What the Tooth Fairy Left Behind in Belle Morte

Belle Morte Remembers What You Forgot

So Belle Morte means "beautiful death" in Cajun French, which honestly tells you everything you need to know about this town lol. It's one of those tiny coastal Louisiana towns with one road in and one road out, and if you've ever been to one you already know the vibe. The marsh is gorgeous, but it'll also swallow you whole and nobody's going to ask a lot of questions about it.

Last month I introduced y'all to Belle Morte, and this month I want to get into what's actually wrong with it.

Peyton Thibodeaux grew up there and she left, and when she finally comes back she swears up and down it's only for a few days. She is not staying. Spoiler alert, if you're from a small Southern town you already know how that goes.

Down there everybody knows everybody, everybody's got a saint on the dashboard and a grandmother who knows which plants fix what, and there's a whole list of things you just don't talk about. Church and folklore kind of blend together and nobody thinks twice about it.

The scariest part of this book for me isn't anything jumping out of the dark, it's memory. Going home and realizing the version of your childhood you've been carrying around your whole life might not be the real one. That one gets under my skin.

The Tooth Fairy Drowns Here is in progress right now and I'm going to keep sharing pieces of Belle Morte as I write it, so make sure you're following @BayouBoundBooks everywhere so you don't miss anything. And if you're in your spooky era this month, the new Porch Stories Halloween collection is up now at bayouboundbooks.com.

See y'all on the porch.

The Perfect Gift for Someone Going Through a Hard Season

You know someone who’s going through it right now.

Maybe they just moved somewhere new and don’t know anybody yet. Maybe they’re stuck in a job that’s draining them, or they just walked away from a relationship that took more than it gave. Or maybe nothing big happened at all, and they just feel lost, like everyone else got a map and they didn’t.

You can’t fix it for them. But you can hand them something that says, you’re not doing this alone.

That’s exactly why I’d put Chasing 25 and Get Out of the Swamp in the same gift bag.

Chasing 25 is the honest friend
Chasing 25 is a survival guide for the messy, confusing seasons of figuring out who you are. Don’t let the title fool you, it’s not only for people in their twenties. If you’re starting over at any age, it’s for you. It doesn’t pretend any of this is easy. Reading it feels less like being lectured and more like sitting across from someone who’s been there.

Get Out of the Swamp is where you work through it
Get Out of the Swamp is a guided journal, but not the kind that makes you feel guilty for skipping a day. Every week gives you a quote, a challenge, and a journal prompt. That’s it. One week at a time, at your own pace, no pressure to write every single day.

Why they work better together
Chasing 25 helps you understand what you’re going through. Get Out of the Swamp gives you a place to actually do something with it. One is the conversation, and the other is where you get to talk back.

Who to give them to

• The friend who just went through a breakup

• The sibling who just moved away from home

• The coworker who keeps saying they feel stuck

• Yourself, honestly, if any of this sounds like you

Why I made them
I know what it feels like to face hard things and feel completely alone in it. My hope is that these books help whoever’s holding them heal, or at the very least, keep them company while they get through it. Nobody should have to feel alone in the hard parts.

Where to find them
Both are available in paperback on Amazon, under my maiden name, Isabelle McGee.

Chasing 25
Get Out of the Swamp

Want to know more about how these two pair together? Read this post. And if you’re wondering why the name on the cover is different from the one on this blog, here’s the answer.

Isabelle Herrscher
Ink dipped in soul, bound by the bayou.

Is Isabelle McGee the Same Author as Isabelle Herrscher?

Yes! Isabelle McGee and Isabelle Herrscher are the same person, me. McGee is my maiden name, and Herrscher is my married name. I got married on August 5th, 2026, and I’ll be publishing under Isabelle Herrscher from here on out.

Here are the quick answers to the questions I keep getting.

Is Herrscher a pen name?
No, it’s my real married name.

Which books are under Isabelle McGee?
My first three publications stay under McGee:

• Prompt to Grow, my very first publication, a guided journal

• Get Out of the Swamp, my second guided journal

• Chasing 25, my first full-length book

Are you republishing those books under Herrscher?
No. I’m keeping them under McGee on purpose. They mark a chapter of my life, and I want them to stay part of that chapter.

What’s coming under Herrscher?
The book I’m working on right now. The second it’s finished, it’ll be published under Isabelle Herrscher, and so will everything after it.

