Creative’s Q&A with Paulette Hampton

Rainlight & Reverie: Finding Truth Through Fantasy, Fear, and Fox Ears

Creativity often lives in the space between things, in the pause, the paradox, the playful ache of telling the truth with beauty. This week’s featured creative, Paulette Hampton, writes from that sacred in-between.

An indie author with a Master of Arts in reading education, Paulette’s work draws inspiration from fantasy films, paranormal themes, and the very real experiences of living with mental illness. She’s the author of the YA paranormal novel Of the Lilin (part of The Sage Chronicles series), the deeply personal memoir When Life Was Yellow: A Memoir of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, and her newest release, Singing to the Fere Moon, a whimsical sci-fi departure that proves just how wide her creative range is.

Her poetry and short stories have appeared in Poets of North Carolina Bards Anthology, Secret Attic, Immortal Hymns, Rewritten Realms, Micromance Magazine, and more. She’s a writer who explores not just what it means to survive, but how to laugh, ache, and reach for magic while doing it.

What I Love About Paulette

I met Paulette in Empoweress Poetry Press’s Friday poetry circle, and from the beginning, I felt that quiet gravity she carries. The kind that makes a room feel safe enough to speak. She’s a beautiful heart, one whose words sit in that sacred space between dark and light, realism and myth, ache and art.

There’s something gorgeously grounded in her poetry and writing. It holds a softness that never shies away from the hard stuff. And while she sometimes describes herself as an “angst-ridden teen trapped inside a middle-aged woman’s body,” her voice offers more than just angst, it offers honesty. Relatable, unvarnished truth wrapped in lyricism and just enough weirdness to feel like home.

Whether she’s writing about OCD, fox ears, or the bittersweet ache of growing older, Paulette invites us to step closer to ourselves. I’m always glad to listen.

Q&A with Paulette

1. What’s a moment from your life that you’ve turned into creative gold, whether through writing, art, or simply the way you’ve reframed it for yourself?

There's gold in dem der hills...I mean, head! I've taken my struggle with OCD and wrote a memoir (When Life was Yellow) to hopefully help others who suffer from it see that they aren't alone.

2. If your writing or art were a mirror, what truths has it reflected back to you lately?

Great question! The truth reflected back to me is that I'm definitely an existential overthinker. Thank goodness poetry helps me manage that most of the time.

3. What’s a piece of creative work that feels like a mirror to your soul?

Michael Sowa's Kohler's Pig strikes a deep cord with me. It's a ridiculous painting of an animal doing something out of the ordinary (a pig jumping into a pond) and that's how I like to see myself - like the pig, I think I'm unassuming, but I have some pretty cool ideas.

4. When do you feel most alive in your creative process? Describe it as though it were a scene in a story.

Dark jazz fills the room with delicate angst as the storm grows closer. The cursor keeps the beat. There's nothing written yet. The document sits empty as I check the time. Night will fall soon and the thunderstorm will blow sharp rain into the windows. When the weather lashes out, I feel alive and can let the sweet ache of my fears and worries fill the page with a truth and harshness too burdensome to bear on sunny, bright days.

5. If you had to name the chapter of your life that you’re in now, what would it be called?

Fox Ears at Fifty

I've gained so much inspiration from the writing/poetry groups I've been in these last few years that I thought buying some fox ears to wear when I was writing my fantasy novel would help me become even more playful in creating my work. They represent the creativity that exists in my soul no matter how old my body gets.

Paulette’s words soothe AND stir. They remind us that even in the shadowed corners of the mind, something luminous can live. Her writing feels like a flicker of candlelight on a rainy night: gentle, real, a little wild. The kind of truth that lingers long after the page is turned.

If you’d like to follow her work and connect further, you can find her here:

Substack:

Paulette Hampton

Website: https://paulettehampton42.wixsite.com/website
X/Twitter: PauletHampton42

Thank you for stopping by you beautiful creative!
As always, I love yo face!
MJ

P.S. I’d love to hear your thoughts! What stood out to you about Paulette and her creative journey? Leave a comment below and join the conversation. Let’s celebrate creativity together!

If this resonated, share, save, or tag a fellow creative who’d love it!