Off The Shelf with Morgann Book
May 21, 2026 · 50 min · 11 segments
This week on Off The Shelf, Morgann sits down with Haley-Grace McCormick to talk about the journey behind her debut novel *The Enemy of Time*. Haley-Grace opens up about living with dyslexia and ADHD…
I know that you said recently that, "Today my life doesn't look like the future I once imagined."
Can you take me back to your younger self, before writing was even on the table, what did you wanna be when you grew up?
Ooh, you know, that's an interesting question for me, because when you, when you grow up with any kind of neurodivergency, we're kinda told what we can do, or how we're supposed to do it.
We're never really asked, "What do you want to do?" 'Cause people are very concerned.
Adults are concerned for, you know, "How are you gonna grow? How are you gonna make a living?" Those kinda things.
Um, so it was never something that, like, my mom would ask me, 'cause she's dyslexic, and so she knew, "Oh, she'll figure it out.
She's gonna be fine," you know? And, like, she had the tools to help me.
But teachers or, you know, counselors in school, for them, it was just, "Okay, let's figure out, you know, what is the easiest thing that she can get through, and, and how we can get her by." Um, so it wasn't something I really ever thought about very often.
And, uh, I think in my mind, I always wanted to maybe go into something with some kind of design into it.
I was gonna w- and I was a-- I'm five foot two, so I'm super short, and thus pants never fit me, and so I had to hem from a very young age, and, like, how to tailor.
So my grandma, she, she would teach me how to, like, you know, sew my clothes, 'cause she's five foot, so she hasn't even, even-
And so she taught me how to, like, sew at a young age, and I loved patterns.
Something really cool when you're dyslexic is we're great at pattern recognition, and I don't say words right, as you just saw there.
Um, but we're really good at looking at a pattern and understanding something.
So that's when I was like, "Oh, I'm gonna be a fashion designer," or I wanted to be a neurobiologist, and 'cause I love the brain.
I know that you said recently that, "Today my life doesn't look like the future I once imagined."
Can you take me back to your younger self, before writing was even on the table, what did you wanna be when you grew up?
Ooh, you know, that's an interesting question for me, because when you, when you grow up with any kind of neurodivergency, we're kinda told what we can do, or how we're supposed to do it.
We're never really asked, "What do you want to do?" 'Cause people are very concerned.
Adults are concerned for, you know, "How are you gonna grow? How are you gonna make a living?" Those kinda things.
Um, so it was never something that, like, my mom would ask me, 'cause she's dyslexic, and so she knew, "Oh, she'll figure it out.
She's gonna be fine," you know? And, like, she had the tools to help me.
But teachers or, you know, counselors in school, for them, it was just, "Okay, let's figure out, you know, what is the easiest thing that she can get through, and, and how we can get her by." Um, so it wasn't something I really ever thought about very often.
And, uh, I think in my mind, I always wanted to maybe go into something with some kind of design into it.
I was gonna w- and I was a-- I'm five foot two, so I'm super short, and thus pants never fit me, and so I had to hem from a very young age, and, like, how to tailor.
So my grandma, she, she would teach me how to, like, you know, sew my clothes, 'cause she's five foot, so she hasn't even, even-
And so she taught me how to, like, sew at a young age, and I loved patterns.
Something really cool when you're dyslexic is we're great at pattern recognition, and I don't say words right, as you just saw there.
Um, but we're really good at looking at a pattern and understanding something.
So that's when I was like, "Oh, I'm gonna be a fashion designer," or I wanted to be a neurobiologist, and 'cause I love the brain.
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