any of these things supposed to last? Or is this pinball way of life just my path? Bouncing from one dream to the next, experiencing glimpses of the life I thought I wanted, but never fully settling into it?

Or is it that realising the dream is the easy part, but maintaining it, growing it, nurturing it, that’s where the work really begins. And that’s where I have typically fallen short.

Perhaps this next chapter of my life will be about the maintenance and growth of my neglected dreams, where I will look at where I went wrong, and perhaps finally experience the success that comes when you really give it everything you’ve got.

I plan to start with my books. After doing an event at a bookshop recently, where I met a few of my youngest readers, it lit a spark of excitement to return to writing the Magical Doorway Series, and get the rest of the books written before my audience is old enough to read the Earth Angel Series!

What is your neglected dream? Perhaps it’s time to dig it out and dust it off.

May 19 2025

Pausing the Magic

For the last year I have been blessed to have a letterpress studio at The Fold in Bransford. I have been printing magical cards, prints, posters, bookmarks etc, and running workshops. But my funding is coming to an end and it’s not making enough to sustain itself and me, so I shall be closing on the 7th July.

I am making as much stock as possible so I can keep selling online (magicletterpress.co.uk) and at markets, but from July onwards I will be back on my laptop focussing on publishing again. I have a few clients waiting for me to do their books, and I hope to resume the 4th Magical Doorway book, as well as book 12 of the Earth Angel Series!

I will still be at the Fold for the epic Magic Print Fair on the 28th June, so if you are a printer and want to sell, click here, or if you fancy coming for a day out to buy all sorts of printed art or print supplies, all the info is also here!

Feb 18 2025

Slow down you crazy child

One of my favourite movies when I was younger was 13 going on 30. My favourite bit was when this Billy Joel song is playing, and she realises that by wishing to be older, by speeding things up, she has missed out on so much, lost so much. And luckily, she has the chance to go back and do it over.

But we are speeding through life at the moment, with no opportunity for do-overs. We now consume more content and information in a day than people used to consume in a year, and we are burning out.

Well, I know I am.

There has been a slow fashion movement, moving away from fast fashion apparel created by slave labour in cheap fabrics, to more slowly made clothing, made by smaller brands that will last.

There has also been a slow food movement, moving away from empty calories that come in cardboard boxes to food homemade and more slowly consumed.

And slowly, I feel we are approaching a slow socials movement. Moving away from the junk food that is social media and moving back to email lists, blog posts, even phone calls, letters and, dare I say it, real world interaction!

I know that’s where I want to go. I want to stop scrolling and start thinking. I want to stop consuming and start creating. I want to appreciate the people and things I have in my life instead of constantly coveting what others have.

I need to do this in order to be able to focus enough to write. And funnily enough, the theme of a book I have in mind is about exactly this – slowing down and unplugging, in order to find ourselves again.

I think I’ll make a plan to unplug from March onwards, and see how things go.

Jul 3 2024

Book Eleven Announcement!

If you are signed up to my mailing list you will already be in the know (so sign up here to be the first to get book release announcements in the future!)

But if you’re not on the list yet, here it is! Book Eleven is called

The Return of the Earth Angels

and will be released on

1st August 2024!

Look out for pre-order links coming soon! Have you read the rest of the series yet? You can get books one to ten here!

If you are excited for The Return of the Earth Angels, let me know in the comments!

Feb 25 2024

The Universe says Relax

Part of the ADHD experience for me is lacking the ability to stop and rest regularly. Usually, it’s a case of keeping going full pelt til I hit burnout, then melt into a puddle for a while to recharge.

But even then, I refuse to allow burnouts to last too long, because my to do list is actually endless.

Last week though, I didn’t have much choice. I had a pretty nasty tummy bug which meant three days in bed (admittedly I still did some client work when I could, as one client released her book yesterday, and things had to happen) but I didn’t push myself too hard or get annoyed with myself for doing nothing. By Friday, I was getting a bit annoyed though, because though I was starting to feel better, the lack of food for a week meant I was too shaky to do much, my energy levels were super low.

