Why I Write Dark Stories Rooted in The South.
I did not choose the tone of my writing by accident.
It comes from where I am from.
I grew up in the swamps of Louisiana, where everything feels a little heavier. The air, the silence, the stories people tell and the ones they do not. It is a place that teaches you early on that not everything needs to be explained to be understood.
Even now, living in Texas, that feeling has not left.
It does not.
The Weight of Where You Come From
Louisiana is not just a setting to me. It is a presence.
It is the kind of place where beauty and decay exist at the same time. Where something can feel alive and fading all at once. Where history lingers in a way that does not always feel settled.
That duality shapes everything I write.
Because the truth is, the South carries stories differently. They are not always direct. They are passed down in fragments, in tone, in warning more than explanation.
That leaves space for interpretation.
And that space is where my writing lives.
The Pull to Stay and the Need to Leave
There is a tension I carry that shows up in my work.
Part of me wants to go back to Louisiana and never leave again. There is a familiarity there that cannot be replaced. A sense of belonging that is hard to explain if you have never felt it.
And at the same time, part of me knows exactly why I left.
That push and pull is constant.
It feels like standing in a house that is slowly falling apart. You recognize every room. You know every sound. But something about it tells you not to stay too long.
That tension is not something I try to resolve in my writing.
I lean into it.
Why Darkness Feels Honest
I do not write dark stories just to be dark.
I write them because they feel honest.
Not everything in life is clean or easy to define. Some things linger. Some things sit with you longer than they should. Some things never fully make sense.
Dark storytelling allows space for that.
It allows me to explore discomfort without forcing a resolution. To sit in the unknown instead of trying to explain it away.
And in a place like the South, that kind of storytelling feels natural.
The Influence of Southern Gothic
The style I am drawn to is deeply rooted in Southern Gothic tradition, but I approach it in a modern way.
Less about spectacle and more about atmosphere. Less about what is shown and more about what is felt.
My work focuses on:
Slow building tension
Emotional undercurrents
The presence of something just out of reach
It is not about proving that something is there.
It is about making you feel like it might be.
More Than Setting
What I write is not just about location.
It is about memory, identity, and the things that stay with you whether you want them to or not.
The South becomes a lens for that.
The same themes that exist in my stories also show up in other parts of my work. In my journal prompts. In my mental health focused writing. In the way I approach reflection and self awareness.
It all connects.
Because at the center of it, I am exploring what lingers.
What I Am Building
Through Bayou Bound Books, I am creating more than just stories.
I am building a body of work rooted in atmosphere, tension, and emotional depth. Stories that do not rush to explain themselves. Stories that feel lived in.
Some will take place in spaces that feel familiar to the South. Others will carry that same weight in different forms.
But all of them will come back to the same place.
That feeling.
Final Thought
Leaving Louisiana did not separate me from it.
If anything, it made it louder.
It shows up in my writing. In the tone. In the tension. In the way nothing is ever fully resolved.
Like a house that is still standing, even as it slowly gives in.
Part of me will always want to go back.
And part of me knows exactly why I can’t stay.
That is the space I write from.
And it is not going anywhere.
