P R E S S :

IDEAS on the INHALE
By: Diane De La Paz, Soren Andersen, Jen Graces, Ernest A. Jasmin
Source: The News Tribune / Tacoma, WA

ROSALIND BELL, AUTHOR: 'I love airport people. I like old photographs ... and snippets of conversation.'

Rosalind Bell writes about growing up in steamy-hot Louisiana. One of her short stories, "Tootie Pie," is being turned into a short film. As shooting starts in Tacoma next month, Bell will move ahead on a novel about girlhood in the South.

Titled "Love, Me," it's written in diary form.

"If I'd known how hard it would be, I wouldn't have started. But I can't stop now," Bell says. Still, she vows the book will be finished by summer's end.

The Tacoma writer keeps her senses open to inspiration, and in it flows, day and night. She'll see a stranger walk past, or hear someone talking into a cell phone, and her mind is lifted up and onto a story line.

"I love airport people. I like old photographs ... and snippets of conversation," she says.

Covering a wall of her home studio are snapshots of people "who believe in me as a writer." They're friends from around the country, including "Caramelo" author Sandra Cisneros, whose San Antonio, Texas, workshop Bell attends every August.

"When I sit here and look at my friends, I get so much power," she says.

But Bell gets stuck sometimes. That's when she cooks up her own inspiration, aka "a big pot of something." Lentil burgers, stuffed eggplant, stuffed catfish, Thai or Indian dishes, Louisiana gumbo. All energizing foods.

Bell also acts on Cisneros' advice for writers and other artists: Go to it, as if you only have six hours left. You know that topic that scares you? Dive in, deep. Write like you're not going to be published in your lifetime. "That," says Bell, "gives you freedom."