But apparently the universe thought I needed to chill for a week, I just wish there could have been a less painful way! But if it hadn’t been painful, I probably wouldn’t have stopped.

So I feel like I need to learn how to rest and relax more often, so I don’t get ill like this. I started to look at how I could cut down on my workload, and I quit a volunteer position that I had done for over a year, that I did because I wanted to help, but took up a lot of time, that truthfully, I never had to begin with. I intend to try to keep simplifying things, so that I can get to the point where I switch off from work and even social media in the evenings, or for one day a week. Where I do something fun or random, just for myself.

Because being self-employed means I never switch off. And I think I need to learn to. Though here I am, before 9am on a Sunday, answering client emails and writing a blog post about how I need to learn how to relax.

The irony isn’t lost on me, I promise.

I still have a ways to go, but I do hope to get there, because I most certainly do not want to repeat the last week!

Managed to sew this lil creature while in bed binging tv shows. Her name is Ava, she was the Christmas surprise animal by Coolcrafting.

Feb 16 2024

Confessions of an ADHD writer

So I wrote this whole blog post in my head while in the shower and drying my hair, and now I don’t remember a word of it.

I very eloquently summed up what it felt like to desperately want to do something, but being completely incapable of it.

That’s how I feel about writing most of the time. The ideas are stacked up, the characters are impatient, my readers are waiting, and yet, the ability to sit and type the words that are flowing to me through the ether is the hardest possible thing to do.

My ability to hyperfocus has unfortunately disappeared.

Instead, the desperate need for a dopamine hit, any hit, takes over and I find myself mindlessly scrolling through terrible videos and checking out so completely that I’m not even aware of the time or where I am.

I do believe that hormonal changes in the last three years are the main culprit of my complete lack of attention span, but I’ve never had much attention span and have always had the memory of a goldfish. The main difference now is that I know why, and I cut myself some slack now.

I never used to. I used to push myself hard to get things done, even when I lacked the motivation. I never accepted any physical issue to be an excuse to miss deadlines. Or even any emotional or mental issue. I have written parts of my novels while sobbing at 3am. You probably know which parts.

I do wonder if I could have kept up my consistent output of publishing two books a year if the sales had kept increasing consistently. But at the end of 2018, Amazon changed their algorithms and sales pages, my sales slumped, and I lost my mojo for it all.

Writing and publishing my books no longer gave me the much needed dopamine hits, and in fact, drained what little dopamine I had. I got much more satisfaction from helping other authors to publish, and so my attention shifted to that. I’ve published dozens of books in the last 6 years, but only 6 of my own.

Which might sound like a lot, but it’s half of my output previous to that. (And one was a quote book, one was a poetry book and three were children’s novels, so indeed far less writing than normal).

I don’t know how to find the joy in writing again. Perhaps I need to change my medium, use my typewriter, or go back to pen and paper. But the idea of typing it all up after does not appeal! Unfortunately, dictation is out of the question. It seems that the act of typing the words (or handwriting them) is my method. When I try to verbalise the story flowing through, it ends up in the ‘he says this, then she replies, then they do this’ format, as opposed to actual dialogue and action.

Bizarre, I know, but true.

I found writing to be a bit easier in Morocco. It seems the sunshine provided enough dopamine for me to be able to focus better. But I haven’t written more than 1000 words since I got back, 10 days ago, and I had promised myself that I would get book 11 done by the end of this month.

Old me would move heaven and earth not to break that promise.

Current me is just tired. And in need of sunshine!

My favourite photo from Essaouira.
It was 30°C that day!

Feb 11 2024

Sunshine and dopamine

So I’ve been back in the UK for a few days now, and already I can feel my body’s desperation for dopamine. So I googled the link between sunshine and dopamine, and yes! It’s a thing.