A little about the McGee books
Prompt to Grow was my very first time publishing anything. Even though it’s a guided journal, it taught me so much about the whole process.

Get Out of the Swamp is where I took everything I learned from that first attempt and made it better in so many ways. I expanded the idea into a quote, a challenge, and a journal prompt for each week. Both journals were made to take the pressure off of daily journaling.

Chasing 25 is my first full-length book, and I’m super proud of it. I wrote it before I met my husband, and I want to keep it under McGee because I learned those lessons, and I want my life to keep evolving for the best.

Want the full story behind the name change? Read it here.

Isabelle Herrscher

Wear the Bayou: A Look at What's in the Shop Right Now

Wear the Bayou: A Look at What’s in the Shop Right Now

I don’t talk about the shop enough, honestly. So today I will try and do a little better.

If you’ve been around here for the books and the stories but haven’t made it over to the merch page yet, here’s what’s actually in the shop section of my website at the moment.

The Shirts

There’s a black tee with the full swamp scene on the back. Spanish moss, cypress trees, a skull stacked on books, moonlight, and the words “Where the stories rot beautifully” across it. Comes in a classic unisex fit and a crop top, so wear the bayou however feels most like you.

There’s also a grey tee, a little more understated. “Ink dipped in soul, bound by the bayou” sits on the front where a pocket would be, and a bayou house on the back.

The Mug

For anyone who does their best reading with something warm in their hand. It is available in three different sizes. Whether you are a hot coffee or tea lover it will be perfect for you or make a great gift!

The Art Prints

Original pieces, born out of the same voice and atmosphere as the books. You may notice that my artwork may not look how my brand sounds and the honest reason for this is just because I create what I feel inspired to create and for some reason my visual art expresses itself a little differently than my stories. It is what it is kind of situation but a reminder that Bayou Bound Books is so much bigger than just a book brand, it is an entire creative world.

Everything in my shop ships straight to you. None of it is separate from the brand, it’s all just another way to hold onto the same world the books live in.

You can find all of it at bayouboundbooks.com.

The Books

If you have not noticed yet, I am sure you will notice soon. My books are not on there. Let me tell you why and where you can find them.

You can find my books on Amazon. They are not on my shop because I have not yet found a place where I like how the printing turns out and to be honest the best way I can get more blogs, merch, books, etc. for you guys is to not have my house turn into a full out fulfillment center. My books are currently only on Amazon because it allows me to have more availability and right now that feels very important to me while I continue to build the Bayou Bound Books brand. Never say never though because I am slowly working on a plan to make it to where I can also have my books on my website that I have worked so hard on.

Who knows, maybe there will even be special editions and signed copies available for purchase when they finally get here! For now I will just have to link them down below. Something else to note is that my 3 books are published under my maiden name, Isabelle McGee, for more information on that feel free to binge some of my blogs where I further explain why.

Chasing 25: https://a.co/d/03tanyvh

Get Out Of The Swamp: https://a.co/d/04gP2Hxg

Prompt To Grow: https://a.co/d/0aVPvrla

More soon. 🖤

Why Chasing 25 and Get Out of the Swamp Work So Well Together

Lately I have been getting asked a lot which book to start with? Honestly, my answer is two of them. No that is not some kind of sales pitch. It is just flat out honesty, let me explain why i Recommend both Chasing 25 and Get Out Of The Swamp.

First of all, Chasing 25 covers 25 different lessons I had to learn the hard way. It is not a memoir, think of it more as a survival guide from me to you and a companion to accompany you. Chasing 25 touches on heavy life themes like grief, self-priority, letting go, showing up for yourself when nobody else is going to. It names the thing. It sits with you in whatever slump or heavy season you're in and tells you the truth about it instead of trying to sell you on some sort of quick fix.

Get Out of the Swamp is the part that I believe could be a huge way to help you further process both what you are going through and what you are reading. It's a guided journal, 52 weeks, and each week gives you a prompt, a challenge, and a quote to sit with. Nothing more complicated than that.

Here's the thing about Get Out of the Swamp, I built it on purpose. It's not meant to be a daily journal. You can do it every day if that's what you want to do or if that is what you need. You can work in it every other day or once a week, the way it's actually intended. The whole purpose to try and help take that silent pressure off of daily journaling.

