Wear the Bayou: A Look at What's in the Shop Right Now
A look at what's currently in the Bayou Bound Books shop, shirts, mug, and art prints, and why none of it feels separate from the stories.
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. 🖤
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.
Bayou Bound Books Isn't Just a Book Brand. It's a Creative World.
Quick answer: Bayou Bound Books is the creative brand of Southern Gothic horror author Isabelle McGee (soon to be Isabelle Herrscher). It started with books, including Prompt To Grow, Get Out of the Swamp, and the upcoming Chasing 25, and has grown to include a monthly short story series (the Bayou Archive), branded merch, and original art prints. The books are still the core of everything. Everything else is an extension of the same creative world, not a separate business.
Why Bayou Bound Books Is More Than Just Books
I've spent the last several months building Bayou Bound Books as a full-time author brand, Southern Gothic horror, bayou atmosphere, Louisiana roots. That's not changing. Writing is still the center of everything I do, and it always will be.
But being a full-time author doesn't mean I'm only ever making one thing. I'm also a full-time creative, and that means the same world I write in shows up in more than just pages sometimes.
That's why Bayou Bound Books now includes:
Books: Southern Gothic horror and personal narrative, including Prompt To Grow, Get Out of the Swamp, and Chasing 25 (releasing July 2026)
The Bayou Archive: a monthly short story for readers who want a piece of this world every month
Merch: wearable pieces of the Bayou Bound Books world, fulfilled through Printful
Art prints: original creative pieces, now available as printed art, born from the same voice and atmosphere as the books
Are the Art Prints a New Direction for Bayou Bound Books?
No. The art prints aren't a pivot away from being an author. They're proof that the "author" part was never the whole picture. Bayou Bound Books has always been about building a full creative world rooted in Southern Gothic and bayou storytelling. The books are the foundation. The art is another room in the same house. You can shop them here: https://www.bayouboundbooks.com/shop/art
What's Next for Bayou Bound Books
The focus stays on the books first. Chasing 25 is releasing July 2026, with more Southern Gothic horror titles in progress after that. Everything else, the Archive, the merch, the art, exists to bring readers deeper into the same world, not to replace what got them here in the first place.