Author Marcella Bell is taking on western fiction for her latest release. I recently spoke with her about The Wildest Ride.
Tell me about your latest book.
The Wildest Ride is women’s fiction with heavy western romance leanings. As such, it features many of the classic tropes and images of western fiction, including rodeo, cowboys, ranching, and the like, but what I think makes it special are the characters who take center stage in those roles. Rather than the John Wayne image that has become eponymous with cowboy, which in reality was always the manufacturing of Hollywood rather than a reflection of the actual past, I’ve put nontraditional contemporary figures into these places—people whose backgrounds, histories, and identities reveal the much more colorful, and accurate, story of the west and its people from its past to its present.
What inspired you to write it?
When I decided to try my hand at writing a story with relationships as the focal point—as opposed to the magic and mayhem of my early writing—I was advised to try a western theme. Though I spent a lot of time and energy in my life trying to reject it (because of how it rejected me—more on this in a moment), I am a western woman. I like wide open spaces where nature is bigger than man and the reality of that reminds people to be humble. I am also a black woman, and those two identities have not always coexisted within me harmoniously. As soon as I began, it became very clear that when I sat down to write a western story, I had to write the story that described my place in the West. From there it quickly expanded to be a story of not just myself and my place in the contemporary west, but the stories of others like me, whose family histories and upbringings and natures firmly root them in the West, but whose images have been kept out of the picture nonetheless. Ultimately, it was a combination of suggestion, personal experience, family history, and the right/reality of the POCs of the West to be included in the western narrative cannon that inspired me to write The Wildest Ride.
When did you fall in love with the written word?
I fell in love with the written word before I could even read myself. I moved a lot in my early childhood, which makes those memories fuzzy, but due to the intensity and devotion of my relationship with the written word, I have retained a cadre of clear and distinct memories surrounding learning how to read and debuting the talent for my family (I viscerally recall reading Put Me in the Zoo aloud to them on my grandparents’ couch to this day). Like many authors, I have copies of handwritten stories from childhood and old copies of books that I would fight someone over if they tried to separate us. I write books and have worked with bookstores for a good portion of my adult life and am so firmly enmeshed at this point I don’t know where I stop and my love of the written word begins.
What’s the best part of being an author?
Being an author is a dream come true, and that’s genuinely one of the best parts. I am awash in gratitude that I have the opportunity to do something I wanted so badly and for so long. After that, it is an unending delight that feeding my curiosity and imagination, daydreaming, practicing excellent self-care, being present and engaged in my loved ones’ lives, falling into research wormholes, and nurturing and drawing out my voice are actual parts of my job–as well as tax write-offs. I don’t take it for granted, that’s for sure.
What’s the hardest part of being an author?
There is guilt in your dreams coming true when the same isn’t always happening for those you love. It is hard to get those around you to take your work seriously when you are an author because it is a “dream job” and people note the dream part and forget the job part, and it is challenging to figure out what is often an ever-shifting process to get your work done.
What books have you read lately and loved?
This year has been what has felt like a barrage of unending deadlines, and we are also undertaking a big move, so my reading has really suffered. I’ve been reading Klara and the Sun and The Compton Cowboys for a while now–both are excellent, and I highly recommend them so far, but I’m not done with them yet!
What book(s) are you most excited to read next?
I’m just about to start The Life and Adventures of Nat Love and am really looking forward to it on the nonfiction side and Parable of the Sower on the fiction side.
Who would you cast in a movie to play your main characters?
I would cast Sydney McLaughlin and Rob Evans as the main characters. Neither of them are actors, so the movie might be terrible, but I borrowed a lot from their images for writing the book.
What’s next for you?
More writing! I am currently working through revisions for the second Closed Circuit novel, of which The Wildest Ride is the first, and also working on developing other ideas for shopping around. I also write for the Harlequin Presents category romance line, which keeps the creative muscles in shape between full-length projects.
Do you have anything you would like to add?
It’s great to be included here. I am Mvskoke Freedwoman myself and it was a true joy to share what is often an unknown black identity here in the U.S. It means a lot to spread the word about the incredible diversity of the black experience, and I think places like Black Fiction Addiction are doing that work.
To learn more about Marcella Bell, visit her website or connect with her on social media.
Instagram: Instagram.com/therealmzbell
Website: www.marcellabell.com
Use the Black Fiction Addiction affiliate link to purchase your copy of The Wildest Ride.