I know how overwhelming daily journaling can feel. I had always wanted to be one of those people who could daily journal, especially given my love for writing but it just wasn’t for me if I am being honest. I created Get Out Of The Swamp to take that silent pressure away. That pressure to sit down every single day and have to sort of find something to say is exactly what keeps a lot people from starting. So I built Get Out of the Swamp to work around that instead of against it. We already have so much on our plates and for me adding another daily task on top of all the other stuff kind makes me want to do nothing at all so I took that narrative away when it came down to journaling.

That is exactly why these two work so well side by side. Chasing 25 tells you what you're carrying and gives you the lessons to move through it. Get Out of the Swamp gives you somewhere to actually put that down, one week at a time, or at whatever pace you would like to actually keep.

You don't need to have it figured out to start either one. You just have to start.

Chasing 25: https://a.co/d/01rphEfW
Get Out Of The Swamp: https://a.co/d/06GXSc6p

More soon. 🖤

The Guessing Game Is Over. Belle Morte Is Waiting

Was anyone able to connect the dots on what the little art pieces were about??

I spent all week dropping little pieces of art out into the world, small, quiet, on purpose, just to see if anyone would connect the dots before I said anything. If you saw the tooth and your brain started spinning theories, you were closer than you think. If you scrolled right past it, no worries, that was honestly half the fun for me too.

So here's the deal. My next novel is coming, and it's Southern Gothic horror, no watered down version of it either. Louisiana dirt under the fingernails. Old churches nobody's prayed in for years. A small town that got real good at agreeing not to talk about something.

It's set in a town called Belle Morte. That means beautiful death, and once you spend a little time there, you'll get why nothing else would have worked.

I'm going to be honest, I've been sitting on this part the hardest. But not anymore.

The Tooth Fairy Drowns Here.

That's the title. Say it out loud a couple times, let it sit with you a second. I promise it means exactly what you think it might, and also nothing close to what you're picturing right now.

It's a story about memory and how much you can trust the version you're carrying around, especially the kind you built as a kid. It's about violence that doesn't stay where it started, that just keeps moving through a family whether anyone signed up for it or not. It's about the way faith gets tangled down here, more than one kind of belief sitting in the same room, nobody blinking twice. And it's about whether a person can actually become someone different from who they used to be, or if some things just wait you out.

That's all you're getting for now.

The writing's already started. I'm taking my time with this one, building it right, chapter by chapter.

More soon. Welcome to the beginning.

The Outline Is Done. Now I Bury the Clues.

A Hint Before the Announcement

I'm not ready to tell you everything yet. But I'm also not able to stay quiet about it anymore, so here's a little bit.

The outline is done. That part's finished, sitting there fully mapped out, and now I'm moving into the part where I actually start fleshing out the chapters one by one. It's the stage where a story stops being a plan and starts being real, and I'm so excited I can barely sit still with it.

Here's what I can tell you. There's a full announcement coming next Sunday, and it's going to be worth the wait.

Here's what I can't tell you yet, but I can show you.

I've started a small series of miniature art pieces connected to this next project, little visual hints scattered out into the world ahead of the reveal. The first one is already made. It's small, it's quiet, and if you know where to look, it might tell you more than you think.

I've never really done anything like this before, and I have to admit, sitting on a secret this big is a special kind of torture. But I wanted to give you something to hold onto while the story comes together behind the scenes, something to turn over in your mind the way a good bit of folklore gets passed around before anyone can prove it's true.

So here's my challenge to you. Watch for the art. See what you can piece together. I'll be dropping more hints between now and next Sunday, and I'd love to see if anyone figures out what's coming before I get to say it myself.

Some things are worth burying for a little while before you dig them back up.

This is one of them.

See you next Sunday.

Mental Health First, Horror Always: The Bayou Bound Books Story

If You Like Dark, Slow Burn Stories, Start Here

I want to clear something up, because I think a few of you might have the wrong idea about what's happening right now.

Bayou Bound Books isn't changing. It never was anything other than this. Southern Gothic horror is what this brand was founded on, from day one. What's happening now isn't a pivot, it's just me finally getting to the part I built this whole thing for.

Mental Health Had to Come First

Here's the truth. I put my mental health work out first, Prompt To Grow, Get Out of the Swamp, and most recently Chasing 25, because that felt like the most important thing I could give people before anything else. It had to exist, and it had to exist loudly, before I let myself move into the fiction side of what I'm actually here to do. That work isn't a detour from the brand. It's not separate from it either. It's still the same heartbeat, just wearing a different shape now.

