As a child, Rachel Marsh walked in circles around her house, entertaining herself with elaborate stories she made up as she went. “Telling stories to myself has always been something I’ve done,” Marsh says. “When I was younger, I wrote stories for kids my own age, and I assumed that as I grew up, I would keep writing stories for people who are my age. But that’s not really what happened.”

The allure of creating children’s stories stuck. After graduating from Tulane, she left for Boston to pursue a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing for children at Simmons University. There, her professors tasked her with writing two books before the end of the school year. “I went into the program with the idea for one book,” she explains. “Then, the second semester, I was desperately scrambling to come up with another book.”

As she racked her brain for an idea, the same question kept returning: What’s the book only you can write? At the same time, she was studying the beloved Cajun Night Before Christmas for a different project. She soon realized her classmates were completely unfamiliar with the book—and South Louisiana culture as a whole. That’s when inspiration struck.

“I started thinking this is my story that only I can write,” she says. “There aren’t a lot of Cajun books out there, especially for ages eight to 12, featuring the main character as a girl. All those things came together to inspire this book.”

Marsh crafted her debut novel, Rougarou Magic, by weaving a Cajun tale with her own feelings of homesickness.

Crafting the scenes and characters came easily, Marsh says. “Writing the book went pretty smoothly, but getting your book published—publishing is a process that’s just really full of rejection,” she adds.

With the support of family, friends and her fiancé, she persevered through 100 “nos” from literary agents and publishers until she got a “yes” and shared Rougarou Magic with the world.

Now, she’s working on her second children’s novel, which is slated for publication in 2026. “It is another book that deals with like Cajun and Louisiana themes,” she says. “Although it’s not a sequel.”

To stay up to date with Rachel Marsh, visit rachelmmarsh.com.