While in Morocco, getting daily doses of sun, my need to impulsively spend and eat an abundance of sugary snacks was greatly lessened, and my concentration was greatly improved.

Now back in the cold grey, I find myself snacking constantly and desperate to buy things or make things or binge watch TV to get a hit.

Maybe this is what my favourite psychic meant when he told me way back in 2004 that I needed to live somewhere hot…

I know you might not have followed this blog years ago imagining it would turn into an info dump on ADHD, but I believe there is a strong link between being an Earth Angel and having ADHD, Autism or other health issues (mental and physical) so I do hope you will stick with me!

I didn’t get book 11 finished while in Morocco, but I am still determined to get it written and published soon, because it feels like the time is just right for it!

I am currently publishing 4 books for other authors, which takes up a fair amount of computer time, but I plan to get book 11 finished by the end of this short month, because in March I have lots of events booked in, and will be busy selling my Magic Letterpress wares! Will also be taking my books to an event in Swansea for Women in Publishing, which should be fun. I do love to network.

I will keep you updated on progress, do keep an eye on my Instagram (@michellegordonauthor) and on Not From This Planet’s Instagram for release dates, new books, etc.

Here’s another blue skies pic to help you get through the grey skies!

Jan 16 2024

Internal Battles

So here is it, the first, and hopefully not last, post of 2024. I can’t think of a title right now, so I’m hoping one will emerge by the end of the post!

I’ve been thinking about how much I berate myself for not getting enough done. For having no enthusiasm or mojo to write, to market my books, to make money, to hustle. The last four years have been pretty tough on those fronts. I feel like my batteries ran out and I didn’t recharge properly, so now I am in a constant battle of not enough energy and no time to recharge.

As well as the pandemic madness that we all experienced, I have come to two realisations in the last couple of years. One, that I have ADHD. And two, I am perimenopausal. Now the latter is what made the former so much more obvious, which is what seems to happen in females, which is why so many older females are now being diagnosed. The change in hormones makes the ADHD symptoms so much more obvious, and then when we realise, we can then see that it was there all along from childhood, we were just very good at masking and overcompensating for it.

So when I consider just how much I have managed to achieve, in spite of the extra layer of difficulty, I should feel proud. But instead, I just feel irritated that for the last few years I have struggled to find any motivation at all to write or to market my existing books. My focus and ability to concentrate is shot to pieces. I was blaming it on my addiction to my smart phone, but I think there’s a lot more going on than that. I have been taking supplements that are helping, and I’m looking into natural hormonal support, but it’s very much an inside job, after my doctors brushing off my perimenopausal enquiries with – you’re too young for that. Sigh.

Writing has always been my favourite past time, my kind of therapy, to explore other worlds and get lost in a reality of my choosing, but recently it feels like a slog, and I hate that. In need of some sunshine and inspiration, I decided to spend a month in Morocco. I didn’t bring any creative crafty things to do (aside from one tiny crochet project) hoping that not having my hands busy would mean that I would get bored enough to write. But instead, I find myself scrolling through Instagram and generally wasting time doing nothing.

But in an effort not to continually berate myself, I have so far managed about 5k words, and I am determined to finish Book 11 in the Earth Angel Series while I am here, so that I can set a publishing date for that this year.

Though, now that I have said that, I’m worried that I have made another promise that I won’t keep, especially considering I said that the book was ‘Coming soon’ about four years ago.

All I can say is, I will try my absolute best to get it done, and I am going to try not to berate myself so much, and considering it has been cloudy today, I am not going to tell myself off for spending every moment I can in the sun while I am here, because I seriously need the vitamin D!

Hmm, still no idea what to call this post, but here is a photo of Morocco to either make you feel warm inside or to make you feel jealous. You choose which one it is! Oh, and if you want to follow my Moroccan adventures, follow me on Insta – @michellegordonauthor and look for the stories!