Glasgow author publishes her first book

Victoria Bell is a little nervous about having a book signing. It's her first book and her first promotional effort. Until now, her publicity has just been word of mouth through family and friends - she says she has a lot of them.

"I can't be a chicken," Bell said. "My mom said, 'It's a great little story. Let's get it out there.'"

So she has reserved a table at the AAUW Bazaar to be held Nov. 21 and will present "Legend of Lady Morgan: The Sword of Pearls, Book One."

She describes the book as a short tale aimed at the young adult audience.
"I use regular words you don't have to look up," she said.

It involves a peasant girl who discovers that she is really the daughter of a greedy, evil king. She conquers him and a magical aunt with the Sword of Pearls that was given to her by a wise wizard. The book gets down to some serious action with Morgan finally killing the king, her father. That's why Bell says it is for young adults.

"It's all about learning you may come from a family that is horrible but you can escape from that and be a hero. She kills the bad guys, her father and her aunt. It's a good thing. That's why this isn't a children's book. Killing is not a good thing, but you've got to do what you've got to do."

An only child, Bell lived in her imagination a lot and has been writing since she was young. Her father, an electrician, moved the family around from state to state. Born in California in 1974, she has lived in Nevada, Washington, Oregon and New Jersey. She attended college, then worked at Harley-Davidson Financial for several years. She came to Glasgow five years ago to live with her grandmother, Mary Garlock, and see if she would like Montana.

Garlock lived in an apartment across from Bell Mortuary, which is how her granddaughter met her husband, Brian Bell. Bell is a railroad conductor based in Glendive. They have been married for three years and have two children, Abby, 2, and Emily, 1 year old. Garlock died a year ago.

"I wanted to write this story for my children, even though they're just little babies," she said.

Bell likes science fiction and romance novels, but she doesn't want to stick in fantasy, so she studied journalism at Mira Costa Junior College. She likes the theater and wanted to be an actress when she was little. She was once a stand-in for Laurie Morgan in a TV show, but now she prefers the background, writing or directing. She said she always enjoyed the Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden books, two series that featured young, plucky detective heroines. She also said that Stephen King is an inspiration, even though he's known as a horror writer.

"I can't read those. They scare me," she said, but noted that he is also the author of "The Shawshank Redemption." "It's great when a writer can step out of his bounds and try different writing."

She writes poetry as well as fantasy.

"It's a little darker, people having an affair, dying," she said. "I have cheerful poetry too. People have sides to them."

Among her several sides, chalk up an interest in ecology, in "green" living, and in cooking from scratch.

For this book, she decided to create a story in her brain. She likes the medieval period and the name Morgan, so that was the start. She researched the period on the Internet, using her grandmother's computer, but she typed her story on an old-fashioned manual typewriter. She said it took her forever and created a lot of scratch paper, because she doesn't like Wite-Out.

"I take (the story) where my imagination takes me," Bell said. "It could change. I do have a plan. I already have the second book completed but it's not published yet. I'm on the third book but I'm stuck. I want more research on that one."

The second book, entitled "Legend of Lady Morgan: The Silver Arrow, Book Two," is her favorite, she said.

She said sometimes she gets ideas from her dreams, and other authors' writings give her ideas to expand on.

"My grandmother used to help me a lot with ideas. I wish she was with me now. She was a good editor."

She said her grandmother and her whole family are inspiring to her. A lot of her family are now cops, whose stories she changes and uses.

"The story is kind of a journey of people of my own family. I've taken characters and put people I've met into it, people who are heroes, people who are jealous, people who want power."

She sent her manuscript to three publishers. They all returned them and said she needed an agent. She located a listing of agents but she discovered thousands of names and she had no idea which ones to try. A cousin recommended she look into PublishAmerica, which describes itself as a traditional publishing company whose primary goal is to encourage and promote the works of new, previously undiscovered writers. They liked her story, suggested some changes, and published it.

She said self-publishing worked for Christopher Paolini, the 16-year-old Montana author of a very successful dragon fantasy called "Eragon." It grew into a series, attracted a major publisher and will soon spawn a fourth book.

"If he can do it, why can't I?" Bell said.