FicStack: Behind the Story #3

With Verdant Butterfly (Heather Patton)

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Tell us about yourself! Where are you from? What do you do for fun? What might people be surprised to learn about you?

I’m a poet and storyteller with a soft spot for folklore, fairies and the magic that slips into the mundane everyday life when one isn’t looking. I currently live in Illinois USA with my husband and sons but I am the daughter of two lands.

I spent a season of my life in England which only deepened my love for old stories and misty landscapes. My great grandparents were Scottish immigrants, so that pull towards Scotland, its history and myths were woven into all the stories of my youth. When I write about the veil, the moors and the fairfolk it always feels like a kind of homecoming in my work.

When I’m not writing I’m usually making something, whether that’s art, food, or crafts. I’m also involved in the Society for Creative Anachronism, where I get to blend history, storytelling and a bit of swordplay into one wonderfully strange and joyful space. And when I want to blow off steam, I crack open a Tab, play Robotron and listen to some Duran Duran…Just messin that’s a quote from Ready Player One. I do enjoy unwinding with a good video game though and watching movies.

People might be surprised to learn that I’m also a Dungeon Master for Tabletop RPGs and I build tabletop scenery for my games. I love crafting tiny worlds you can play with, places where stories unfold in real time. I’ve even taken that into competitions, earning first place in one build off and second in another, which was honestly a lot of fun.

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We’ve featured What Unseelie Keep.

How has your poetry collection evolved as you’ve been writing it?

The work in question can currently be found as separate poems posted on Substack. Behind the scenes I am building a poetry collection and it’s gone through a bit of transformation as I’ve written it. It originally began as two separate books, one for the Seelie and one for the Unseelie but I found I didn’t want to separate them so cleanly. The balance between the two felt too important.

Instead I’ve started structuring the collection around the seasons. Within each season, there’s that same blend of the bright whimsical pieces that explore the everyday wonder of living alongside the fair folk and then the quieter shift into the Unseelie poems which tend to carry a darker edge. Those often take the form of warnings or what I like to think of as slightly unsettling lullabies.

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What were you exploring or working through in these pieces? What questions were you asking?

Most of my poems begin with a small moment or image, something half seen or just out of reach. A fairy in the garden, a feeling that you are not alone on a quiet path, the sense that something simple might not be as simple as it looks. I follow that thread and let the poem unfold from there.

In writing this collection, I keep coming back to the idea that the fair folk are not purely kind or cruel, they just are. The whimsy and the warning belong together. The beauty is real but so is the danger and I like letting both exist side by side without forcing them into neat categories.

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Is there a line, image, or moment that you’re particularly proud of?

There are always lines or moments that settle in and feel right in a way that’s hard to explain, especially in the lullaby style pieces where something soft is carrying something a little more unsettling underneath. Those tend to stay with me the longest.

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What do you hope readers take away from this story?

I hope readers come away with a sense of quiet wonder but also a bit of awareness. That feeling that maybe you shouldn’t follow every flickering light no matter how ‘ooh shiny’ it is, or that not every invitation is meant to be accepted even if it’s beautiful.

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How does this story fit into your larger body of work or themes you explore?

This collection sits alongside my broader work where I explore both light and shadow. Under my Verdant Butterfly voice, I tend toward the whimsical and wonder filled while under my Sable Butterfly work I have darker themes. I’ve recently been published in two community anthologies, ‘The First Indulgence’ that came out in December of 2025 and ‘Eye See You’ releasing in late April 2026. My pieces in both of these anthologies live firmly in that darker space. My poetry collection will be bringing those two sides together in a way that feels much more complete.

All of the artwork in the book will also be my own which makes the whole project very personal as I craft a small world for the reader to step into.

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Can you tell us about your experience on Substack?

My time on Substack has honestly been one of the loveliest surprises in my writing journey. I came in thinking I’d simply share a few poems here and there and instead found a whole community of thoughtful creative people who are genuinely cheering one another on. It’s a rare sort of space and I don’t take it for granted.

I’m also part of the Indie Ink Fund which is a collaboration effort built around supporting writers and artists through shared projects and anthologies. It’s very much rooted in the idea that creativity doesn’t have to be a solitary thing, we can build something meaningful together and make sure people feel seen along the way.

For National Poetry Month I’ve been running a series of prompts, daily poems and cheeky poetry lessons, nothing too heavy, just enough to help people get started and feel a bit more confident putting words on the page. The focus has really been on showing up and giving it a go.

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Recommend something you love: a substack writer, a book, a film, a piece of art, anything you like.

Two writers on Substack I’d happily recommend, Daniel Coats and his wonderfully fun serial The Water Thief, along with A.M. Bowman’s sci-fi mini series The Shift. Both are well worth a look.

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Discover Verdant Butterfly on Substack!

Featured Poem: What Unseelie Keep

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