Southern Gothic Horror Is What's Coming Next, and It Always Was

I want to say this plainly, because I know how easy it is for people to assume a brand is figuring itself out as it goes. Bayou Bound Books was not built on the fly. Southern Gothic horror was the plan from the very beginning, the whole reason this LLC exists. I simply chose to lead with mental health first, because that felt like the priority at the time, not because the horror side was ever an afterthought or something I stumbled into later. This has been the business plan the entire time. Now it's just the part you get to see.

If you're wondering what that's actually going to look like coming from me, you don't have to wait to find out. Go read the Bayou Archive. Every one of those short stories is already living exactly where I'm about to take the rest of this brand, bayou folklore, family secrets, the kind of slow burn dread that creeps in through the humidity instead of jumping out at you. It's the clearest taste you're going to get before the next novel lands.

A Poetry Collection Is Coming Too, I Just Don't Know When

I want to be honest with you about this one instead of promising a date I can't keep. I have a catalog of at least 60 poems right now, Southern Gothic, personal, close to my actual life. Not all of them will make it into the final collection. But I'm not releasing this one on a schedule. I'm releasing it when it tells me it's ready, and I genuinely don't know when that will be. I'd rather wait and hand you something true than rush it just to hit a date.

Where to Start

If you're new here, or you've been here since the journals and you're wondering whether this is still your kind of author, start with whatever pulls at you first. The Bayou Archive short stories. The poetry collection whenever it decides to arrive. The novel coming this fall.

Different formats, same brand, same person, still trying to help people feel a little less alone in what they're carrying.

Welcome to the part I've been building toward. I promise it's worth staying for.

Mrs. Herrscher: A New Name, A New Chapter

By the time you're reading this, I'm officially Mrs. Herrscher.

I got married on August 5th, and from this point forward, that's the name I'll be signing. Yes, my maiden name was McGee, and no, I'm not going back and republishing anything I already have out under Isabelle McGee. Everything moving forward is simply going out under my new name. That's it. That's the whole transition.

I'm so excited. And for the ones of you who know, you know the last six years of my life have been quiet something. Not always easy, not always loud about it, just quiet in the way you carry things you don't talk about yet. So here's to a new last name, to healing, and to happily ever after.

I can't wait to share more with you when I get back from our honeymoon. Until then, thank you for being here, for reading, for sticking around through every version of my name and every version of me.

More soon.

Isabelle Herrscher

Surprise: Chasing 25 Is Already Here

Okay, I have to tell you something, and I've been sitting on it for a few hours because I honestly could not stop smiling long enough to type it out.

Chasing 25 was supposed to launch on July 20th. That was the plan. That was the date on the calendar, the date I told you, the date the Facebook event still says.

It went live seven days early instead.

I did not see that coming, and I could not hold onto the secret for even one more day. So here we are. Surprise! The book is out. It's real. It's sitting on Amazon right now, in paperback and Kindle, ready for anyone who wants it.

https://a.co/d/0fe2TaQy

Some lessons you only learn by surviving them.

I did not write this book because I had it all figured out. I wrote it because I did not, and I spent a long time feeling completely alone in that. The hard seasons, the grief, the self-doubt, the moments where you are doing everything right and life still falls apart anyway.

Chasing 25 is 25 things I had to learn the hard way. About self-priority, about letting go, about showing up for yourself when nobody else is going to. About choosing your life on purpose instead of just surviving it.

This is not a book about being young. It is a book about being human. About the part of the journey nobody talks about honestly enough.

If you have ever felt like you were white-knuckling your way through life and wondering when it gets better, this is for you.

It gets better. But first you have to choose it

If you've been following along through Round 2 edits, spine width chaos, cover reveals, and me talking way too much about hourglasses, thank you. Genuinely. You watched this thing get built from the inside out, and now it's yours to actually hold.

So here's what I'm asking: go get your copy. Read it whenever it finds you at the right moment, there's no rush. And when you're done, if it gave you even a little bit of what I hoped it would, leave a review. It means more than you know for a first-time author trying to get this book in front of people who need it.

I'll still be celebrating properly on July 20th, like planned. But for now? The wait is over.

Go get your copy. And thank you for being here for this.

With love and a whole lot of bayou in my bones,
Isabelle

Get your copy here: https://a.co/d/0fe2TaQy